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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82003de --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64394 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64394) diff --git a/old/64394-0.txt b/old/64394-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cf9e936..0000000 --- a/old/64394-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14454 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sweet Hampstead and its Associations, by -Caroline A. White - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Sweet Hampstead and its Associations - -Author: Caroline A. White - -Release Date: January 26, 2021 [eBook #64394] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: MFR and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET HAMPSTEAD AND ITS -ASSOCIATIONS *** - - - - - -SWEET HAMPSTEAD. - - ‘A village revelling in varieties.’ - - LEIGH HUNT. - -[Illustration] - - - - -[Illustration: _A Bit of Old Hampstead, New End._] - - - - - SWEET HAMPSTEAD - AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. - - BY - MRS. CAROLINE A. WHITE. - - ‘When shall we see you at sweet Hampstead again?’ - - CONSTABLE. - - LONDON: - ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. - 1900. - - - - - I DEDICATE THIS BOOK - - TO THE - - CONSERVATORS OF THE HEATH, - - AND TO - - ALL WHO LOVE ‘SWEET HAMPSTEAD’ - - FOR ITS OWN SAKE. - - THE AUTHOR. - - - - -PREFACE. - - -As illustrating the very common axiom that extremes meet, a preface at -the beginning of a book is, as a matter of course, the last thing that is -written. In the present instance, having stated my reasons for writing -‘Sweet Hampstead’ in the introductory chapter, a preface seems almost -redundant. Moreover, I have an idea that prefaces as a rule are not -popular reading, but literary custom being stronger than private opinion, -I must revoke my heresy. - -It is very many years since the thought of writing the story of Hampstead -occurred to me. I found that previous writers had left the most important -period of its local history, and the most interesting personages who had -vitalized it, with little more than a passing reference; and thence it -was that the desire to occupy unbroken ground took possession of me. - -But the years alluded to were amongst the busiest of a busy life, when -I was ‘coining my brains for drachmas,’ or their equivalent in British -currency, and had no time for the dreamland of topographical speculation. -The engagements, however, that hindered my design opened up many sources -of material for future use; and as topography is always a literary -mosaic, their diversity tended to enrichment. - -Thus it came to pass that the first draft of my book was laid aside, -but never forgotten, for more than thirty years, and has only recently -been reverted to—a task that has been a delight, bringing back—though -sometimes through a mist of tears—images of the past, with pleasant -memories of sunny days that, looked at from the perspective of -eighty-nine years, seem brighter even than sunshine is itself. - -From such a pile of years I almost lose the author’s dread of the critic. -Praise or blame are to me now much the same; but, being a woman, I still -prefer the praise. - -I cannot close these preliminary words without expressing my obligations -to Mr. P. Forbes for the eight sketches he has permitted to be copied for -the beautifying of the book; to Messrs. Oetzmann for some illustrations -so kindly lent; to Mr. Baines, not only for a similar favour, but for -help from his valuable ‘Records of Hampstead’; and to the proprietors of -the _Municipal Journal_ for the charming picture of the viaduct. - -My thanks are also due to Mrs. Rosa Perrins, to Miss Kemp, Miss Quaritch, -and Mr. M. H. Wilkin, who have all kindly assisted me. I also desire to -acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Lloyd, of Highgate, for information -gathered from his clever lecture on ‘Caen Wood and its Associations.’ -To the courtesy and kindness of Mr. G. W. Potter I owe much original -material, and many interesting notes; and I also desire to thank Mr. C. -A. Ward for the personal interest he has taken in my work, and the great -help he has ungrudgingly given me in preparing and correcting it for the -press. I can only add that should my book be found so readable as to -convey to others some share of the pleasure I have felt in writing it, or -lead in more capable hands to future research and a fuller development of -a delightfully interesting topic, ‘Sweet Hampstead’ will have fulfilled -its intention, and I can sing with an unknown poet of the sixteenth -century: - - ‘Now cease, my lute: this is the laste - Labour that thou and I shall waste, - And ended is that we begun; - Now is this song both sung and past: - My lute, be still, for I am done.’ - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 1 - - I. HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH 20 - - II. THE WAYS TO HAMPSTEAD 41 - - III. THE DESCENT OF THE MANOR 60 - - IV. CHURCH ROW AND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH 65 - - V. FROGNAL AND WEST END 85 - - VI. WEST END TO CHILD’S HILL AND THE WEST HEATH 107 - - VII. HEATH STREET TO THE UPPER FLASK AND SPANIARDS 119 - - VIII. HOLLY-BUSH AND WINDMILL HILLS 143 - - IX. NORTH END 160 - - X. FINCHLEY ROAD, CHILD’S HILL, AND NEW END 183 - - XI. THE VALE OF HEALTH 194 - - XII. CAEN WOOD 215 - - XIII. THE GEOLOGY OF THE HEATH 236 - - XIV. THE PONDS AND WATER-WORKS 241 - - XV. THE WELL WALK—THE EARLY PERIOD 249 - - XVI. THE WELL WALK—THE SECOND PERIOD 268 - - XVII. THE MODERN WELL WALK 292 - - XVIII. HAMPSTEAD LATER ON 304 - - XIX. A RETROSPECT 319 - - XX. THE SUB-MANOR OF BELSIZE 329 - - XXI. THE HAMLET OF KILBURN 344 - - APPENDIX: - - HEATH HOUSE 354 - - WENTWORTH PLACE, JOHN STREET 357 - - VANE HOUSE 359 - - POND STREET 361 - - A FRAGMENT OF THE FLORA OF HAMPSTEAD 362 - - BENEFACTORS OF HAMPSTEAD AND THE CHARITIES 368 - - THE FATE OF A REFORMER 374 - - THE STRUGGLE FOR THE HEATH 377 - - INDEX 384 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - PAGE - - A BIT OF OLD HAMPSTEAD, NEW END _Frontispiece_ - - SOUTH END ROAD, 1840 3 - - TUMULUS 5 - - VIEW OF HIGHGATE AND PONDS 7 - - VIADUCT 9 - - JOHN EVELYN 24 - - HAMPSTEAD FROM PRIMROSE HILL 44 - - SIR RICHARD STEELE 46 - - ROSSLYN HOUSE 51 - - FIELDS NEAR POND STREET, 1840 54 - - SHEPHERD’S WELL 55 - - VANE HOUSE, 1800 57 - - CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD 66 - - BACK VIEW OF HOUSES, CHURCH ROW 68 - - MRS. BARBAULD 73 - - AUSTIN DOBSON 77 - - PARISH CHURCH, HAMPSTEAD 82 - - FENTON HOUSE 92 - - PRIORY LODGE 96 - - VALE OF HEALTH, LOWER HEATH, 1840 110 - - LEG OF MUTTON POND 114 - - WEST END HOUSE 117 - - SWIFT 121 - - JACK STRAW’S CASTLE 126 - - FLAGSTAFF 127 - - THE SPANIARDS’ GARDEN 128 - - ERSKINE HOUSE 130 - - LORD ERSKINE 133 - - NORTH HEATH 135 - - FANNY BURNEY 138 - - BOLTON HOUSE 144 - - HOLLY-BUSH HILL, 1840 149 - - SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS 151 - - JOANNA BAILLIE 157 - - GOLDSMITH 161 - - NORTH END FROM THE HEATH 163 - - FENTON HOUSE, 1780 165 - - FIRS 169 - - OLD COTTAGES, NORTH END 173 - - BULL AND BUSH, HAMPSTEAD 174 - - COTTAGES, NORTH END 179 - - MADAME PIOZZI 185 - - HARROW AND WELSH HARP, FROM HAMPSTEAD HEATH 189 - - SQUIRE’S MOUNT, ABOUT 1840 192 - - SHELLEY 201 - - W. HAZLITT 202 - - HIGHGATE PONDS AND SHEEP 204 - - COLERIDGE 205 - - CHARLES LAMB 209 - - LEIGH HUNT 211 - - THE VALE OF HEALTH 213 - - LORD W. MANSFIELD 224 - - THE SPANIARDS 226 - - CAEN WOOD HOUSE 229 - - HOGARTH 230 - - CHARLES MATHEWS’ HOUSE, HIGHGATE 246 - - OLD COTTAGES, NORTH END 276 - - WELL WALK 294 - - ASSEMBLY AND PUMP ROOMS, WELL WALK 301 - - DR. JOHNSON 305 - - JAMES BOSWELL 308 - - KEATS 317 - - OLD CHALK FARM 322 - - JUDGE’S WALK 325 - - PEPYS 330 - - BELSIZE LANE, 1850 342 - - THE GEORGE INN BEFORE 1870 346 - - - - -‘SWEET HAMPSTEAD’ AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. - - - - -INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. - - ‘But if the busy town - Attract thee still to toil for power or gold, - Sweetly thou mayst thy vacant hours possess - In Hampstead, courted by the western wind.’ - - DR. ARMSTRONG. - - -To the inhabitants of London and its suburbs a history of Hampstead -and the Heath may seem wholly unnecessary. What London lad who has not -fished in and skated on its ponds, played truant in its subrural fields -and lanes, gone bird-nesting in its woods, or spent delightful, orthodox -half-holidays upon the heath? - -As for the free brotherhood of the lanes and alleys before the plague of -Board schools afflicted them, or the Board of Works stood sponsor for the -preservation of the Heath, what hand’s breadth (of its mile-wide waste) -of its hundreds of acres was there that they did not know and continue -to renew acquaintance with on every recurrence of the high festivals of -Easter and Whitsuntide? - -But it is not of ‘’Appy ’Amstead’ that I am about to write, but of that -older Hampstead the materials for the history of which lie scattered -through many books not often read, and in the correspondence of dead men -and women. - -Lysons and Park are not for general readers, and such works as William -Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights’ and Baines’s ‘Records of Hampstead’ are not -companionable volumes. Yet I know of no intermediate work between them -and mere guide-books. - -Hence it occurred to me that I might fill a vacant place in the -literature of ‘Sweet Hampstead,’ and give to others, without the toil, -the pleasure I have had in recalling forgotten incidents connected with -it, and memories of some of the celebrated men and women who, from the -days of Queen Anne till our own, have added to the intrinsic delights of -the place the charm of their association with it. - -When the idea of undertaking ‘this labour of love’ occurred to me, the -window near which I loved to write commanded a last fragmentary view -of Gospel Oak Fields, which divided Hampstead from the parish of St. -Pancras. These fields were even then (early in the sixties) in the -hands of speculative builders, but a few green hedges, a group of elms, -a pollard oak or two—scions, perhaps, of the traditionary one that -for centuries had given its name to these now obliterated _prata et -pasturas_—remained. - -Ten years previously the hollow trunk of a very aged tree (fenced round) -was still standing, and was locally said to be the remains of the -original Gospel Oak, one of the many so called, in various counties of -England, from the use made of them by the Preaching Friars, who under -their shade were wont to read and explain the Scriptures to the people. -It was at that time, and for years afterwards, used as a boundary -tree, when once in three years the clergyman, parochial authorities, -and charity children perambulated the boundaries of the parish of St. -Pancras, of which it was the terminus in this direction. - -Where Fleet Road is now, the shallow remnant of the once ‘silvery Fleet,’ -as Crosby calls it in his ‘Additional Notes,’ written only a very few -years before the period I am writing of, ‘meandered, irrigating those -charming meadows which reach on either side of Kentish Town.’ - -[Illustration: _South End Road, 1840._] - -In my time it crept, a sluggish stream, a mere ditch in dry weather, but -after copious rain it rose suddenly, brimming to its margin, to disappear -at the end of Angler’s Lane by a subterranean channel under part of -Kentish Town, where it once more came to light as a narrow runlet in the -main road that was easily stepped over. There were persons then living -who remembered this portion of the river, a limpid stream flowing by the -west side of Kentish Town towards King’s Cross, for it is not much more -than half a century since it was arched over and built upon. - -The fields through which it passed showed signs of its meanderings, -and were still lovely with trees that had figured in many an artist’s -sketch-book, and had thence imparted the refreshment of their pictured -beauty to many a home. - -The footpath through these meadows from Kentish Town followed the curve -of an old rivulet scarcely dry in places, the whole course of which was -traceable in the wavering line of aged willows, hollow and splintered, -but putting forth hoar green branches above the exhausted stream that had -once fed their roots. - -This was Mary Shelley’s lovely walk from Kentish Town through the fields, -with their fine old elms and rivulets and alder-trees, and a view to the -north of the wooded heights of Highgate. In her time Carlton Road and the -region thereabouts were all meadows. - -This path led over the easiest of stiles through a little lane between -hedges of hawthorn and elder by an old nursery garden and cottage where -strawberries and cream were to be had in the season, and a cup of tea at -all times, and so to South End or such portion of it as was not already -changed to railway uses. The houses here were of a humbler description -than those in the Flask Walk, but there were sufficient indications in -little garden-borders, in roses trained about the doors, in vines wholly -untrained, running to an excess of leafiness over walls and roofs, in a -group of straw bee-hives, sheltered in a corner, to show how pretty and -rustic the place had once been. There was the down-trodden, worn-out -Green, with its white palings and rickety turnstile, in itself a protest -to the farther use of it, and lime-trees, out of all proportion to the -small houses you saw between them, large-limbed and flourishing. - -An ascending row of houses to the right, on what is now South Hill Park, -occupied the levelled slopes the summits of which when I first knew -the lovely neighbourhood afforded charming views, and not the least -charming that of the eastern outskirts of Hampstead, sweeping up amidst a -profusion of foliage towards the high ground about Squire’s Mount, with a -foreground of water and groups of trees studding the undulating surface, -the fields on the east bounded by the remarkable mound which now bears -the name of Parliament Hill, but was then known by the more striking one -of Traitors’ Hill. - -Ainsworth has made it memorable as the scene whence some of the -conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot watched for the explosion of the -Houses of Parliament at the hands of Guy Faux. Park, who refers to -Stukeley’s ‘Itinerary’ on various occasions, takes no notice of this -eminence. - -Mr. Lloyd, in his published ‘Lecture on Caen Wood,’ tells us that when -Mr. Bills purchased the estate of Sir James Harrington, amongst the -properties belonging to it was a windmill, ‘which occupied the fine site -of the summit of Parliament Hill, where the trench formed by the removal -of its foundations is still to be traced. It was, doubtless, the Manor -mill.’ - -[Illustration: _Tumulus._] - -At one time it was presumed that, like the mound in the field to the -right of the path to Highgate, which Lord Mansfield caused to be enclosed -and planted with Scotch firs, it was a tumulus. In support of this idea -there is a tradition of Saxon times still extant of this neighbourhood. -Was it not about the skirts of Highgate that Alfred encamped with his -troops to protect the citizens of London, whilst they gathered in the -harvest from the surrounding fields, from Hastings of the Ivory Horn, -who lay with his Danish army beside the Lea, ready to pillage them of -their summer fruits? And might not some great battle have been fought, -and have resulted in the raising of this mound? Alas for romance! When a -few summers ago a child at play in its neighbourhood unearthed the hidden -treasure of some threatened home, buried for safety’s sake in troublous -times, or the booty of some thief, whose after-career interfered with -his return for it, a search into the interior of the mound, under -the direction of the County Council, dispelled the theories of the -antiquaries and the dreams of romancists.[1] - -But whatever its origin, the mound adds materially to the visual -enjoyment of the visitor; and the sight of London from its height, -especially at the early dawn of a clear summer’s day, is said to be worth -a midnight pilgrimage to obtain. The air blows over its summit ‘most -sweetly,’ especially in June, blending the scent of the lime blossoms -from the sister villages with the aroma of the hayfields and hedgerows, -where the honeysuckle and wild-rose bloom unmolested. - -Facing round, we have Highgate Hill in view, with white modern houses -showing here and there, and others roof-high in the foliage of -surrounding trees. Of the ancient hamlet we see only a ridge of red-tiled -roofs showing in the neighbourhood of the church. - -To the north, where the grounds of Caen Wood come sweeping down to the -brimming ponds, on which the swans ‘float double, swan and shadow,’ the -landscape widens into one of rare beauty. Park-like beyond the park, in -its alternations of lawny slope and little dells and groups of trees, it -looks like a portion of the demesne, and not the least picturesque and -lovely part of it.[2] - -[Illustration: _View of Highgate and Ponds._] - -To the west (a proper pendant to the view of Highgate) our vision closes -with the spire of St. John’s Church, and the town of Hampstead stretching -down a peninsula of houses in a sea of verdure, terminating in the -fast-narrowing strip of green fields between Kentish Town and the St. -John’s Wood estate on this side of Hampstead Road. - -I specially remember a bit of landscape in which the red viaduct[3] -in Sir Maryon Wilson’s demesne shows to much advantage on the grassy -foreground between the wooded undulations of the park. It is still -pretty, but ‘with a difference.’ Then a footway crossing the Heath -led through an old gray, weather-beaten gate to a shady path, with a -plantation of young trees on one side, and a hedgerow, redolent in summer -of wild-rose and May, dividing it from a meadow on the other. The remains -of a long-disused tile-kiln stood on the edge of the field, the red earth -of which showed its fitness for such manufacture. This path led through -upland fields to Highgate, and was a charming one, beloved by painter and -poet. The last time I saw it the beauty was devastated, and the meadow -changed into a brickfield, with a view to its conversion into a site for -building on. - -But I am forgetting, in my remembrances of the charming suburb, that from -the earliest birth of a taste for natural beauty, Hampstead must have had -a special interest for the inhabitants of London. - -Beautiful as were the whole range of gently-swelling hills forming the -background of the City, and long subsequent to Tudor times covered with -dense woods, which encroached on the north and east even to its gates, -and came down on the west as far as Tyburn, Hampstead Hill from its -altitude, and the fact, as someone has written, that it ‘closed the gates -of view in that direction,’ must have had an interest beyond the others. - -Baines claims for Hampstead that it was a village before 1086; in other -words, that the five manses, or homes of the villani and bordarii on the -original clearing, which are mentioned as existing when Domesday Book was -compiled, constituted a village. In 1410, at the time of the assignment -of Hampstead, together with Hendon, to Henry Lord Scrope of Marsham for -the maintenance of his servants and horses, he being then attending -Parliament on the King’s service, it is included with Hendon, and styled -a town (‘the towns of Hampstead and Hendon’). - -[Illustration: _Viaduct._] - -But in the reign of Henry VIII. it is again called a village, by which -designation it continued to be called even in our own times, long after -it had outgrown the dimensions of one, just as a beloved child when grown -up retains the pet name given to it in infancy; and truly Hampstead -continues to be the best-beloved of all the City suburbs. - -A stone in the north aisle of the old church, dated 1658, recorded that -John Baxter, Gent., had made it incumbent on the owners of a house -‘in Hamstede Streete, where Mr. Netmaker dwelleth’ (no other street -apparently existed to make a prefix necessary), to pay the sum of £3 -yearly to the poor of the parish. Someone of importance, no doubt, -occupied the moated mansion and demesne of Caen Wood, and there are -records of other great men and rich City merchants resident in the upland -hamlet. A peep at the parish register,[4] the earliest date in which is -1560, affords us a clue to the growth of the population. - -Subsequent to the above date, 1580-89, the baptisms averaged 13³⁄₁₀, -the burials 6⅒. At the close of 1680-89 the baptisms amounted to 33⅗, -the burials to 65⁹⁄₁₀, an excess accounted for by the visitation of the -Plague (1664-65). - -Towards the close of the eighteenth century (1790-99) the baptisms -averaged 99⅗, the burials 141⅗,[5] a slow but steady growth, marvellously -increased in modern times. - -After the Great Plague, change of air in the summer season became an -article of faith with the inhabitants of London, and an annual sojourn -of some weeks in the country or at the seaside an established custom -with all who could afford it, a custom which resulted on the part of -the wealthy merchants and citizens in the hire or purchase of a country -retreat in one or other of the suburbs. - -Hampstead, towards the end of the Commonwealth, combined the advantages -of ‘Air and Hill, and Well and School,’ and these favourable -circumstances, added to its easy distance from London, recommended it to -the City fathers and mothers, and made it, of all the rural villages in -the neighbourhood of town, the most popular. - -Though its high-pitched situation precluded at that period, and for a -long time after, such an increase of buildings as lower situations were -afflicted with, its position, fine air, and beautiful prospects made it -much sought, and in the times of the Stuarts many notable persons in -connection with the Court had houses here. Sir Henry Vane built his fine -mansion on what was then called Hampstead Hill, and J. Bills, Esq., son -of the printer to His Majesty, resided at Caen Wood; while my Lord Wotton -had his country-house at Belsize. After the Restoration we find Sir -Geoffrey Palmer, Attorney-General, residing at Hampstead, where he died, -May 1, 1670, and though Pepys does not mention it, Sir George Downing, -Secretary to the Treasury, who so often appears in the ‘Diary,’ and whom -Pepys stigmatizes as a ‘sider with all times and changes,’ resided here, -and had his house broken into and robbed (1685). From the _St. James’s -Gazette_, published by authority, I find that, amongst other articles of -which the thieves deprived Sir George, were the following items: ‘A large -agate about the bigness of a crown piece, with Cupid and Venus and Vulcan -engraved on it. A blue sapphire seal, set in gold, enamelled, with an -old man and woman’s head engraved on it. A pomander,[6] set in gold. A -locket, with fourteen diamonds and a crystal in the middle, engraved with -two Cupids holding a heart over a cypher.’ This catalogue appeals to the -sympathies of every lover of delightful bric-à-brac, but one fears the -advertisement of them failed to recover the charming items, some of which -may even yet find their way to one of the table-cases in South Kensington. - -Every year appears to have added to the favour of Hampstead as a summer -resort, a fact that was not lost upon the inhabitants, who were not slow -to realize the benefit of these annual incursions. - -Copyholds were readily procurable, and Hampstead was soon dotted about -in various directions with weather-boarded or brick dwellings, so that -by the end of the seventeenth century twelve houses had risen upon the -demesne, two upon the freeholds, and 257 upon the copyholds, besides -cottages, barns, brewhouses, etc., together with a dancing-room, shops, -and other tenements in connection with the Wells.[7] - -In the first year of the present century we find that Hampstead possessed -691 houses, which in 1811 had increased to 842, with 5,483 inhabitants, -and there were seventeen houses building, and forty-five unlet. - -In 1815, when Britton revisited it, he tells us that Hampstead, from a -beautiful rural village, had become a town, with hundreds of mean houses -(intended for lodging-houses) disposed in narrow courts, squares, and -alleys, many of them uninhabited. - -Yet the rate of building mentioned was insignificant compared with its -after-progress. In 1861 the inhabited houses had increased to 4,340, with -385 uninhabited dwellings, and 169 more in course of building, while the -population of the whole parish amounted to a total of 32,271 persons, -a very remarkable feature in the succeeding census of Hampstead, 1871, -being the preponderance of female inhabitants, who exceeded by 711 the -entire population of the previous census in 1861. - -If anything can invest these dry details with interest, it is the -contrast they present between the Hampstead of the past and present. -At the census of 1891 the inhabited houses numbered 9,528, with 687 -uninhabited, 461 in course of erection, whilst the population in the four -wards comprised in the parish of St. John amounted to 68,425 persons. The -population of Hampstead at the present time (1898) is said to be about -78,000. In thirty years houses and inhabitants had doubled their numbers. -The man who published a book in 1766, called ‘London Improved,’ which -proposed to make the New Road, now Euston Road, the boundary of building -in that direction, ‘otherwise the Hills of Hampstead and Highgate may be -expected to become a considerable part of the suburbs of London,’ wrote -prophetically, for London stretches out its infolding tentacles on all -sides, and is only nominally divided from them. This New Road, as it -continued to be quite recently called, though made under the Act of the -twenty-ninth of George II. (1746) under the control of the Hampstead and -Highgate trust, intersected level fields from Tottenham Court Road to -Battle Bridge. - -It takes us a little aside from the story of Hampstead, but is a pleasant -prelude to it, and one can hardly refrain from giving a glance at the -London approach to the beautiful village as it existed at the time of, -and for a considerable period after the opening of the New Road. - -Midway on the south side of the road stood the Bowling Green House, -famous for nearly a century previously as a place of rural resort, and -lower down the Brill Tavern, rather more ancient than its rival. - -The Old Mother Red Cap public-house (and a nickname for a shrew of the -first quality, whom a recent writer claims as a sutler and camp-follower -of Marlborough’s,[8] but who appears to have kept this house as long ago -as 1676, and to have been widely known by the unpleasant sobriquet of -Mother Damnable, under which name some doggerel verses addressed to her -are preserved in _Caulfield’s Eccentric Magazine_)—the Old Mother Red -Cap, and old St. Pancras Church, were the only interruptions in the view -of Hampstead from Bedford House, Queen Square, and the Foundling, except -some groups of trees near St. Pancras, and in a lane leading from Gray’s -Inn Road to the Bowling-Green House. - -Gay and Pope both refer to the Tottenham Fields, and William Blake, -painter and poet, sings of - - ‘The fields from Islington to Marybone, - To Primrose Hill and St. John’s Wood.’ - -Where Harrington and Ampthill Squares now stand ‘stretched fields of cows -by Welling’s Farm,’[9] the reputed proprietor of 999 ‘milky mothers of -the herd,’ which could never be increased to 1,000, a singular tradition -common to the fields by Clerkenwell, and to the once green pastures -between the Old Kent Road and Peckham. A lady well acquainted with -Hampstead tells me that the same legend existed with regard to a local -cow-keeper, a Mr. Rhodes,[10] in the early years of the present century. - -A venerable friend of the writer’s in the fifties, an old inhabitant of -the neighbourhood, remembered that where Francis Street now is there -were fields called Francis’s Fields running up to the Tottenham Court -Road, which few persons cared to pass through after dark. Some houses -then below what is now Shoolbred’s had little gardens with green palings -before them, which she specially remembered from the figures of the -traditional blind beggar and his daughter, who so marvellously escaped -the Great Plague of London, ornamenting one of them. Harrison Ainsworth -has preserved the story in one of his graphically-written novels. A -gentleman tells me that an old lady born in 1800, and only lately -deceased, remembered as a child waiting in the evening at the corner -of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street till a party of six or more -persons collected, when, in fear of footpads, they were convoyed across -the fields to Kentish Town by a watchman. - -Camden Town, which had been begun to be built in 1791, consisted for the -most part of one-storied brick or weather-boarded houses, the outlines -of some of which could be traced in my own time, though heightened and -otherwise altered. Other houses, with gardens and orchards lying wide -apart, led up to the half-way house we have just mentioned—the Old Mother -Red Cap—where, at the point where the roads to Hampstead and Highgate -diverge, stood, as it still stands, Brown’s Dairy. A thatched cottage in -those days, with deep eaves, and little leaded, diamond-paned casements -sparkling under them. Over the half-hatch door of this rustic dairy-house -ladies and children from the neighbourhood of the old-fashioned squares -(who took their morning walk through a turnstile at the top of Judd -Street, leading by hawthorn-shaded hedgerows to the open fields), were -wont to refresh themselves with a cup of new milk, or equally innocent -sweet curds and whey. - -At the top of Tottenham Court Road, in the fields on the left-hand -side, were the remains of a mansion, the removal of which my old friend -Valentine Bartholomew, the artist, remembered. It gave its name to the -road, and is said to have been a palace of Henry VIII.’s; it was taken -down towards the end of the last century (1791). - -On the same side of the way stood a well-known tavern and tea-gardens, -called the Adam and Eve,[11] the bowery arbours, lawns, smooth -bowling-green and garden-alleys of which have been ill-exchanged for the -gin palace opposite its site. - -This house is mentioned in the curious trial of Andrew Robinson Bowes, -Esq., and others, in the King’s Bench, May 30, 1787, for conspiracy -against his wife, Lady Strathmore—a postboy, one of the witnesses of the -lady’s forcible abduction, having orders to hire a chaise with excellent -horses, and wait at the Adam and Eve, described as on the road to Barnet. -‘Lady Strathmore, while shopping in Oxford Street, was made prisoner, and -the peace officer who presented the warrant, a creature of her husband’s, -under colour of taking her before Lord Mansfield, had her carriage driven -up the Tottenham Court Road, Mr. Bowes himself on the box, where, -meeting the postboy, he bade him follow in the chaise.’ - -Twenty-seven years afterwards Leigh Hunt tells us Mr. Bowes was still in -Horsemonger Lane Gaol, expiating, on the debtors’ side of the prison, his -misconduct to his wife, and the non-payment of the fine to which he had -been condemned. - -Ponds and pools of water were in those days common in the public ways, -and one in the near neighbourhood of this house became, on an afternoon -of September, 1785, the scene of the following brutal outrage: - -A youth was suspected of picking a gentleman’s pocket close to the Adam -and Eve, whereupon some of the by-standers took him to an adjoining pond -and ducked him very severely. A sailor, not satisfied with the discipline -of the crowd, threw him again into the water, and kept him under till he -was drowned. - -A little further on to the right of the road there stood in my time a -high mound, covered with grass, beneath which was a reservoir which -supplied the neighbourhood with water; it was removed, if my memory is -correct, about 1846-47, when its site was occupied by one of the earliest -experimental baths and wash-houses, which have since given place to some -sunless houses, under the shadow of the Congregational Church, in what is -known as Tolmer Square. - -From this mound the road to Hampstead, a comparatively short period -before the above date, was fringed with pastures to the right, and with -gardens, fields, hedgerows, and orchards on the left, with only two or -three cottages and a roadside alehouse between the Adam and Eve and the -High Street, Camden Town. - -Roads, in the present meaning of the word, there had been none subsequent -to Roman times, till the Hanoverian succession. Even when the use of -carriages made them necessary, they resembled those deep country lanes, -not yet unknown in Devonshire and Essex, where in winter the mud imbeds -the wheels of carts or waggons, or were mere pack-horse paths, with a -raised causeway running through the midst, and a deep fosse of mud on -either side. Such a road was that which, in Elizabeth’s time, ran up from -Battle Bridge between the hedgerow banks of Maiden Lane to Green Street -and Highgate, whence a path led by Caen Wood to what was then called -Wildwood Corner, across Hampstead Heath to Pond Street, tree-shaded, with -its wild banks full of primroses and violets in spring, and redolent of -May a little later, but rendered all but impassable in winter from the -rains and overflow of the many rivulets which drained the uplands into -Pancras Vale. - -I have before me a view of the ‘Hampstead Road, near Tomkins’ House,’ -engraved by Charles White, probably a grandson of Robert White, a -celebrated engraver, who died in 1704. A post-chaise, drawn by two -horses, is depicted labouring up what appears to be a mere rugged track -over rough heath-ground. The dome of St. Paul’s (finished in 1710) and -the City spires and houses appear in the distance but the view exhibits -a primitive and solitary country, only broken by clumps of trees, furze -coverts, and hedgerows, and except a single cottage and the gable of a -house (probably Tomkins’) no other habitation is to be seen. - -As late as May, 1736, it is reported in the _London Post_ ‘that Col. de -Veil had committed one of the coachmen who was driving the Hampstead -coach to Newgate, for getting out of the track he was in and assaulting -the Hon. the Lady Cook Winford by driving his coach upon her, whereby he -threw her and her horse into a deep ditch, and she was greatly hurt and -bruised.’ - -The Hampstead Road was not made till 1772, when George III. was King, -though the summit of the hill had been previously cut down. When Ogilby, -in the time of Charles II. wrote his Guide, St. Giles’ Pound lay in -the open country, and the way to Holborn, like Gray’s Inn Lane, was -a pleasant rustic road. Tottenham Court Road lay between fields and -market-gardens, sprinkled with houses of entertainment, some of which -lingered long after the making of the present road. Gay tells us that -in summer ‘the Tottenham fields with roving beauty swarms,’ and thirty -years later some doggerel verses in Poor Robin’s Almanack inform us under -the head of the month of May: - - ‘The ladies now, to take the air, - To Stepney or Hyde Park repair; - While many others do resort - For cakes and ale to Tottenham Court.’ - -In Pennant’s time, Oxford Street, then Oxford Road, had only a few -houses on the north side of it. He remembered it ‘a deep hollow road, -full of sloughs, with here and there a ragged house, the lurking-place -of cut-throats’—a state of things the contrast to which was set forth in -some crude lines of a song that a venerable relative, who died at the age -of ninety-six, has often repeated to me, but of which I only remember— - - ‘That was the time for games and gambols, - When Oxford Street was covered with brambles, - Ponds, and sloughs, and running water, - Where now there’s nothing but bricks and mortar.’ - -This semi-rural state of things appears to have lasted west of Holborn -for the first quarter of the present century. When Bedford House was -built (1706), the north side of Queen’s Square was purposely left open -that the inhabitants might enjoy the charming prospect before it, -terminating in the Hampstead and Highgate Hills. - -When Portland Place was planned, more than half a century later, the -then Lord Foley insisted on a clause in a lease he held of the Duke of -Portland to prevent the building of any street to intercept the pure air -of Hampstead and Highgate from Foley House, a fact to which the width of -Portland Place is attributable.[12] - -Gray, writing from Southampton Row as late as the summer of 1759, tells -his friend Palgrave that ‘his new territories command Bedford Garden, and -all the fields as far as Hampstead and Highgate.’[13] - -In contrast with the poet’s triumph in the beauty of his views, we find -Sir Samuel Romilly, many years later, complaining, in a letter to his -sister written from his chambers in Gray’s Inn, ‘that, having but one -row of houses between him and Hampstead, a north-west wind, sharp as the -piercing _bise_, blows full against his windows.’[14] - -Long after this date, Rosslyn House and Park could be seen from -Clerkenwell Green, and later still the green heights of Caen Wood were -visible from Bedford Row. - -One of the advantages that Ned Ward’s public-house in Red Bull Yard -possessed was ‘commodious rooms, with Hampstead air supplied’; and -I think it is Lysons who quotes the advertisement of a house of -entertainment near Bagnigge Wells, the proprietor of which sets forth as -an inducement for the favour of the public that his windows command fine -views of Hampstead and Highgate Hills. - -These details help us to realize the relation of Hampstead to London when -its wooded crest could be seen from such distant points, and it had come -to be regarded as the air-filterer and health invigorator of the whole -district. Even as late as 1820, from the west of Oxford Street to the -skirts of Hampstead Heath, there were green fields and pastures all the -way. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -_HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH._ - - -Hampstead, situated in the Hundred of Oussulston and County of Middlesex, -is separated from London by St. Pancras and Marylebone, and otherwise -bounded by Finchley, Hendon, Willesden, and Paddington. - -In the account of the several districts into which the Registrar-General -has divided London, Hampstead claims the greatest elevation, standing 400 -feet above Trinity high-water mark, a circumstance that, in connection -with its gravelly soil, accounts for its dry, salutary air. It contains -in its parochial area 2,169 acres.[15] - -The early history of Hampstead lies very far back, though for all -purposes of respectable antiquity—whether persons or places are -concerned—an appearance in Domesday Book is sufficient. Hamestead, in -its old, pleasant Saxon name, tells of a yet higher antiquity, and long -before the astute Norman (in the language of the Saxon Chronicle) ‘sent -forth his men to inquire how many hundred hides of land were in each -shire, so that there was not a hide of land in England of which he knew -not the possessor, and how much it was worth.’ - -Long before the existence of this pleasant schedule enabled the Conqueror -to parcel out the fairest portions of the land to his favourite -retainers, the five hides of land and five manses, or homes, of which -this manor consisted, were said to have been given by King Ethelred, -the gift being afterwards confirmed by Edward the Confessor, to the -Abbey Church of St. Peter at Westminster.[16] These grants are said -to be spurious—forged, in fact, by the monks, the mark of a pendent -seal attached to one, and the wax adhering to the other, proving too -much, such seals not being used in England till after the Conquest. But -William, desirous of standing well with the Church, continued the grant -of Hamsted to the Abbot of Westminster. At the making of Domesday Book, -not another roof had risen on the manor. There were still five manses, -the homes of villeynes and bordarii, the first small farmers having -certain degrees of personal freedom, but dependent for their ground on -several corporal and servile services rendered to the lord; the others, -mere labourers, who paid rent in eggs, poultry, etc. - -‘“The Abbot holds four hides (arable) land to three ploughs. To the -demesne appertain three hides and a half, and there is one plough. -The villeynes have one plough, and could employ another. There is one -villeyne who has one virgate, and five bordars who have one virgate; -and one bondman or slave. The woodlands afford pannage (beech-mast and -acorns) for a hundred swine. - -‘“The whole is valued at fifty shillings, of which Ranulph Peverel, who -held one hide of the land under the Abbot, paid five shillings.” - -‘There is nothing more undecided than the presumed value of the hide. -Some writers say it represented as much land as employed a plough during -the year. Another, that it meant as much land as would maintain a family. -Spelman imagined it 100 acres. At one place in Domesday Book 20 acres are -called half a hide. - -‘“In Maldon in Essex there were five free men holding 10 acres of ground; -of these Ranulph Peverel holds 5 acres, and Hugh de Montfort 5 acres; it -was in the time of King Edward the Confessor worth tenpence, it is now -[at Domesday] worth twelvepence.”’[17] - -This Ranulph Peverel, a Norman high in the King’s favour, who held, as -Camden tells us, estates in several counties of England, had married the -discarded concubine of the Conqueror, the daughter of a Saxon noble, -and one of the most lovely women of her time, and had given his own -name to the King’s son by her—William Peverel,[18] subsequently Lord of -Nottingham, and founder of the famous castle in the Peak—and if it had -not been shown that such small portions of land were frequently held by -noblemen in those times in different counties, probably as a nucleus -to be added to as opportunities arose, one would have been inclined to -doubt the identity of the owner of one hide of land at Hamstede with the -Peverel whose descendants became so important in the history of England. - -The original grant (or presumed grant) of Ethelred gives a certain spot -of land, in the place called Hamstede, of five _cassati_—this word, we -read, means hide—in perpetual inheritance, etc. - -Very primitive must have been the Hamestead of those days, a group of -clay-built or wattled huts, set down in a sheltered clearing, somewhere -in the vicinity of the future Chapel of St. Mary, the site of the present -parish church, in the district known as Frognal. - -The uncleared ground above this settlement rose irregularly to the Heath, -with great woods stretching dense and gloomy west, north, south, and -east of it, and in places impinging on the sandy skirts of the Heath, -originally the upheaved crust of an old sea-bottom, 100 feet deep, but -then a waste of wild vert, on a surface of clay, sand, and gravel. These -woods, or, rather, the great Forest of Middlesex, extended for centuries -later on the east to Enfield Chace, and went crowding on in serried -masses westward to the Chiltern Hills. All the surroundings were heavy -with timbered shade, and hazardous from the wild beasts lurking there: -wolves, boars, stags, and wild-bulls of the indigenous breed only just -become extinct in the Craven district—a whole forest region, in fact, -instinct with game. - -Fitzstephen, the monk whose charming description of the country on the -north-west of London reads like a prose idyll, tells us that in these -woods were many yew-trees, and Camden, that the forest ‘was full of that -weed of England, the oak,’ whilst the mast, or fruit of the beech, as we -have seen, made part of the value of the manor in Domesday Book. Evelyn -and W. J. Hooker assure us that in these woods grew the hornbeam, elm, -and other indigenous sylva. - -During the Saxon Heptarchy, the Roman Verulamium had become St. Albans, -the shrine of the British protomartyr, and a place of great sanctity, -to and from whence pilgrims were constantly moving. I know nothing of -Roman roads, and am therefore quite neutral as regards opinion, but am -aware that modern antiquaries have wholly overturned the belief of their -fathers, and, while quoting Camden as a reliable and careful authority on -other matters, ignore the old antiquary’s belief in the long-descended -tradition that the Wanderers’ Way, or Watling Street, which passed from -Kent to Cardiganshire, cutting through the great forest of Middlesex, in -a straight line from station to station, passed by Hampstead Heath. ‘Not -by the present road through Highgate, which was made by license of the -Bishop of London 300 years ago, but that ancient one, as we gather from -the charters of Edward the Confessor, which passed near Edgware.’ - -[Illustration: _John Evelyn._] - -Old Norden states that on the northern edge of Middlesex the Roman road, -commonly called the Watling Way, enters this county, leading straight -from old Verulamium to London over Hamestead Heath; from whence one has -a curious prospect of a most beautiful city and most pleasant country. -Camden, again, tells us that ‘at the very distance that Antoninus in his -Itinerary placeth Pulloniacæ, to wit, 12 miles from London, and 9 miles -from Verulam, there remaineth some marks of an ancient station, and there -is much rubbish digged up upon a hill which is now called Brockley Hill.’ -No doubt Norden, with the fond zeal of a believing antiquary, had traced -the road many a time to Edgworth (Edgware) and so on to Hendon, through -an old lane called Hendon Wante.[19] So completely had this tradition -entered into the faith of people generally that we find it embalmed in -Drayton’s ‘Polyolbion,’ where, to paraphrase his figurative description -of Highgate and Hampstead Hills, he emphatically adds of the latter: - - ‘Which claims the worthiest place his own, - Since that old Watling once o’er him to pass was known.’ - -Defoe, too, in his ‘Tour of Great Britain,’ tells us that he ‘went -to Hampstead, from whence he made an excursion to Edgware, a little -market-town on the way to St. Alban’s, for it is _certain_ that this -was formerly the main-road from London to St. Alban’s, being the famous -highroad called Watling Streete, which reached from London to Wales.’ - -No traces of such a road have been found on Hampstead Heath, though -Roman relics and proofs of Roman burial have been discovered there, and -accepted by our oldest antiquaries as strengthening their theory of the -Watling Way having skirted or crossed it. That there was a road from -St. Albans to the Heath is curiously confirmed by an old French folio, -published in Paris (time of Elizabeth), which explains the reasons why -the Romans built a city on the site of the present London,[20] and states -that ‘subsequent to the recall of the legions in consequence of its rapid -growth and absorption of the population and commerce of the other great -cities, it so raised the envy and indignation of their inhabitants, that -the people of St. Albans threatened to come and destroy the rising city -of London, until the Londoners advanced as far as Hampstead Heath, where -they entrenched themselves, and prepared to do battle in defence of -their homes.’ A writer in the _New Monthly Magazine_, commenting on this -extract, says that the remains of the entrenchments are still pointed -out.[21] - -Dr. Hughson, writing of the Reed-mote, or six-acre field, formerly to -the north-west of White Conduit House, and which was supposed to have -been the site of a Roman camp, observes ‘that a Roman road[22] passed -this way, we have great reason to believe, for from Old Ford we pass -_Mere_ (vulgarly called Mare Street), Kingsland, Islington, Highbury, the -Hollow-way, Roman Lane, over Hampstead Heath through Hendon to Verulam.’ -With the vanishing of the pilgrims’ route over Hampstead Heath, we lose -the reason for the name of the hamlet suggested by Lysons, who supposed -the wearied pilgrims on reaching the heath to exclaim at the sight of -the city at their feet, ‘Hame-sted!’ the place of their home and the end -of their journey. Park believes the homely name was given to it by the -Saxon churls[23] who inhabited it previous to the date of the Domesday -Survey.[24] - -In the time of Abbot Leofstan, when Albanus[25] had become a very popular -saint, ‘especially with merchants and traders going beyond sea, who -sought his protection, and made rich offerings at his shrine,’ the state -of the great forest, its ways infested not only with beasts of prey, but -by ‘outlaws, fugitives, and other abandoned beings,’ with the probable -effect of diminishing the revenues of his Church, set the Abbot seriously -to the task of removing these obstructions. He had the woods in part cut -down, rebuilt bridges, repaired rough places, and finally entered into -a contract with a certain knight to defend the highway with two trusty -followers, and be answerable to the Church for anything that might happen -through his neglect.[26] - -In the eighth of Henry III., the great Forest of Middlesex was ordered -to be disforested, giving the citizens of London, as Stowe tells us, -‘an opportunity of buying land, and building, whereby the suburbs were -greatly extended.’ - -But the disforesting appears to have been partial, and the building -limited to the east. Hampstead retained its woods in all their savage -wildness; the paths through them, to the terror of passengers, continued -to be scoured by wild beasts, especially wolves, which had not all been -extirpated when the ‘Boke of St. Alban’s’ was written.[27] - -During Henry III.’s reign (1256) we find Richard de Crokesley, Abbot -of Westminster, ‘“assigning the whole produce of Hamestede and Stoke -for the celebration of his anniversary in that monastery by ringing of -bells, giving doles during a whole week, to the amount of 4,000 denarii. -A thousand to as many paupers on the first day, and the same dole to 500 -others on the six days following. A feast with wine, a dish of meat and a -double pittance to the monks in the refectory. A Mass by the Convent in -copes, on the anniversary day; and four Masses daily at four different -altars for the repose of his [the Abbot’s] soul for ever!” With many -other daily forms and ceremonies. But the keeping of this commemoration -was found to be so heavy a burden that the monks petitioned the Pope in -less than ten years after the Abbot’s death to dispense with it, and he -very sensibly sent his mandate to Westminster, dated 5 Kal. June, 1267, -declaring that he found these things to abound more in pomp than the good -of souls, and “that it was evident they accorded not with religion, nor -were suitable to religious persons,” and recommending the monks to limit -the mode of commemoration to their ideas of the dead Abbot’s deserts, and -the advantages that had accrued to the monastery by his administration. -Upon which the said manors and revenues became at the free disposal of -the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, towards the welfare of the abbey; -an annual portion of 10 marks being assigned for making such celebration -as that sum would admit of for the said Richard de Crokesley.’[28] - -At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII., by way of a sop to -the Church, created a new bishopric, that of Westminster, giving it for -its diocese the county of Middlesex, of which he deprived London. Great -part of the revenues of the dissolved monastery were settled upon the -new bishopric, the manor and advowson of Hampstead making a portion of -it, but in nine years the new Bishop had alienated his lands to such an -extent that there was scarcely anything left to maintain ‘the port of a -Bishop.’ - -In this reign, while the Manor of Hampstead was in the hands of the -newly-made Bishop of Westminster, we find that a considerable part of the -woods still covered the ground in this neighbourhood, as well as in that -of Hornsey, and that game was still plentiful in them. - -Of this we have proof in the proclamation of the King for the -preservation of his sport in these places:[29] - - ‘A Proclamacion yt noe p’son interrupt the King’s game of - Partridge or phesaunt. - - ‘Rex majori et vice comitibus London. Vobis mandamus, etc. - - ‘Forasmuch as the King’s most Royall Maᵗⁱᵉ is much desirous to - have the games of hare, partridge, phesaunt, and heron p’served - in and about his honor at his palace of Westm’ for his owne - disport and pastime; that is to saye, from his said palace of - Westm’ to St. Gyles in the Fields, and from thence to Islington - to oʳ _Lady of the Oke_, to _Highgate_, to _Hornsey Parke_, to - _Hamsted Heath_, and from thence to his said palace of Westm’ - to be preserved and kept for his owne disport, pleasure, and - recreacion; his highness therefore straightlie chargeth and - commandeth, all and singular, his subjects, of what estate, - condicion, so’er they be, that they, ne any of them, doe p’sume - or attempt to hunt, or hawke, or in any means to take or kill - any of the said games, within the precincts aforesaid, as they - tender his favour, and will estchue the ymprisonment of their - bodies and _further punishment at his Ma’ts will and pleasure_. - - ‘Et hoc sub p’iculo incumbenti nullatenus omittat. - - ‘Teste mæipso apud Westm’ vij. die Julij anno tricesimo Septimo - Henrici Octavi. (1546.)’ - -This mandate was issued just six months before the King’s death, when -his physical condition must have totally incapacitated him from the -sport from which he interdicted others, and this in the face of repeated -charters giving the citizens of London a right of free chase in the -forests of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, the Chiltern country, and Kent as -far as the river Cray. This proclamation helps us in imagination to a -view of the then existing condition of the north-western suburbs—fields -from the back of Gray’s Inn right away to Islington, a village of ‘cakes -and cream’ in the midst of meadows; the uplands of Hampstead, Highgate, -and Hornsey still covered with thick woods and coverts filled with game, -whilst between them and the city stretched the open country, with here a -wattled hut, and there a half-timbered house; the clack of mills resonant -beside the willow-shaded Fleet, which had its rise at the foot of -Hampstead Hill, and went running on through Gospel Oak Fields to Kentish -Town and Pancras, and thence by Holborn to its outlet in the Thames at -Blackfriars, where a creek rendered it navigable to Holborn Bridge. - -There stood St. Pancras, or ‘Pankeridge,’ as Ben Jonson calls it, the -oldest church in London with the exception of old Paul’s, ‘all alone, -utterly forsaken, and weather-beaten,’ while on the breezy high ground at -Hampstead a windmill or two gave animation to the scene. - -During the reign of Henry VIII., a predicted inundation of the city -drove the inhabitants to the hills, and Hampstead Heath appeared -covered with hundreds of little huts and tents in which the credulous -people sheltered themselves. The prediction, of course, failed, and the -prophets only escaped the indignation of their dupes on finding their -fears disappointed by avowing a mistake of a hundred years in their -calculations. - -During the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, Hampstead Woods -continued to flourish, coming down on the east to the village of -Cantleowes, or Kentish Town, while on the west they spread by Belsize, -and what is now the Adelaide Road, to St. John’s Wood, where at the -Domesday the Abbess of Barking held wood and pasture of the King for -fifty swine. - -More recently St. John’s Wood belonged to the Knights Templars. It was -in this wood the unfortunate Babington took refuge from the fury of -Elizabeth till driven forth by hunger. - -With this Queen’s successor, and his favourite, Buckingham, Hampstead was -a frequent hunting-ground, and to this day the plateau on the west Heath, -locally known as the King’s Hill, commemorates the spot from which His -Majesty was wont to see the hounds throw off. - -In James’s reign and that of his son, Charles I., certain ‘fair edifices’ -had arisen on the Heath and its vicinity for the accommodation and -convenience of the Court when hunting and hawking in the neighbourhood. -Of these old houses none exist to add to the archæological interest of -the neighbourhood. It is impossible to imagine a finer foreground for -a hunting or hawking party than the Heath, the natural beauty of the -landscape lending itself most effectively to such scenes. - -Who questions the locality of the wicked _bon-mot_ of our Merry Monarch, -who could never resist the temptation of saying a smart thing? When -in the midst of a group of beauties, courtiers, and Churchmen (who -particularly delighted in hawking), he observed of the church of -Harrow-on-the-Hill that it was ‘the only visible Church he knew of.’ - -Towards the closing years of Charles I.’s reign (1647), the Great Hollow -Elm at Hampstead (figured by Hollar in an engraving preserved amongst -the pamphlets in the King’s Library in the British Museum) became an -object of attraction to visitors. Remarkable for its size and supposed -age, measuring 28 feet immediately above the ground in girth, with -widely-spreading branches, and of great height, a sagacious speculator -about the year 1647 (as appears from some verses addressed to it by -Robert Codrington, of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1653) constructed a -staircase of forty-two steps within the hollow trunk, with sixteen -openings lighting it, which led up to an octagon turret fixed amongst -the branches of the tree 33 feet from the ground. ‘The seat above the -steps six might sit upon, and round about room for fourteen more.’ At -this altitude spectators enjoyed a most glorious view, or, rather, a -succession of them, and found themselves above every object in Middlesex -with the exception of the church spire of Harrow. - -From the open tableland on which it appears in the engraving, the great -tree probably stood on the summit of the Heath, where the road now runs -past Jack Straw’s Castle. On the same broadside on which the engraving -appears are certain descriptive verses. This broadside seems to have -been given away to the visitors, and the circumstance of its having been -folded for putting in the pocket, and so worn out, accounts for the few -copies of it in existence. - -‘The Great Hollow Elm at Hampstead’ (as the broad sheet describes -it) does not appear to have long survived its singular treatment. No -subsequent records that I have met with mention it; but that it must -have been the object of many a summer’s day pilgrimage to the Heath is -evident, even in Puritan times, when Robert Codrington addressed his -verses to it. In them he mentions the - - ‘beauteous ladies that have been - These twice three summers in its turret seen.’ - -In the same year (1647) a poetical stationer, commonly known as Michael -Spark, but who, in moments of aspiration, fancifully called himself -‘Scintilla,’ tells us of a very curious use to which this sylvan upper -chamber was put. - -A foreigner, the fellow-countryman of Joannes a Commenius, as he -pedantically styles John Amos Comenius, the Moravian grammarian and -divine, had established a school at Hampstead for a ‘limited number of -young gentlemen,’ the number being restricted to twelve, and these, Mr. -Spark tells us, he spared no pains in training: - - ‘For he, on top of all (this tree) above the shade, - His scholars, taught; where they such verses made - As spread his honours, and do blaze the fame - Of Hampstead School—I’ll trumpet up the same!’ - -It is he who lets us into the seeming secret of the birth of the _Wells_, -and sings of the - - ‘air, and hill, and _well_, and school,’ - -as if the reputation of each was publicly known and appreciated. -Codrington indirectly tells us that the elm was attempted to be put to -another use ‘by some of the new religion, that would make a preachment -beneath its shade.’ - -In the reign of Charles II., when the Great Plague was ravaging London -and the Merry Monarch and his merry Court had discreetly withdrawn from -its neighbourhood, Hampstead and the Heath had other experiences, for -hundreds of the wretched citizens who had fled from the city to the -suburbs, driven forth from the village with scythes and pitchforks, lay -down to die in the fields and woods and ditches in the vicinity. This was -the occasion of the obloquy levelled at the Hampstead people by Taylor, -the Water-poet. And as a consequence, having almost wholly escaped the -visitations of 1603, Hampstead suffered considerably in 1665, when the -burials—which in the first year of the plague numbered only seven, and -in the next twenty-three—rose to 214, more than seven times the ordinary -averages of the period.[30] - -Twelve months later, when the Great Fire swept out as with the besom of -destruction the germs of the plague, many of the fugitives from London -watched from the Heath the destruction of their homes and property, the -smoke of the city ascending ‘like the smoke of a great furnace,’ a smoke -so dense and fearful that it ‘darkened the sun at noonday, and if at any -time the sun peeped through, it looked as red as blood; through the long -night there was no darkness of night;’ and, to add to these horrors, on -the dreadful Wednesday night ‘the people of London, now of the fields,’ -heard the murmur that the French were coming, and though, in the quaint -language of the writer of the ‘City Remembrancer,’ ‘the women, naked -and weak, did quake and tremble, many of the citizens began to stir -themselves like lions or bears bereaved of their whelps, and “Arm! arm!” -resounded through the woods and suburbs.’ - -These scenes, of which Hampstead Heath has been the centre, have long -since faded out of the traditions of its inhabitants, like those of that -still older night in 1588, when the cresset upon Beacon Hill blazed the -approach of the Armada to its fellow on Hadley Church tower, and thence -from cresset to cresset to the farthest North—scenes full of the tragic -passions of human perplexity and terror. - -The General Elections for Middlesex appear to have always taken place on -Hampstead Heath. I read that at one of these meetings of the Middlesex -freemen on the top of Hampstead Hill,[31] 1695, Admiral Lord Edward -Russell made his appearance before the assembled voters, and was -returned without opposition. - -These meetings occasioned the assembling of great mobs of rough persons -and much lawlessness, which greatly facilitated the business of -cut-purses and footpads who habitually haunted the Heath. But at the -commencement of 1700, after much trouble on the part of the influential -inhabitants, this nuisance was done away with, only, as it would appear, -to make space for another—for some time previous to 1732 horse-races took -place upon the upper Heath, and were largely attended.[32] - -The race-course appears to have been at the back of Jack Straw’s Castle, -where the surface of the Heath, so delved and broken up and caverned by -the sand and gravel diggers in modern times, was then, it is said, level -with North End Hill. - -In July, 1736, a paragraph in the _Grub Street Journal_ states that while -the horses were being run on the Hampstead course, a gentleman, about -sixty years of age, was observed hanging almost double over a gate, his -head nearly touching the ground. His horse was grazing near him, and -there had been no foul play; his watch and money were upon him. The dead -man was a Mr. Hill, a teller in the Excise Office. - -What an occasion would this incident have afforded for the fiery -declamation and denunciation of the great Nonconformist preacher, George -Whitfield, who three years afterwards writes in his Diary that he took -his station under a tree near the horse-course at Hampstead! He was -preaching there by invitation, and his audience, he tells us, were ‘some -of the politer sort,’ which gave him occasion to speak to their souls of -our spiritual race, and he adds, ‘most were attentive, but others mocked.’ - -Johnson somewhat cynically said of him that ‘he had known Whitfield at -college before he became better than other people’; but he also said that -‘he believed he sincerely meant well, but had a mixture of politics and -ostentation, while Wesley thought only of religion.’ - -The races had grown to be so great a nuisance, from the crowds they drew -together and the mischief that ensued, that some time subsequent to 1748 -they were put down by the Court of Magistrates.[33] - -Except at election times, there had never been such throngs of people or -disorder on the Heath. The effect of the races had been to drive away the -more refined portion of visitors to Hampstead, just at a time of year -when the season was at its high-tide, and the Heath and woods and walks -in their perfection. - -In the spring of 1750 the people of Hampstead witnessed another instance -of the spontaneity of panic-fear, which sent numbers of people to the -Heath and the high grounds of the other northern suburbs to escape -suffering the fate of the Metropolis, which a mad trooper (‘next to -the Bishop of London’[34]) had predicted should be swallowed up by an -earthquake in the April of this year. The shock of one had been felt -on February 8, and again on March 8, and the proverbial fatality of -the third time led to the belief that a final one would take place on -April 8. When the three months were nearly accomplished, at the end of -which the prophetic trooper had announced the destruction of London, -this ‘frantic terror,’ writes Horace Walpole, on April 2, ‘prevails so -much that within these three days seven hundred and thirty coaches have -been counted passing Hyde Park Corner.’ Several women, he adds, ‘made -themselves earthquake gowns to sit out of doors all night.’ The day -passed, however, without disturbance, and, except that the unfortunate -seer was sent to Bedlam, nothing came of the prediction. - -That must have been a grand day on the Heath, mid-winter as it was, -when, roused by Bonaparte’s threatened invasion of England (1803-4), the -Hampstead Association—disbanded about a year before—joined themselves -into a volunteer force, 700 strong, with the public-spirited ex-Lord -Mayor of London, Josiah Boydell, as their Colonel Commandant, and Charles -Holford, Esq., for their Major, and took the oath of allegiance in the -face of heaven and their friends and neighbours on their own beloved -Heath. They then marched to the parish church of St. John’s, where Lady -Alvanley presented them with their colours. - -When peace was proclaimed, these were deposited in the church, where they -remained, a trophy of the patriotic spirit that had animated the men of -Hampstead. In later times, when the wisdom of being always prepared for -such defence made itself felt throughout the length and breadth of the -land, the Episcopal Chapel in Well Walk was converted into a drill-room -for the volunteers who fell into rank in the place of their forefathers. -The old colours were now borne from the church, and escorted with full -military honours to the drill-room,[35] where they remained till the -building was taken down, when with similar ceremony they were deposited -in the new drill-hall, Heath Street. - -One of the most pathetic incidents in connection with Hampstead Heath is -the remembrance of Charles Lamb and his sister which Talfourd has left -us, ‘mournfully crossing it hand-in-hand, and going on sadly through -the quiet fields to the retreat at Finchley, where the poor sufferer -sought shelter from herself ... whence, after a time, she would return -in her right mind ... a gentle, amiable woman, beloved by all who knew -her,’ but most of all by her brother, whose young manhood was in a -measure blighted by the tragedy of which she who enacted it was wholly -unconscious. He might be said to have devoted himself to her, and in life -they were never parted. - -Few even of their contemporaries knew the particulars of that household -tragedy; the reporters of the inquest, with a respectful pity rare in -their craft, withheld the names; and compassion was universally felt for -the naturally inoffensive and all-unconscious perpetrator of it, and for -him, the dutiful son and loving brother, whose affectionate and sensitive -nature suffered in silence the double horror and the double grief. This -is how the ‘Annual Register’ tells the melancholy tale (September 23, -1796): - -‘On the afternoon of this day a coroner’s jury sat on the body of a lady -in the neighbourhood of Holborn, who died in consequence of a wound from -her daughter the preceding day.... While they were preparing for dinner, -the young lady, in a fit of insanity, seized a case-knife from the table, -and in a menacing way pursued a little girl round the room. On the eager -cry of her infirm mother to forbear, she renounced her object, and turned -with loud shrieks upon her parent. The little girl by her cries brought -up the landlady, but too late—the mother was lifeless in her chair, -stabbed to the heart, her daughter still wildly standing over her with -the knife, and the venerable old man, her father, weeping by her side, -himself bleeding from a blow on the forehead from one of the forks she -was throwing distractedly about.’ - -A few days previously she had exhibited signs of lunacy, from which she -had previously suffered, and her brother—in this lay the self-wounding -sting for such a nature as Elia’s—had endeavoured on the morning of the -occurrence to see Dr. Pitcairn, and had failed. ‘Had that gentleman,’ it -is suggested, ‘seen her, the catastrophe might have been averted.’ - -What a scene for the young clerk at the India House! He was then only -twenty-one, and, like his unhappy sister, working against the tide -to help the straitened means of their parents. It was elicited at the -inquest that no one could be more affectionate to both father and mother -than the unconscious matricide, and that to the increased attentiveness -which the growing infirmities of the latter required, added to the -pressure of business, was to be ascribed the loss of the daughter’s -reason. - -Poor Lamb had himself once suffered from the same sad malady. He has -been censured for sometimes yielding to drinking habits, but the memory -of that one day in his life—the very threshold, rather, as it may be -called—might well plead in merciful extenuation. - -At times throughout her life Mary Lamb was subject to fits of mental -aberration, the approach of which she was conscious of, and on these -occasions would request to be taken to the abode at Finchley, where she -found safety and remedial treatment. - -One other event in modern times has caused widespread and painful -commotion in association with Hampstead Heath, the suicide of John -Sadleir, Esq., M.P. for Tipperary. I well remember the excitement on -the occasion, and the rapidity with which the story was bruited about. -Early in the morning of Sunday, February 17, 1856, a man was looking -for a strayed donkey amongst the furze-bushes on the south side of the -old watercourse (now obliterated), when he came upon the dead body of a -well-dressed man. A silver cream-ewer and a small bottle lay beside him, -his head resting near an old furze-clump, and his feet almost touching -the water. His hat had fallen off, and his lips gave out the scent of -prussic acid. - -There was one extraordinary fact in connection with the case: the soles -of the dress-boots on the feet of the corpse were unsoiled, though the -night had been stormy and the neighbourhood of the watercourse damp -at all times of the year. It was evident he must have alighted from a -vehicle very near the spot, which was some distance down the bank, at -the back of Jack Straw’s Castle. I have not the report of the inquest -to refer to, but the details of the event made a deep impression on -me, and the more so for the mystery surrounding it. I think no cabman -came forward or could be found to give an account of a midnight fare -to Hampstead Heath, and it was midnight or after when his butler heard -him leave the house. The dress and general appearance were identical -with those of Mr. Sadleir, director of the Tipperary Bank (which he -had founded) and chairman of several railways and banking and mining -companies; and if any doubt had existed, there was found on the corpse a -slip of paper, on which, in a hand as bold as his proceedings had been, -and infinitely clearer, was written, ‘John Sadleir, Gloucester Square, -Hyde Park.’ Many knew the handwriting, and though some of the witnesses -observed the great alteration death had made in the countenance, Mr. -Wakeley, the coroner, lifted the eyelids of the dead man, and, having -known him personally, pronounced them the eyes of John Sadleir. At first -it was surmised that insanity from a brain overworked had led to the -fatal act, but it soon became apparent that, to avoid the public scandal -and degradation consequent on his own bad acts, he had voluntarily rushed -out of life. - -‘By his scheming and forgeries, the issue of false balance-sheets, -the overissue of railway shares, the pledging of false securities -and obligations, he had deprived widows, single women, army and navy -officers on half-pay, and others equally helpless and unwary, of all they -possessed. The victims of his iniquitous and gigantic frauds were to be -counted by thousands, from shareholders to the poorest depositors, till -at last, hemmed round by an inextricable network of multitudinous crime, -and seeing no means of escape from the near crisis of discovery, he had -stolen by a perilous short-cut out of sight and hearing of the cries and -curses of those who had trusted him, to find oblivion in a suicide’s -grave.’[36] - -There were many who firmly believed his apparent death a forgery also, -and long afterwards reports were current that he had been met with in -America, whither his brother, the manager of the Tipperary Bank, had -absconded. It is certain that a large sum of money which John Sadleir had -received only on the day previous to the discovery of the dead body on -Hampstead Heath was not forthcoming, nor was its disappearance in any way -accounted for. - -It appears singular why, having possessed himself of the poison, and -knowing its almost instantaneous effect, he should have left his -home, and gone out into the wild, dark night and distant solitude of -Hampstead Heath, to perpetrate the despairing sin of self-murder. Perhaps -the wretched man was goaded by the scorpion-stings of conscience to -affinities closer to the condition of his mind than the conventional and -ill-gotten luxuries around him. The cold damp earth, the sharp furze -spines, the buffeting winds, the all-aloneness—save for the ghosts of -lost opportunities, of great talents turned to infernal uses, of high -respect and honours thrown away—seemed more in sympathy with the fierce -frenzy, the unutterable horror, of his unmasked soul. Assuredly, no more -terrible proof could be required that ‘sooner or later sin is its own -avenger,’ than the suicide of John Sadleir. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -_THE WAYS TO HAMPSTEAD._ - - -The oldest maps of London extant show two roads to Hampstead; Aggas’s -(time of Elizabeth) has four. The most easterly of these roads ran out -by Gray’s Inn Lane, past old St. Pancras and Battle Bridge, through -Kentish Town and part of Holloway to Highgate, touching Caen Wood, and -so by Bishop’s Wood and Wild Wood Corner to Hampstead. Later on a branch -of this same Gray’s Inn or Battle Bridge Road ran off by St. Pancras a -little to the west, into a country lane running up from Tottenham Court -Road, into what is now the Hampstead Road, and so to Hampstead.[37] - -Another road ran out by Tyburn, crossing the road to Reading—the present -Edgware Road—and going on by Lisson Grove to Kilburn Abbey, passing -West End and Sutcup Hill, Hampstead, and thence on to Edgworth. But -the most interesting of these roads, and which is distinctly traced in -Aggas’s map, ran up from Charing Cross, through St. Martin’s Lane to -Broad St. Giles’s, crossing the ‘Waye to Uxbridge’ (Oxford Street), -and thence up Tottenham Court Road, which shows how nearly the modern -highway follows the lines of the ancient one. It looks very like the -present road to Hampstead, except that it appears to stop short at the -top of Tottenham Court Road. The difference is in the road itself and -its surroundings—running as it did over a track, which, once made, was -left to take care of itself; dangerous with heaps of refuse and hollow -places that in winter were full of water, and at other times absolute -sloughs. Even in Charles II.’s time, when turnpike roads were made by Act -of Parliament, the travelling by coach or waggon does not appear to have -been much improved. The highways were in places so narrow that a lady -traveller in 1764 tells us that, meeting another coach, her conveyance -was brought to a standstill till the road was made sufficiently wide at -that particular part to allow of the carriages passing each other. In -winter and in rainy seasons, owing to the want of a proper knowledge of -draining, it was not an unknown grievance for the waters in low-lying -places to inundate the carriages; while at the close of such periods -travellers frequently found their wheels so deeply embedded in the mud -left in these hollows that they had to remain there till additional -horses could be had from the nearest farmhouse or village to drag their -vehicle out. The private letters, diaries, and memoirs of those bygone -years are full of such adventures. - -It was not, indeed, till after the first decade of George III.’s time -that this state of things began to be seriously remedied, and roads, in -our present meaning of the term, laid through the length and breadth of -the land. Pretty deep in the present century, except for a few cottages -in the fields, there were no habitations between the George Inn, -Hampstead Road, and the Load of Hay, on Haverstock Hill. In other ways, -the road continued to be pretty much the same as in Colonel Esmond’s -time, ‘hedgerows and fields and gardens’ all the way up to Hampstead. -About the time of the building of Camden Town, people who loved pure -country air began to move further out, and toy villas and rustic -residences dotted the Hampstead Road, some of them remaining there with -their paled-in gardens and trellised porches and verandas, oddly wedged -in between builders’ yards and other commercial premises, till long after -I knew the neighbourhood. - -As recently as 1859 the road to Hampstead was a charming one, especially -if one drove there; for then you had the advantage of seeing beyond and -above the pedestrian. No sooner did you cross the Canal Bridge than your -pleasure in the prospects began. Leaving Chalk Farm on the left, where in -some one or other of the effaced fields Tom Moore and Jeffrey (afterwards -Lord Jeffrey) met to fight their intercepted duel, and Primrose or Barrow -Hill, in a ditch on the south side of which (1678) the body of the -murdered Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was found, ‘his sword thrust through him, -but no blood upon his clothes or about him, his shoes clean, his money in -his pocket, his rings upon his fingers, but with his breast all bruises, -and his neck broken’;[38] and upon the summit of which, with sublimated -vision, William Blake, _pictor ignotus_, saw the spiritual sun, ‘not like -a golden disc the size of a guinea, but like an innumerable company of -the heavenly host, crying “Holy, holy, holy!”’ - -Then Haverstock Hill, with the Load of Hay tavern, looking in 1845 as -rustic and simple as its name. It had been famous for its tea-gardens, -and an ancient footpath from the Lower Heath, Hampstead, formerly -crossed the fields from Pond Street, and came out beside it on the main -road. Above the bank, rising from the highway on the left, stood the -cottage, ‘famous,’ as Carey in his ‘Book of the Roads’ (1812) called -it, as the residence of Sir Richard Steele, the ‘solitude’ that for so -many years reminded readers of the literary Captain’s delightful essays, -and recalled in his company all the wits of Queen Anne’s time, who, on -their way to the summer meetings of the Kit-Cat Club at the Upper Flask, -Hampstead, were wont to beguile him from unfinished copy, an easy task, -since the gay instincts of the man on these occasions would generally -override the severity of the philosopher, and prevent the personal -application of the moralities he so charmingly discoursed about. - -[Illustration: _Hampstead from Primrose Hill._] - -‘I am in a solitude,’ he wrote to Pope, June 1, 1712, ‘an house between -Hampstead and London, in which Sir Charles Sedley died, breathing his -last,’ he adds, ‘in this very room,’ a circumstance that, in connection -with his enforced rusticity, and the circumstances that induced it, -combined to waken serious reflections; and writing on this occasion, as -Pope himself was said to write, ‘_with his reputation in his hand_,’ Sir -Richard somewhat ungenerously, when we consider the close kinship of many -of Sedley’s inclinations with his own, improved the occasion at the dead -man’s expense, wholly ignoring the assurance of gossiping Anthony à Wood -that poor Sedley, after suffering much for his offences, took up and grew -serious, and subsequently became a leading man in the House of Commons. -If this be true, it says a good deal for the recuperative moral force -concentrated in Sir Charles’s nature. Steele’s cottage stood so nearly -opposite to the little hostel, the Load of Hay, that its inhabitants, if -so minded, could have almost distinguished the features of the gentlemen -of the road who, towards sunset, occasionally drew bridle beside the -horse-block in front of the well-worn steps leading into it, to refresh -themselves with a tankard of ripe ale, or some more potent stirrup-cup, -before starting across country to Brown’s Well, or Finchley Common, -places which continued till quite modern times to be words of fear in the -vocabulary of travellers. - -Pope’s contributions to the _Spectator_ led in 1712 to Steele’s making -his acquaintance, which was followed by his introducing the young poet to -his courtly friend Addison. One can fancy the fine presence and handsome -countenance of the distinguished essayist, his Sir Charles Grandison air, -and the stately suavity of his bow, which brings the side-locks of his -voluminous wig an arm’s length beyond the shapely hand laid impressively -on the breast of his deep-flapped waistcoat, and the ill-dressed, crooked -figure and sallow face of the youthful poet. But remembering that Pope -at seventeen years of age had been admitted to the company of the wits -at Wills’s, it is probable that the stately compliments of the great -moralist, whose mission it was to help reform the morals and manners of -the day, did not so much affect him as they might have done an older man -less conscious of his acknowledged power; and the nervous flushing of -the sallow cheek, the brightening of the large dark eyes, and the slight -quiver of the sensitive muscles of the melancholy mouth, may be as much -the result of infelt pride as of modesty. - -[Illustration: _Sir Richard Steele._] - -It was Addison who, on reading the first two cantos of the ‘Rape of the -Lock,’ pronounced it ‘a delicious little thing’; ‘it was _merum sal_,’ -he said, but when Pope resolved to recast the whole poem, and asked -Addison’s advice, and the latter entreated him not to run the risk of -spoiling it, in doing so he affronted the morbidly jaundiced mind of -the poet, who, on the altered poem proving a success, called Addison’s -counsel insidious, and accused the amiable giver of it of baseness.[39] - -It is a pleasant recollection not only to have seen Steele’s cottage, but -to have stood with my friend, Eliza Meteyard, in the room to the right -where some of those witty, playful, clever papers were composed, in which -the follies and vices of the times are mirrored with graphic power in the -pages of the now too rarely read _Spectator_ and _Guardian_. - -[Illustration: - - To - My Lov’d Tutour Dʳ. Ellis - - With Secret impulse thus do Streams return - To that Capacious Ocean whence they’re born: - Oh Would but Fortune come wᵗʰ. bounty fraught - Proportion’d to yᵉ mind wᶜʰ. thou hast taught!. - Till then let these unpolish’d leaves impart - The Humble Offering of a Gratefull Heart. - - Richᵈ: Steele -] - -There might have been an ampler number of them, perhaps, but for the -proximity of the Upper Flask and Bull and Bush taverns, and the near -neighbourhood of the Wells. But it is still pleasant to fancy the lifting -of the gate-latch, and to see in imagination going up the garden-path, -or issuing from it, with Steele in the midst of them, Arbuthnot and Gay -and Pope, and it may be Swift, famous associates and friends, whose -almost centuries-old footsteps—for those who care to look beneath the -surface of the present—underlie the dust upon the hillside, and give the -road a charm beyond its own. - -Their pungent repartees, their brilliant fancies and clever witticisms, -those mental coruscations of the moment, may yet be floating airily in -space, but the more solid portions of their intellectual riches have -become national endowments, and their harvest result is with us yet. - -The commonplace row of mean shops called Steele’s Terrace marks the place -where Steele’s double-fronted cottage stood, elevated some 15 feet above -the roadway, with a large strip of garden ground before it, but solitary -even when I was accustomed to see it, no other house being close to it. - -Nichols, quoted by Park, alluding to Steele’s disappearance from town -to this ‘solitude’ at Hampstead, writes, ‘It is to be feared that there -were too many pecuniary reasons for this temporary retirement,’ a -supposition generally adopted by Sir Richard’s biographers. I venture to -think that another cause existed more pressing than the importunities -of creditors or the exigencies of straitened means. Exactly one month -after Steele’s letter to Pope, describing his whereabouts, Swift, writing -to Mrs. Dingley from the old Court suburb, under the date of July 1, -1712, tells her ‘Steele was arrested the other day for making a lottery -directly against an Act of Parliament; he is now under prosecution, but -they think it will be dropped out of pity. I believe he will very soon -lose his employment, for he has been mighty impertinent of late in his -_Spectators_, and I will never offer a word on his behalf.’[40] - -Feeling himself disgraced, and desirous of keeping out of the way of his -town acquaintances, seems a more cogent reason for his seclusion than the -fear of his creditors, especially when we learn that the _Spectator_, -instead of falling off in popularity, was selling better than ever and at -double its original price; and that at the close of this summer he had -taken a house for his wife in Bloomsbury Square, which does not look as -if he was in want of funds. - -As for the irritable Dean, who had threatened to do nothing for him, a -little further on in his ‘Correspondence’ he is telling the same lady of -all he had done for the Whigs, and adds that he had ‘kept Steele in his -place.’[41] - -Leaving Steele’s cottage, we pass England’s Lane on the left—a lane -famous for its blackberry hedges and the pleasant fields in the -neighbourhood of the late Mr. Bell the publisher’s house; but all has -changed, and the once rural lane is now a path between brick walls and -garden fences. Farther on is Park Road, leading to the newly-made Fleet -Road and Gospel Oak Station; and on the other side of the way, a little -further on, Upper Park Road, with fragrant nursery-grounds spreading over -the same distance on the right, reminiscent of the times when it was all -‘flowers and gardens’ on that side of the way to Hampstead. The road is -still attractive with its handsome houses, standing behind well-grown -trees in well-kept gardens; but formerly, on the ascent of Haverstock -Hill, the outside passenger by the old stage-coach on looking back found -himself repaid on a clear day by a brief prospect of the great city, with -‘the dome of St. Paul’s in the air,’ and all the surrounding spires, -towers, and cupolas that ascend above the city roofs. - -We leave Haverstock Terrace (now Belsize Grove), leading to Belsize -Gardens, on the left, and a little above it, to the right, the sloping -grass-fields—as yet unbuilt on, but marked for speculation—and a pleasant -view, between the poplars shading the top of Haverstock Hill, of green -Highgate, and the smooth mound of Traitors’ Hill west, with Camden Town -crowding up to the new Cattle Market, and tiers of houses covering what -were once Copenhagen Fields, an engraving of which, dated 1782, lies -before me, and shows these fields with only one habitation in them, -Copenhagen House, a tea-drinking place, the popularity of which extended -for a considerable time into the present century. - -The entrance to the garden is through the ribs of a whale set up -archwise, with an inscription across the top. Two individuals are -playing at bowls, whilst two others look on. In the foreground are three -gentlemen in cocked hats, long-skirted coats, and their hair _en queue_, -one of whom placidly smokes a churchwarden; while at a little distance, -watching them, are two sinister-looking men, with thick bludgeons in -their hands, and the ugly head of a horse-pistol ominously protruding -from the pocket of one of them, suggestive of a state of society to which -again I shall presently refer. - -Meanwhile, Belsize Avenue dips down on the left, and a little further on -the opposite side of the road Rosslyn House, once the home of the clever -but unscrupulous Lord Loughborough, Earl of Rosslyn, who began life as -‘plain Mr. Wedderburne, a Scotch lawyer,’ and lived to be Lord Chancellor -of England. - -But the Wedderburnes, though poor, were well descended, and it is said -that backstairs influence was not spared to second his own unblushing -efforts for position. Lord Campbell tells us he was the first to deny -the right of the poor, ‘which old usage and the piety of our forefathers -had given them, to glean in the cornfields after the harvest.’ He gave -judgment also that the law of burning women alive for the crime of -coining should not be mitigated to hanging, and on the occasion of the -Gordon Riots showed himself merciless as another Jeffreys in taking life, -condemning the rioters to be hanged by scores without reference to age or -degree of culpability.[42] - -[Illustration: _Rosslyn House._] - -He hanged mere children, for some of these unfortunates were not more -than fourteen years of age, of whom Selwyn, who never missed an execution -or a death at which he could be present, noted in his ‘Diary’ that he -‘never saw boys cry so much in his life.’ - -But to return to Rosslyn House and Lord Loughborough, we read that in -politics he was without honour, siding with either party that happened -to be in power, and whether Whig or Tory it mattered not—his lordship -was always on the winning side. ‘None are all evil,’ but ‘neither wit, -nor talent, nor a splendid hospitality’ can redeem the meaner and darker -traits of Lord Loughborough’s character.[43] - -Rosslyn House, formerly known as Shelford Lodge, had anciently belonged -to the Careys, who held it of the Church of Westminster. It is stated in -the ‘Northern Heights of London’ that the celebrated Lord Chesterfield -lived here for some years, while he held the Manor of Belsize, of -which it is a part, and this author suggests that his ancestors -might have called the house after their estate, Shelford Manor, in -Nottinghamshire.[44] - -In 1812 Rosslyn House was occupied by Mrs. Milligan, widow of the -projector of the West India Docks. It has since been the residence of -Admiral Disney, the Earl of Galloway, Sir Francis Freeling (Secretary -of the General Post Office), and others, till it fell into the hands -of a speculative builder, who happened to fail before all the fine -timber was felled and the house wholly destroyed. The grand avenue of -chestnut-trees, which is said to be as old as Elizabeth’s time, remained -almost entire[45] (1855-56), and some well-timbered fields appeared in -the vicinity of the mansion. But the park itself has been cut up into -portions, each of which belongs to a separate proprietor, and as many -houses are scattered over it. - -For four years, while the fine old house, the historical home of the -unfortunate Sir Harry Vane, was being prepared for them, Rosslyn House -was used as the Home for Soldiers’ Daughters. - -A little farther on a bit of sward crops out, reminiscent of Hampstead -Green, where Collins the painter once lived, and on one side of which -still stands the house formerly occupied by Sir Rowland Hill,[46] the -inaugurator of cheap postage, and that of Sir Francis Palgrave, a -well-known writer and Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, 1838. - -The central space is now occupied by St. Stephen’s Church, a structure -nominally built by public subscription, but which, I have been told, -owed its completion to the munificence of one family, old inhabitants -of Hampstead, that of Prance. They gave the clock, and subsequently the -carillon. - -Some ancient elm-trees of magnificent size are left standing near the -church. At the east end of the building two paths branch out of the -main road, one leading to Pond Street and South End Green, the other to -the Home of the Sisters of Providence and the congeries of sheds which, -used as a small-pox hospital, desecrated this charming neighbourhood -in 1870-72, and in 1886 were converted into a temporary asylum for -idiots. The ground they occupy appears to be devoted to unseemly uses, a -proposition having subsequently been made to convert it to the purpose -of a cemetery, and this with the knowledge of the deteriorated value of -property in the locality, which the closing of the small-pox hospital had -not then readjusted.[47] - -On the left lies Belsize Lane, and immediately past the church to the -right the road leading to Pond Street, with Belsize Grove and Lyndhurst -Road opposite. - -Amongst the many notable men associated with Hampstead, Sir Stevenson -Arthur Blackwood, K.C.B., must not be overlooked. ‘My earliest -recollections,’ he writes, ‘are of Rosslyn Lodge, an old-fashioned -two-storied house, in the _then_ quiet and charming suburban village of -Hampstead.’ Rosslyn Lodge stood in the grove opposite Pond Street, facing -some shady fields which led on towards the town, about a quarter of a -mile distant. - -At the top of the grove, which consisted of fine old Spanish -chestnut-trees, stood the residence of Lord Galloway (Rosslyn House), -and a path led up to the Conduit Fields. These extracts from his ‘Life’ -decide the whereabouts of Sir Arthur’s boyhood’s home, which one writer, -at least, has placed at Frognal. - -[Illustration: _Fields near Pond Street, 1840._] - -At this point Rosslyn Street opens straight ahead, dominated by the ugly -tower of Trinity Presbyterian Church, and a little beyond Pond Street, on -the same side of the way, a new bit of road marked ‘Hampstead Gardens’ -affords another charming view of Highgate. To the right Downshire Hill -leads to the lower Heath and North London railway-station, with Thurlow -Road to the left, and a little further on the same side of the way the -lane leading to the Conduit Fields and Shepherd’s Well, which till quite -modern times supplied Hampstead with water, employing a body of local -water-carriers, who made a living by vending tall pails full to the -householders at a penny a pail. The last of these old water-carriers died -an inmate of the workhouse at New End about 1868. - -[Illustration: _Shepherd’s Well._] - -The road becomes steeper at the entrance of Rosslyn Street, where one -looks in vain for the old ‘Chicken House,’ which Brewer describes -‘near the entrance of the village, an ancient domestic dwelling of -low proportions built of brick,’ in all probability the home of the -wood-reeve or keeper, and not, as local tradition persisted in believing -it, a royal hunting-lodge.[48] - -In 1815 it was in a state of dilapidation, the front disfigured by the -presence of some miserable tenements, and in 1866 was so built in, -blocked up, and divided, that, with the exception of the wide oaken -staircase projecting into a yard at the end of the narrow alley—about -the sixth house to the right in Rosslyn Street—no part of the original -structure remained. Up these stairs on the night of August 25, 1619, -passed James I. and his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, an event -commemorated by two small portraits of the monarch and his Master of the -Hounds, preserved till late in the eighteenth century in the window of -an upper room in the Chicken House, with another painting of the infant -Christ in the arms of Simeon. Under the former was inscribed: ‘Icy dans -cette chambre couche nostre Roy Jacques premier de nom, le 25th Aoust -1619’—a legend sufficient in itself to show that the incident was an -unusual one. - -Here Mr. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, whose attachment to Hampstead -is said to have ‘amounted to a passion,’ was in the habit of taking up -his summer quarters. Towards the latter years of the eighteenth century -it was a favourite lodging-house for young gentlemen from the Inns of -Law, the Toupees, and other sprightly youths of fashion, who affected -Hampstead for the facilities the horse-course afforded of exhibiting -their talents as curricle and hackney-coach drivers. - -Gale, the antiquary, also lodged here, and on one occasion commissioned -Signore Grisoni to make a drawing of the picturesque old church, an entry -of which is preserved in the Trust Book.[49] - -In 1754 Gale returned to the Chicken House, where he died. He was buried -in the old churchyard. To the left of Rosslyn Hill, a little removed from -the road, at the commencement of the bank, which shows the depth to which -the hill has been cut down, stands the large red-brick mansion, occupying -the site, and in part formed of, Vane House, a staircase of which is -preserved.[50] It is now the Home for Soldiers’ Daughters, which was -formally opened for their habitation by the Royal Consort, Prince Albert, -on a summer’s day of 1860. A little beyond, on the same side of the way, -is Green Hill, where, on the site of the late eminent publisher’s house -(William Longman, Esq.[51]), stands the new Wesleyan Chapel, and, divided -from it by Prince Arthur’s Road, Stanfield House, which preserves in -its name that of the well-known marine painter, Clarkson Stanfield, who -for some years resided here, never tired of tending his pretty garden, -which has almost entirely disappeared. It is now the Institute and Public -Library. - -[Illustration: _Vane House, 1800._] - -On the right are Rosslyn Hill Schools and Trinity Presbyterian -Church.[52] It was formerly called Red Lion Hill. The original site -of the small secluded chapel, in which Rochemont Barbauld officiated -from 1785 to 1799, now underlies in part the present Unitarian Chapel -schoolroom. - -On this side of the way, immediately facing Green Hill, stood Elizabeth -House, an old mansion, so called, it is said, from the legend of her -princely Majesty on some occasion or other having slept here. For a -considerable part of the present century it was occupied as a first-class -ladies’ school. Serjeant Ballantine’s sister and Constable’s daughters -were pupils. It is still standing, but in disguise, having been converted -into shops. - -On the same side of the way is Gayton Road, a new thoroughfare, -unfinished when I left the neighbourhood (1864-65). It covers the -greater part of the space formerly occupied by the playground, gardens, -and orchards of a once celebrated school (the house—Norway House—still -stands) in the now narrow _cul de sac_ called Burford Lane, after -the name of the present proprietor, an old-fashioned, many-windowed, -two-storied dwelling. - -Burford Lane is close to the town entrance to the Lower Flask Walk, on -the right-hand side of the High Street, and close by the Bird in Hand, -the coach-office where the modern omnibus deposits its passengers, as the -old stage-coach did in the days of Richardson’s _Clarissa_. - -High Street and Heath Street are the great arteries of Hampstead, out -of which issue the crowded, confused ramifications which make the study -of its groves, mounts, squares, streets, terraces, lanes, and courts a -topographical puzzle to the uninitiated. - -The ways leading to these intricacies all start from the two principal -streets, so that a stranger beginning at the beginning soon learns to -unravel the difficulties of the locality for all purposes of business or -pleasure. How this complicated irregularity of position and outline came -about, which makes the old town unlike any other, and how, from a hill -village of five wattled huts, shut in by the great Forest of Middlesex, -it grew to be a place of fashionable resort, and gradually enlarged to -its present extent and settled respectability, with its tens of thousands -of inhabitants, claiming municipal rights, will be set forth in the -following chapters. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -_THE DESCENT OF THE MANOR._ - - -From the earliest times until after the Reformation we find Hampstead -an appanage of the Church. At the dissolution of the Abbey and Convent -of Westminster, Henry VIII. granted the Manor of Hampstead, combined -with those of North Hall and Down Barnes, in part support to the -newly-made bishopric of Westminster. In 1551, two years before the death -of Edward VI., they were surrendered to the Crown, and in the same -year granted to Sir Thomas Wroth as a mark of the young King’s favour. -This gentleman, who, ‘amongst the divers sober and learned men of the -King’s privy chamber, by whose wise and learned discourse he was much -profitted,’ stood highest in his estimation, and in proof of it, with -boyish generosity, we find the King, who had knighted him, making him -rich presents from the royal wardrobe, and bestowing on him, not only the -Manor of Hampstead and the others above-mentioned, but a plurality of -manors in several counties. - -On the death of Edward, and accession of Mary, Sir Thomas fled to -Strasburg, where he remained till the succession of Elizabeth, when he -returned to England, where he was ‘received into the Queen’s favour, and -employed by her in the concerns of State.’ - -In Hakluyt’s ‘Voyages,’ Park tells us, ‘there is an account of a -merchandising voyage to Barbary in the year 1552, set forth by Sir Thomas -Wroth and others.’ - -His name appears in the catalogue of Middlesex gentry,[53] and ‘it is -observable,’ says Fuller, ‘that of all in this catalogue, he who went -away for his conscience hath alone his name remaining in the County.’ He -retained a high reputation to the last, and died at his Manor of Durants, -in Enfield, co. Middlesex, October 9, 1573. - -The Manor of Hampstead remained in this family till sold by one John -Wroth to Sir Baptist Hicks in 1620. This Sir Baptist Hicks was a wealthy -silk mercer of Cheapside. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard May, -of London, who outlived her husband, and at her death left £200 for -the purchase of land, the produce of which was to be appropriated to -apprenticing children and assisting the poor of Hampstead. - -Sir Baptist Hicks was the son of Michael Hicks, silk mercer in Cheapside, -and the younger brother of Sir Michael Hicks, secretary to Lord Treasurer -Burleigh. He was brought up to his father’s business, and had ‘great -dealings with the Court for his rich silks and commodities from Italy and -other foreign parts, by which he made a great estate. Upon the coming -in of King James he was sworn one of his servants (anno 1603), and soon -knighted.’[54] He is remarkable for having been the first citizen who -kept shop after receiving knighthood, and for having built at his own -expense, in the midst of the street called St. John Street, Clerkenwell, -a building of brick and stone for the convenience of the meetings of -the justices of the county of Middlesex, of whom he was one,[55] which -had hitherto been held ‘at a common inn called the Castle in St. John’s -Street, the resort of carriers and many other sorts of people.’[56] - -‘On Wednesday, the 17th of Jany., 1612, the “Session House” being then -nearly finished, there assembled twenty-six justices of the said county, -being the first day of their meeting there, where the founder feasted -them all; and then, after they had considered what name this structure -should bear, they all with one consent gave it the name of Hicks’s Hall, -in grateful memory of the builder, and he freely gave the House to them -and their successors for ever.’[57] - -But previous to this his wealth, the King’s favour, and the honour -bestowed upon him, and, above all, the contempt he had shown for civic -dignities—having paid the fine of £500 to be discharged from the -office of Alderman for Bread Street Ward, which was permitted at the -King’s express desire—appears to have brought on him the ill-will of -the Court of Aldermen, who disputed his right to continue in business -after knighthood; and subsequently by standing on his knighthood for -precedency, a right which a fellow-citizen, one Herrick, and his wife -disputed, he involved himself in another contest with them. It proved a -tedious, troublesome, and chargeable one, owing to the haughty deportment -of both Hicks and Herrick and of their imperious wives, ‘who, at their -own expense, maintained the suit against the Court of Aldermen.’ - -It was after these proceedings—perhaps as a sort of peace-offering—that -Hicks’s Hall was built. Sir Baptist Hicks was one of the Commissioners -appointed by the King (anno 1620) to inquire into the decay of St. -Paul’s. He was eventually created Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden, with -remainder, in default of male issue, to his son-in-law, Sir Edward Noel, -who had married the eldest of his two daughters, Juliana, by whose -descendant Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, son of Sir Edward Noel -(son-in-law and successor to Lord Hicks, Viscount Campden), the Manor -of Hampstead was sold to Sir William Langhorne, Bart., 1707; and from -this time, says Park, the Manor of Hampstead became closely connected -in proprietorship with that of Charlton, in Kent, which Sir William had -likewise purchased, and where he resided in the fine mansion built by Sir -Adam Newton, tutor to Henry, Prince of Wales. - -Park calls this gentleman an East India merchant, but I find that a -Sir William Langhorne, thirty-five years previous to the purchase of -Hampstead Manor, was Governor of Madras.[58] Sir William had for his -first wife a daughter of the Earl of Rutland, who died in 1700, and -at nearly fourscore married a second time ‘the daughter-in-law of his -friend, Dr. Warren, to whom he gave the Rectory of Charlton, and who -appears to have resided like a private chaplain in his house. Seven years -afterwards, at his death (aged eighty-six years), he left Dr. Warren his -sole executor, guardian, and tutor to his nephew and residuary legatee, -William Langhorne Games, Esq., and trustee of the Manor of Charlton. -From this gentleman the estate passed to Mrs. Margaret Maryon, widow, a -distant relative of Sir William (a fourteenth tenant in tail), from whom -it descended to her son, the Rev. John Maryon, with whom the testamentary -limitations ended. A new entail was created, from which the present -proprietor derives his title, as those who succeed him are likely to do -for many years.’[59] - -By the will of the Rev. John Maryon, the Manors of Hampstead and Charlton -were limited to the testator’s niece, sole executrix and residuary -legatee, Margaret Marie Weller, widow (1760), for life; with remainder to -her only child, Jane Weller, for life; with remainder to the heirs of the -said Jane Weller, who married General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, Bart., -who in his wife’s right became possessed of the manor in or about 1780. -Sir Thomas died in 1798, and his wife, Dame Jane Wilson, was Lady of the -Manor until 1816, when her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, Bart., under -his father’s will became tenant for life of the manor, with the advowson, -and divers freehold messuages, lands, and hereditaments at Hampstead. - -On his death he was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Maryon Wilson, and -he by his son, Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson. - -Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon Wilson is the present Lord of the Manor -(1898).[60] - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -_CHURCH ROW AND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH._ - - -The High Street, Hampstead, is a continuation of Rosslyn Street, as -Rosslyn Street is of the Hampstead Road. In my earliest days the way -to Church Row and the church—which, being the oldest part of the town, -deserves the earliest notice—was through some narrow passages to the -left of High Street, called Church Lane and Perrin’s Court, disagreeable -purlieus now happily altered. - -Church Row was then the private and superior part of the old town of -Hampstead, which, lying under the shadow of the church, still preserves -an air of old-fashioned gentility and retirement. - -The houses of red brick, with a string-course of the same material along -their fronts, with narrow windows, dormers in the roofs, and fan-lighted -hall doors, exhibit a style of domestic architecture common from James -II.’s time to that of the Georges. - -They remind one of the houses in Bush Lane, City, rebuilt after the -Great Fire. We gather the meaning of the word ‘row’ from the fact that -the houses on the north side of the way are much older than those on the -left; these date no further back than the rebuilding of the church in -1745. - -The door and gateway of No. 8, on the right, are clearly of an early -date, as is also the weather-boarded, bow-fronted house on the same side -of the way, and the double-gabled house nearest the church. - -Several of these houses had originally very fine gardens, with stables -and coach-house in the rear, and were occupied by rich City men, Riga, -Turkey, and Spanish merchants, some of whose names may still be found -under the moss of the churchyard stones and in the obituary columns of -the magazines of the day. Others of these houses were of less pretension, -as we find from Mr. Abraham’s ‘Book of Assessments,’ some being rated at -£50 and £60 per annum, and others at £14, £15, and even less. - -[Illustration: _Church Row, Hampstead._] - -But Church Row has had residents memorable for attributes more enduring -and higher than riches, and for their sakes as long as Hampstead exists, -and living minds delight in recalling the scenes and associations -connected with men and women of genius, the place hallowed as the -sometime home of Mrs. Barbauld and her niece, Lucy Aikin, will always be -for English-speaking people endowed with a personal interest. - -From 1785 to 1802, Mrs. Barbauld, whose writings achieved a wide and -distinguished popularity in the literature of the last century, resided -here in the house (in my time No. 8) on the right-hand side of the -way going from the town towards the church, noticeable for a large -wrought-iron gate. - -Her husband, Rochmount Barbauld, a native of Germany, was the pastor of a -small congregation of Dissenters, whose place of meeting for worship was -the Presbyterian chapel on Red Lion Hill, now Rosslyn Hill. - -They were not rich, and from the time of their marriage, in 1774, had -assisted their income by receiving a few pupils, a course they continued -on coming to Hampstead, Mrs. Barbauld herself receiving a class of -little boys. It appears to have been quite an aristocratic school, and -the education and training of the children a labour of love to both the -pastor and his wife. - -She, in her early home, had enjoyed those advantages that have so often -helped to strengthen and enlarge learned and literary tastes in women, -an almost masculine education, and the society of highly-cultured and -liberal-minded men. She was the only daughter of Dr. Aikin, who himself, -we are told, was a man of sound scholarship, and the friend of Drs. -Priestley, Enfield, and Doddridge, the latter of whom for some time -resided in the family.[61] - -[Illustration: _Back View of Houses, Church Row._] - -Her first poems were published the year before her marriage, and -were followed by her ‘Hymns in Prose,’ for children, hymns that were -themselves full of poetry—at least, to the _perception of one child’s -heart_—and were accepted by hundreds of parents with gratitude and -admiration. Other works followed, and she assisted her brother, Dr. -John Aikin, in the delightful series of stories entitled ‘Evenings at -Home.’ But the fruits of her training and associations are best seen -in her critical and graver writings, which display ‘a strong, logical, -and correctly-thinking mind’[62]—nay, in some of them a breadth and -liberality of thought quite beyond the times in which she lived; -and it required in that day some courage to publish them. Take, for -instance, her ‘Observations on the Devotional Taste,’ on ‘Sects and -Establishments,’ a page of which I append.[63] - -At the present day some of her suggestions have become opinions, and -are openly preached; but her anticipatory expression of them reads -rather like inspiration than the simple sequence of logical reasoning. -Moreover, she was living in times when for women to have opinions at -all—or at least to print them—was regarded as unfeminine, and looked -upon with disfavour. Mrs. Barbauld herself, in her ‘Life of Richardson,’ -tells us how the accomplished and clever Mrs. Delany found fault with a -conversation in ‘Sir Charles Grandison,’ in which the words ‘intellect’ -and ‘ethics’ occur, as being too scholastic to be spoken by a woman; -and Dr. Johnson ‘did not greatly approve of literature as a career for -women,’ though he condoned it in the case of little Fanny Burney and -Miss Mulso, afterwards well known as Mrs. Chapone, or, as she used to -be styled in my young days, _Madame Chapone_, without a course of whose -letters no young lady was supposed to have finished her education. But -Johnson affected, in Mrs. Barbauld’s case, to underrate her talents. -When, however, at the very height of her literary reputation, he heard of -her devoting herself to the culture of the young minds entrusted to her -own and her husband’s care, she had, we are told, ‘his highest praise.’ -No one, according to Mrs. Piozzi, ‘was more struck with this voluntary -descent from possible splendour to painful duty than the Doctor.’ But -why ‘painful duty’? I imagine that to Mrs. Barbauld the divine gift of -teaching, as she, and Pestalozzi, and Dr. Arnold, and a few others, have -taught, was as spontaneous and irrepressible as her writing poetry. The -first-fruits of her genius had been for children. The publication of her -‘Early Lessons’ was an era in their first steps to knowledge, and her -contemporaries declared it unrivalled amongst books for children. She -had taught when quite a girl in her father’s school, for the simple love -of teaching, and thus I do not believe that the step she took was one -regarded by her as a descent. She had made a name that was destined to -live, and the estimation in which her writings were held lost nothing by -her ceasing to write, though the reputation of them enhanced that of the -Hampstead School. No doubt she regarded her acceptance of the position -from quite another point of view than did the learned Doctor, who had -essayed school-keeping as a means to an end, and failed, while the lady -entered upon it _con amore_, and her method was altogether different from -the scholastic system then in vogue. She was the friend, companion, and -confidant of her pupils; she sympathized with all their small troubles, -shared their joys, and catered for their amusement. Howitt, in his -‘Northern Heights of London,’ tells how a lady calling on her found Mrs. -Barbauld in the midst of making paper plumes, ruffs, and collars, for the -boys who were about to play in private theatricals. - -No; I feel sure there was no feeling of descent in her change of -occupation, no sense of ‘painful duty’ in the teaching that helped to -mould the minds of boys like Thomas Denman, afterwards Lord Denman, Lord -Chief Justice of England, and of William Gell, subsequently Sir William -Gell, the antiquary and topographer of Greece and Pompeii, neither of -whom in after-life forgot their indebtedness to her. She had, as a -writer, known the triumph of success. Her poems, published in 1778, had -passed through four editions in the year. She had won the praise of -Charles James Fox, who particularly admired her songs; had been eulogized -by Garrick as ‘She who sang the sweetest lay’; and was regarded by -Wordsworth as the ‘first of literary women’; while Crabb Robinson, who -did not see her till she had reached old age, was enthusiastic in his -admiration of her intellect, and charmed with her appearance even then. - -It is amusing, from a woman’s standpoint, to mark the generous praise and -admiration of these men, and compare it with the stinted commendation -and personality of the ‘sweet Queen’s’ ex-reader, and of Mrs. Chapone. -Some time after Miss Burney’s return to her father’s house, Mr. and Mrs. -Barbauld called upon her, whereupon she writes in her journal that the -latter is altered at this period, ‘but not for the worse to me, since -the first flight of her youth has taken with it a great portion of an -almost set smile, which had an air of determined complacency and prepared -acquiescence that seemed to result from a _sweetness that never risked -being off guard_. I remember,’ she runs on, ‘Mrs. Chapone saying to me, -“She is a very good young woman, as well as replete with talent, but why -must one always smile so? It makes my jaws ache to look at her;”’ and -then Miss Burney sums up her literary merit as ‘the authoress of the most -useful works, next to Mrs. Trimmer, that have been written for children, -though this with the world is probably her very secondary merit. Her many -pretty poems, and particularly songs, being generally esteemed. But many -more have written these as well. For children’s books she began the new -walk, which has since been so well cultivated, to the great information -as well as the utility of parents.’ - -She tells us that Mrs. Barbauld’s brother, Mr. Aikin, had a very fine -countenance, and describes Mr. Barbauld as ‘a very characteristic -figure, but well bred and sensible.’ Crabb Robinson is more clear in -his delineation of him, and says he had ‘a slim figure, a weazen face, -and a shrill voice. He talked a good deal, and was fond of dwelling -on controversial points of religion. He was by no means destitute of -ability.’ Amongst Mrs. Barbauld’s guests at Church Row in 1798 was Miss -Mary Galton, afterwards Mrs. Schemelpennick, one of the shining lights in -that brilliant company that met in Mrs. Montague’s drawing-rooms on the -occasions of her literary assemblies, which brought together all the wit -and talent of the town. - -Amongst these celebrities Mrs. Barbauld was a welcome guest, and many of -these gifted men and women visited her in Church Row. - -She appears to have been as charming in person as she was rich in -intellect. A small portrait of her in the _European Magazine_ of March, -1786, suggests, from the sweetness of expression and refinement of -the features, the composed beauty of countenance which Crabb Robinson -describes her as possessing at sixty-two years of age. - -In 1802 the Barbaulds removed from Hampstead. Through the kindness of a -friend, I have before me the copy of a letter from Rochmount Barbauld -to the celebrated Dr. Parr, dated March 29, 1802, in which he says: -‘We are on the point of leaving this charming spot, in order to remove -to Stoke Newington, thus exchanging the beauties of nature for the -pleasures of the heart and mind—for the advantage, I mean, of living -close to Dr. Aikin.’ This closes all questions as to the time when the -Barbaulds removed from Hampstead, which one writer has asserted to have -been in 1799. It was at Stoke Newington that Crabb Robinson paid his -first visit to them in 1805-6. We have seen his personal description -of Mr. Barbauld, but he added to it the suggestive expression that at -that time the afflictive disease was lurking in him which in a few years -broke out, and, as is well known, caused a sad termination to his life. -This was the circumstance that made their removal to Stoke Newington a -necessity, in order that Mrs. Barbauld should be near her brother for -advice, assistance, and protection. No wonder Mrs. Le Breton, in her -recollections of her, calls her life a brave and beautiful one. Of Mrs. -Barbauld, Crabb Robinson says: ‘She bore the remains of great personal -beauty; she had a brilliant complexion, light hair, blue eyes, a small -elegant figure, and her manners were agreeable, with something of the -generation departed.’ - -[Illustration: _Mrs. Barbauld._] - -When he next saw her she was quite aged, and her husband had been dead -many years; but she still kept the calm sweetness of countenance that had -charmed him on the occasion of his first visit. One of her poems, written -in her declining days, is so characteristic of her quiet faith and the -serenity of her mind that we cannot forbear quoting it: - - ‘Life, we’ve been long together, - Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; - ’Tis hard to part when friends are dear, - Perhaps ’twill cause a sigh, a tear; - Then steal away, give little warning, - Choose thine own time; - Say not “Good-night!” but in some brighter clime - Bid me “Good-morning!”’ - -And it was in some such mood that death found her in the eighty-second -year of her age. - -On leaving Church Row, the school—probably on account of her husband’s -malady—being given up, Mrs. Barbauld immediately recommenced her literary -labours, and compiled a selection of essays from the _Spectator_, -_Tatler_, and _Guardian_, with an introductory one of her own. This work -appeared the year after her removal from Church Row, and was followed -by her ‘Life of Richardson,’ whose correspondence she had edited. Her -husband died in 1808, and the ‘widow recorded her feelings in a poetical -dirge to his memory,’ a form of diverting feelings with which I have no -sympathy, especially as the ebullition appears to have been published! I -better understand her seeking relief in other literary occupation. She -wrote a poem in 1811 in which she more naturally refers to her husband. -She had also edited a collection of the British novelists, published -in 1810, with an introductory essay of her own, and biographical and -critical notices. - -Placidity and cheerfulness continued with her to the last. She died of -gradual decay on March 9, 1825. Meanwhile she had had the pleasure of -witnessing the literary success of her brother’s daughter, Miss Lucy -Aikin,[64] who had written various historical memoirs and a ‘Life of -Joseph Addison,’ which Macaulay criticised, and who, because ‘Miss Lucy -Aikin’s reputation—which she has so justly earned—stands so high,’ thinks -it right to remind her of her lapses, and of ‘the necessity in a future -edition for every fact and date, about which there can be the smallest -doubt, to be verified.’ Valuable and wise advice, the rigour of which -he softened by adding that ‘the immunities of sex were not the only -immunities Miss Aikin might rightfully plead ... several of her works, -and especially the very pleasing memoirs of the reign of James I., having -fully entitled her to the privileges enjoyed by good writers.’ In June, -1822, this lady and her mother took the house in Church Row which the -Barbaulds had occupied, and continued to reside there till 1830, when -Mrs. Aikin died. Upon the loss of her mother, Miss Aikin removed to No. -18, on the opposite side of the way, where she remained till 1844, when -she came to London. - -Nearly twenty years later, when verging towards the end of her life, she -returned to Hampstead, and died at the house of her relative by marriage, -P. H. Le Breton, Esq., John Street, January 24, 1864, while these notes -of Hampstead and its neighbourhood were being collected. - -At No. 25, not far from the house Miss Aikin had last occupied in Church -Row, and which did in my recollection—perhaps does so still—possess -a lovely view from the back-windows, was the residence of two -well-descended ladies, the Misses Gillies; the one almost as well known -as a writer of charming stories for young people as her sister, Miss -Margaret Gillies, was as an artist. Her pictures were in the fifties, -and long after, familiar to the frequenters of the summer and winter -exhibitions of the Old Society of Painters in Water-Colours, of which -she had long been a member. In this house I am reminded that the last -twenty-eight years of her long life had been passed. I remember her -being there in 1859-60, and she may have lived there even at an earlier -date. She died July 20, 1887, verging on eighty-four years of age. -Previous to her tenancy Miss Meteyard had lived in this house on her -first going to Hampstead. It was then a sort of private boarding-house -especially affected by literary people, and indirectly brought her -acquainted with two or three lady writers of a past period, of whose -style, personal and literary, she had some very amusing recollections. - -Subsequent to Miss Gillies’ death, I learn from Baines’ ‘Records of -Hampstead’ that this house was tenanted for some time by the novelist, -Wilkie Collins, son of the painter. The late well-known Mr. Ballantyne, -the magistrate, also resided in Church Row; and for a considerable -period it was the place of residence of Dr. Garth Wilkinson[65] and his -wife. He was the author of a curious and eloquently-written book, which -attracted some attention at the time of its appearance. Here also, at a -far-off period, and only as a lodger, I believe, Park, the historian of -Hampstead, is said to have lived. - -In quite recent times Mr. Le Breton, who had married a grand-niece of -Mrs. Barbauld’s, and to whom the inhabitants of Hampstead are indebted -for the preservation of the Judges’ Walk, tenanted a house in Church Row, -where he died. - -In 1895 Miss Harraden, the writer of that well-read story, ‘Ships that -Pass in the Night,’ had her summer residence in Church Row. - -It will be pleasant for future chronologists of Hampstead to know -that, amongst the many men of genius who have made it their home, Mr. -Austin Dobson, best known by his charming _Vers de Société_, resided -here. Beyond occasional verse, he is too little heard of. It is to be -regretted, for his lyrics contain some real poetical gems. - -In my time this central, yet retired, part of Hampstead, which is close -to the busiest streets, and yet entirely secluded from them, continued to -be a favourite locality with artists and other professional men. There -were symptoms of social decadence towards the end of the fifties in a -‘Home for Servants,’ to which No. 28 was then converted; while two or -three other public institutions thrust themselves noticeably forward, -‘as ’tis their nature to.’ Its old traditions of privacy and dignified -quiet—there was no public traffic through Church Row; Miss Sullivan’s -toll-gate stopped the way—was to be sacrificed, and the character it had -maintained for so many years for staid gentility and retirement swept -away. - -[Illustration: _Austin Dobson._] - -No. 9, next door to Mrs. Barbauld’s old home, had become, before I left -the neighbourhood, a Reformatory School for Girls, established in 1861 by -Miss Christian Nicoll, under whose admirable superintendence it has done, -and is doing, good and useful work. The school is the only Government -one of the kind in Middlesex. The young inmates have all been convicted -of crime, and are undergoing various terms of detention; but advantage -is taken of this period to bring them under the influence of religious -teaching free from sectarianism, to instruct them in reading, writing, -and arithmetic, and to train them for domestic service. Account has to -be rendered to the Home Secretary of the conduct and progress of the -girls for four years after they leave, and the result is that from 70 to -80 per cent. are found to do well. - -From Church Row you walk straight into the gateway of the -prettily-situated parish church of St. John, and in those times the -well-kept graveyard. - -Until 1745 the ancient chapel, originally dedicated to the Virgin, -and appropriated in 1461[66] to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, -continued to be the only church at Hampstead. It had been patched up -and added to and rendered picturesque by reason of age, irregularity of -outline, and ruin, and was in so dangerous a condition, to quote the -preamble of the petition to rebuild and enlarge, ‘that the inhabitants -could not attend Divine worship without apparent hazard to their -lives.’ Moreover, it is further stated ‘that Hampstead being a place of -great resort, especially in summer-time, the said church, were it in a -repairable condition, would not be sufficient to accommodate one-half of -the parishioners and others who are desirous of coming to Divine service -there.’ - -The old church was taken down in the spring of 1745, and the present -structure consecrated by Dr. Gilbert, Bishop of Llandaff, October, -1747.[67] - -During the two years it took in building, the Episcopal Chapel in Well -Walk was rented at £50 per annum (which benefited the Wells Charity to -that amount), and it was used as the parish church, although it had not -been consecrated. - -Meanwhile the monuments and mural tablets within the demolished Chapel -of St. Mary were necessarily displaced, and have not, Mr. Howitt tells -us, ‘found their way back to the depositors they marked, and the memory -of which they were intended to perpetuate.’ - -The design of the church was furnished by a resident architect, Mr. -Flitcroft,[68] ‘Burlington Harry,’ as he was familiarly called from -circumstances elsewhere referred to; and the building entrusted to a -resident builder, Mr. Saunderson, who was not, it appears, able to -follow the original design of the church (the spire of which was very -handsome) for want of funds. A note in the trust book, 1744, relating to -the building of the church, throws a strong light on Mr. Saunderson’s -dilemma, and the small importance of architectural beauty, or even -propriety, in the minds of the trustees of that period. - -‘The tower, being placed at the eastern end of the church, would be a -considerable saving of expense.’ As a result of this saving, the church -appears the wrong side before, with the tower and belfry at the east end, -and the chancel at the west. You pass the altar on entering, and the font -is at the further end. There is an altar-piece, but no east window, and -the whole is further darkened by galleries north and south. Park says it -is a neat but ill-designed church, and we can only repeat what Park says. - -An engraving of the old church (said to be from an oil painting by -Grisoni) in Park’s ‘History of Hampstead’ represents a picturesquely -irregular rustic building, with low walls, rather high-pitched roofs, -sharply-pointed gables, and a small open timber bell-tower. It has -dormers in the roof, a square mullioned window in one gable, a different -sized one in another, and other lights thrown in anywhere. A transverse -addition forms the whole into an irregular cruciform structure. - -Trees crowd around it at the west end, as they do at the present day, and -in the graveyard are several recognisable monuments, notably that above -the burial-place of the Delamere family; of Daniel Bedingfield, Clerk -of the Parliament, 1637; of —— Popple, Esq., Secretary of the Board of -Trade, 1722. A flat stone (recut since its discovery), beside the second -pathway to the left on entering, bears the date of the Great Fire, 1666. -There is also that of John Harrison, the inventor of the chronometer, who -died March 24, 1776, after sixty years’ application to the improvement of -watches and clocks, and of whom Mrs. Montague, writing to her brother, -Mr. Robinson, from London, May 28, 1762, observes: ‘Mr. Harrison’s -watch’ (the fourth, Dr. Doran says), ‘and most perfect timekeeper for -ascertaining the longitude at sea’ (and for which he ultimately received -£2,400), ‘has succeeded beyond expectation. Navigation will be improved -by it, which all who have the spirit of travelling shall rejoice at.’[69] - -The clean-swept paths, the flowery garden-graves, the close-mown turf, -the shrubs and bowering trees, and the varied, often elegant tombs -amongst them, give Hampstead churchyard an air of beautiful repose and -quiet.[70] Two magnificent yew-trees with straight, tall, channelled -trunks, centuries old, spread their wide horizontal branches over spaces -‘sacred to many sorrows.’ Beneath the first of them, to the east, is -the grave of Sir James Macintosh, ‘a man,’ says Mr. Howitt, ‘of grave, -practical, useful, and moderately reforming character and talents, rather -than of that broad and original stamp which marks the foremost leaders of -mankind.’ - -If we take the first path to the left hand on entering the graveyard, -we pass on the side nearest the wall the tombstone of Henry Cort, -ironmaster, who greatly improved the manufacture of British iron, and -according to Mr. William Fairbairn, in his ‘History of Iron and its -Manufacture,’ conferred on his country during the last three or four -generations equivalent to six hundred millions sterling, and has given -employment to six hundred thousand of the working population, but who -himself was suffered to die of disappointment and broken fortune in the -sixtieth year of his age. Passing on to the second cross on the right of -this path, we find the headstone which marks the simple grave of Lucy -Aikin, who lies at the feet of her friend and neighbour, Joanna Baillie, -whose railed-in altar-tomb has still a little footpath worn by pilgrims’ -feet on the grass beside it. - - ‘Oh, who shall lightly say that fame - Is nothing but an empty name? - When but for those, our _gifted_ dead, - All ages past a blank would be, - Sunk in oblivion’s murky bed.’ - -It is only fitting that she, who sang thus in her ‘Metrical Legends of -Exalted Character,’ should in her village grave illustrate the sentiment -of these lines. - -If we follow the east path to the end, and keep in the one under the -south-east wall, the second tomb is that of John Constable, R.A. He rests -beside his beloved partner, Maria Elizabeth Bicknell, and one or more of -their children. He died in London, March 31, 1837. - -A little further on, under the same sheltering wall, lies a flat stone -inscribed, ‘Sacred to the Memory of Maria Honey, whose mortal remains -repose in the vault beneath. She died in the year of our Lord 1843, in -the 27th year of her age.’ - -Some of our readers remember the brilliant, graceful actress, and thus -can feel the pathetic force of the brief lines inscribed beneath: - - ‘Shall I remain forgotten in the dust, - When Fate, relenting, lets the flowers revive?’[71] - -[Illustration: _Parish Church, Hampstead._] - -Within the church lies Incledon, the exquisite sweetness of whose voice, -and wonderful power of expression, drew from the stately Sarah Siddons -the graceful compliment that in singing two lines he could produce as -much emotion as she could by the elaborate representation of the highest -passion. (This delighted him and did not hurt herself.) - -A white marble tablet at the west end of the church marks the -resting-place of Dr. Askew, and at the east end of the south gallery we -find the handsome mural monument to the memory of Lady Erskine, whose -burial-place is in a vault at the west end of the church. Other memorials -of persons of ‘mark and likelihood’ appear in the church and churchyard, -but we have only pointed the way to a few of them. - -Since the foregoing pages were written, a very interesting addition, -which we owe to America, has been made to the local memorials in St. -John’s Church, in the delicately sculptured but idealized bust of Keats, -which we almost touch on entering. It presents itself in profile, -bracketed in the vicinity of the Communion-table—a graceful offering -to the genius of the poet, and recognition of the undying charm of his -poetry, which is as deeply felt in the land of Longfellow as at home. -We are certainly not an enthusiastic people, and seldom memorize our -literary men or women—never in any public way till a century or so of -years have given proof of the abidingness of their deserts. The time has -therefore not yet arrived for a public acknowledgment of our national -appreciation of the writer of ‘Endymion’ and ‘Hyperion’; but it will -come, and I should not wonder if this charming reminder on the part of -our Transatlantic kinsfolk should lead the sooner to the honour of a -niche for him in Poets’ Corner. - -In wandering through this, the only graveyard in Hampstead, one notices -the absence of those doggerel lines and absurd inscriptions once so -frequently seen in country churchyards, and which were wont to introduce -a sense of the ridiculous into these solemn places. There is still -remaining an inscription on a tombstone in the churchyard that for -complacent egotism is ludicrously noticeable: - - Here lie the Ashes of - - MR. JOHN HINDLEY, - - Of Stanhope Street, Mayfair, London; - Originally of King Street, Liverpool; who, under peculiar disadvantages, - Which to common minds would have been - A bar to any exertion, - Raised himself from all obscured situations - Of Birth and Fortune by his own Industry and frugality - To the enjoyment of a moderate competency. - He attained a peculiar excellence in penmanship and drawing - Without the Instruction of a Master, - And to eminence in Arithmetic, the useful and higher - Branches of the Mathematics, - By going to School only a year and eight months. - He died a Bachelor - On the 24th day of October, 1807, - In the 55th year of his age, - And without forgetting Relations, Friends, or acquaintances, - He bequeathed one-fifth of his Property - To Public Charities. - - Reader, the world is open to thee. - Go thou and do likewise![72] - -The author of ‘A Walking Tour in Normandy’ states that in the church -of Avranches there is a marble slab erected by the Marquis de Belbœuf -in 1844 to the memory of his predecessor of that name, the late Bishop -of Avranches, who, it is stated, died, and was buried at Hampstead, in -England. Is anything known of the Bishop or his grave? - -On March 30, 1797, the remains of Lord Southampton were conveyed in great -funeral pomp from his late residence in Stanhope Street for interment in -the family vault at Hampstead. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -_FROGNAL AND WEST END._ - - -Frognal claims to be considered the very heart of Hampstead, the site -of its first settlement, the spot on which the ancient manor-house and -the humble little chapel to St. Mary primitively arose, and around -which gathered by degrees the wattle and dab cottages that succeeded -the ruder huts of the villani and bordarii of the Conqueror’s time. The -path through the churchyard leads straight to the entrance of a narrow -lane, guarded in my time by a small toll-house and gate. This lane -is partly made by the wall enclosing the Mansion, an old-fashioned, -grave-looking, two-storied house, standing in its own grounds, in which -grew some remarkably fine yew-trees; and between these grounds and the -end of the new burial-ground on the eastern side of St. John’s stands a -small Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, erected by a French -_émigré_—l’Abbé Morel—early in the present century. - -The family living at the Mansion between forty and fifty years ago were -of Irish extraction, and of the creed of their country, circumstances -that in those days (especially in small places) subjected the persons so -conditioned to a measure of suspicion and unreasoning antagonism scarcely -to be comprehended in these more liberal times. - -Whether this was or was not the case with the Sullivan family, I cannot -say. Their society was not generally courted, and outside their own -special circle they made few friends. They lived a quiet, retired life, -and after her father’s death Miss Sullivan was most frequently heard of -in connection with the toll-gate, which appertained to her residence. - -I am informed that a toll of one penny for each cart or carriage was -exacted for the use of the gate and lane, but no one had the privilege of -_driving_ through it without permission of the lady of the Mansion; and -as it was the straight and short way to any part of Frognal, it became a -constant source of friction between the public and the owner. There was -something very arbitrary and vexatious in the way Miss Sullivan resisted -all requests and representations on the part of her neighbours and the -inhabitants generally. - -It was her right, and she resolved not to abate an iota of her power; -so the struggle became continuous till quite recent times, when the -parochial authorities resolved on doing away with the gate, offering the -owner a fair pecuniary equivalent for the ground belonging to her; but -whether she came to terms I do not know. Her death probably facilitated -the matter, and when I last visited Hampstead (1895-96) I found the -little toll-house standing, but the gate that for so many years had -pertinaciously obstructed the thoroughfare lay wide open, while an -appearance of unresisted desolation and neglect enshrouded the house and -grounds, which I heard were to be sold.[73] Since then many houses have -been built upon the grounds of the old Mansion. - -Frognal gives its name to several good houses in the vicinity, as Frognal -Hall, Frognal Lodge, Frognal House, Frognal Grove, etc., and preserves -(Park suggests) in its own the diminutive of the title of the ancient -manor-house, the appellation of Hall being very early given to the -mansion of a manorial district. He imagines that Frognal may probably -come from Frogen Hall. How the hall originally came by this designation, -if it ever had it, he does not tell us. By some it has been deemed merely -a name of derision—Froggenhal or Frogs’ Hall. - -Mr. Walter Rye, the well-known Norfolk antiquary, and present proprietor -of Frognal House, strongly supports Park’s view of the origin of the -name, of which there are many examples in various parts of the country. - -Frognal is situated on the demesne land, which formerly extended from -Child’s Hill, north, to Belsize, south, the site of the old church, or, -rather, chapel, of St. Mary,[74] and that of the ancient manor-house, -clearly indicating the portion of the manor first peopled.[75] - -At Frognal Rise the ground is level with Mount Vernon, but it gradually -descends, till at the ruined house (no longer standing) known in my time -as Frognal Priory it is nearly flat. Like every other part of Hampstead, -Frognal has its reminiscences. At the beginning of this century there -was still standing on the rise of the hill, where a high wall (said to -have been part of it) skirted a narrow lane leading up to Mount Vernon, -a remarkable old brick mansion, of the origin or owners of which neither -Lysons nor Park gives any account. It is picturesque, with two high -pointed gables, mullioned windows, connected by a balustraded gallery, -deep bays and dormers on the roof. Park, in his ‘History of Hampstead,’ -gives an engraving of it, taken in 1814, from a picture by William -Alexander, painted in 1801. For some cause or other, the fine old fabric -had suffered neglect, and some time prior to 1725 was let in apartments. -It occupied a beautiful situation, and here, amongst other lodgers, -Colley Cibber and his theatrical friends, Booth and Wilks, were frequent -visitors in summer. - -Subsequently the lease was purchased by the parochial authorities of -Hampstead, and the fine old house was converted to the uses of the -village poor-house. It seems to have served this purpose till 1800, when -it had become so decayed and ruinous, and so prejudicial to the health -and comfort of the inmates, that the minister[76] and parishioners, -with Josiah Boydell at their head,[77] petitioned Parliament for leave -to bring in a Bill to build, or provide, a new workhouse. The Bill was -granted the following May, and the mansion belonging to Mrs. Leggett at -New End being to be sold, it was purchased, and there is lying before me -the printed specification of the alterations required to fit it for its -present occupation. - -From this period the old house at Frognal fell into desuetude and -decay—an interesting object to the antiquary and the delight of artists, -but daily becoming more dangerous to the public, on which account it was -taken down a few years before Park published the first edition of his -history (1813). White, of Fleet Street, published an engraving of it in -1814. - -The first house on the west side of the churchyard is Frognal Hall, -formerly in the occupation of a very remarkable man, Mr. Isaac Ware, -who, by his genius and self-education, aided by Lord Burlington, -raised himself from the humble position of chimney-sweep to that of -an eminent architect. He was the author, Park tells us, of a correct -and valuable edition of Palladio’s ‘Architecture,’ which, self-taught, -he had translated from the Italian, and had also engraved the plates -after tracings taken from the original work. He afterwards translated -Lorenzo Sarigatti’s ‘Perspective,’ and brought out an accurate edition -of Palladio’s first five books on the Five Orders, which was then -considered the standard of the English School, and was himself the author -of a ‘Complete Body of Architecture.’ He was of His Majesty’s Board of -Works. Truly a remarkable man;[78] but there was a flaw somewhere, for, -with all his talent and success in his career, he died in distressed -circumstances at his house in Kensington Gravel Pits. - -Frognal Hall subsequently became the residence of the Guyons, a French -family of eminent merchants. ‘Stephen Guyon, Esq.,’ so says the slab -in the churchyard, ‘ob. Dec. 5th, 1779, æt. 73; and Henry Guyon, Esq., -ob. May 15th, 1790.’ The house was sold on the death of Stephen Guyon. -Another member of the family continued to reside at Hampstead till his -death (May, 1806).[79] - -After having had one or two other tenants, it was occupied by Lord -Alvanley, ‘Richard Pepper Ardennes, Esq., a descendant of the ancient -family of the Ardennes of Cheshire, who successively held the high -offices of Solicitor and Attorney General, Chief Justice of Chester, -Master of the Rolls, and Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and was -finally raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Alvanley.’ He died at -Hampstead, March 19, 1804,[80] and was buried in the Rolls Chapel,[81] -now ruthlessly destroyed. - -Lady Alvanley continued to reside at Frognal Hall for some years -subsequently. - -Lord Alvanley was as remarkable for the smallness of his stature as for -the importance of the offices he had arrived at. As a gentleman of the -long robe, he made a frequent subject for the caricaturists and the -paragraph-writers of the day. He appears to have been a kind man as well -as a clever lawyer, with a sense of humour that did not take offence at -being the cause of it in others. - -In 1813 Thomas Wilson, Esq., resided at Frognal Hall. It was afterwards -tenanted by a Mr. Cole, and subsequently by Julius Talbot Airey, Esq. At -present it is occupied as a Roman Catholic boarding-school. - -On the opposite side of the lane is Frognal Lodge, the probable site of -Alderman Boydell’s house, who some years before his death had moved from -North End to Frognal, and is said to have been the near neighbour and -friend of Lord Alvanley, whom he outlived a few months. Abrahams tells -us that the house, gardens, grounds, lands, coach-house, and stables -belonging to this ‘grand encourager of art,’ as he truly calls him, and -which had lately been sold for £3,400, had been rated at £70 per annum, -but should have been rated at £150. The discovery came too late to be -rectified. - -The art-loving Alderman and famous print-seller, whose house had -supplied, not only the chief cities of Europe, but those of the whole -civilized world, with the highest productions of the painter’s and -engraver’s art, found himself ruined by the long-continued war, which -effectually closed commercial intercourse with foreign countries, -and caused him such serious losses that he was compelled to petition -Parliament to be allowed to dispose of the large stock of pictures and -engravings on hand by lottery,[82] which took place after his death -(1804-5). - -For years he had cherished the idea of forming a gallery of paintings -of Shakespearian characters and scenes, that should be at once an -offering to the genius of his immortal countryman and the crown of his -own efforts to exculpate art in England from the subordinate status -it held in comparison with that of other nations. To this end he had -engaged the most famous artists of his day—Sir Joshua Reynolds, Romney, -Fuseli, Northcote, Blake, and many others (amongst them he himself was -numbered)—and had built a handsome gallery (afterwards the British -Institution) in Pall Mall for the reception and exhibition of their works -and the engravings taken from them. - -There is something very pathetic in the old man’s letter, which his -friend and fellow-Alderman, Sir J. William Andrews, read in the House of -Commons, pleading, after a life and fortune expended in perfecting and -accumulating these treasures of art, to be allowed to dispose of them by -lottery, in order that at the close of a long and honourable life—he was -eighty-five years of age—he might be enabled to pay his just debts. - -He ‘knows no other way by which it can be effected but by a lottery, and -if the Legislature will have the goodness to grant a permission for that -purpose, they will, at least, have the assurance of the even tenor of a -long life that it will be fairly and honourably conducted.’ - -The objects were his pictures, galleries, drawings, etc., which, -unconnected with the copper-plates and trade, ‘are much more than -sufficient, if properly disposed of, to pay all he owes in the world.’ -He hopes that every honest man at any age will feel for his anxiety -to discharge his debts, ‘but at his advanced age it becomes doubly -desirable.’ - -As a citizen of London Joshua Boydell had received the highest honours, -having filled the office of High Sheriff, and subsequently that of -Lord Mayor. While resident at Hampstead he had taken a leading part in -all that concerned the well-being of the inhabitants, and had given -the prestige of his name and the encouragement of his comradeship when -eighty-four years of age to the Hampstead Volunteers, of which corps he -was Colonel Commandant. He died on November 12, 1804.[83] - -At the date of Abrahams’ pamphlet (1811) there were seventy-two houses -within the boundaries of Frognal, a hamlet of handsome residences, -surrounded by wooded groves and beautiful gardens of an extent begrudged -by builders in these modern days. - -One of these, remarkable for its quaint comeliness, is Fenton House -(early Georgian), situated at the very top of the grove, an old red-brick -mansion, with a high-pitched, red-tiled roof, and key-patterned timber -cornice, painted white, running round it. The front, which recedes a -little in the centre, is ornamented with a pediment of the same pattern, -and the projecting ends have balustrades simulating galleries upon them. -A remarkable house, though, according to modern notions, an inconvenient -one. - -[Illustration: _Fenton House._] - -In or about 1793 Fenton House was the residence of Philip Robertson -Fenton, Esq., formerly an eminent Riga merchant, the son of Thomas Fenton -and Elizabeth his wife, of Hunslet, near Leeds. She was the daughter -of Sir Charles Hogton, of Hogton Tower, in Lancashire, where the slab -above his grave tells us her son ‘was born on the night of the 19th of -November, 1731, O.S.,’ she being on a visit to her brother. Mr. Philip -Fenton resided at Hampstead for fifteen years, and died there in the -seventy-second year of his age. Park, though a contemporary during the -latter years of his life, gives us no personal particulars of this -gentleman, but we find in the list of subscribers to the ‘History of -Hampstead’ the name of C. R. Fenton, Esq., of the India House; and in -1829, at a meeting of copyholders held at the Holly Bush in the July -of that year, to take measures to preserve the Heath from further -encroachments, a Mr. Fenton presided. - -It is therefore probable that some of the family continued to reside at -Hampstead. - -No doubt Fenton House[84] had had some other name previous to the -retired Riga merchant’s occupation of it. Some time in the summer of -1746 Johnson (he was not yet Doctor) had lodgings in Frognal. Park,[85] -and subsequently Brewer, who copied him, assure us that the house ‘so -dignified’ was the last in Frognal southward—then, in 1813-15, in the -occupancy of Benjᵉ Charles Stephenson, Esq., F.S.A., ‘where _the greater -part, if not the whole_, of the “Vanity of Human Wishes,” in imitation of -the tenth satire of Juvenal, was written.’[86] - -I cannot help thinking that the Doctor’s literary reputation, rather -than a review of his pecuniary circumstances at this time, led to this -assumption, and believe that a much humbler dwelling sufficed for Mrs. -Johnson’s summer lodging than that which the well-known and well-to-do -architect would choose for his suburban residence; and I ground my belief -on the statement of Dr. Johnson himself, who says: ‘I wrote the _first -seventy lines_ in the “Vanity of Human Wishes” in that _small house_ -beyond the church, Hampstead; the whole number were composed before I -threw a single couplet upon paper’—under pressure, probably, of fair, -frivolous, pretty Mrs. Johnson’s requirements, real or imaginary, who, -with her perpetual ailments and perpetual opium, was always craving for -country air—a craving sometimes gratified at great inconvenience to -her husband. At the period in question he was so poor that, in order -to afford his wife a change of air, he was obliged to dispense with a -town lodging for himself; and for want of means to pay the coach fare -to Hampstead, the roads to which were dangerous after dark, had nothing -left to him but to walk about till daylight, or, as in the old times with -Savage, to sleep on a bulk. Under the circumstances, we have to judge -whether the expression ‘that small house beyond the church’ could apply -to the ‘last house in Frognal southward.’ - -This reference to the Doctor is as eloquent as a volume in -exemplifying the exigeant selfishness of his wife’s character, and the -self-sacrificing kindness of his own, for with all his roughness and -‘bear-like growl,’ as Northcote calls it, there was a fine strain of -compassionate tenderness in his nature. I am afraid he found material for -the ‘Vanity of Human Wishes’ not far from home, for notwithstanding his -generous indulgence of his wife’s love of Hampstead air, ‘nice living -and unsuitable expense,’ Mrs. Desmoulins[87] tells us that she did not -‘always treat him with becoming complacency.’ - -It was very vexatious, with her fastidious love of cleanliness, which -her husband has borne witness to, to see him walking about in linen -the complexion of which Sir John Hawkins said _shamed her_, and it was -not less vexatious, perhaps, to have her personal wishes frustrated; -for, having hair as blond as a babe’s, we are told that she was always -endeavouring to dye it black, much to the great Khan of Literature’s -dissatisfaction. But with all her pitiful little failings, when death -had dulled the fair hair and stilled the querulous lips for ever, her -husband, we are told, sincerely mourned her loss.[88] - -It is said that at one time Dr. Akenside lived in Frognal, but the place -of his abode is not known. Apropos of this unfortunate poet, a curious -story is told in connection with him, very disgraceful to the perpetrator -of the fraud. A literary man, known to Frederick, Prince of Wales, as a -poet and writer of varieties, when Dr. Akenside published his ‘Pleasures -of Imagination’ without his name, tacitly concurred in the supposition -that he was the writer of the poem, and absolutely maintained himself, -or was maintained, in Dublin for some years on the reputation it gained -him.[89] - -[Illustration: _Priory Lodge._] - -I find the family of the Bocketts, who were living in this neighbourhood -in 1722, resided at Frognal in 1811. They were connected with the -famous Lord Erskine; the late Mrs. Bockett, who died at Hampstead some -twenty-five years ago, was his niece. - -Turning to the right past the toll-gate, the road runs between high -walls, fringed with ivy, pendent grasses, and long trails of purple -toad-flax overtopped by trees to Frognal Rise; past Frognal House,[90] -now the home of Mr. Walter Rye, and other modern mansions in handsome -grounds, whence the main road follows its course to Branch Hill, and -is continued to the West Heath Road. Branch Hill is the site of Branch -Hill Lodge, standing in ample grounds upon an elevation that commands -extensive and beautiful views. Brewer describes it as a well-proportioned -family residence, though not of capacious dimensions. It has, however, -undergone many additions and alterations since Brewer’s time. - -Branch Hill Lodge was partly built by Sir Thomas Clarke, Master of the -Rolls, on the site of an older mansion, parts of which it included, -but it had been so altered and enlarged that only a very small portion -of it remained in the house which was standing when Lysons wrote. Sir -Thomas bequeathed it to his patron, the notorious Thomas Parker (Lord -Chancellor Macclesfield), ‘who was obliged to purchase the copyhold part -of the premises from the heirs of Sir Thomas Clarke, in consequence of -his having failed to surrender it to the uses of his will.’ It was after -Lord Macclesfield’s enforced retirement from office that he came to -reside here. Twenty-five years previously he had been impeached by the -House of Commons for fraudulent practices, for which he was condemned to -pay a fine of £30,000, with imprisonment till it was paid. The standard -of morality was not very high at this period, and though some person -amongst the crowd who had followed him on his way to the Tower cried -out that Staffordshire had produced three of the greatest rascals in -England—Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, and Tom Parker—the cry had ceased -long before the six weeks of his imprisonment ended; and time and more -recent rascality somewhat shaded his lordship’s association in this -triumvirate before he took up his abode at Branch Hill Lodge, where he -lived for several years. - -The house appears to have been particularly affected by members of the -law. It was tenanted by Mr. Thomas Walker, Master in Chancery, and -subsequently by Lord Loughborough (afterwards Lord Rosslyn). In 1799 it -was purchased by Colonel Parker, a younger son of Lord Macclesfield; and -later on it became the residence of Mr. Thomas Neave (eldest son of Sir -Richard Neave, Bart.), who was living here when Park wrote his history. -This gentleman amused himself by altering, adding to, and greatly -improving the house and grounds. He was fond of collecting painted glass, -and, besides some very fine Continental specimens, obtained much of that -which Bishop Butler possessed; and the pieces from the old Chicken House -were said to have found a sanctuary at Branch Hill Lodge.[91] The house -has had other tenants since then, and whether the painted glass has been -removed or still adorns the mansion, I know not. - -Considerably raised above the road, to the left, upon a sort of -wedge-shaped promontory of land pushing out into the highway, between -Branch Hill and Frognal House, one is attracted by an ancient grove of -lime-trees, at the end of which is Montagu House, so called in honour -of Mr. Montagu, whose memory the people of Hampstead with great reason -revere. - -The house was formerly the home of Mr. Flitcroft, the architect, who, -finding the then beautiful avenue ready grown, built a villa at the end -of it. He died in 1769. His fortune was due to what proved to be a happy -accident. A man of great natural talent, but employed at Burlington -House as a journeyman carpenter, a fall from a scaffold and a broken -leg brought him to the notice of Lord Burlington,[92] a born builder -himself, a patron of art, and evidently also a man of much humanity and -warmth of heart. In some drawings with which Flitcroft amused himself -during his recovery, his lordship discovered great cleverness, and -interesting himself in his advancement, got him placed on the Board of -Works, of which he eventually became Comptroller. He was the architect of -St. Giles’s Church, London, and unfortunately for his fame, as we have -elsewhere said, of St. John’s Church, Hampstead. His St. Olave’s, Tooley -Street, is his most original work; St. Giles’s is but an inferior copy of -Wren. - -During his residence Montagu House had been known as Frognal Grove, a -name it retained during the residence of Edward Montagu, Esq., Master -in Chancery, who, some time subsequent to 1769, tenanted it.[93] A man -of sense and refined feeling, a philanthropist and practical benefactor -to Hampstead, he was one of the leaders of a band of gentlemen who -had wakened up from the general apathy as to the moral, social, and -religious wants of their poorer neighbours, and who (to quote Park), -‘setting their faces against the drinking habits prevalent in mixed -society, pledged themselves to keep within the bounds of temperance, -and to introduce subjects, or topics of conversation, that should tend -to improve the understanding and the mind. Under the ill-chosen name of -_Philo-investiges_, the members of the society held their meetings at -the Flask Tavern, and from the quarterly subscriptions, fines, etc., -established a fund for charitable purposes.’[94] - -In 1787 the members, with Mr. Montagu at their head, founded the -Hampstead Sunday-School, a proof that the intention of the society had -been adhered to, and had borne fruit after its kind, for in those days, -when neither national[95] nor other schools existed in villages for -the children of the poor, the value of Sunday-schools could scarcely -be overrated. Mr. Perceval also patronized this school. It is only -just to say that the absolute founder of the Sunday-school was Mr. -Thomas Mitchell, who kept a school at Hampstead for twenty-two years -on week-days, and was so real a philanthropist that he continued the -vocation on Sundays for the benefit of poor children. - -To return to Mr. Montagu. This gentleman was the trusted friend of Lord -Mansfield, who placed in his hands his resignation of the Lord Chief -Justiceship. After Mr. Montagu’s death, and in honour of him, Frognal -Grove was called Montagu House, a name it still retains. - -Stevens, the Shakespearian annotator, had a house in Frognal before he -purchased the premises of the Upper Flask, which is now known as Upper -Heath. - -Previous to 1811 Lord Walpole had a residence at Frognal, which Mr. -Thomas Kestevan afterwards bought for £400, the price of a very humble -abode in the present day. At this time two of the four joint purchasers -of the Belsize estate, German Lavie and James Abel, Esqs., were living -in Frognal. Thomas Carr, Esq., had a residence here early in the present -century, where Crabb Robinson was a frequent visitor. His house appears -to have been the literary centre of this part of Hampstead, and the -pleasant diarist tells us of meeting there on one occasion Sir Humphry -Davy and his bride (Mrs. Apreece), the poet Wordsworth, and Joanna -Baillie, adding that ‘Sir Humphry and Lady D—— seem hardly to have -finished their honeymoon.’ - -Frognal in the present day is by no means devoid of literary -associations. In the cosy home known as Frognal End resides the -well-known and well-regarded Sir Walter Besant, whose unstained pen, -powerful as the lamp of Aladdin, has helped to raise a Palace of Delight -in the dreary heart of East London, and where the thick ‘darkness of -ignorance’ prevailed has let in light and hope, and the love of healthful -and intelligent pleasures. - -When Baines was writing his ‘Records of Hampstead,’ the late well-known -artist and novelist, George du Maurier, was living in New Grove House. -He had been resident at Hampstead for many years, and, like others of -his brotherhood, appears to have found the neighbourhood helpful to his -art. A well-known writer[96] tells us ‘that the Hampstead scenery made in -_Punch_ his mountains and valleys, his backgrounds and foregrounds ... -the group of Scotch firs suggested a deer forest ... and the distant dome -of St. Paul’s an always interesting perspective point.’[97] - -For some time Sir Gilbert Scott, the architect, resided in an adjacent -house, afterwards occupied by Mr. Henry Sharpe, after whose name Baines -has added the suffix, ‘a good man.’ - -When I last visited Hampstead, the talented authoress of the ever-popular -‘Schomberg-Cotta Family’ was living in her pleasant home, Combe Edge, -Branch Hill, where, in a grove of evergreens, I listened to a blackbird -whistling on the third day of the New Year, 1896. Early in this year the -kind heart, the active brain, and busy hands of this wholesome writer and -benevolent woman ceased their work, to the deep regret of many friends -and the great loss of the patients of the North London Hospital for -Consumption, to whom she had been a constant visitor and sympathetic -friend. - -Her friends honoured her memory by endowing an additional bed in the -hospital. A tablet, upon which is inscribed, ‘The Elizabeth Rundle -Charles Memorial bed,’ was unveiled by the Princess Christian (whose -sympathy with all charitable work is well known) on December 18, 1896. - -The Frognal of to-day, though a charming neighbourhood, with its air -of affluence, ease, and ordered neatness, has lost the more natural -charms of fifty years ago. The old mystery of high walls is still with -us, but the free wildness of grassy slopes and shady trees, with little -neighbourly short-cuts crossing one another, or unpremeditated footpaths -meandering about in aimless fashion, though to good purpose, are there -no longer. I like not the wide road bisecting it, nor the lofty, -many-windowed, scarlet-faced mansions overlooking it. For me they have -destroyed too much of the tree-grouped greensward of my early days, and -park-like look of the old Frognal precinct, and the pretty, tree-shaded, -devious ways that led to unexpected places. I remember wandering by -one of these narrow footways with a few trees hanging over one side of -it, when suddenly I found myself in front of a dilapidated lodge and -other offices appertaining to the sham Tudor mansion known as Frognal -Priory.[98] At that time—1869—it was a tottering ruin, supported by beams -of timber on one side to make it tenantable; and, as I soon found, giving -off, through neglected drainage, _mal odours_ enough to defy all but the -curiosity of a press interviewer, or of the London Sunday visitors, whose -purses helped to support the ancient, self-constituted custodian. - -Half a century earlier this house, with its simulated Elizabethan -appearance, must have been a really pictorial object. The irregularly -gabled front of ruddy bricks, its oriel and mullioned windows, carved -window-frames, quaint waterspouts, and twisted chimneys, even in this -stage of ruin and combined with squalor, was eminently picturesque, and, -from an artist’s point of view, really effective. On this account, and -for the sake of some lovely views to be seen from the upper windows at -the back, a few youthful enthusiasts of the profession, devoted to form -and colour, would lodge here for days together, despite the unsafe walls, -morbific air, and fearful effluvia from the ground-floor premises. - -The history of this modern antique house—the building of which many -people living at Hampstead in the fifties could remember—is too -curious to be left out of our account of Frognal. It was built by one -Thompson,[99] better known to his friends as ‘Memory Corner Thompson.’ - -Originally a public-house broker and salesman, he is said to have gained -this distinctive appellation from a marvellous feat of memory—nothing -less than stating for a bet the name and occupation of everyone who kept -a corner shop in the city of London. But as pawnbrokers, chemists, and -publicans generally monopolize these usually Janus-faced houses, the -difficulty may have been more apparent than real to one whose business -with the latter made him naturally notice the shops emphasized by -exemption from his professional occupation. At any rate, he won the bet, -and became known by this prefix ever after. - -In the course of his business career as auctioneer and broker, he had had -many opportunities of collecting ancient furniture and other antiquities, -for which he appears to have had a natural taste, and he resolved to -build a characteristic mansion to lodge them in. He obtained a lease of -twenty years, subject to a fine to the Lord of the Manor, and built this -house on the traditionary site of the ancient priory, where Cardinal -Wolsey is said to have occasionally lived. - -Exceedingly rich and ostentatious, Mr. Thompson took pleasure in turning -his house into an exhibition, without the rules and order observed in -public ones. Visitors were admitted at all times, and a lady who was in -the habit of calling on his wife informed Miss Meteyard that no meal -was sacred from intrusion, nor were the feminine members of the family -secure even when engaged with their toilets, but were frequently obliged -to rush out of the way while a company of strangers inspected their -bedrooms. - -The hall and largest room in the house were devoted to the exhibition -of medieval furniture, real or spurious. The library, a charming little -room, looked into the garden and out away over what were then the -Finchley meadows; the light from the square mullioned window was softened -with painted glass; the shutters and doorways were to appearance carved, -and the panelled ceiling handsomely emblazoned with coats-of-arms; the -walls were surrounded with antique book-presses, glazed and guarded with -brass nettings, and filled with rare and costly volumes beautifully -bound. The whole of this display was a deception. Mr. Memory Corner -Thompson had no personal interest in the coats-of-arms; the carving -was stucco; the volumes, the titles of which must have awakened sharp -longings in the breasts of scholarly visitors—if any such did visit -the Priory—were mere shades of books, pasteboard integuments of them -with nothing real about them but the titles. The building itself was of -the same make-believe character both as to material and workmanship. -Plaster-of-Paris mouldings had been made to do duty for carved stone -wherever this was characteristically required. The divisional walls were -of simple lath and plaster, and the exterior ones not much more solid. -They lasted, however, the proprietor’s time, who, having no children -living, left it, with part of his large fortune, to his niece, who -had married the notorious Gregory, the proprietor of that disgraceful -publication called the _Satirist_, and who, it was known, made money by -threatening persons of ‘mark and likelihood’ with scandalous libels, -unless they would pay smartly to have them suppressed. On one occasion, -instead of finding a victim, the miscreant ‘caught a Tartar,’ who -prosecuted him, and Gregory was properly sentenced to some months’ -imprisonment for his attempted extortion. At this juncture Mr. Thompson -died, and on Gregory’s coming out of prison he found himself, through -his wife’s fortune, a rich man, and set up a new rôle amongst the many -he had attempted, that of _gentleman_; but as his conception of the part -induced much extravagance and dissipation, it was very soon played out, -and ended in the loss of all his possessions.[100] - -After his wife’s death, having neglected to pay the fine to the Lord of -the Manor, the latter recovered possession by injunction. The antique -furniture and articles of vertu, pictures, etc., collected by Thompson, -which he had not disposed of, or that were not sold at his death, -disappeared during Gregory’s occupation. The very fixtures vanished, -chimney-mantels and fire-grates were removed, so that with the exception -of a few pieces of painted glass in the guest-chamber over the library, -and a few mouldering bits of real carved oak in window fittings, or -cornices, nothing remained in proof of the antique taste of the original -proprietor of Frognal Priory. - -A gate, under the trees on the left as one approached the very handsome -porch, the only real thing about the building,[101] led to a pleasant -slope once gay with garden-beds and flowering shrubs, where a fountain -then choked up had once played, and by which a weeping ash still -lingered. The greensward, rough and matted, was dotted about with groups -of trees, and there remained in part the raised terrace that had divided -this part of the grounds from the kitchen-garden, into which a flight -of steps led. Here the ruinous condition of the house was more apparent -than within it. Still a niched saint looked calmly down from beneath the -cross-surmounted gable of a pseudo-chapel, while the ruined parapet, -fissured and broken, threatened soon to bury its share of the sham -edifice in a heap of dust. - -The late Sir Thomas Wilson desired to utilize the house as an office, -but for this purpose it required reparation, and the fear of an heir -to Thompson starting up prevented his bestowing any outlay on it till -it became too late. Some time after Gregory’s exit Sir Thomas Wilson’s -bailiff, to prevent the house and its materials being carried away -piecemeal, installed a labourer and his wife as caretakers, who remained -in it over twenty years. The man died, leaving certain instructions to -the woman, who, old and houseless but for its shelter, standing upon her -supposed right after twenty years’ possession, absolutely refused to -quit, and set at defiance all peaceable efforts to remove her; and though -the lessee of the ground (then being broken up for brickfields) had -managed to induct a tenant of his own, the oldest inhabitant was resolute -in remaining; the result was intermural war. The old woman, remembering -her husband’s injunction, fully believed that the Priory had lapsed to -her in right of her twenty years’ free tenancy, and she doubted the power -of the Lord of the Manor to remove her. It was not till some time after -I had left the neighbourhood, and only by taking legal proceedings, that -this too-tenacious inhabitant was expelled. - -In these bygone years, on leaving Frognal Priory, if you took the first -turning to the right, you found yourself at the entrance to West End -Lane, then a really rustic lane, with high hedgerows and sheltering -trees.[102] - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -_WEST END TO CHILD’S HILL AND THE WEST HEATH._ - - -Although lying wide of Hampstead proper, West End is an integral part -of the parish of St. John, and the western boundary of the original -demesne lands of the manor. It is accessible from the Heath by two or -three charming field-paths, and when in the neighbourhood of Frognal -Priory, at the period these lines were written, the first turning to -the left led straight to it. In those days not even the blank walls and -close-clipped garden hedges at the entrance could deprive West End Lane -of the character of rusticity. - -The ground along which it undulated, the fine old trees that overhung it -in places, and the grassy slopes to the left, with their old-fashioned -hedgerows broken by elm and oak trees, and brightened in spring and -summer with whitethorn and elder bloom, left us a glimpse, as it were, of -the lovely aspect of the fields, once stretching away to what were then -Kilburn meadows, but which now underlie a town. - -The first house to the right at the beginning of the lane was the Ferns, -noticeable as having been the residence of the late Henry Bradshaw -Fearon, a wealthy wine-merchant of London, a man of ‘large mind, and -liberal principles, and a leader of them in others.’ ‘In common with, -if not in so prominent a degree as, Lord Brougham, Thomas Campbell, and -other men of high standing and influence, he took an active part in the -originating and founding of the London University, and, if only on this -account, deserves the gratitude of his fellow-citizens.’[103] - -Next to the Ferns was the so-called Manor House, the residence for some -years of the head of the well-known publishing firm of Longman and -Co.[104] A few yards further, the road dipped down into a green hollow, -with meeting elm-boughs overhead, and there was a seat pleasantly placed -for the comfort and rest of wayfarers. Beside it a gate and footpath led -aslant over two grass fields hemmed round by hedgerows and trees, the -second of them having two very aged oak-trees in it; one of them, hollow -and gnarled, but still sprouting forth a green head, stood one half -within and one half without the gate, which separated the fields directly -in the middle of the pathway which led round it. Of these fields we -find a pleasant memory in a letter of Miss Meteyard’s, published by Mr. -Stephens in his ‘Life of Sir Edwin Landseer,’ whose father, in 1849-50, -resided (as his family have since continued to do) at St. John’s Wood. -At this period the Howitts were living in the avenue close by, and being -well acquainted, William Howitt and the elder Landseer often met in their -walks, or would go or return together. - -‘One evening in passing along the Finchley Road towards Child’s Hill, Mr. -Landseer stayed at a gate of ancient look, and said to his friend, “These -two fields were Edwin’s first studios. Many a time have I lifted him -over this very stile. I then lived in Foley Street, and nearly all the -way between Marylebone and Hampstead was open fields. It was a favourite -walk with my boys, and one day when I had accompanied them, Edwin stopped -by this stile to admire some sheep and cows which were quietly grazing. -At his request I lifted him over, and finding a scrap of paper and a -pencil in my pocket, I made him sketch a cow. He was very young indeed -then, not more than six or seven years old. After this we came on several -occasions, and as he grew older, this was one of his favourite spots for -sketching. He would start off alone, or with John or Charles, and remain -till I fetched him in the afternoon.... Sometimes he would sketch in one -field, sometimes in the other ... but generally in the one beyond the -old oak we see there, as it was more pleasant and sunny.”’[105] This -was the upper field, nearest West End Lane, which some of my readers -will remember. Nor will it lessen their interest in this once pleasant -locality, that it was while walking in these fields that William Howitt, -whose name is a household word in English family literature, told the -story to Miss Meteyard, who was never wearied of expatiating on the -woodland beauty of this neighbourhood. - -Within her own recollection it was famous for the number and beauty of -its oak-trees—‘a region of them,’ she called it—and West End Lane was -then a deep-hedged, tree-shaded alley all the way to Fortune Green. - -In the May of 1815 (it should be 1816) we find Haydon, the disappointed, -sad-lived artist, ‘sauntering,’ as he tells us, ‘to West End Lane, and -so to Hampstead, with great delight.’ And no wonder, for besides the -spring-dressed beauty of Nature around him, he had for his companion -that lover and evangelist of it, Wordsworth, and they were bound for -the Vale of Health, and Leigh Hunt’s cottage, where Cumberland joined -them, and afterwards walked with Haydon on the Heath. This excerpt from -the artist’s diary closes the mouths of the sceptics who doubt that -Wordsworth visited the ‘pink of Poets,’ as his critics sarcastically -called the author of ‘Rimini,’ in his humble retreat at Hampstead. - -Park, to whom I am so much indebted, tells us that the demesne land, -occupying from four to five hundred acres of the richest land in the -parish, lay scattered along the western side of the hill from Child’s -Hill, north, to Belsize, south, and that the name of manor was in his -time appropriated to that portion of them situated south of West End -Lane. He also says that the old manor-house, which some of the then -living inhabitants of Hampstead remembered, was a low, ordinary building -in the farmhouse style, but with a very capacious hall. - -[Illustration: _Vale of Health, Lower Heath, 1840._] - -The old manor-house had stood on the north side of the lane, in Park’s -time the site of a modern house, on what was called the Manor Farm, -occupied by General Sir Samuel Bentham, who, ‘tired of war’s alarms,’ -had settled down to a peaceful life in a lovely neighbourhood, and took -pleasure in pointing out to his visitors an old pollard oak in his -grounds, which he believed was the identical oak which had given its name -to the manor-farm—Hall Oak Farm. This name, Park tells us, was cut upon -a stone built in as the keystone of the arched doorway of a large old -barn. ‘The late lessee of the manor-farm (Mr. Thomas Pool) made great -alterations in the disposition of the homestall. He pulled down the old -house, and built a substantial residence upon the spot. At this house the -manor courts were held till Pool removed to a smaller house on the other -side of the road, and the courts were removed with him.’ - -But the house built on the site of the old manor-house, known in Park’s -time as Hall Oak Farm, has now—1899—the name of Manor Lodge. ‘The title -of Manor House was in 1813 appropriated to the adjoining house, then the -residence of Thomas Norton Longman, Esq.,[106] which was without doubt -a part of the original homestead, and in which the manor courts have -occasionally been kept.’[107] - -But in spite of the respectability of its antiquity and inhabitants, West -End was not without its drawbacks. The Cock and Hoop upon the edge of -the green (it is there still, 1896) was by no means an overnice hostel -in the matter of customers. It lay on the road to Finchley Common, and -‘first come, first served,’ liberally read, seems to have been the motto -of successive landlords. It had the reputation of being a rendezvous -of highwaymen and robbers. An annual fair, which had grown up no one -knew how, having no legal sanction by charter or otherwise, must also -have been, from the number of tramps and roughs, and other disreputable -and dangerous characters it brought together, a real grievance to the -respectable inhabitants. Ostensibly it was an innocent fair enough, -dealing chiefly in toys and gingerbread, with the usual accompaniment -of travelling shows and theatres, attractions which brought together -a concourse of people, and as naturally a number of thieves and -pickpockets. Yet, being regarded as a pleasure fair, and taking place -in mid-summer, it appears to have been frequented during daylight by -respectable persons, and when evening came by decent tradespeople, and -others of a class who have made great progress in social refinement since -then. A newspaper cutting subsequent to July 28, 1819, informs us, under -the head of Bow Street, that in consequence of the outrageous and daring -scenes of disorder, robberies, wounding and ill-treating of a number -of persons at the West End Fair near Hampstead on Monday evening, and -during the night, an additional number of constables from this office, as -well as officers from Hatton Garden, and a number of the inhabitants of -Hampstead as special constables, attended the fair on Tuesday, to detect -and apprehend the various gangs who attacked defenceless individuals, -if possible more brutally than on Monday night. They pushed the people -down, and not only robbed them of their watches and money, but actually -tore off and possessed themselves of their clothes. One woman had her -earrings torn from her ears. A number of desperate characters were taken -up on this occasion, several of whom were committed, and others summarily -dealt with as rogues and vagabonds. Long years after this date (for West -End Fair was not suppressed), attendance at it appears to have been ‘a -desperate pleasure.’ Apart from the perils of the fair itself, as soon as -night fell the lanes and footpaths about Hampstead—the Kilburn meadows, -the hedgerows in Pancras Vale, even the highways themselves—were infested -with footpads and robbers, so that in the memory of an eye-witness living -in 1849 it was customary for the decent part of the company to wait till -the drummer went round the fair to recall the soldiers present to their -quarters, and then to fall in with them for safety’s sake, and thus -escorted march back to town. - -Now if silence and dulness be signs of propriety, few places can be -better behaved than West End Green, or what is left of it; even the -cheerful clangour of the blacksmith’s forge, which used to stand at the -further end of it, where many a traveller’s tire has been mended, and -many a loose shoe replaced for gentlemen of the road in their wake, has -passed away, and though the Cock and Hoop stands where it did, that, too, -is changed, and has taken to new ways, and ‘lives cleanly.’[108] Only the -conservative old houses still set their faces against class confusion, -and aim at retirement behind tall walls and taller trees. But rank upon -rank of modern minor houses is rapidly approaching from the south, while -New West End, on the other side of the highway, threatens to absorb the -fields still stretching between the Finchley Road and Kidderpoor Hall—a -mansion which is said to occupy one of the healthiest situations in -Middlesex, and was at one time recommended for a royal nursery.[109] A -short distance along the main-road brings us to Platt’s Lane, leading to -Child’s Hill. Almost opposite to this a path takes from the Finchley Road -by Fortune Green Lane back to West End. - -Another and shorter way to Child’s Hill is by the footpath at New West -End, which, crossing diagonally a hillside field, takes through two -others, in the last of which in line, but at a distance from each other, -are three trees—an elm, lime, and horse-chestnut—remarkable in summer -time for their richness of foliage and fine shape. At the end of this -field (to the left of which is a pretty house of modest dimensions, -and on the right in a hollow a barn) there is an opening into Platt’s -Lane, which takes its name from a former owner of Child’s Hill House, -Thomas Platt, Esq., which house subsequent to 1811, when he resided at -Upper Terrace, he altered and enlarged. Brewer gives an engraving of it -in his ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ 1813, and describes it as an -unostentatious brick building, with a cottage roof, and though it has -been raised a story by its recent proprietor, Joseph Hoare, Esq.,[110] -it is perfectly recognisable in the engraving. The ground to the east -of Platt’s Lane preserves the pastoral character it must have had two -centuries ago, and which induced the trustees of the Campden Charity to -invest their trust in the purchase of ‘fourteen acres of meadow land at -Child’s Hill for the benefit of the poor at Hampstead.’ - -[Illustration: _Leg of Mutton Pond._] - -At the top of Platt’s Lane, where the road is crossed by Child’s Hill -Lane, is a bit of waste, an unclaimed angle, where the turf grows green -or sunburnt with the seasons, and which in bygone years was seldom -without the ‘burnt spot’ which marks the camping-place of gipsies. Now -the trees are scant about it, and the gipsies rarely seen, though till -1825-30 Hampstead Heath was seldom without some stragglers of the tawny -tribe. Walking on, we pass the back of the premises of Child’s Hill -House,[111] which, standing some 300 feet above the level of the Thames, -commands charming and extensive views, and is surrounded by several acres -of pleasure-ground and gardens. A short distance further on we enter the -West Heath Road, and can either follow it to its junction with the Broad -Walk, or cross the sandy margin of the Heath in any direction we please. -There is a way by the bottom of Leg of Mutton Pond, or, if we prefer it, -we can strike into a path higher up than the boggy ground which occupies -a wide space on either side of the watercourse running into it. From the -higher ground the views are delightful, and there are seats scattered -here and there in the most eligible places for enjoying them. Upon the -brow of the Heath, North End Hill as it is called, some of the houses in -the North End Road are seen now to be facing us. There lies Cedar Lawn -and the wooded grounds of Hill House, fraternally looking towards Child’s -Hill; in 1856 the residence of another member of the Hoare family; -and pushing out a recently-erected wall many feet beyond its original -enclosure is Heath Lodge, of which there is a story to tell. - -This house was built by a Mrs. Lessingham, an actress of no very good -repute, on a piece of gorse-covered waste about 1775. Having wit as -well as beauty, she appears to have done pretty much as she liked, for -having a mind to a villa at Hampstead, no obstacle appears to have been -thrown in the way of a grant of land to build on, either by the Lord of -the Manor or his agent, although she was not a copyholder of the manor, -upon which the copyholders, headed by one Master Folkard, asserted their -common rights, and destroyed the building as fast as it was raised. In -order to obviate the illegality of the transaction, Mrs. Lessingham[112] -purchased an insignificant cottage, and so became a copyholder; and -being supported by Mr. Justice Addington, she braved the lawsuit (by -means of which the Hampstead people hoped to exorcise the witch) and -won it. The accounts of the riots at Hampstead between the builder’s -men and the copyholders, or the mob who represented them, afforded the -newspapers a subject for some time, and engaged the satirical pen of -George Steevens, who sided with the Helen of the local war. She, clever -as impudent, turned her opponents and their efforts into ridicule, and -published an account (metrical) of the transaction and of the actors in -it, which is not to be bought at the present day. She was sufficiently -popular as an actress to figure on articles of pottery of the period, and -I have met with her effigy at Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinsons’ rooms, in -the character of Ophelia, on one of Sadler of Liverpool’s printed tiles. -Mrs. Lessingham appears to have held quiet possession of her Hampstead -villa for the brief remainder of her life, dying there in 1783; she was -interred in the village churchyard, where her son subsequently erected an -altar-tomb to her memory.[113] - -At present Heath Lodge is the residence of D. Powell, Esq.,[114] since -whose occupation a pretty bosky bit of waste between his premises and -those of Hill House has been enclosed, and a meagre footpath substituted. - -In 1750 the hamlet of West End contained about forty houses. Abrahams, -in his ‘Book of Assessments’ (1811), has unfortunately included it with -Frognal, and by thus confusing the localities has deprived us of the -exact information his pamphlet would otherwise have supplied. - -[Illustration: _West End House._] - -West End Lane is now absorbed into West Hampstead. There were several -good houses on both sides of the way; they were mostly hidden within -high walls, and set in park-like grounds that gave them a wealthy and -exclusive air like those in Frognal. At one time (1799) Josiah Boydell -had a house here, from which he subsequently removed to Frognal. New West -End House, the residence of Mr. John Miles, of Stationers’ Hall Court, -from 1813 to December, 1856, had at the first date no house nearer than -Old West End House (the Beckfords) between it and the Edgware Road. It is -said that the rumbling of the cannon on the field of Waterloo was heard -in Mr. Miles’s garden. Mr. Miles died in 1856, and for seventy-six years -afterwards his widow continued to reside at West End House, where she -died on April 18, 1889, in her ninety-ninth year.[115] The house and 13 -acres of land were purchased by Colonel Frazer for £32,500. His death -occurred a very short time afterwards, and in 1895 it was suggested to -purchase the estate for a public park and recreation-ground for West -Hampstead. - -Old West End House must have been a place of considerable importance. In -1811 it was to be sold; it was then Miss Beckford’s, the after Duchess -of Hamilton. The house, with gardens, pleasure-grounds, and offices, -occupied an area of 21 acres. - -From 1796 to 1802 this house was in the occupation of Mrs. Walpole, widow -of the Hon. Richard Walpole. It was subsequently tenanted by various -families. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -_HEATH STREET TO THE UPPER FLASK AND SPANIARDS._ - - -Heath Street[116] is long and straggling, with nothing remarkable in it -but the florid-looking new fire-brigade office at its entrance on the -left, in a line with what is called the Mount,[117] one of the several -little hills on which Hampstead is built, and which has been cut through -to form the roadway and street beneath it. Some good private houses and -gardens crest the Mount, and some fine old elm-trees, for the growth -of which Hampstead has always been remarkable, remain on the same side -of the way. A little distance along Heath Street on the left is Grove -Passage, and nearly opposite a lane leading to the rather depressed -neighbourhood of New End, in which the workhouse is situated. Just beyond -Grove Passage lie Silver Street and Golden Square, with nothing in their -present appearance, except irony, to suggest the etymology of the names. -Further on to the right is Elm Row, leading past Christ Church to Cannon -Road and Squire’s Mount. - -Continuing its uphill way a little farther, Heath Street terminates -upon the edge of the Heath. The high wall extending some distance along -the east side of the street incloses the garden and pleasure-grounds of -what was once the Upper Flask Tavern, but is now a private residence so -grave and respectable in appearance that no one would suspect the rather -rackety reputation of its youth. A line of fine old elm-trees with bulged -and warted trunks, interspersed with younger trees, stands in formal row -at the side of the house looking to the Heath. - -In the first period of Hampstead’s popularity as a spa, the Upper Flask -was famous for its fine gardens—‘a sort of _petit_ Vauxhall’—on gala -nights, for the noble views from its upper windows, its good ales, fine -wines, and cosy suppers, a little less severely simple than Sir Roger -de Coverley’s. Especially was it famous as the summer meeting-place of -the celebrated Kit-Cat Club,[118] a fact eloquent as to the excellence -of its cellar and the skill of its _chef_. The club was first held at -the Trumpet, at the west side of Shire Lane, St. Clement Danes, and -subsequently at the Tavern in King Street, Westminster, near to which -lived Christopher Kat, cook and confectioner, who supplied the members -with pastry so excellent that, according to Bowyer, they complimented -him by giving his name to the club. A wit has preserved in one of the -many epigrams it gave rise to another origin for the name, and tells us -it arose from the liberal yet somewhat selfish chivalry of the members, -who, to add to the number of their toasts, were wont to include all the -beauties, and were not fastidious as to the matter of age: - - ‘Whence deathless Kit-Cat took its name - Few critics can unriddle; - Some say from pastrycook it came, - And some from Cat-and-Fiddle. - - ‘From no trim beau its name it boasts, - Gray statesman, or green wits, - But from its pell-mell pack of toasts, - Of old Cats and young Kits!’ - -We know that the club was Whig in politics, and had for its object ‘the -Protestant succession of the House of Hanover.’ It was also eminently -literary, counting amongst the thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen of whom -it consisted some of the finest scholars, wits, and poets of the day, so -that from its commencement in 1700[119] (some writers say 1688) to its -close in 1720 it was a power politically and intellectually in the land. -Its secretary, Jacob Tonson—‘genial Jacob,’ Pope calls him[120]—one of a -family of remarkable printers and publishers, survived the dissolution -of the club sixteen years, dying March 24, 1736, at Ledbury in -Herefordshire. Kneller painted the portraits of the members, which at the -breaking up of the club were given to the secretary, who left them to his -great-nephew. - -[Illustration: _Swift._] - -In 1833 they were in the possession of William Baker, Esq., of -Crayfordbury.[121] - -Amongst the company to the Upper Flask came Dr. Garth,[122] Addison, -Swift, Steele, Parnell, Sir Richard Blackmore, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Dr. -Arbuthnot, and others whose names are not connected with my subject. - -But the friendship of the associates did not end with good-fellowship. -Few things redound more to the credit of this famous club than the -firmness of its members’ regard for one another, which often showed -itself very practically, as in Addison’s frequent assistance of Steele, -till wearied by his recklessness and folly, and in Swift’s help to him at -a critical moment, which we have already glanced at. - -For the sake of these celebrities the Upper Flask had been famous long -before Richardson made the persecuted Clarissa alight there from the -Hampstead coach. The mulberry-tree, now held together by iron bands,[123] -in what was once the garden of the tavern, may have shaded in those -far-off summers the brows of Isaac Bickerstaffe, Obadiah Greenhat, -and others of the witty confederates banded against the vices and -frivolities of the times. Their charming essays remain with us in the -too-little-looked-at pages of the _Spectator_, _Guardian_, and _Tatler_. -A few years later we should have found Colley Cibber, playwright and -actor, seated beneath it, discussing stage business with his theatrical -allies, Wilkes and Booth, over tankards of brown ale or a bowl of punch; -or it may be the great Dr. Johnson himself, in his ‘bushy, grayish wig, -brown clothes, black worsted stockings, and plain shirt’ (a solecism -in the days of lace ruffles and embroidery). Goldsmith, too, may have -sat there, having strolled through the pleasant fields from his cottage -lodging ‘near a place called Kilburn Priory,’ with the MS. of his -‘Animated Nature.’ And Richardson must have been familiar with the place -of his heroine’s attempted seclusion. - -Samuel Stanton, vintner, was the proprietor of the Upper Flask, or Upper -Bowling-green House, as it was called in 1707. He left it to his nephew -and namesake, a man of considerable wealth and standing, it would appear, -whose sister was married to the Earl of Warwick, and who bequeathed -this house in 1750 to his niece, Lady Charlotte Rich, their daughter. In -all probability it continued to be let as an inn for a considerable time -after this date. A writer in the _Universal Museum_, 1764, says that, -going to Hampstead to observe an eclipse of the sun, he noticed near the -Upper Flask a stone fixed, stating that this spot was as high as the -cupola of St. Paul’s. The stone has long since disappeared, but this note -proves the existence of the tavern till within five years of the date -when it came to be the property of George Steevens, the indefatigable -annotator of Shakespeare, twenty of whose plays he published from the -original text, and with the aid of Johnson brought out a complete edition -of them in 1773. The fourth edition of his plays of Shakespeare, with -notes, was undertaken and finished wholly by himself in the short space -of eighteen months. To facilitate the printing of it, and prevent any -delay for want of copy, proofs, etc., he was in the habit of starting -with the patrol from Hampstead every morning between four and five -o’clock, without reference to season or weather, taking with him the copy -written overnight.[124] - - ‘Him still from Hampstead journeying with his book - Aurora oft for Cephalus mistook, - What time he brushed the dew with hasty pace, - To meet the printer’s dev’let face to face.’[125] - -In his time the house was simply paled in, and had a fair lawn before it, -surrounded by picturesque trees and shrubs. A man of fine taste, but of -a violent and uncertain disposition, George Steevens lived in retirement -at Hampstead for nearly thirty years (twenty-one of them in this house), -‘excluding all local acquaintance.’ He is said to have expended £2,000 in -improving and beautifying the house and grounds. He died here in 1800, -aged sixty-two, and was buried in the chapel at Poplar, in which parish -he was born, being the son of a sea-captain in the service of the East -India Company, subsequently a director. A monument by Flaxman and an -epitaph by Hayley distinguish his tomb.[126] - -In 1812, when John Carey published the fifth edition of his ‘New -Itinerary, or Book of the Roads,’ this house was in the possession -of Thomas Sheppard, Esq., M.P. for Frome,[127] who retained it till -1845, when it passed into other hands. At this present writing it is -the property of Mrs. Lister. Immediately opposite is the green mound -and ornamental shrubbery of the New Reservoir, and at the end of the -wall, continued from the house, and enclosing the once busy stable-yard -and offices of the Upper Flask, a path runs into the Holford Road, by -Heathfield House, and so to the East Heath. - -On the opposite side of the road is the Whitestone Pond, and here the -visitor finds himself - - ‘High on bleak Hampstead’s swarthy moor,’ - -as Macaulay has it, a line all very well for poetical purposes, but by no -means characteristic of Hampstead Heath, with its pure, etherized air, -full of brightness on the least pretence of sunshine, and though bleak -enough at this eminence with the wind at N.N.E., even balmy then in some -one or other of its many walks and sheltered valleys. It is true that -Gilchrist in his ‘Life of Blake’ speaks of the depth and monotony of the -tints prevailing in the woods and fields about Hampstead. But Collins and -Constable, Linnell, Leslie, and Landseer, and a host of later artists, -have not found them so. To them the Heath, with its broken ground, -varied herbage, and picturesque trees or groups of them, its splendid -cloudscapes, its changeful lights and shadows, has proved an art school -full of infinite variety and inexhaustible beauty. Here Collins came -for his old trees, his undulating banks, ‘full of flowering grasses, -and dark dock leaves,’ and the light and shade and reflections that -delight us in his pictures. Here, too, he met his ‘Harvest Showers’ and -‘Blackberry-Gatherers,’ and just across the Heath, where we are going, is -the scene of his ‘Taking out a Thorn’ (this picture is in the possession -of Her Majesty). And Constable, he who never saw an ugly thing in his -life, ‘for light and shade and perspective will make it beautiful,’[128] -he, too, found by every hedge and in every lane treasures of form and -tint, which Nature scatters broadcast, and therefore, to use his own -words, ‘nobody thinks it worth while to pick them up’—we suppose because -the miracle is too common to be generally noticed. Here he also studied -the skies, and effects of light, shade and colour, the dews, the breeze, -the storm, and made many a pictorial transcript from the vantage-ground -of the Heath, now bright with sunshine, but more often under the aspect -of drifting showers, for he seems to have loved the rain-laden, cloudy -skies, and to have revelled in depicting them. Fuseli, when going to call -on the artist, would cry out, ‘Give me an umbrella; I am going to see -Constable’s pictures!’[129] - -It was delightful to Constable, as it was to Collins, to point out the -beauty of the scene (than which there are few more lovely spots in -England), and to do, as it were, the honours of the Heath to friends -and visitors less intimate with it than himself—to surprise them with -new effects, and hear the praise of his ‘sweet Hampstead,’ repeated at -every fresh point of view. Such sympathetic appreciation doubled his own -pleasure in the prospects. We can imagine him and the brothers Chalon, -who in the delicious weather of the summer of 1834-35 spent six weeks -at Hampstead, standing here,[130] near the Flagstaff, from whence on a -clear day one may see the towers of Windsor, on the one hand, and across -the Thames to Shooter’s Hill and Hanging Woods on the other; while to the -south-west rises the spire-crowned hill of Harrow, with all the broad -lands lying between. Blake, too, though he could not relish the brisk air -of the Upper Heath, must in his visits to Linnell’s have met with visions -on its summit. It may have been here that he saw - - ‘The moon like a flower - In heaven’s high bower - With silent delight - Sit and smile on the night.’ - -Who knows? And Varley, with his portfolio of mingled horoscopes and -drawings, must have added many a rapid sketch to these latter from this -fair neighbourhood.[131] - -[Illustration: _Jack Straw’s Castle._] - -[Illustration: _Flagstaff._] - -At this point the well-known tavern, Jack Straw’s Castle, claims the -distinction of occupying the highest of the London levels, standing, as I -have elsewhere said, 400 feet (local historians say 443 feet) above the -level of the Thames. The tavern, according to a fast-fading tradition, -has its name from a robber who assumed it, and who lived on this spot, -where, of course, he commanded a good look-out on all footpaths leading -to or crossing the Heath. A cave on the premises is said to have been -the depository of his spoils. In all probability it had been the site -of a rude fort or mound, thrown up as a defence either against or by -Jack Straw’s and Wat Tyler’s rebel army.[132] At present Jack Straw’s -Castle is best known as a pleasant resort of summer visitors to the -Heath, and of late years as the scene of the Christmas Court Leets, one -of the rare occasions when the red-crossed flag of St. George, the Lord -of the Manor’s flag, waves from the adjacent flagstaff. From this spot -two roads fork off, that to the left leading to North End, the other to -the Spaniards, an inn standing at the entrance of the Heath on the road -to Highgate, on the site of an ancient toll-gate which formerly divided -the Bishop of London’s park from Hampstead Heath. It was primitively -known as the Gate-house or Park Gate-house, and has its present name from -its first landlord, a Spaniard, who converted the lodge into a house of -entertainment. So the story runs, but how it grew to a plural is not -explained. It is quite outside the precincts of Hampstead, being really -in Finchley parish, but is too closely connected with the Heath to be -left out in a description of it. - -[Illustration: _The Spaniards’ Garden._ - -(From a print by Chastelaine.)] - -The Spaniards was, perhaps is still, famous for its curiously laid-out -garden, in which designs in coloured pebbles appear to have anticipated -floral tapestry beds; and also for the fine views from the mound in it, -from which the most salient objects in six counties could be seen. It -was to the Spaniards, if I remember aright, that Oliver Goldsmith was -wont to take his ‘Jolly Pigeon friends’ for what he called ‘a shoemaker’s -holiday’ on the Heath; and it was to the Spaniards Tea-gardens that -Mrs. Bardell and her friends betook themselves on that eventful summer -afternoon when Dodson and Fogg took the widow in execution ‘on cognovit -and costs.’[133] The memory of Charles Dickens, like that of the author -of the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’ is thus indelibly associated with the -Spaniards.[134] - -A visit to this tavern was not always so unadventurous a proceeding as -at present, for a notice in the _Grub Street Journal_ of October, 1736, -informs us that on the previous Sunday evening, between seven and eight, -when Mr. Thomas Lane, a farrier of Hampstead, was coming home from the -Spaniards, upon the Heath, near the house called Mother Huffs[135] three -men in mean apparel jumped out of the bushes, and laying hold of him, -robbed him of forty-five shillings. They afterwards stripped him, tied -him neck and heels, and made him fast to a tree, in which condition he -lay more than an hour, till a woman coming by, he cried out, and she -released him. A warning to farriers and others to avoid tippling at the -Spaniards till eight o’clock on Sunday evenings. - -It was to the astuteness of the landlord of the Spaniards that Lord -Mansfield owed the saving of his house at Caen Wood from the fury of -the mob in the Gordon Riots, who, after sacking and setting fire to the -Earl’s town-house in Bloomsbury Square, started for Caen Wood with the -intention of destroying that also. The course of the rioters lay through -Gray’s Inn Lane to Hampstead. The afternoon was exceedingly sultry, and -the men and boys composing the mob, heated and weary from their previous -exertions and the march out, rejoiced at the sight of the well-known inn, -and longed for its foaming tankards of ripe ale. The landlord, who knew -of their intentions, affected rabble sympathies, and encouraged them to -refresh themselves. While they did so, he secretly gave information to -Lord Mansfield’s steward, who supplied additional barrels of ale from -the Caen Wood cellars, and in the meantime sent off a messenger for the -military. They fortunately were already on their way out, and quickly -surrounded the house, made the ringleaders prisoners, and as many of -their wretched followers as they could well secure. - -[Illustration: _Erskine House._] - -It is said Lord Mansfield never forgot his indebtedness to his publican -neighbour. And now—for this talk of the inn has lured us straight -to it—we must turn back if we mean to keep within the precincts of -Hampstead. The house—the end one of three at the east corner of the -Heath as we enter it from the Spaniards—with a deep portico projecting -to the road, was once the residence of the famous Lord Erskine, ‘an -inconsiderable-looking home for the great Lord Chancellor, but in -which, with his domestic tastes and love of Nature, he probably spent -some of the happiest years of his life.’ Originally neither house nor -garden appears to have been of much importance, but both were capable of -improvement, and Lord Erskine delighted in improving them. The ground -comprised several acres lying in natural undulations, and lent itself to -ornamental planting; while the eye was not confined to the enclosure, -but ‘ranged over views diversified and beautiful.’ The garden in his -day, be it remembered, lay on the opposite side of the road, and was -connected with the house by a subway, but this has long since been taken -by Lord Mansfield. Erskine himself is said to have planted the famous -holly-hedge. Here, with his old gardener, his lordship worked by way of -refreshment after his professional toils, and at last the place became -noted for the number and beauty of the trees and shrubs about it, and -took the name of the Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, which it retained -till his lordship’s death, since when it is properly distinguished as -Erskine House. - -For the story of Lord Erskine’s life—a grand one, though with the last -pages of it a little blurred—I must refer my readers to Campbell’s -‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ It is not often that the army proves -the vestibule to the Bar, but the training was of use there, and we read -that the effect of his eloquence was not a little heightened by the -dignity of his fine person and stately bearing. Crabb Robinson tells us -he could never forget the figure and voice of Erskine. There was a charm -in his voice, he says, ‘a fascination in his eye.’ His eloquence was at -once powerful and persuasive. We only remember it was used on the side -of truth and right. He was best known in connection with Hampstead as a -humane and amiable man, with a great love of gardening and flowers. - -Apropos of this, there is a story told of an anxious client calling on -him in Serjeants’ Inn, and finding the table of his consulting-room -occupied by thirty or forty small vials, in each of which was a slip of -geranium, and when the great man came in, instead of talking of the case, -he began to tell him of the many kinds of geraniums there were.[136] He -made no secret that he attached little or no importance to consultations, -but chose rather to rely upon himself. - -There is an anecdote told of him which, though it appeared in all -the magazines of the period subsequent to his death, and is repeated -in Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights,’ as it relates to the Heath, may very -well appear here. That good angel to animal existence, the Baroness -Burdett-Coutts, had not yet appeared, nor was there a Society for the -Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, though to Lord Erskine belongs the -honour of having first proposed the measure in Parliament which Martin -of Galway succeeded in carrying,[137] and which resulted in the founding -of the society. Crossing the Heath, he saw one of the donkey-drivers -beating a poor brute with more than ordinary cruelty, and hurried up to -expostulate with the man, who rudely answered him ‘that he had a right to -do what he liked with his own.’ ‘Very well,’ said Erskine, ‘so have I. -This stick is my own;’ and he lost no time in practically illustrating -the force of the unfortunate argument by giving the fellow a sound -thrashing. - -When Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others, were, through his manly pleading, -acquitted of high treason, his name became a household word in England. -Tokens, two of which are before me, were struck commemorative of the -event, with the portraits and names of the accused gentlemen on the -obverse, and the words ‘Tried for high treason, 1794’; and on the -reverse, ‘Acquitted by his jury and counsels, Hon. Thos. Erskine and W. -Gibbs, Esq.’ - -The words ‘Trial by Jury’ were painted by way of motto on one of the -windows of Erskine House. - -It is well known that differences in their political feelings and -opinions had alienated him from Burke, whom he much admired; but it is -pleasant to learn that before the death of the latter their differences -were adjusted, and Burke visited him at Hampstead. ‘He came to see me,’ -says Lord Erskine, ‘before he died. I then lived at Hampstead Hill. -“Come, Erskine,” said he, holding out his hand, “let us forget all. I -shall soon quit this stage, and wish to die in peace with everybody, -especially you.” I reciprocated the sentiment, and we took a turn round -the grounds. Suddenly he stopped; an extensive prospect broke upon -him.... He stood wrapped in thought, gazing on the sky as the sun was -setting. “Ah, Erskine,” he said, pointing towards it, “you cannot spoil -_that_, because you cannot reach it. It would otherwise go. Yes; the -firmament itself you and your reformers would tear down.”’ - -[Illustration: _Lord Erskine._] - -This is Mr. Rush’s account, but the Right Hon. T. Erskine says: ‘Mr. Rush -has quite spoiled Mr. Burke’s sarcasm upon being conducted by my father -to his garden through a tunnel under the road that divided the house -from the shrubbery. All the beauty of Ken Wood, Lord Mansfield’s, and -the distant prospect burst upon him. “Oh,” said Burke, “this is just the -place for a reformer. All the beauties are beyond your reach; you cannot -destroy them.”’ - -Miss Seward was much struck with Erskine’s fine face and elegant figure, -his bonhomie and exuberant fun; but his egotism was wearisome, and, -unfortunately, it grew upon him with years. Fanny Burney’s account of him -runs pretty much on the same lines, but he was not, when she met him, so -brilliant in conversation as he had been. - -In 1805 he had lost his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, and who -had literally shared with him the ‘burden and heat of the day,’ as true -and loving in comparative poverty as in affluence. She died in London, -but is buried in Hampstead Church, where a fine monument by the younger -Bacon, of which Park gives an engraving, perpetuates her memory as the -‘most faithful and affectionate of women.’ - -About 1821-23 Lord Erskine removed from his house at Hampstead, where he -had resided from 1788, and on doing so transferred the copyhold to Lord -Mansfield. - -He subsequently resided in Arabella Row, Pimlico, and tarnished, it is -said, the lustre of his declining years by a second marriage. ‘When, -how, or with whom,’ Lord Campbell had not heard upon authority. It is -also said that his bright spirits deserted him, and that, like S. T. -Coleridge, he had recourse to opium. Sheridan charitably suggested - - ‘When men like Erskine go astray, - Their stars are more in fault than they.’ - -The house next the Evergreens, Heath End House, was in 1811 in the -possession of Edward Coxe, Esq., the author of various poems, many of -them referring to the Heath;[138] and the large square one opposite -the beautiful grove of pine-trees (which Constable painted, and which -were raised from seeds of the stone-pine brought from Ravenna,[139] and -planted by that ancient Sylvanus of the Heath, Mr. Turner, a retired -tobacconist of Thames Street) originally belonged to him, but at the date -above mentioned was the residence of Charles Bosanquet, Esq. It stands -on an eminence, and is said to command beautiful and extensive views. -These houses have had various tenants since then, but not one who has -conferred such lasting benefits on the Heath as Mr. Turner, who appears -to have devoted his retired leisure to beautifying it. The groups of ash -and elm and horse-chestnut trees, now railed in (thanks to the Board of -Works) for their better preservation, are of his planting. He also made -the road, the Sandy Road, as it is called, from this point to North End. -Hereabouts is the scene of that charming bit of nature, to which we have -already referred, ‘Taking out a Thorn,’ which had for its point of view, -the late Mr. Charles Collins tells us, the clump of fir-trees near the -Spaniards, looking towards North End. ‘There, upon the bank, sits the old -furze-cutter, extracting a thorn from the finger of a chubby urchin, -who rubs his eye dolefully during the operation with the corner of his -pin-before.’ - -[Illustration: _North Heath._] - -If, following the tree-shaded winding way, we make a little détour to the -right, we shall see, lying in the bottom, half in shade, by reason of -new sheds and a great square, vane-crested barn (the natural outcome of -thrifty labour, and better times for farmers than of late), the little -Morland-like farmhouse to which they belong. When the trees about it -are in leaf, its high-pitched, red-tiled roof, white weather-boarded -front, and small windows, set in a garden in which rue and southernwood -still flourish, the whole inclosed with palings and defended by a gate -on the latch, makes a pretty picture. A few ash-trees, the remains of a -grove of them, fringe the path to it past the new barn, and the view in -front is closed by a little gravelly hill, on the summit of which seats -are placed, and charming views are to be had for the climbing. This is -Collins’ Farm, now called Tooly’s Farm, a dwelling that, for all its -seeming humility, has been the temporary abode of many men of genius.[140] - -This was for successive summers the ‘_sunshine holiday_’ home of the -elder Linnell and his family, who perhaps never worked harder himself -than when here, and who, being here, drew around him a little company -of his brother artists and men of letters—amongst them Blake, Varley, -Flaxman, and Morland. - -Nearer to our own times Dickens had lodgings here, and wrote, it is said, -several chapters of ‘Bleak House’ in this retirement. Lover is also said -to have made it his summer quarters on one occasion. Other artists than -the elder Linnell have found its simple comfort and quiet, in addition to -its close proximity to the lovely Heath and its surroundings, excellent -reasons for preferring Collins’ Farm to more pretentious lodgings in the -neighbourhood. It is easy to return from this point to the broad holly -hedge opposite Lord Erskine’s house. At the end of it is the site (until -quite recently) of the most interesting relic that Hampstead retained -of what may be called its classic days—the Nine Elms, whose boughs had -shaded the favourite resting-place of Pope and Murray (the after owner of -Ken Wood, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield). Poetically they were dedicated -to the Muses, - - ‘Who chose them for their favourite shrine: - The trees were elms, their number nine.’ - -So sang Edward Coxe, the poet of the Heath, and friend and neighbour of -Erskine, who, because they impeded his view, had had a mind to have them -cut down, but spared them for the sake of their associations. ‘So late -as the spring of 1872 these trees were standing. In April or May of that -year the writer of a letter to the Board of Works, which appeared in the -_Hampstead Express_, called their attention to a bit of unappropriated -land near the Nine Elms on the Spaniards Road, and suggested that, as -the Board had got possession of Judges’ Walk, the Wildwood Avenue, the -triangular piece of ground at the end of Holford Road, and the piece of -ground where the band used to play, the Vestry should endeavour to get -hold of this also.’ But soon after it was stated that the ground had been -granted to Lord Mansfield, and the first thing that had been done was to -cut down these trees, with which the name of his famous kinsman had been -so charmingly connected. - -In my time the elms guarded the old seat, scarred with forgotten names -and the initials of the unknown, around which they stood, ‘green -sentinels,’ whispering in every breeze to those who knew the story -of their youth gentle reminiscences of the men for whose sake the -inhabitants of Hampstead and the conservators of the Heath would have -given, we believe, ten times their value as timber to have had them -retained.[141] - -The small bit of land on which they grew having been granted to Lord -Mansfield, it is natural to suppose that, for the sake of their -associations, he would have spared the trees had he known how sacred they -were in the literary annals of Hampstead. - -[Illustration: _Fanny Burney._] - -Whereabouts, I wonder, was that villa situated on Hampstead Hill (Lord -Erskine used to speak of his home as being on Hampstead Hill) where in -June, 1792, Fanny Burney and her father paid a three days’ visit to the -beautiful Mrs. Crewe?—a villa, ‘small, but commodious,’ with a garden, -and so near the Heath that the company strolled out upon it for a walk -after dinner? No one can answer our question, and Miss Burney has left us -no clue. Mrs. Crewe, to whose name the word ‘beautiful’ appears to have -been an ordinary prefix, was one of the great leaders of society in the -latter part of the eighteenth century. She was the daughter of Mr. Fulke -Greville, Ambassador from the Court of Britain to that of Bavaria. She -married in 1774-75[142] John Crewe, Esq., of Crewe Hall, Leicestershire, -and accepted her husband’s politics, those of the Whigs. As clever as -she was lovely, her salons were sought by men of all parties, and she -numbered Burke and Fox among her stanchest friends. Especially was she -the idol of her husband’s club, Brooks’s,[143] whose favourite toast was -‘Buff and Blue, and Mrs. Crewe!’ The colours alluded to were those of the -club, whose uniform, audaciously borrowed from that worn by the American -rebels who fought in Washington’s army, consisted of a blue coat and -buff waistcoat. The personal feeling which permeated politics in those -days appears to have been felt as passionately by the women as the men, -and ladies, Whig and Tory, not only wore their patches on opposite sides -of their faces, but adopted the colours of their party in their dress. -I have before me an odd volume of the _Lady’s Magazine_, where, under -the head of ‘Fashion,’ I find it stated that ‘Ladies attached to Mr. -Fox’s party are distinguished by a uniform of blue and straw colour: the -gown blue, the petticoat straw colour; the hats blue, lined with straw -colour, and trimmed with a fox’s brush, feathers, or wreaths of laurel, -having the leaves inscribed in gold letters, “Fox, Liberty, Freedom and -Constitution!” with coloured silk shoes to match the dress, with white -heels.’ Imagine driving down the Regent Street of to-day in a hat thus -decorated! - -In the March of 1775 Mrs. Crewe gave an elegant masquerade, remarkable -for the first appearance of plumes in the hair and head-dresses of -the ladies, a French fashion newly come up, and which, judging from -the number of quizzical verses it gave rise to in the pages of the -_Universal_ and other magazines of the day, was not at first more popular -with the gentlemen than with the mob.[144] One writer suggested that the -ladies had made a party to rob the museum, - - ‘And to feather their nests well, and make their heads clever, - Had crossed Leicester Square, and plundered poor Lever.’[145] - -Upon the same page is a song called ‘The Feathers,’ also referring to -Mrs. Crewe’s masquerade, while a third writer sings: - - ‘Here beauty displays her high plumes to our view, - Here all her bright feathers are shown; - Though none of them wave on the tresses of _Crewe_, - She yet to each heart gives the _ton_.’ - -The personal beauty, wit and cleverness of this accomplished woman -appear to have distinguished her to the end. Sixteen years had passed -between this event and Miss Burney’s visit to her at Hampstead, and -this is how the author of ‘Evelina’ describes her: ‘We were received by -Mrs. Crewe with much kindness. The room was rather dark, and she had -a veil to her bonnet half down, and with this aid she looked still in -a full blaze of beauty. She is certainly in my eye the most complete -beauty of any woman I ever saw.’ Later on she had better opportunities -of noticing her fair hostess, and her verdict is still, ‘I know not even -now any female’ (horrid word!) ‘in her first youth who could bear the -comparison. Her bloom perfectly natural, and the form of her face so -exquisitely perfect’ that the eyes of the observant Fanny never met it -without fresh admiration. ‘She is certainly in my eyes,’ she repeats, -‘the most perfect beauty of a woman I ever saw: she _uglifies_ everything -near her.’ No wonder we find the gallants of the day, amongst others Fox, -writing adulatory verses to her. This unity of opinion as to the many -graces of this lovely woman suggests a character as perfect as her face, -and we do not wonder that men of such a diversity of personal qualities -and political opinions should be attracted by her as Burke and his -brother, who were dining with her on the occasion referred to, and Lords -Loughborough and Erskine, who joined them in their walk afterwards. Fox’s -poem is too long to quote, but the first verse will show the spirit of it: - - ‘Where the loveliest expression to features is joined, - By Nature’s most delicate pencil designed; - Where blushes unbidden, and smiles without art, - Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart; - Where in manner enchanting no blemish we trace, - But the soul keeps the promise we had from the face!’[146] - -And this reminds me of the complex character of the soft-hearted but -rugged-looking writer of them, the great Whig Minister, whom the -Opposition party represented as a desperate and dangerous demagogue, -and compared to another Cromwell. Yet Burke, his great opponent and -adversary, spoke of him as ‘a man made to be loved,’ the ‘most brilliant -and accomplished of debaters the world ever saw.’ And Gibbon declared -that no human being was more free from any taint of malignity, vanity, -or falsehood. It is no wonder that women were enthusiastic in their -admiration of him, and though one clever Frenchwoman designated him a -‘fagot des épines,’ Madame Récamier, paraphrasing Shakespeare, wrote of -him that he had ‘a tear for pity, and a hand open as day for melting -charity.’ ‘What a man is Fox!’ exclaimed Horace Walpole. ‘After his -exhausting speech on Hastings’ trial, he was seen handing ladies into -their coaches with all the gaiety and prattle of an idle gallant.’ - -He felt strongly on the subject of the slave trade, and opposed it,[147] -as well as the war with America. His good nature and affability made him -very popular. I should not wonder, if gout permitted it, to learn that -he made one of the visitors to Hampstead during Mrs. Crewe’s residence -there. What a charming figure, by the way, must this lady have made in -the walks, where we should have met the Hon. Miss Murrays (when not in -attendance on their venerable uncle, Lord Mansfield) and Mrs. Montague, -the recognised leader of literary society, and clever little Fanny Burney -herself! - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -_HOLLY-BUSH AND WINDMILL HILLS._ - - -Leaving Heath Street upon the right (at the end of High Street), and -Mount Vernon on the left, the ascent of Holly-bush Hill, in the years I -am writing of, led through into an open space with a bit of the waste -running in upon it, with three tree-sheltered and old-fashioned red-brick -houses on the very brow of Windmill Hill. One of these, the centre one of -the three—Bolton House—was for many years the home of Joanna Baillie and -her sister Agnes, where Lady Davy often visited them to the very last. - -Windmill Hill and Holly-bush Hill are in such close proximity that the -names become almost convertible, and were not unfrequently used one for -the other. Thus, the author of the ‘Northern Heights of London’ placed -the home of Romney the painter on Windmill Hill, and suggested that it -was the house standing in a garden at the back of Bolton House. But Park, -who was resident at Hampstead, and published the first edition of his -history in 1813, only eleven years after the death of Romney, distinctly -states that ‘the present very elegant Assembly Room’ at the Holly-bush -Tavern, with card and supper rooms adjoining, are ‘_partly_ formed out of -the house built by Romney the painter.’ - -[Illustration: _Bolton House._] - -Other writers describe the Assembly Room as having made part of the -artist’s gallery. When, for the purpose of this chapter, I personally -visited the place to make inquiries on the spot, I was informed that, -until recently, the Assembly Room and other public rooms adjoining it had -been totally separate from the Holly-bush Tavern, making in point of fact -part of another house, with which, except by going through the kitchen -and garden of the inn, there was no communication. But all this had -been altered, to the great convenience of persons attending the balls, -concerts, lectures, etc.; and the lofty spacious rooms, further enlarged -and decorated, were by these changes attached to, and entered from, the -tavern. - -More than forty years have passed since the above paragraphs were -written, and all the functions, which then made the Holly-bush and the -old Assembly Room of importance, are now removed to the Conservatoire, -Haverstock Hill. I learn from Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead,’ the -Assembly Room, etc., is to this day held on a totally different agreement -from the inn. - -The life of Romney, as told by his biographers, is a melancholy one. -In order to devote himself wholly to art and the acquisition of fame -and fortune, he had sacrificed all domestic happiness, and condemned a -young and loving wife to years of wasting and protracted solitude. When -at last weary of the town and society, or, as his biographer puts it, -‘filled with that desire of the unsatisfied soul for a peace that the -world cannot give,’ he had abandoned, after twenty years’ residence, his -fine house in Cavendish Square, and had thrown away more than £2,000 on -the building of a coveted retirement at Hampstead, a structure in which -‘the painting-room and gallery had been nobly planned, but all domestic -conveniences overlooked.’ Here, with his friend and panegyrist, the -poet Hayley—who, by the way, writes of his abode as his ‘singular house -at Hampstead’—we find him projecting new subjects for his easel, and -reproducing in characters as varied as her fortune the fascinating Lady -Hamilton. Now she appears as Nature,[148] as the enchantress Circe, as -a Magdalen with tear-stained eyes, a wood-nymph, the musically-inspired -virgin St. Cecilia, or a vine-crowned Bacchante, as she smiles on us from -the walls of the National Gallery.[149] - -It was during Romney’s residence at Hampstead that Boydell resolved on -publishing his ‘Shakespeare Gallery,’ and enlisted, among other artists, -Romney’s talent for his enterprise. - -‘Before you paint Shakespeare,’ observed Lord Thurlow, to whom the -painter mentioned his commission, ‘I advise you to read him.’ A very -pertinent suggestion, even if a little obvious. - -In his fine painting-room during its first novelty Romney continued to -receive visitors of high rank, and amongst other lovely personages the -beautiful Mrs. Bosanquet and her children, as they stepped into the -studio from their walk or drive, fresh as the Heath itself that they -had crossed; the artist’s weary heart turning the while to his waiting -wife, who through long years had endured, as Milton expresses it, ‘that -greatest injury to the gentle spirit—the suffering of not being beloved, -and yet retained.’ - -But now, when he had reached the desired position where, ‘without -reference to gain or patronage, he was free to work out his most -ambitious conceptions of art, his strength failed him, his hands shook,’ -and after two years’ struggle in his mansion on the hill at Hampstead, -where Hayley at this period found him ‘solitary and dejected,’ the -mistaken man returned in the summer of 1799 to his faithful wife, whom he -had only visited twice in thirty years, to learn, Howitt thinks, from her -gentle, unreproaching tenderness how much he had lost by leaving her. - -It is a melancholy story, this, of man’s ambitious vanity, losing the -zest of life for a vapour of laudation from the mouths of men, but a -notice of Holly-bush Hill would be incomplete without it. He lingered, -rather than lived, till 1802, and died November 15 of that year, -reaching to nearly sixty-eight years of age, helpless as an infant. His -Hampstead house and its contents were sold, but being ‘wholly without -domestic accommodation, and the gallery and painting-room out of all -proportion for family requirements,’ the use which Park assigns to it was -no doubt the only practical one to which it could be appropriated. - -Prejudices, like old traditions, die hard at Hampstead, and I found in -1898 that some very odd ideas of Romney’s residence still obtained there. -He was said to have lived for a few years at No. 5, The Mount, and had -at the back of his garden, on Holly-bush Hill, an art-gallery or studio, -a weather-boarded building of large size. It was said that the existing -buildings (also weather-boarded) were the same, but my informant tells me -that he was enabled to prove that this was only partially the case. - -Besides Hayley’s account of the artist’s mansion on the Hampstead hill, -we have Allan Cunningham’s memoir of Romney at hand, in which he tells -us that no sooner had the idea of an ampler gallery in a quieter scene -than Cavendish Square possessed Romney, than he forthwith purchased the -ground, lined out the site, and began to draw his plans; and in 1797 he -writes: ‘The strange new studio and dwelling-house which he (Romney) had -planned and raised at Hampstead had an influence on his studies, his -temper, and his health. He had expended a year, and a sum of £2,733, on -an odd and whimsical structure in which there was nothing like domestic -arrangements. There was a wooden arcade for a riding-house in the garden, -and a very extensive picture and statue gallery.’ The former, I have no -doubt, was the weather-boarded building of large size which subsequently -represented to popular imagination the picture-gallery of the great -painter. - -On the sale of this house (probably in 1803, when Romney’s pictures -were sold at Hampstead), it was found, as we have said, useless as a -residence, and required rebuilding to fit it for the purpose of an -Assembly House, which alteration did not take place till 1807, when the -premises appear to have been purchased for this speculation by certain -gentlemen of Hampstead, who formed themselves into a company, one of whom -was the father of the present Mr. George Holford, who possesses documents -relating to this building of the above date.[150] - -The builder of the Assembly Room was a Mr. Greening. The fact is, I -believe, accepted, that it stands where Romney’s house stood, and that -some portion of his gallery remains. The whole set of apartments are now -used for the Constitutional Club.[151] - -Romney is not the only memorable painter associated with the Holly-bush -Assembly Room. In later years we find the Nature-loving, tender-hearted -Constable, whose ‘fine presence and genial manners’ were long remembered -at Hampstead and its vicinity, giving a series of lectures here on the -‘Origin of Landscape Painting,’ and illustrating his theme by reference -to local objects. - -Lovers of Hampstead Heath well know the Fir-tree Avenue, or, rather, -the wreck of it remaining, of which, then in its prime, he made a -drawing, on seeing which Blake exclaimed: ‘Why, this is not drawing, but -inspiration!’ From his lecture we learn that in his time there had stood -at the entrance of the village a tall and elegant ash-tree, the likeness -of which he had taken and exhibited to his audience, while he pleasantly -told its story: - -‘Many of my friends may remember this young lady[152] at the entrance of -the village; her fate was distressing, for it is scarcely too much to say -that she died of a broken heart. I made this drawing when she was in full -health and beauty. On passing some time after I saw, to my grief, that a -wretched board had been nailed to her side, on which was written in large -letters, “All vagrants and beggars will be dealt with according to law.” -The tree seemed to have felt the disgrace, for even then some of the top -branches had withered. Two long spikes had been driven far into her side; -in another year one half had become paralyzed, and not long after the -other shared the same face.’ - -[Illustration: _Holly-bush Hill, 1840._] - -On the occasion of Constable’s second lecture at the same place we catch -a glimpse of Leslie walking across the West End fields to hear it. It was -a summer’s evening, and Leslie pauses now and again to watch the splendid -combinations of the glorious clouds, and their radiant effect in and -upon the landscape—effects which Constable had noticed also, and called -attention to in his lecture. - -All the then scientific, intellectual, and social life of Hampstead had -its headquarters at the Assembly Room on Holly-bush Hill till after the -fifties. Here, as I have said, the public balls and concerts, lectures -and conversaziones, took place, and all the social problems and local -movements that affected the well-being of the town and its inhabitants -were discussed here. - -Here, too, were held those memorable meetings which had for their object -the frustration of the scheme so subtly and surreptitiously devised, to -wrest the Heath and its privileges from the copyholders and the general -public; and here were resolved on various occasions those prandial and -pyrotechnic displays of loyalty that from time to time have borne witness -to the strength of this sentiment amongst the inhabitants of Hampstead. -Nor is the Holly-bush Tavern, of which the Assembly Room was in 1855 an -integral part, without its own interesting associations. It does not look -much like a scene of political intrigue, yet on this account, possibly, -it was the rendezvous of Carr (Earl of Rochester), Dering and Goring, -who during the wars of the King and Parliament met at this house to -devise the rising in Kent, Essex, and Hertfordshire. The cosy parlour saw -other company in Charles II.’s time, when the wicked ‘dramatists of the -Restoration’ were wont ‘to set the table in a roar’ with wit, the sparkle -of which, like the phosphorescent glitter of corruption, has vanished at -the presence of the healthy light. - -Good wine is said to need no bush, but the acceptability of that at -the Holly-bush to men who frequented Powlet’s and ‘knew a hawk from a -hernshaw,’ where honest port and good claret were in question, had given -a prestige to the wayside inn, not lost even when these lines were first -written, especially in the estimation of literary men. One must put a -mask on (as the women did who listened to his plays) to penetrate the -pleasant parlour during the symposia, at which the handsome, but vicious -and immoral Wycherley presided. No such compromise in modesty is needed -when Goldsmith turns host, and entertains at no small cost (for the -little inn had always a reputation for its cuisine), Garrick, Sir Joshua, -Boswell, and the Great Leviathan of learning, Dr. Johnson. I forget the -occasion on which the dinner at the Holly-bush came off. I have no doubt -it commemorated some rare event that had put money in the pocket of our -improvident author—the profits of ‘The Good-Natured Man,’ perhaps. - -[Illustration: _Sir Joshua Reynolds._] - -We all know how warmly and truly Johnson regarded Goldsmith, and yet he -was capable of wounding him to the quick by his cruel pleasantries. On -one occasion—let us hope it was not this—when Goldy, a little jealous -of the success of Beattie’s ‘Essay on Truth,’ exclaimed, ‘Here’s a stir -about a fellow that has written one book, and I have written many’—‘Ah, -doctor, doctor,’ observed the terrible man, ‘there go two-and-forty -sixpences to one guinea.’ But time has justified poor Goldy, and -the ‘Deserted Village’ is still read, and the delightful ‘Vicar of -Wakefield’; Moses and the rest of the Primrose family live on, perennial -as their name; while Beattie, except by bookmen, is almost wholly -forgotten.[153] - -Telford, Leigh Hunt, and Lamb, showed the same faith in the capital -cellar and culinary skill to be found at the Holly-bush Tavern. Modern -men of their craft have been of the same opinion, and the inn continued -till recent times to be a favourite with literary men and artists. The -Holly-bush had also the honour (perhaps has it still) of being the -headquarters of the Masonic Lodge of St. John; but otherwise its prestige -has departed. The Assembly-Room, if it exists, is now the meeting-place -of political and other local clubs, and its exterior and surroundings are -so altered as to be scarcely recognisable to one who first saw it half a -century ago. - -To return to the sister eminence, Windmill Hill, so called from having -been the site of one of the two windmills that anciently added to the -picturesque charms of Hampstead, the mound on which it stood was, when I -first knew this delightful spot, plainly discernible in the artificially -rising ground on which Netley Cottage stands. In Elizabeth’s time another -windmill stood in a field near the church, which Gerard distinguished as -the habitat of the white butterfly orchis. - -But it is not from its antiquity, old as it is, that Windmill Hill -derives its interest, but from the fact of its having been the place of -residence for many years of a woman of genius, whose celebrity, so to -speak, still clings to it; for apart from Joanna Baillie’s connection -with it, there is little to be said of Windmill Hill.[154] - -There is a pleasant notice in one of Mrs. Barbauld’s letters from -Hampstead of two shy, Nature-loving girls, whom she was constantly -encountering in her walks, and who were never so happy as when gathering -wild-flowers in the woods and hedgerows, or in seeing the ‘gold-thorn’ -blazing on the Heath, or in roaming about the old gravel-pits and -water-courses. They were the daughters of her near neighbour, Mrs. -Dorothea Baillie, widow of the Rev. James Baillie, D.D., Professor -of Divinity at Glasgow, and sisters of the distinguished Dr. Matthew -Baillie. But the youngest of these girls was then twenty-two years of age. - -Later on (in 1800) Mrs. Barbauld writes to a friend: ‘I have received -great pleasure lately from the representation of “De Montfort,” a -tragedy, which you probably read a year and a half ago in a volume -entitled “A Series of Plays on the Passions.” I admired it then, but -little dreamed I was indebted for my entertainment to a young lady whom -I visited, and who came to Mr. Barbauld’s meetings all the while with as -innocent a face as if she had never written a line.’ The play, she adds, -is admirably played by Mrs. Siddons and Kemble, and is finely written, -with great purity of sentiment and beauty of diction, strength, and -originality of character, but it is open to criticism.[155] - -Six years later the young poetess (the prologue to whose tragedy had been -written by the Hon. Francis North, and the epilogue by the Duchess of -Devonshire) had become famous, and her home on Windmill Hill an object of -pilgrimage to men of the highest intellectual reputation. Hither came -Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, Rogers, and, as time moved on, -succeeding representative men and women, to pay their tribute of respect -and admiration to the successful poetess. - -No longer shy, but simple and unaffected, and full of genuine kindness, -she appears to have had the faculty of attaching those whom she -attracted—notably Wordsworth and Sir Walter Scott, whose appreciation of -her as a poetess led to life-long personal friendship. - -It is noteworthy that on the first occasion of the great novelist, whom -a clever critical correspondent of mine calls the ‘greatest second-rate -man the world ever saw,’ coming to London in the summer of 1806, the year -in which Miss Baillie’s mother died, one of his earliest visits was to -his gifted fellow-countrywoman—for the little manse, near Bothwell Brig, -in the valley of the Clyde, where her father was minister, was Joanna -Baillie’s birthplace—a visit that led to many others on both sides, and a -friendship, as I have said, that lasted through life. She tells us that -at her first meeting with him she was disappointed, so different was he -in appearance from the ideal bard of the ‘Lay,’ which her own poetical -mind had imagined. She had pictured an ‘ideal elegance and refinement of -feature in the poet,’ ‘but found comfort in looking at the benevolence -and shrewdness in the rough-hewn, homely face of her great compatriot; -and in the thought that were she in a crowd, and at a loss what to do, -she should have fixed upon that face among a thousand, as the sure index -of a brave kind nature that would, and could, help her in her strait.’ -Yet before they had talked long, she saw in the expressive play of his -countenance far more, even of elegance and refinement, than she had -missed in its mere lines. Henceforth she and her brother, Dr. Matthew -Baillie, were amongst the most honoured friends of Sir Walter. The -acquaintance on both sides ripened into the most affectionate regard. - -Amongst Joanna Baillie’s correspondence, Sir Walter’s letters are about -the most interesting. One of them has for the purposes of these pages a -twofold interest, not only as showing his admiration of the poetess, but -as illustrating the evil reputation of the neighbourhood of Hampstead, -and the dangers to which foot-passengers were liable, even at that time. -The letter is dated 1811, and was written on the appearance of a new -volume of Joanna Baillie’s ‘Plays on the Passions,’ one of them being the -passion of Fear, in which appear the lines set to music by Bishop, with -which we are all familiar, ‘The Chough and Crow.’ - - ‘Fear, the most dramatic passion you have hitherto touched, - because capable of being drawn to the most extreme paroxysm on - the stage. In Ozra you have all the gradations from timidity - excited by strong and irritable imagination to the extremity - which altogether unhinges the understanding. The most dreadful - fright I ever had in my life (being neither constitutionally - timid nor in the way of being exposed to real danger) was in - returning from Hampstead the day which I spent so pleasantly - with you. Although the evening was nearly closed, I foolishly - chose to take the short-cut through the fields, and in the - enclosure where the path leads by a thick and high hedge with - several gaps. In it, however, did I meet with one of your - thoroughpaced London ruffians—at least, judging from the - squalid and jail-bird appearance and blackguard expression of - countenance. Like the man who met the Devil, I had nothing to - say to him, if he had nothing to say to me; but I could not - help looking back to watch the movements of such a suspicious - figure, and, to my great uneasiness, saw him creep through the - hedge on my left hand. I instantly went to the first gap to - watch his motions, and saw him stooping, as I thought, either - to pick up a bundle or to speak to someone lying in the ditch. - Immediately after he came cowering back, up the opposite side - of the hedge, as returning to me under cover of it. I saw no - weapon he had except a stick, but, as I moved on to gain the - stile which was to let me into the free field, with the idea - of a wretch springing upon me from the cover at every step I - took, I assure you I would not wish the worst enemy I ever had - to undergo such a feeling as I had for about five minutes. - My fancy made him of that description which usually combines - murder with plunder; and though I was armed with a stout stick, - and a very formidable knife, which when open becomes a sort of - _shene-dhu_, or dagger, I confess my sensations, though those - of a man resolved not to die like a sheep, were vilely short - of heroism. So much so that, when I jumped over the stile, a - sliver of the wood ran a third of an inch between my nail and - the flesh without my feeling the pain, or being sensible that - such a thing had occurred. However, I saw my man no more, and - it is astonishing how my spirits rose when I got into the open - field; and when I reached the top of the little mount, and all - the bells of London’ (it was probably on a Sunday evening) - ‘began to jingle at once, I thought I had never heard anything - so delightful in my life, so rapid are the alternations of our - feelings.’[156] - -Writing twelve months later, Crabb Robinson relates how, on a morning of -May, 1812, meeting Wordsworth in the Oxford Road (now Oxford Street), and -getting into the fields, he walked thence with him to Hampstead, where -they met Joanna Baillie, whom he thus describes: - - ‘She is small in figure, and her gait is mean and shuffling, - but her manners are those of a well-bred woman. She has none - of _the unpleasant airs too common to literary ladies_. Her - conversation is sensible. She possesses apparently considerable - information, is prompt without being forward, and has a fixed - judgment of her own, without any disposition to force it upon - others. Wordsworth said of her, with warmth: “If I had to - present anyone to a foreigner as a model English gentlewoman, - it would be Joanna Baillie.”’ - -Later writers eulogize her quiet, unobtrusive life in the beloved -companionship of her sister, and the enjoyment of the yet unspoiled -beauty of Nature which surrounded them. A few steps from their house took -them to the Heath, with its glorious sun-risings and sun-settings, its -cloud and landscapes, its groups and groves of trees, its ferny hollows, -and hillocks, purple or golden in their seasons, with the bells of the -common heath, or the glittering peach-scented blossoms of the furze. -Twenty-nine years after Crabb Robinson’s meeting with her, in the course -of a chatty London letter of Lord Jeffreys to Mrs. Innes, he tells her -how after breakfasting with Miss Rogers in Regent’s Park, where they -had the poet Murray, the hero of the Pawnees, the Milmans, Sir Charles -and Lady Bell, etc. (a most lovely morning, by the way), they drove to -Hampstead and saw Joanna Baillie, then in her seventy-fifth year. - -It was on the occasion of a visit to her some time before this that Mary -Howitt, with her little son Charlton, I believe, had the pleasure of -meeting Sir Walter Scott, whose admiration of the fair curls and bright -looks of the boy was ever afterwards associated with her remembrance of -the kind-hearted author of the Waverley novels.[157] - -[Illustration: _Joanna Baillie._] - -To the last Joanna Baillie continued to keep a little court for literary -callers, and received in her simple, old-fashioned home the homage of the -great in rank and intellect. In 1851, at the ripe age of eighty-eight -(she was born in 1763), the little churchyard through which she had so -often passed received the remains of this lovable and gifted woman.[158] - -Her sister, Miss Agnes Baillie, continued to reside at Bolton House, in -which she had a number of the windows darkened, so that it came to be -called by the children of the Heath ‘the house with the black windows.’ -She was becoming very old, and, though sane upon many subjects, had -little innocent illusions of going to heaven in the ark, the appearance -of which she looked for from day to day. It came at last on April 27, -1861, when she died, aged one hundred years and seven months. Some time -before this event a controversy had been going on in a literary paper -which questioned the fact of ‘lives of a hundred and upwards,’ whereupon -a gentleman wrote to the editor of the _Athenæeum_ as follows:[159] - -‘_January 7, 1860._—Permit me to forward a copy of the certificate of -birth of a lady in her hundredth year, living at Hampstead, viz., the -sister of the well-known authoress Joanna Baillie, and of the deceased -Dr. Baillie,’ etc. - -The document was lately obtained by Dr. Baillie’s son, Mr. W. H. Baillie, -of Upper Harley Street, and is as follows: - -‘Copy of an entry in a separate register of the Presbytery of Hamilton -under the head of “Sholto.” That Mr. James Baillie has a daughter named -Agnes, born 24 September, 1760. Attested and signed at Hamilton the 25 -day of November, 1760, in the presence of the Presbytery. Signed (James -Baillie); John Kirk, Clerk; Patrick Maxwell, Moderator.’ - -‘This venerable lady,’ it is added, ‘is still, notwithstanding the recent -severe weather, in the enjoyment of her usual health.’ - -Seven months later she had, as we have seen, joined her sister in the -peaceful churchyard; but lives of a hundred years and more have been by -no means rare at Hampstead. - -In 1895 my attention was directed to a newspaper paragraph, containing -a description of the Baillies’ residence at Hampstead, and also to some -notes which had appeared from time to time in the _Bookman_, descriptive -of remarkable houses in the locality. - -The newspaper correspondent’s account of the date of the Baillies’ -residence at Hampstead is certainly incorrect. He tells us that the -Baillies came to London in 1791, where they lived with their brother, -Dr. Matthew Baillie, at 16, Great Windmill Street, Piccadilly. In 1802, -shortly after the appearance of ‘Plays of the Passions,’ vol. ii., they -went with their mother to live at Red Lion Hill, Hampstead, and on her -death they removed to Bolton House. The first appearance of ‘De Montfort’ -was, as I have shown, in April, 1800, at which time the Barbaulds were -living in Church Row, from whence Mrs. Barbauld writes of the Baillies as -her near neighbours, which they would not have been had they been living -at Red Lion (now Rosslyn) Hill, with the whole length of Hampstead town -between them. - -The Barbaulds left the neighbourhood for Stoke Newington in 1802, the -year this gentleman gives as that of the Baillies’ removal to Hampstead. - -Still stranger is the chronology of the writer in the _Bookman_ (1895), -who gives the year of their mother’s death (1806) as the date of the -Baillies’ removal to Hampstead. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -_NORTH END._ - - -When Leigh Hunt wrote of Hampstead that it ‘was a village revelling in -varieties,’ he summarised in a sentence its chief characteristic and -charm. - -Behind the High Street, to the right, there lies a labyrinth of lanes, -passages, courts, roads, groves, and squares. The map of the place shows -its complications, and the irresponsibility of the builders. Houses -seem to have been run up without design or order; a so-called road ends -in a cul-de-sac, a square is represented by a malformed triangle, the -groves are without trees. Good old houses assert themselves on high -places, and mean ones crowd the ways leading up to them. All shows the -extemporary mode of building locally prevalent at the time, in which no -fixed plan appears; it is the old copyhold mode of temporary convenience -consolidated into brick. But variety meets you everywhere. Nature herself -aids it in the formation of the ground—the mounts and interposing -undulations. Trees are seen here and there, and bits of primitive waste -appear in quite unexpected places. - -Queer old houses nestle in trellis-work and creepers, interned within -high garden walls, and a little compact settlement of them tops the -Mount, the altitude of which shows that of the highway to the Heath when -Oliver Goldsmith, his heart still true to the memory of ‘Sweet Lissoy,’ -climbed it on summer Sunday mornings, and wrote afterwards of the -view from Hampstead Hill that ‘Nature never exhibited a more beautiful -prospect.’ This was in 1756-57, and the road was not cut through till -1763; so that from its summit, as was said by some old author of Highgate -Hill, one trod upon the top of St. Paul’s. And it may be that the -solitudes of the upper Heath, with its hawthorn-thickets, its broken -ground and gravelly hollows, or the stillness of the rustic lanes in -its vicinity, may have proved as propitious to his Muse as they did in -later times to those of Keats and Shelley. At all events, to breathe the -air upon its heights must have made him who was brimful of the love of -Nature feel as the gods felt when respiring that of Olympus—sublimely -indifferent to mundane matters. Then the garrulous, flighty talker grew -serene: he ‘communed with his own heart, and was still.’ - -[Illustration: _Goldsmith._] - -Here, possibly, some portions of the ‘Traveller’ may have been thought -out, that poem which modified for Miss Reynolds the ugliness of the -sallow, melancholy-looking man with heavy, protuberant forehead, and grim -frown between the brows, the result of thought which not even his friends -gave him credit for, but whose ‘ill-natured eyes,’ as he himself calls -them, grew tender with compassion at the sight of want and sorrow.[160] - -It was another thing when, ceasing to be a mere Grub Street hack, he -moved to Wine Office Court, and gave suppers, and came hither for a -‘shoemaker’s holiday,’ as he expressed it, with his ‘Jolly Pigeon’ -friends. But at the period I am now writing of, Goldsmith was correcting -the press for Mr. Samuel Richardson, the literary bookseller of Salisbury -Court, whose epistolary novels, as we know, had taken the town by storm, -and who himself frequently figured in the shady Hampstead Well walk, as -also at Tunbridge Wells, where Loggan, the dwarf,[161] had included him -amongst others of our Hampstead celebrities who frequented that pleasant -sanatorium: Old Colley Cibber, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, Garrick, and Mrs. -Fraisi, the singer, whose fine, expansive person and expensive dress made -an important appearance in the walks. - -Then the trees, or groups of them, the ponds, the little dells, the -piquant ‘come and see what I can show you’ eminences! The old, solid, red -or brown brick mansions; that speak of ‘successful commercial enterprise, -and its sequel of splendid wealth.’ - -And, better still, in the shadow of an old lane, an early Georgian house -of ruddy brick, unfaded by centuries of storm and sunshine, with a white -gallery running round it like a ruff, and a lovely oriel looking to the -sunsets.[162] Then the avenues that have some way got adrift from the -homes they once led to, and are left stranded on the Heath, and the -sweet, tree-shaded lanes; but these are, alas! for the most part lost to -us, like the woods, the site of a once-great gathering of them, that had -a history before the Conquest, though the history is lost to us, like the -concluding chapters of Livy. - -The oldest inhabitant of Hampstead will tell you that he does not know -the whole of it, and a workman once informed the writer that he had daily -crossed the Heath to his employment for many years, but he believed that -he had scarcely ever found his way across it or back by precisely the -same path. Undoubtedly, Hampstead has the merit of infinite variety, and -the charm of compelling those who know it to desire a return to it with -great longing. Even the separate districts into which it is now nominally -divided have a distinctive character of their own, and West End is no -more like Frognal than South End is like North End or Church Row. - -[Illustration: _North End from the Heath._] - -North End is easily accessible from any part of the Heath, but if one -happens to come out on the Spaniards Road, it is worth while pausing to -admire the pleasing effect of the slender spire of Christ Church, showing -almost everywhere above the trees that appear massed about it on Squire’s -Mount, and everywhere harmonizing with the view. We have the east Heath -to the right, with the Vale of Health lying in a green hollow below the -Broad Walk, which divides the upper from the lower Heath; and passing the -destroyed site of the ‘Nine Elms’ in a dell on the same side of the way, -the roof of a grange-like dwelling, noticeable in my time for a bell or -clock turret on the stable buildings, peeping through the surrounding -foliage. If I remember aright, Mrs. Hodgson then lived there. Bordering -the road for some distance we have, or had, the holly-hedge, said to have -been wholly the work of Lord Erskine. - -Turning back at the Spaniards, we can either take the Sandy Road, as it -is locally called, which shows like a terrace path between the pines upon -the side of the hill; or, going on past Heath House and Jack Straw’s -Castle, make a landmark of one of the Heath-keeper’s red-brick lodges, -and steer a course at an angle that will bring us out close to Wildwood -Avenue, and pretty low down on the North End Road. - -By the first route we pass some charmingly-situated houses on the upper -ridge of the Heath, looking towards the south-west, and with their -back-fronts, if I may so call them, to the road. Closed in by high walls, -the passers-by see nothing of the beauty of the grounds by which they are -surrounded, so that by making a slant across the Heath we lose nothing -of interest or beauty. Our path brings us out nearly opposite the gates -of Cedar Lawn, and not far from Hill House, or The Hill, as it was more -generally called, the beautiful home till quite recently of Francis -Hoare, Esq. The place was celebrated for its lovely grounds and gardens. -In 1895 Mr. Francis Hoare removed to a house in Kensington, and Hill -House, that for the best part of a century had been the home of one or -other of the Hoare family, now nearly rebuilt, is the residence of Mr. -Fisher. It was probably built in George I.’s reign, but had been several -times altered and added to. In 1811 Abrahams mentions the house ‘with new -buildings,’ and it had no doubt suffered since from modern improvements. - -[Illustration: _Fenton House, 1780._] - -The Hill, like the older home of the family at the Heath, had been -distinguished as a centre of intellectual life, of active religious -thought, and practical philanthropy. Here Wilberforce and Sir Thomas -Fowell Buxton discussed their scheme for the suppression of that -long-existing blot upon the Christianity and civilization of England, the -dreadful slave-trade, and the ever-to-be-honoured Elizabeth Fry found -abundant sympathy in her labour of love for the hitherto uncared-for -female criminals in Newgate and other prisons. A letter from Lucy Aikin -to her niece, November, no date of day or year, but probably in 1826, -gives a glimpse of a social evening at Hill House: - -‘Yesterday I dined at the S. Hoares’; enjoyed it much. There was no -great party, but all were kind and friendly, and we talked of the days -of our youth. Mr. Crabbe came in the evening, and we made him tell us of -Johnson, whom he had met with Burke at the house of the Reynolds. Then we -spoke of modern poets, Burns and Montgomery.’ - -She calls Mrs. Inchbald a charming writer, and says that Miss Edgeworth -has just come to town. In October, 1826, she writes that Hampstead is -almost a desert, ‘the Earls away, Mrs. Greaves away, the Misses Baillie -not expected till to-morrow.’[163] - -In Augustus Hare’s ‘Memorials of the Gurneys of Earlham,’ we get another -peep of society at Hill House in 1830, in a letter of J. G. Gurney, who -there first met Dr. Chalmers: - -‘I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Chalmers at Hill House, Hampstead. -We walked in the garden ... at dinner an interesting party. Sumner, -Bishop of Chester, Dr. Lushington, Buxton (Sir Fowell), and my sister, -Elizabeth Fry.[164] In the evening Joanna Baillie joined our party. Next -morning my brother Samuel Hoare took Dr. Chalmers and me to Wilberforce’s -at Highwood, beyond Hendon (Mill Hill). Our morning passed delightfully; -a stream of conversation flowed between ourselves and the ever-lively -Wilberforce. I have seldom observed a more amazing contrast than between -Chalmers and Wilberforce. Chalmers is stout and erect; Wilberforce minute -and singularly twisted. Chalmers, both in body and mind, moves with a -deliberate step; Wilberforce flies about with astonishing activity, -while his mind flits from object to object with astonishing versatility. -Chalmers is like a good-tempered lion; Wilberforce like a bee, and, -except when fairly asleep, is never latent.’ - -These extracts afford an interesting glance at persons and associations -connected with the Hoare family and Hill House. Earlier in the century we -might have met Hannah More, Young of the ‘Night Thoughts,’ Mrs. Barbauld, -and subsequently the banker-poet, Rogers, Coleridge and many more of the -fraternity of letters. - -To the right of Hill House lay a little bit of wooded ground, part of the -original Wildwood Grove,[165] through which a path running diagonally -from the road led into one of the avenues for which Hampstead is -remarkable, avenues that, like Coleridge’s discourses, to those who could -not understand them, ‘start from no premises, and arrive at no definite -conclusion,’ though houses have occasionally been adapted to them, like -Flitcroft’s Villa, at the end of the fine grove of lime-trees between -Branch Hill and Frognal. Wildwood Avenue, as it is called, consists of a -row of horse-chestnut-trees on one side, and a stately file of limes on -the other. These, with their widely-spreading branches, through which the -breeze sends restless lights and shadows, in contrast with the stronger -forms and picturesquely-slanting trunks of the horse-chestnuts, which in -some instances have taken a half-spiral direction in their efforts to -strengthen themselves against the storms of many winters, have been a joy -to successive generations of artists and unnumbered lovers of Nature. - -Wildwood Avenue passes the entrance to North End House,[166] to which I -am informed it originally led, and the trees go off by twos and threes -upon a little triangular bit of greensward opposite to what used to be, -perhaps is still, Wildwood Cottage, a plain, white, weather-boarded -house, with red-tiled roof, a rustic rose-covered porch, and with a -triplet of limes before it. Of this house there is something more to be -said further on. - -In coming down the avenue we pass on the right hand a paddock belonging -to Mr. Gurney Hoare, where in bygone years stood a walnut-tree,[167] to -the fruit of which by immemorial custom all the copyholders of Hampstead -had a right, a privilege, I am told, that the boys used to take good care -should not lapse for want of being annually maintained. - -Returning to the road at the end of the wall enclosing the grounds of -Hill House, we come out upon a bit of the Heath, with a straggling group -of dark-stemmed, storm-stricken fir-trees at its farthest end, near the -wall of Heath Lodge, locally known as the Eleven Sisters. Beneath the -footpath on the edge of the Heath the main road is continued along a deep -cutting past the back-front of North End House, now called Wildwood, -a name to which, Mr. Howitt thinks, it had the original right. This -cutting, said to be some centuries old, runs parallel with the gardens -and grounds of North End House,[168] a name under which the place retains -reminiscences of the saddest chapter in the life of England’s great -statesman, Pitt, Earl of Chatham, which it would have been well for the -interest of Hampstead to have retained. The house stands on a descending -tongue of ground, running down, as we have said, between the old avenue -and the North End Road, and is embowered in finely-grown trees. The -garden runs up the ascent, and has an old, octagonal summer house of -three stories at the upper end of it, which can be seen from the footpath -on the Heath. This is still in a fair state of preservation. - -[Illustration: _Firs._] - -The house—as old as the early Georgian period—has been altered and raised -a story since it was held, probably on lease, by Lord North. It was -during his tenancy that his famous brother-in-law, Lord Chatham, when -suffering from the agonies of gout, and sometimes, it has been suspected, -when only making them a pretext to escape from political vexations and -perplexities, was wont to resort thither, sometimes coming all the way -from Richmond to find a night’s rest at North End. Lord Mahon, in his -‘History of England,’ gives copies of letters written by the great -Minister from this retreat. From one of these we find he was at North -End, Hampstead, on Saturday, August 23, 1766, immediately after he became -Prime Minister; whilst his last visit here, according to the author of -the ‘Northern Heights of London,’ took place some time after March, 1778 -(that would be very shortly before his death, which occurred May 11 of -that year). - -I hope I am not quoting someone else in applying to him that line, -‘Great wits are sure to madness near allied,’[169] but his conduct -and eccentricities at times came very near it. He had such a dread of -neighbours that he bought up all the houses near his own to ensure his -having none. His terror of loud noises and of strangers was excessive, -and if in his solitary walks he saw another person on the path -approaching him, he would run round corners or down side-paths to avoid a -meeting. Even when driving for exercise on the Heath, the blinds of the -carriage were close drawn, so that no one might see him. - -It cannot be said that in age his looks were in his favour. He was dark, -even to swarthiness, with a large hooked nose, and eyes with which ‘he -glared at his antagonists, and a scowl with which he overawed them.’ - -Walpole says he had a black beard which, when suffering with gout, he -would leave unshaven for days. But a modern writer, while leaving his -portrait intact, transfuses it with genius, and says that ‘with his eagle -aspect, and eyes that would blaze a cannon, he commanded the little -things that listened to his voice as might an Emperor his legionaries.’ -‘I should not mind what he says,’ exclaimed Lord Holland to his wife; -‘but his eyes!’ - -There is no doubt that either from physical suffering or mental anxiety -he was at times the victim of great prostration and nervous irritability. -It may be that at these periods the seclusion and quiet of North End -House, with the wooded beauty and fine air of the neighbourhood, may have -proved to him in effect what fine music was to the mind of Emerson, at -once assuasive and refreshing. - -It is probable, too, that these seasons of retirement, in which he -withdrew himself even from his family, shutting himself up in a small -room, which, with the oriel window belonging to it, was for many -years _properly left unaltered_, enabled him to abstract himself from -everything but the political problems of the day, and to map out in -his masterful mind the means of coping with difficulties, if not of -subjugating them wholly. Mr. Howitt gives the following description of -the ‘closet, or room,’ in which Lord Chatham voluntarily imprisoned -himself, at which times not even the servant who waited on him was -permitted to see him:[170] - -‘The opening in the wall from the staircase to the room still remains -through which the unhappy man received his meals, or anything else -conveyed to him. It is an opening of perhaps 18 inches square, having a -door on each side of the wall; the door within had a padlock, which still -hangs upon it. When anything was conveyed to him, a knock was made on the -outer door, and the articles placed in the recess. When the outer door -again closed, the invalid opened the inner door, took what was there, -again closed the door, and locked it.’[171] - -In all this great man’s afflictive trials it must have comforted him to -remember that in the hour of the unfortunate Admiral Byng’s extremity, -when women of rank were urging a royal Princess, nothing loath, to be, -as they expressed it, ‘for his execution,’ he (Lord Chatham) had been on -the side of justice, and had used his utmost influence with the King to -procure the Admiral’s pardon, a plea for mercy that must have softened by -reflection his own death-bed.[172] - -Right opposite the upper end of the garden of North End House, and no -doubt close to the highroad in former days, stands an ancient solitary -tree, known as the Gibbet Elm, one of two trees between which stood -the gallows on which, in the May of 1673, one Jackson, a notorious -highwayman, was hung in chains for the murder of Henry Miller on, or -near, the spot. There for years from season to season mouldered the -skeleton of the murderer, swinging wildly out before the scourging -winter winds, with the rusty chain-links creaking, as it were, a ghastly -requiem, or in high summer perhaps a nesting-place for birds, such -instances of bird-building between the ribs or in the skulls of felons -being not uncommon in those days, when gibbets were more plentiful by -the waysides than hand-posts. After long years of purgatorial nights -and days, Nature would receive into her bosom the time-bleached bones, -to make the grass grow greener about the base of the old tree, whose -companion was blown down some fifty years ago. - -The elm, when I last saw it in 1863-64, was still sound,[173] and, though -beaten about and storm-broken, stretched forth its branches a goodly -distance, its root - - ‘Like snakes in wild festoon, - In ramous wrestlings interlaced, - A forest Laocoön.’[174] - -The upright of the gibbet, by one of those curious freaks common to -ancient landlords, who early learnt the attractiveness of morbid -curiosities, and knew with Trinculo that ‘those who will not give a doit -to relieve a lame beggar will lay out ten to see a dead Indian,’ was -converted into a part of the kitchen mantelpiece at Jack Straw’s Castle, -serving thenceforth as a fertile subject for the ale-consuming and -company-constraining gossip of times not so long past, when few cared to -cross the Heath alone after nightfall—times of which Hicks’s Hall and the -Newgate Calendar keep record still. - -[Illustration: _Old Cottages, North End._] - -Passing Heath Lodge, we leave the footpath for the main road, and find -ourselves at North End. In Elizabeth’s time this was literally wildwood -and waste. Here, as at Belsize, Gerard found what he calls the white -butterfly orchis, ‘near unto a small cottage in the way as you go from -London to Hendon, a village thereby, in the field next the pound, or -pinnefold without.’ - -North End, so called from its situation at the northern extremity of -the Heath, consists of a cluster of middle-class houses, cottages, and -pleasant gardens. It does not seem, says Park, to be a place of any -antiquity. No doubt the Wildwood, as the fragment of the old forest was -quaintly called, formerly overran the site of the present hamlet, and -lingered here after the clearance of the woods from other portions of the -district. - -We find it marked in the map of Middlesex in Gibson’s edition of -Camden’s ‘Britannia’ (1695) as Wildwood Corner. It had been so called -in Elizabeth’s time, and the tradition survives in the names of certain -messuages, as Wildwood, Wildwood House, Wildwood Lodge, etc. - -[Illustration: _Bull and Bush, Hampstead._] - -In all probability, the weather-boarded cottages opposite Wildwood -Lodge, and the cosy little inn, the Bull and Bush, are about the oldest -habitations in North End. The latter flourished when Addison wrote, and -it is said that it shared his favour, and that of his friends, in common -with the Upper Flask. In its yew-tree arbour he may have enjoyed himself -after the simple fashion of Sir Roger de Coverley, and drunk ripe ale, -and smoked his churchwarden on summer afternoons. It has its arbour and -garden still—a carefully-kept one—which makes a pretty feature of the -unpretentious but comfortable house. - -In later times, Gainsborough, Garrick and Foote, Sir Joshua Reynolds (at -rare seasons), Cibber, Booth, Hogarth, and Laurence Sterne are said to -have been amongst its summer visitors. The room—an upper one—in which -their feasts, to which the company brought ‘attic salt,’ were held looks -out upon a smooth-clipped lawn with flowery borders, and commands the -little eminence overlooking Wildwood, where Blake would first appear to -the vigilant eyes of the eldest Linnell’s little daughter on Saturday -afternoons, who sat watching for the anticipated appearance of her -favourite. Upon the green lawn is the yew-bush or bower to which the inn -owes half its name, a whimsey to which rustic landlords in the eighteenth -century appear to have been much addicted. Being furnished with a table -and seats, it afforded a quiet retirement or smoking-box.[175] - -Hither, in the Addison days, came the companionable Dr. George Sewell, -with some or other of his many friends, friends who, at his death in -1726, neglected even the common duties of humanity, and permitted this -accomplished gentleman and scholar to pass unhonoured to an almost pauper -grave, unfollowed but by one attendant, and with the mean obsequies of -one ‘whom nobody owns.’ He was a bachelor, and kept no house, but boarded -at Hampstead, and we are told ‘he was so much esteemed, and so frequently -invited to the tables of the neighbouring gentry, that he had seldom -occasion to dine at home.’ He contributed many papers to the supplemental -volumes of the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_, wrote the tragedy of ‘Sir -Walter Raleigh,’ and other works, and various poems. His writings impress -one with the feeling that he was not only a clever and versatile writer, -but a good and amiable man. No memorial was raised above his grave, but a -boundary-tree—a holly—in the hedge of the churchyard for some time marked -the place of his interment. This has long since been removed. - -Coming down the years, we find that literary people, either as residents -or visitors, more and more affected Hampstead and the Heath. No matter of -surprise to us who have tasted the exhilaration of its fresh breeziness -and summer beauty, and witnessed the cold splendour of its wintry -landscapes, with a sky such as Danby delighted to paint reddening the -west, and making wider the fields of snow stretching around; the still -woods wrapped in rime, each tree crystallized, as it were; the tall -groups of elm, ash, and pine trees with each reticulated branch and spray -standing out with photographic accuracy against the clear atmosphere, -whose sharpness stings the pedestrian and warms. - -It was under such conditions that Lovell Edgeworth saw the Heath when -he visited his philosophical but eccentric friend Day, the author -of ‘Sandford and Merton,’ who had ‘lodged his newly-married wife in -“inconvenient lodgings” at Hampstead.’ Edgeworth found him walking on the -Heath with her, though the snow covered the ground. But then the lady was -sensibly attired in a frieze cloak and thick shoes. She surprised the -visitor, who had been led to imagine her an exceedingly delicate person, -by an appearance of rude health. But this is beside North End. - -About the year 1748 Dr. Akenside, divided between the love of poetry and -duty to his profession, endeavoured, with the assistance of his friend -the Hon. Jeremiah Dyson, who had purchased a house for him in this -neighbourhood, to establish himself as a physician at Hampstead. - -We have somewhere read that the house which Akenside occupied was really -at Golder’s Hill.[176] The two statements are not irreconcilable, as in -the directory of this year Golder’s Hill is included in North End. Horace -Walpole, writing in 1750, says of him: ‘Here is another of those tame -geniuses, a Mr. Akenside, who writes odes. In one he has lately published -he says, “Light the tapers ... urge the fire!” Had not you rather make -gods jostle in the dark than light the candles, for fear they should -break their heads?’ - -But in criticising the poet’s ‘Pleasures of Imagination,’ he allows that -at its first appearance it attracted much notice, from the elegance of -its language and the warm colouring of the descriptions. Akenside appears -to have been a proud, cold, uncomfortable man, with an overweening -opinion of his abilities, a dictatorial habit, a morbid sensitiveness -on the score of his connections, and a susceptibility of offence, which -seldom left him long without one. He seems to have passed a rather -disagreeable time at Hampstead. - -In vain his weak but generous friend and patron introduced him at the -clubs and balls, the assemblies and the Long-room; he failed to make -himself popular with the men, and was ‘too indifferent to feminine nature -to ingratiate himself with their wives and daughters.’ So that, with all -his mental accomplishments, his handsome person, and the genius which -Southey says distinguished his face, he made no friends, but, on the -contrary, many enemies. - -When the secret of his family connections, and his dependence on Mr. -Dyson, who generously allowed him £300 a year, oozed out, society at -Hampstead, composed for the most part of opulent City men—which means -successful men, too prone to despise the want of success in others—made -no secret of its contempt for Akenside’s pretensions to superiority, and -the end was that in less than three years all hopes of his succeeding as -a physician at Hampstead had to be given up. Mr. Dyson then took a small -house for him in Bloomsbury Square, and continued his allowance till his -death in 1770, in the forty-ninth year of his age. - -A pleasant reminiscence of North End is that for some years it continued -to be the chosen home of William Collins, the artist, who, from his -boyhood, as his talented son has told us in his delightful memoir of him, -had loved Hampstead, and spent many a summer day there, ‘watching the -bird-catchers with their decoys and nets, the hedger with his high tanned -gloves and bill-hook, cows going afield, hay-makers, and rosy rustic -children.’ - -As he grew up, his love of Hampstead grew with him, and we catch glimpses -of the young art student, sketching in the delightful fields and bosky -lanes, occasionally laying down his pencil to refresh himself, as it -were, with the quaintly-written devotional hymns of George Herbert, which -he carried with him. In 1822-23 he married Miss Giddies, and in the -summer of the same year took a cottage at Hampstead, and ‘in tranquillity -and the companionship of his young wife studied Nature unremittingly.’ - -Hampstead Heath, which lay close to his door, became the scene and source -of his best pictures. - -‘Here he found his footsore trampers; the patched or picturesquely ragged -beggars; the brutish or audacious boys; the itinerant rat-catcher, -with the _dirt-shine_ on his leather breeches, and his ferrets and -cage of rats.’ Like Linnell, Leslie, and Constable in those days, and -Gainsborough in previous ones, he was never tired of the sweet beauty of -his surroundings, or of exhibiting them to his friends. He was for ever -discovering fresh points of view and new effects, and Hampstead proved to -him, as to all other lovers and students of Nature, inexhaustible. - -[Illustration: _Cottages, North End._] - -In 1829 his fame and fortune had both outgrown what Wilkie called his -‘beautiful cottage at North End,’ and he was intending to build himself -a house upon the Heath; but there were difficulties in the way of the -purchase of the ground, which caused him eventually to give up the idea -of building, and content himself with renting a larger house near the -Heath. In the end he returned to London, where the latter years of his -life were spent. It was at North End, according to the author of the -‘Northern Heights,’ that his three talented sons were born, and here -Wilkie—his great friend—and many other artists, and men of note visited -him. - -Shortly before 1813, Mr. Abraham Robarts, senior partner in the banking -house of Robarts, Curtis and Co., resided at North End, in the house -previously occupied by —— Dingley, Esq., about 1777, a gentleman -memorable for the part he took in the introduction of sawing-mills into -this country, which the mob resented and destroyed. - -When Park wrote his History, the same house (but he does not describe -its situation) was in the possession of John Vivian, Esq., solicitor to -the Excise. In all probability it was the square brick house at the end -of the avenue, which the inhabitants of North End regard as the house -which Dr. Akenside resided in—the house with the newly-laid-out garden -running up on one side under the umbrageous shade of the trees that once -sheltered a lovely glade, locally known as the Lovers’ Bank or Lover’s -Walk, and which, through oversight or forgetfulness on the part of -those entrusted with the preservation of the Heath, was left out in the -purchase of it, and was granted to the present owner. In this house at -one period resided Sir Fowell Buxton, the friend and fellow-labourer with -Clarkson and Wilberforce, in their noble efforts for the emancipation -of the negro, which led to the abolition of slaves in our colonies, and -began that crusade which we are still waging on their behalf. At that -period his sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Buxton, was living at Wildwood, in -Mrs. Earle’s house, the white house facing the avenue. It is right that -the homes of eminent men and women should be remembered, and amongst such -homes at North End, Wildwood Cottage is one of the most interesting. Here -for some time lived Dinah Mulock, the late Mrs. Craik, author of ‘John -Halifax,’ and other standard works of fiction; and here subsequently -resided, from 1864 to 1871, Eliza Meteyard, the painstaking author of -the ‘Life of Wedgwood the Potter,’ a work containing much valuable -information on the subject of this beautiful manufacture, the interest -in which her labour undoubtedly contributed to revive and enlarge. Here -she expended years of studious research in the prosecution of her task, -in recognition of which Mr. Gladstone—himself a lover and collector of -the charming ware—granted her a Government pension of £100 per annum, -which, however, she only lived to enjoy one year. She may be said to have -lost her life for the sake of her strong interest in the study of this -beautiful fabric. Having accepted a pressing invitation from members -of the Liverpool Society of Arts to be present at a conversazione and -exhibition of Wedgwood ware, she travelled back to town in very inclement -weather, and took a chill, which brought on (being neglected) pulmonary -complications, ending in her death, which took place in 1879, she dying -in the arms of her old friend, the writer of these few lines. Popularly -she was better known as the ‘Silver Pen’ of Douglas Jerrold’s and other -magazines, in which she strongly advocated the higher education of the -people. - -For some time Coventry Patmore, the author of ‘The Angel in the House,’ -and other charming poems, resided at North End, and here he lost his -loving and beloved wife (1862). - -We pass the gray, unprepossessing-looking cottage to the east of the -large house on the right of Golder’s Hill, known as the Manor House, -and said to occupy the site of the ancient North Hall Manor, included -with that of Hampstead, and granted by Edward VI. to his favourite, -Sir Thomas Wroth, Knight. Shortly before Belsize Gardens were closed, -an attempt was made to popularize a medicinal well at North End, and -render it fashionable as a Spa and pleasure-place; and though it is -said by contemporaries that Belsize Gardens exceeded in immorality and -dissipation any place of the kind in modern times, an advertisement in -the _Daily Post_ of the opening of the New North End Hall Wells, after -promising a profusion of amusement, etc., coolly adds that ‘great care -will be taken to keep up the same decorum in everything as at Belsize.’ - -In 1811 the Lords Granville were living at North End, and Sir Francis -Willes for some time occupied North End House. In 1806 Lady Wilson, -proprietress of the manor, brought an action against him for cutting turf -on the Heath, ‘then covered with grass, and fit for cattle,’ which action -put an end to this practice, which every copyholder believed he had a -right to, and which was pronounced to be inconsistent with the rights of -common pasture. - -Golder’s Hill, the seat of Sir Spencer Wells, occupies a large piece of -ground, skirted on the side nearest the Heath by the new ride.[177] - -To the left of the North End Road are several good houses with enclosed -grounds and gardens. The road follows the bend of what was probably a -morass in ancient times, but is fertile meadow-land now; and we are -told that within memory rushes grew, quaint rural things! at the very -point where the North End Road cuts the Finchley Road, and the way was -fringed by some magnificent old trees, which have been cut down, with the -advantage of throwing open an extensive view of Hendon Fields.[178] - -Hence the North End Road runs on to its terminus at the hand-post on -Golder’s Green. - -The _Lady’s Magazine_, in 1816, announced the death at North End, -Hampstead, at an advanced age, of Elizabeth Dowager Marchioness of -Waterford, in January, 1816 (no other date); whether resident or a -visitor was not stated. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -_FINCHLEY ROAD, CHILD’S HILL, AND NEW END._ - - -At the hand-post on Golder’s Green—a bit of the original waste in -1859—Hampstead parish ends in this direction. Here Finchley Road, running -north and south, divides the road to Hendon from North End Road. - -The name of Hendon reminds me that John Taylor, the ‘Water Poet,’ in his -curious poetical production ‘The Fearful Summer; or, London’s Calamitie, -the Countrie’s Discourtesie, and both their Miserie,’ while including the -inhabitants of Hampstead with the other country people around London as -‘beastly, barbarous, cruel countrie cannibals,’ excepts those of Hendon, -who did what they could for the plague-stricken Londoners. - -With Finchley parish Hampstead has no other connection than that it -borders it; but having taken the Finchley Road, it is scarcely fair to -leave this once too-famous neighbourhood without a word. The Common had -for many years been a terror to travellers, and in 1790-1, when Landmanor -wrote his ‘Recollections and Adventures,’ its reputation had not -improved. It was still the haunt of footpads and highwaymen, as, indeed, -was Hampstead Heath also. - -Half a dozen years after the above date, Lord Strathmore, then residing -at Hampstead, was attacked by two men when driving over Finchley Common, -who rode up to the carriage intending robbery, but his lordship, with -the aid of his servants, turned the tables on them, shot one, and made -the other prisoner—an evil day for these ‘gentlemen of the road.’ Yet, -in spite of such incidents, some hardy householders were bold enough -to purchase property and build houses in the neighbourhood; and Mrs. -Barbauld tells us that at one time (about 1754), when Richardson was -looking about for a country retirement, as became a fortunate bookseller -who was his own novelist, he bethought him of the pretty district of -Finchley. - -While thinking of doing this, his friend Mr. Dunscombe wrote to him that -the place would ‘affect his nerves,’ for that all the crimes in the -Decalogue were of daily occurrence there, and finished by saying: ‘If -you are planted so near the scene of action as to be constantly hearing -of highwaymen and viewing of gibbets, in vain will Lady B. [Braidshaigh] -send you her sylphs and fairies, in vain will Miss M. [Miss Mulso] -terrify with dreams and visions.’[179] - -The author of the ‘New and Complete British Traveller’ prosaically -confirms this account: ‘A large tract of ground called Finchley Common -has long been remarkable as a particular spot for the commission of -robberies, and it has been usual to erect gibbets on it, where some of -the most notorious malefactors have been hung in chains.’ - -So, though the village on the west side of the Common had some good -houses on it, Richardson’s inclination for a Tusculum at Finchley was -probably not very strong, or his friend’s badinage, from the proportion -of truth it contained, proved convincing, for we find him settling down -in the placid respectability of Parson’s Green, and the enjoyment of -that delightful summer-house at the end of the garden, with room enough -in it for the literary young ladies who buzzed about him like bees -about a bed of borage, with their mild suggestions and criticism, all -commendatory, and praises altogether saccharine, till we believe in the -truth of Johnson’s remarks to Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Madame Piozzi: -‘You think I like flattery, and so I do, but a little too much disgusts -me. That fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to -sail quietly down the stream of reputation without longing to taste the -froth from every stroke of the oar.’ An anecdote which Finchley is not -concerned in, though apropos to our talk of Richardson. - -[Illustration: _Madame Piozzi._] - -If we take the Finchley Road back, we can make our way by Cricklewood to -Child’s Hill Lane, and so back to the West Heath. There were in 1859 two -or three good houses to the left of the road, with large, newly-enclosed -grounds, but a few years later this portion of the Finchley Road was the -least interesting and the most vitiated place on the skirts of Hampstead. -The melancholy attempt to raise good houses on either side appeared to -have been blighted by the unwholesome airs arising from the ill-drained -and already-crowded suburb of Child’s Hill lying in the bottom to the -right. Here various businesses the reverse of sanitary were carried -on, the vile smells from which in hot weather, even at a considerable -distance, made the inhaling of them dangerous, and occasioned a sort of -local fever, from which it was said the neighbourhood was seldom free. - -It was a relief, when leaving the sight of coal-yards covering what -had been delightful meadows only a few years ago, and the useful, but -certainly unpicturesque, railway-station to the right, to turn the corner -by a semi-rural hostel at Cricklewood, and a row of village shops, and, -mounting the slope, to enter what was quite recently a deep-hedged -country lane, into which, according to the exploded theory of my -antiquarian friend, the old Roman road over Hampstead Heath struck down -by way of Cricklewood to Hendon. We pass the Hermitage, the temporary -summer home of many well-known artists, and two or three cottages. The -road, in places still fringed with trees, suggesting the shady way it -must have been in olden time, ends at the spot that Platt’s Lane brought -us to, within a short distance of West Heath. - -Had we desired a longer walk on the Finchley Road, we might have found -our way back through a field-gate a little to the east of Platt’s Lane, -and of the path I have already described, leading to a gate opening into -Oak Hill Fields at New West End, a region of rich grass fields, the -quality of which recommended the purchase of 14 acres of meadow-land at -Child’s Hill to the trustees of the Campden Charity, with which they -joined the bequest of an unnamed but eccentric gentlewoman who left the -parish £40 for the purpose of distributing among the inhabitants of -Hampstead, _rich and poor_, halfpenny loaves (cross-buns, probably) on -the morning of Good Friday annually. - -If we follow the path, we find ourselves in the midst of a scene of -pastoral beauty still unspoiled. Cattle, such as Sidney Cooper loves to -paint, sleek and dappled, were, when I last saw it, placidly cropping -mouthfuls of juicy grasses, or lying about on the slope of the upland -field, lazily chewing the cud. In the hedgerows oak-trees, some of -them hollow with age, and others young and verdant, appeared scattered -over the face of the hill, which takes its name from the numbers of -them once growing there. It was a walk for summer mornings and summer -evenings—peaceful, sequestered, lovely—a walk that many a poet had -trodden, and one in which many an artist besides Landseer had found -inspiration and charming subjects. The hedgerows still sheltered their -indigenous wild-flowers; hawthorn and elder, wild rose and woodbine, -beautified the hedges in their several seasons, and though it felt and -looked far away from the town, a very short walk to the gate or stile led -to the main road, and past Oak Hill House, and Oak Hill Lodge, to the -junction of Frognal Rise with Branch Hill. - -We may either follow the latter road to the West Heath, or strike into -the road past Lower Terrace, and come out between the enclosure of the -Hampstead Waterworks and the walls of Mrs. Johnstone’s premises, at the -angle of which, railed in, stands a fine old elm,[180] memorable as -Irving’s Elm, under the shade of which some of the old inhabitants of -Hampstead may remember to have seen the preacher of the ‘unknown tongue’ -take his stand, and with vehement language and gesture address a crowd -half curious, half eager to listen to his passionate pleadings or fierce -denunciations.[181] - -It is curious that Edward Irving, like Whitfield, was remarkable for a -fearful squint. The _Edinburgh Review_, with a cruelty not unusual in its -criticisms, attacked his appearance, actions, tones, gesticulation, and -pronunciation, and stated that he thundered forth a growling falsetto, -and ‘draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his -argument.’ It describes his violent contortions of countenance, and winds -up by asserting that there had never been such a tossing of brawny arms, -and such a lowering of bushy eyebrows performed ‘to so little purpose.’ -But the critic adds that, ‘were he to dispense with his absurd, fitful, -inappropriate vehemence, and eternal straining after singularity in the -most minute points, he might become a rational and respectable minister -of the Gospel.’ - -Turning back a few yards to Branch Hill, a road runs off at an angle with -the main road past Lower Terrace, at No. 2 of which Constable, with his -‘placid companion’ and their little ones, had lodgings in 1821, and takes -us out by the reservoir of the Hampstead Waterworks upon the Heath. - -By making a little détour to the left, in front of Upper Terrace, and -taking advantage of an opening between the houses, we find ourselves in -the Judges’ Walk, or _Prospect Terrace_, as at one time modern Hampstead -was inclined to call it, forgetting the archæological interest attached -to the old name, and find ourselves face to face with a surprise of -prospective beauty—a view so wide in extent, so rich in woodland scenery, -rolling on over the Hertfordshire hills to the right, and all between a -wide expanse of fertile country, that in all England there is scarcely -a finer woodland and pastoral view. The trees and houses to the left -shut out the sight of Harrow, and the glittering waters of the Kingsbury -reservoir are no longer seen; but looking to the right, the view is -charming, and to witness a sunset from this eminence is worth, on a fine -summer’s day, a pilgrimage to Hampstead. - -The Judges’ Walk was so called, it is said, because during the year of -the Great Plague the judges removed their Courts from Westminster, and, -returning to the normal practice of their prototypes in Saxon and Norman -times, held their _Seats of Justice_ ‘under the green tree’s shade.’ -Court Tree, in the Isle of Sheppey, has its name from this antique -custom, and the laws are thus annually promulgated on the Tynwald Hill in -the Isle of Man. - -[Illustration: _Harrow and Welsh Harp, from Hampstead Heath._] - -Now that we are so near the Whitestone Pond, and the half square of -houses opposite, let us cross over, and, passing at the side of the -last of these, walk to the end of the tree-shaded alley, the view from -which is one of the many scenic surprises of the Heath. There lies—or -has it, with many other charms, been swept away?—the still pond, its -surface scarcely ruffled by the movements of the swans, the green Heath -on this side dipping down to its margin, and beyond the wooded heights of -Highgate and the church. It is a picture that requires no composing; it -is perfect in its natural picturesqueness. - -A path under the garden wall of a house to the left brings us out at -the Holford Road, between high walls, skirted by well-grown trees, past -Heathfield House to the left, and other enclosed premises to the right, -with Christ Church facing us, fringed by some grand old trees (part of -a grove), leading by Cannon Place to Squire’s Mount. To the left of -the church is a space half surrounded by houses, in one of which the -well-known popular Nonconformist minister and eloquent preacher and -writer, the Rev. Newman Hall, resided. To the east of the church are the -school buildings appertaining to it, and Christ Church Road, which runs -down to the Willow Walk and East Heath. - -Leaving the church, which stands slightly raised above the roadway, on -the right hand, we pass a row of good but dully-situated houses, known -as Cannon Place, which extends from Christ Church to Squire’s Mount, and -takes its name from the old cannon which stand as kerb-posts, muzzles -downwards, in front of the courtyard of Cannon Hall, at the north-east -corner of Squire’s Mount. Unfortunately, the history of the cannon -is lost, and so also is that of the man who originally placed them -there. Modern Hampstead is inclined to believe it the work of Sir J. C. -Melville, but the older inhabitants, whose ‘fathers have told them,’ -assert that the cannon were there long before this gentleman resided at -Hampstead. There are, besides these peacefully-utilized pieces, two other -very curious small bronze pieces of ordnance of beautiful workmanship and -great age (said to have been taken from the Dutch), one bearing the date -1640, the other inscribed 1646. These find a place in the very beautiful -grounds in which the house stands, an old red-bricked, two-storied -mansion of early eighteenth-century design. The views from it—especially -to the south—are said to be very extensive. It possesses a garden an -acre in extent, and the ornamental grounds descend from 400 feet to the -level of the Thames. - -At the end of Cannon Place is Squire’s Mount, with some good houses -cresting it, and a row of cottages running in a straight line towards the -East Heath, with the Vale of Health (not assertive in offensive ugliness, -as at present) modestly nestling right opposite, the Broad Walk crossing -the Heath above it. At Squire’s Mount, in the house (one of those with -some fine old trees sheltering them on the north-east) distinguished by -a magnificent horse-chestnut in front of it, resided the octogenarian -artist, Mrs. Harrison, a fine-looking, genial old lady, whose charming -transcripts of spring flowers, wild blossoms, bird-nests, and bits of -hedgerow beauty, were well known to visitors at the Old Painters in Water -Colours’ Exhibitions. So late as the spring of 1864-65 she had copied -primroses from nature. - -At the back of Squire’s Mount Cottages are a group of small houses, known -as Heath Cottages, looking out on a delightful view, but one which is -said to be threatened with extinction. It takes in the red viaduct and -wooded neighbourhood of Caenwood Farm, with Highgate; but when these -lines were written, a brickfield smouldered on one side, and the ground -it covered will, it is said, be shortly in the hands of the builders. - -If, instead of walking across the Heath, we desire to return to the -town, we must turn back to Cannon Place, at the western end of Squire’s -Mount Cottages, and, crossing the road at the bottom to the right, keep -down a short lane, at the end of which is Well Walk. Keep straight past -the Burgh, and Wetherall House, and, still bearing to the right, above -the new districts of Gayton and Gardener’s Roads—the latter probably so -called in memory of the allotments, formerly the garden, playground, and -orchard of a rather celebrated school—keep on down Flask Walk to the High -Street. Or return by Christ Church Road, here leading east and west; or -by way of New End to Heath Street. And this reminds me that New End -requires some notice. - -[Illustration: _Squire’s Mount, about 1840._] - -It marked, no doubt, as its name implies, a new epoch in the growth -of Hampstead, and an attempt at making a straight street, which the -genius of the place appears to have resented, the outline of New End -representing that of an ill-proportioned funnel, with its mouth to the -east, and its narrow termination in Heath Street, where, on both sides -of the way (for the place was sadly in request by tramps journeying to -London), used to be posted up ‘To New End and the Workhouse.’ Park does -not mention the neighbourhood, except to notice the purchase by the -parish of Mrs. Leggatt’s mansion for the new workhouse. Yet in 1811 there -were fifty rateable tenements, besides some untenanted, in the district; -eight of them rated at £25 per annum, one at £60—the residence of a Mr. -Richard Otley—were probably private residences. - -These houses rose on the rim of the bowl in which Mrs. Leggatt’s -handsome red-brick mansion (as we see it to-day the façade remains -unaltered) was set down, a reason, no doubt, for disposing of it, and -which was objected to on the part of some of the people in authority as -likely to prove detrimental to the health of its future inmates. From the -schedule before me of the old materials, it is possible to rehabilitate -the mansion, the body of which forms the centre of the present workhouse, -and relieves, with brilliant ruddiness, the added ugly gray buildings -overlooking it. It had a ventilator and turret on the roof; there were -bows to the parlour, dining, and drawing rooms looking to the east, a -probably uninterrupted view originally. - -These rooms had handsomely stuccoed ceilings, cornices, and mouldings, -and marble chimney-pieces, carved, no doubt, after the lovely fashion -of their day, with an old Roman triumph, or a procession of Ceres, or -a vine-crowned Bacchus and Bacchantes. The great stairs, with mahogany -hand-rail and banisters, sprang up from the ground-floor in the centre -of the building to the two-pair story; and these, and all the marble -chimney-pieces, except those left in the Master’s room, and the room -over it, were to be taken at a valuation by the contractors, unless -available in the work. All the offices were at the west side, or back, of -the house; there was a clinker-paved stable, a laundry, and greenhouse, -and what are called stewing-stoves in the kitchen—in short, all the -appointments of a well-arranged establishment, the finishing touch to -which is suggested in the enriched chimney caps. - -Since then the character of the whole district seems to have fallen, and -New End is chiefly occupied by humble shops and cheap lodging-houses. -The square, an imperfect triangle, still asserts itself superior to the -dingy, sordid neighbourhood, about which the less said the better. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -_THE VALE OF HEALTH._ - - -From Hampstead Heath Station a branch of the East Heath Road leads direct -to this popular and well-known part of the Lower Heath, while innumerable -pathlets traced by the feet of visitors impatient to reach the goal of -their pilgrimage all trend in the same direction. - -The present name of the Vale dates back to the period of the wells -fashion, a period when sheltered places were believed to be more -conducive to health than more open ones, especially for invalids. - -When the fame of Dr. Gibbon’s ‘Fountain of Health’ brought many visitors -to Hampstead, quite a crop of small dwellings rose in this vicinity to -meet the needs of a class of invalids unable, or indisposed, to put up at -the taverns, or the ‘Wells Dwelling-house,’ or in the then fashionable -lodging-houses in Pond Street and the Lower Flask Walk. - -Upon the decline of the wells in public estimation, and the consequent -falling-off in the number of visitors, many of these easily-run-up -habitations (mostly weather-boarded cottages) disappeared. But of the few -that survived till quite modern times, some of them, as we shall see, -have had remarkable tenants. - -The little cluster of cottages upon the margin of the pool in the -bottom of the Vale constituted the headquarters of the craft which made -the greater part of the population of Hampstead in Tudor times—the -laundresses, who washed the linen of the Court and gentry and of the -chief City merchants and citizens, abundance of water, dry breezy air, -and unlimited bleaching and drying ground, making a very paradise for the -suddy sisterhood. - -These privileges were possessed by their successors for many years after -I first knew Hampstead, who made it appear in the early half of each week -as if the grassy spaces between the turf-grown gravel ‘hills and holes,’ -as children called them, and all the level growing beds of whortleberry, -and coverts of furze, belonged to them. - -It was not unpleasing to an idle observer to watch the bringing up from -the Vale of the great bucking-baskets of fresh-washed linen by the -youngest and strongest of the _lavandières_, to give them their prettiest -appellation, fresh-cheeked, full-chested, large-armed lassies, with -elf-locks blowing about their faces, who soon made a wide part of the -Heath appear as if an army were about to picnic there. - -As time went on, the proprietors of these cottages (marked on the map of -the Ordnance Survey as ‘Grottoes and arbours’) developed the sensible -idea of providing in a humble way for the refreshment of the many -summer-afternoon visitors to the lovely village, and preserved in my time -the tradition of the tea and bun houses with which Hampstead had formerly -been too abundantly provided. A humble guild, with no better properties -than deal tables and benches, coarse white or coloured ware, of which -there used to be great piles, and clean tablecloths for the first -comers. The knives, when required, were bone-handled, and blunt; and -the spoons—well, sensitive persons used to wash them in the slop-basin, -and dry them surreptitiously on the edge of the tablecloth. It was not -exactly Frascati’s,[182] but it was a pleasant picture in its way of -homely, hearty enjoyment, and the crowning joy of many a girl and boy’s -afternoon holiday on Hampstead Heath. - -One of them, rather an old boy now, has told me that, after an -independent _excursus_ in Bishop’s Wood, a general exploration of the -Heath, a game of hide-and-seek with his sisters among the gravel-pits, -and a donkey-ride from the Whitestone Pond to the Spaniards and back -again, or from the same starting-point round the West Heath to Jack -Straw’s Castle and the Whitestone Pond, few things could be more -pleasantly suggestive than the fuming chimneys in the hollow of the -Vale of Health, and the near sight of the several tables with big -family teapots, flanked by heaped-up plates of serviceable slices of -bread-and-butter (delicious after the ‘crug’ of Christ’s School), and -new-laid eggs, and water-cresses from the spring, which made the general -menu of these al-fresco entertainments. - -It was not unusual on summer evenings to see the whole space in front of -these cottages thronged with respectably-dressed family and other parties -taking tea in the open, and enlivening the placid scene with social -gaiety. - -It was with the hope of alluring a portion of this company, and the -expected crowds which the opening of the North London Railway promised, -that the East Heath Tavern intruded its gaunt ugliness upon this peaceful -spot, a speculation that ultimately failed. - -As the only place on Hampstead Heath outside the taverns where in the -forties and fifties a cup of tea could be had, or hungry folk find -refreshment for their children or themselves, the Vale of Health was well -known and appreciated. But its higher claims to be regarded and sought -out and visited, I think, as a rule, the general inhabitants of the town -of Hampstead had forgotten or ignored. - -Neither William Howitt, Baines, nor a writer in the _Bookman_—who in -1893, 1894, and 1895 contributed some notices of Hampstead to that -publication—appears to have known anything decided of the whereabouts of -Leigh Hunt’s cottage, otherwise than that it was situated in the Vale of -Health. The desire on all sides appears to have been to furnish the poet -with a more important habitation than he himself tells us he occupied. - -In or about 1855-56, it was believed that Vale Lodge, then the -hospitable home of the talented writers of ‘The Wife’s Secret’[183] and -‘Ingomar,’ was the veritable house in which the poet had resided, and -in one of the rooms of which Keats had composed the first verses of -‘Endymion.’ - -There is lying before me a note from a lady since closely connected with -Hampstead, in which she writes: - - ‘M. asks me to say that she finds Leigh Hunt and Douglas - Jerrold both lived in Mr. Lovell’s present house in the Vale of - Health.’ - -In a series of sketchy, ill-considered papers—the very memory of which -makes my ears tingle—I helped to give currency to this belief, but -subsequently, on reading the letters of Leigh Hunt, and the literary -recollections of his friend, Charles Cowden Clarke, I found, both from -description and allusion, that Vale Lodge could not possibly be the -‘little packing-case, by courtesy called a house,’ which Leigh Hunt -himself describes as his home at Hampstead, where he had gone for the -sake of his ‘health, and his old walks in the fields.’ - -It seemed a case for the ‘oldest inhabitant,’ and I was fortunately -referred to Mr. Paxon, of High Street, rate collector, etc., as his -father had been before him. An old and ailing man, but intelligent, -courteous, and communicative, he at once gave me the information I sought -for, and was at pains to point out the white, weather-boarded cottage -where, when a lad, as his father’s clerk, he had often delivered the -rate-papers to Mr. or Mrs. Hunt, whom he well remembered, and their -children also. - -Even then the cottages—a row of four, if I remember aright—their prospect -bounded by the margin of what is now the Spaniards Road, with a space -of unspoiled sward before them, coming down to the garden rails, had an -air of mild gentility, the effect, probably, of their retired situation, -and the cared-for little garden plots before them, not much bigger than -an old sea-captain’s bandanna handkerchief, and quite as flowery. Some -resident had named the one Leigh Hunt had tenanted Rose Cottage. It had -then a little green trellised veranda smothered in roses and scented -clematis above the French window that opened on the garden. - -My informant told me that Lord Byron had at one time lodged in another of -these cottages, and had written with a diamond on a pane of one of the -windows two lines which afterwards appeared in ‘Childe Harold.’ The pane -existed in his time, but had either been broken, or cut out and removed. -This was before Leigh Hunt’s residence there. - -When, in 1895, after a prolonged absence from Hampstead, I again visited -it for the purpose of reviving my impressions of certain localities, -I naturally desired to revisit Leigh Hunt’s cottage; but time and the -alterations in the neighbourhood had confused my recollection of the way -to it, and upon inquiring, I am obliged to confess there is some truth -in the accusations of certain American magazine writers, that the people -generally are not well up in the traditions of their neighbourhood, -nor greatly interested in the homes of the poets, painters, and other -celebrities, the memory of whose fame has enriched it. - -My quest was met by a frank ignorance: neither the cottage nor its -memorable occupant had been heard of by the ordinary dwellers in the -neighbourhood. - -Wandering on, I was fortunate enough to recognise the high-hedged -orchard-garden that had belonged to Vale Lodge, and I had no farther -difficulty in finding my way to the whereabouts of Leigh Hunt’s cottage. -Now, instead of the open space before it and its fellows, the approach is -strangely narrowed and closed in, but on the top of the garden-gate of -the _last of the row_ of what were four white weather-boarded cottages -in my time (of which only two remain, the place of the others being -filled by two tall, narrow brick houses), the Town Council, or Board -of Works, or some other local authority, had had inserted a brass -plate, some two inches wide and five or six in length, inscribed ‘Hunt’s -Cottage.’ After this, let no American or other traveller say that we do -not commensurately keep alive the memory of our men of genius! For one -mistaken moment I felt grateful; the next I had realized that this was -not the cottage I had been assured on such excellent authority was the -one lived in by Leigh Hunt, though next door to it. But what does it -signify? Fame is far-reaching, and the space covered by the row so small -that the memory of the one little home includes the whole, and clothes -these few cottages on the south-west side of the Vale of Health with -undying interest. - -Then I remembered how Leigh Hunt had written: ‘Strada Smollett is -delightful. By-and-by there will be such streets all over the world. -People will know not only the name of a street, but the reason for it.’ - -Soon I found myself wondering if such an important body as the Town -Council or the Board of Works could really be answerable for the sparse -bit of brass, and the obscure ‘Hunt’s Cottage’ graven on it, which might -mean any man’s cottage of the name of Hunt. There are quite a number in -the London Directory, whereas there is only one _Leigh Hunt_, the author -of ‘Rimini’ and ‘The Old Court Suburb,’ etc. Why, if intended to honour -the poet, had they deprived him of the Christian name that distinguished -him, and has a place in every reader’s memory? - -I will not despair of seeing this rectified and expanded, so that all -who pass by may see the ‘writing on the wall,’ and know that for some -few years of his long life the ‘Pink of Poets,’ as his adverse critics -sarcastically called him, resided in one of these cottages, where he -wrote the greater part of, and finished, the story of ‘Rimini.’ - -In 1812, Leigh Hunt, writing from 37, Portland Street, Oxford Road, to -Mr. Henry Brougham, tells him that he ‘longs to get into his Hampstead -retreat, out of the stir and smoke of London.’ And a little later he -informs the same correspondent that he is about to move to a cottage at -West End, Hampstead, ‘a really _bonâ-fide_ cottage, with humble ceilings -and unsophisticated staircase; but there is green about it, and a garden -with laurels.’ - -I mention this because I think it is to this circumstance he alludes when -he writes in his Autobiography that ‘early in the spring of 1816 he went -to reside _again_ in Hampstead.’ His friend Charles Cowden Clarke tells -us that soon after his release from Horsemonger Lane Gaol[184] Leigh Hunt -‘occupied a pretty little cottage in the Vale of Health.’ And Leigh Hunt -himself, in a letter to a friend in 1821, observes, ‘I came to get well -in our little packing-case here, dignified with the name of house.’ - -Again, in later years, in answer to a letter from his friend Mr. Dalby, -he says: ‘I defy you to have _lived in a smaller cottage than I have -done_. Yet it has held Shelley and Keats and half a dozen friends in it -at once; and they have made worlds of their own within the rooms. Keats’ -“Sleep and Poetry” is a description of a parlour that was mine, no larger -than an old mansion’s closet.’ - -Cowden Clarke tells us that when Keats slept there a bed was improvised -for him on a couch in Leigh Hunt’s library, a room at the back, rather -larger, if I remember, than the parlour.[185] Keats himself writes of it -in the poem Leigh Hunt alludes to: - - ‘For I am brimful of the friendliness - That in a little cottage I have found!’[186] - -Whilst Shelley, writing from Italy, tells how Mrs. Williams’ singing of -‘Dorme l’amour’ transports him back to the little parlour at Hampstead. -‘I can see the piano, the prints, the casts, and hear Mary’s [Mrs. Hunt] -“Ah! ah! ah!”’ Whenever Leigh Hunt or his friends refer to the Vale of -Health cottage, the smallness of the place is, as it were, insisted on, -and accentuated by the diminutive ‘little.’ - -[Illustration: _Shelley._] - -With such evidence as this as to the size and position of the poet’s -habitation, it appears a work of superfluity to seek after the site of -a dwelling that has never existed except in the generous imagination -of those who think talent receives honour from exterior surroundings -to which it never made pretence. Leigh Hunt in his pretty little Vale -of Health cottage (which, by the way, appears to have been as largely -receptive as the kindly heart of its proprietor) was as interesting, as -regarded, and as much sought by his friends—and what a cluster of bright -names they make!—as if he had inhabited a mansion. The same refined taste -that had given grace to his prison room reigned here, and we may depend -the roses were not wanting in the little garden-plot that had given -living, as well as pictured, beauty to those gloomy walls.[187] - -[Illustration: _W. Hazlitt._] - -Here the magnetism of its master, whose personality was even more -fascinating than his writings,[188] drew around him a society of the -most intellectual and clever men of the day—Hazlitt and Haydon, Telford, -Ollier, Charles Cowden Clarke, Charles Lamb, Shelley, the brothers -Horace and James Smith, Keats, and many others. Leigh Hunt himself was -not only a brilliant talker, but an accomplished musician; he sang and -played delightfully, and amongst his friends and frequent guests were the -Novellos, a family to which England is much indebted for the growth and -appreciation of good music. No wonder, therefore, that Keats should sing: - - ‘Scarce can I scribble on, for lovely airs - Are fluttering round the room, like doves in pairs.’ - -Grave Mary Shelley found the recurrence of the host’s fugues, and the -masses, madrigals, and part-songs of his musical allies at times too much -for her, and she wearied of them, but not of her delightful host. - -Of all his friends, Shelley, Charles Lamb, and Keats appear to have kept -him closest company. From the first he was soon parted; but genial, -‘gentle Elia,’ and the sensitive yet strong-souled Keats, were his -sympathetic friends and frequent companions. - -There is no doubt, with all his originality and independence of thought -and character, Keats was greatly influenced by Leigh Hunt. Keats’ young -enthusiasm and gratitude for Hunt’s encouragement and sympathy made him -greatly overrate his mental powers. Both were saturated with the natural -beauty of their surroundings—the woods, the fields, and what Bacon would -call ‘the winsome air and amenities of the spot.’ - -Even Shelley owed some of his inspirations to the sweet influences of -Hampstead; and we find him loitering in the fields, or leaning, notebook -in hand, upon the old gray gate that admitted (notwithstanding the notice -to trespassers) to the green glooms of Caen Wood, or one of those other -gates, leading up to the charming walk to Highgate, with Caen Wood on one -side, and the linked ponds on the other. I pleasure myself in thinking -that it may have been in the blue, clear, ambient sky above the Heath -that he heard the skylark singing: - - ‘Like a poet hidden - In the light of thought, - Singing hymns unbidden - Till the world is wrought - To sympathy with hopes and fears it heedeth not!’ - -Sometimes he might be seen pensively sauntering in Millfield Lane,[189] -between Caen Wood and Highgate, an ideal lane in those days, secluded -between great wayside elms and other trees, ‘Of beechen green, and -shadows numberless,’ curving in its course, and farther sheltered by -high hedges, not looking as if begrudged the ground they occupied, but -buttressed by wide, grassy banks, bright with wild-flowers, fragrant -with rose and woodbine in their season, and clustered generously with -primroses in spring. - -[Illustration: _Highgate Ponds and Sheep._] - -Hither came Collins, and Leslie, and Constable, as Gainsborough had -done before them, for their foregrounds of soft mosses, that underline -the sward in late autumn as down does the breasts of birds; and the -big bronze dock-leaves, and vari-coloured toadstools, and the painted -cups of scarlet peziza[190] that bloom, as it were, on bits of sere -wood and dead branches. A lane so lovely that it charmed the ordinary -wayfarer, and inspired poets and artists; so that when, some years ago, a -correspondent of the _Athenæum_ drew attention to the fact that official -vandalism was destroying its natural loveliness, cutting down some of the -fine old trees, and lopping others of the umbrageous branches that had -shaded the heads of Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, ‘Elia,’ and Leigh Hunt, as -well as those of many of our best known and loved artists, a feeling of -general indignation was aroused, and much local influence exerted to stop -the farther destruction of a spot so full of interest and association, -but with what effect I am ignorant. - -[Illustration: _Coleridge._] - -To this picturesque old lane, and other lovely bits of Hampstead and its -neighbourhood, the triad of poets whose centre was Leigh Hunt’s cottage -are indebted for many a rustic image, many an exquisite description of -pastoral and woodland scenery. The picturesque old trees, the aerial -suggestions, the near cornfields and country lanes, the rippling or -moss-muffled rills that then channelled the grassy slopes, and trickled -down to the Fleet ditch at Kentish Town, were mentally preserved, to -reappear in verse that gives them immortality. - -From a boy, Leigh Hunt, whose father at one time lived in Hampstead -Square, had been familiar with the beautiful suburb, and for some months -before the publication of ‘Rimini’ had been daily wandering about the -precincts of Caen Wood, and the grassy land - - ‘From which the trees as from a carpet rise, - In knolls, and clumps, with rich varieties,’ - -just as they did on South Hill half a century ago. - -There, too, he found his ‘plashy pools with rushes,’ and it may be—for -Hampstead Heath has seen many such morns of May: - - ‘Last of the spring, yet fresh with all its green, - For a warm eve, and gentle rain at night, - Have left a sparkling welcome for the light. - And there’s a crystal clearness all about; - The leaves are sharp, the distant hills look out, - A balmy briskness comes upon the breeze, - The smoke goes dancing from the cottage trees; - And, when you listen, you may hear the coil - Of bubbling springs about the grassy soil.’ - -It may be that the inception of these felicitously-descriptive lines was -due to local influence, for, though written of Italy, they are as true -a transcript of many an early summer’s morn at Hampstead (where Crabb -Robinson tells us the pleasure of waking and looking out of window from -his friend Hammond’s house[191] was worth walking from London overnight -to enjoy) as of a waking village landscape in the neighbourhood of -Ravenna. - -It is otherwise in winter, with snow on the ground, and a fierce wind -blowing, for the wind, Leigh Hunt tells us, ‘loses nothing of its -fierceness on Hampstead Heath.’ It was on such a bitter winter night -that Shelley, in either going to or leaving the little cot in the Vale -of Health, found a woman lying insensible on the snow on the top of the -hill, and, knocking at the first door he came to, asked to have her taken -in and cared for—or, at least, that she might be placed in an outhouse -out of the inclement night. Being refused, he made an application at -the second house, with the same result. Indignant at this seeming -want of charity and the uselessness of his intercession, he took her -up, and carried her down the frozen path to his friend’s cottage, the -expansiveness of which he well knew when an act of compassion was in -question. Nor was it ill bestowed. The woman, who was on her way to -Hendon, ‘had been all day attending a criminal court, at which a charge -had been made against her son, and, though he had been acquitted, the -suspense and agitation, added to fatigue, had affected her so seriously -as to produce fits; from which the doctor who was called in asserted she -could not have recovered but for the timely care and shelter bestowed -upon her.’ - -Cowden Clarke gives us a glimpse of Shelley on the Heath under other -conditions—‘scampering and bounding over the gorse bushes late at -night, now close upon us, and now shouting from the height like a wild -schoolboy.’ It was on his return to town, after one of his overnight -visits to the ‘Hampstead bard,’ that Shelley, accompanied by the latter, -astonished the only other inside passenger of the Hampstead coach—a -stiffly-silent old gentlewoman, who, in spite of various attempts to draw -her into conversation, determinedly maintained a severe reticence—by -suddenly exclaiming: - -‘For God’s sake, Hunt, - - ‘Let’s talk of graves, and worms, and epitaphs, - Make dust our paper, and, with rainy eyes, - Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth; - Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills’ - -—a choice of subjects that seemed to scare the lady, and make her look -as if she believed herself in the near neighbourhood of one Bedlamite at -least. - -It was Leigh Hunt who introduced Keats to ‘the old man eloquent’—S. T. -Coleridge—whom they met when walking in the fields between Highgate and -Hampstead—the upland fields that offered such fair views in those days to -the lovers of them. They walked with him two miles, at the end of which -Keats tells us that, though the sage had broached a hundred subjects, -all he knew was that he had heard his voice as he came towards them, and -heard it as he moved away—and all the interim, if he might so express it; -but apparently the discourse had no sequence or conclusion, except that -utterance of the mild, then somewhat fatuous-looking old man; that it was -just as well he did not comprehend, who, after shaking hands with Keats, -turned to Leigh Hunt, who lingered in bidding the author of ‘Christabel’ -and ‘The Ancient Mariner’ farewell, and whispered to him that he felt -death in the touch of the young poet’s hand. - -Mrs. Cowden Clarke tells us that Charles C. Clarke introduced Keats, his -old friend and schoolmate, to Leigh Hunt in his Vale of Health cottage. -But this is a mistake; Hunt himself, in his Autobiography, distinctly -says: ‘_It was not at Hampstead that I first saw Keats_; it was in York -Buildings, in the New Road’ (now Euston Road), ‘No. 8, where I wrote part -of the “Indicator,” and he resided with me in Mortimer Terrace, Kentish -Town, No. 13, where I concluded it.’ - -Leigh Hunt’s tenancy of his little Vale of Health cottage was but a short -one; he went there, as we have seen, in 1816, and early in 1819 we find -him writing to C. C. Clarke: - -‘As we must certainly move, we have made up our minds to move to Kentish -Town, which is a sort of compromise between London and our beloved -Hampstead. The London end touches so nearly Camden Town, which is so -near London, that Marianne will not be afraid of my returning from the -theatres at night, and the country is extremely quiet and rural, running -to the woods, and the shops between Hampstead and Highgate.’ - -Accordingly, on February 15, 1819, he writes from Mortimer Terrace: - -‘Hampstead is now in my eye—hill, trees, church, and all the slope of -Caen Wood, to my right, and Primrose and Haverstock Hills, with Steele’s -cottage, to my left.’ - -[Illustration: _Charles Lamb._] - -One looks regretfully back to the breaking up of the little literary -home in the Vale of Health—the roof under which Hunt tells us that he -had introduced Shelley to the young poet Keats; that had welcomed the -handsome, brown-faced Charles Lamb, and his always-to-be-pitied sister -Mary; where the genial C. Cowden Clarke came and went as he listed, -bursting in like a mingling of breeze and sunshine, full of freshness and -warmth; and Keats, keenly sensitive and self-contained, who, loving his -old schoolmaster’s son, to whom he owed deep obligations—the ‘first to -teach him all the sweets of song’—yet thought the laughter-loving Clarke, -in spite of his poetical taste, ‘coarse.’ One would fain have kept them a -little longer dwellers in ‘sweet Hampstead.’ - -First Shelley sails away for Dante’s land, whither Hunt and Keats were -eventually to follow him—the first to join Lord Byron in a literary -enterprise that did not answer its noble projector’s expectations,’[192] -and Keats in the companionship and care of his devoted friend, the -young and promising artist Severn, with the vain hope of lengthening -the thinning thread of life that bound him to earth. Throughout these -years of failing health and mental trial Keats was suffering the sordid -cares of insufficient means—cares that to an independent, upright spirit -such as his, must have been an ever-present source of uneasiness and -depression. The critics’ half-hearted verdict on ‘Endymion,’ when, as in -the case of some of his reviewers, it was not cruel, must have deeply -wounded the sensitive nature of the poet, who had yet the manliness to -hide his wounds, and the faith in himself to fall back on the consolation -of his own conviction of the vitality of his work. It stirs one with a -feeling of indignation, remembering the depreciation of the poem in the -poet’s lifetime, to read that at a sale of autographs in the September of -the year 1897 the original manuscript of John Keats’ ‘Endymion’ sold for -£695. - -It has been told me by one who knew Leigh Hunt long subsequent to his -return from Italy, that no one who came within the charm of his kindly -nature and delightful fancy could refrain from loving him. He was full -of friendliness and human sympathy, and ready to render kindness to all -who needed it, virtues that made men overlook other short-comings in his -character—his vanity and want of a proper feeling of self-dependence: he -was too apt to throw himself and his difficulties upon his friends. Mrs. -Barbauld could see no beauty in his ‘Rimini’; it is, according to her -ideas, ‘most fantastic’; she was without the power of feeling the natural -simplicity and picturesqueness of Hunt; to her he was an author, who, -‘in exaggeration of all the slovenliness of the new school, has thought -proper to come into public with his neckcloth untied and his stockings -about his heels.’ She could not comprehend his originality, or the -half-antiquated but expressive phraseology that gave such piquancy to his -prose writings, and has made his Essays, as a recent writer has observed, -worthy to have a place on the same shelf with those of ‘Elia.’ - -Long after Leigh Hunt had vacated the little cottage in the Vale of -Health another charming reminiscence attaches to the locality. - -[Illustration: _Leigh Hunt._] - -Lord Dufferin, in his delightful memoir of his lovely and talented -mother, Helen, Lady Dufferin (then Mrs. Blackwood), the writer of many -sweet lyrics, tells us that she tenanted one of those _toy_ cottages in -the Vale of Health,[193] Hampstead, where she sought health, and found -it—so much so that the next summer she took a larger cottage in the same -neighbourhood, probably Pavilion Cottage, a rather odd association, -which Mr. Baines mentions as having been her ladyship’s abode at one -time. He does not name her having lived in one of the smaller cottages -previously. - -Some time between 1855-60 the Lovells removed from their house in -Mornington Crescent, where they had been the near neighbours of George -Cruikshank, the Westland Marstons, Mrs. Oliphant, and many other literary -and artistic friends, to Vale Lodge, in the Vale of Health, which, as I -have elsewhere said, they fully believed to have been the Hampstead home -of Leigh Hunt—a representation that, perhaps, the agent, or some other -interested person, found useful in letting the house. Though of very -modest proportions, it by no means tallied with Leigh Hunt’s description -of his ‘little packing-case,’ nor did the parlours (there were more than -one) resemble an old mansion’s closets, which the single one in the toy -cottage did very closely. Mr. Lovell’s residence here was not a very long -one, and the family subsequently removed to Lyndhurst Road. - -Since I first knew this part of Hampstead it has grown into quite a large -and noisy suburb of the town, and the secluded and rustic character of -the Vale has wholly changed. Rows and terraces of fifth-rate houses cover -the grassy slopes and gravelly mounds, then crested with furze-bushes and -occasional beds of heath, and the turf that, in spite of the thousands -of feet that at Easter and Whitsuntide trod it nearly bare, continued to -renew itself. - -There was not much left for the botanist on the East Heath, but plenty of -space and freshness, and the wild simplicity of natural heathland, for -the twice yearly throngs of visitors from the dull courts and stifling -alleys of London. - -Now two large hideous buildings, utterly out of character with the -locality, dominate the houses—the one a German club-house, the other -used for refreshment-rooms, which have partly put an end to the simple, -out-of-doors accommodation of the cottage folk. - -[Illustration: _The Vale of Health._] - -This part of the Vale is further vulgarized by what appears to be a -stationary steam merry-go-round, swings, etc., additions to the ‘’Appy -’Ampstead’ of ’Arry and ’Arriet, but an eyesore to those who imagine the -freshness of leafy trees and greensward would be more real enjoyment -to town-worn folk than the conventionalities of a country fair, or a -gas-lighted corner off the High Street, Battersea. - -Yet, as long as Hampstead survives, and that infelt law of attraction -in human hearts to visit the homes of men and women whose thoughts have -touched the spirits and enriched the minds of tens of thousands of their -fellow-creatures, so long will Hampstead have its pilgrims, and Leigh -Hunt’s lowly cottage be sought for. - -I can hardly get away from it, with its memories, not only of the -poet-essayist, but of his affinities. The best writers, and other men -‘of mark and likelihood,’ in the first decades of our swiftly-waning -century, were its guests, and shared those frugal _symposia_ that Cowden -Clarke has told us of, severely simple, at which not the viands, but the -company, made the feast. And then, on summer evenings, the strolling on -to the Heath, of which the cottage was but the vestibule, with Clarke -and Shelley, or Lamb and Keats, watching the glorious sunsets from the -western heights, and lingering on till twilight deepened and the stars -came out. Or waiting at high-tides, till the white moonlight of the -summer night enwrapped the woods, and Heath, and shining ponds, and made -the whole scene one of ethereal beauty, the charms of which, and of -their own converse, belated them, until the early thrush and blackbird -serenaded the dawn, and the friends said ‘Good-night’ and ‘Good-morning’ -in the same breath. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -_CAEN WOOD._ - - -Caen Wood (or Ken Wood, as Lord Mansfield always spelt it), lying between -the villages of Hampstead and Highgate, belongs to neither, but is -situated in the parish of St. Pancras, which adjoins Hampstead Heath at -the upper corner of Lord Mansfield’s demesne. Part of Caen Wood comes -out upon the Heath, from which it has been emparked, and the whole is so -nearly connected by neighbourhood and association with the local history -of Hampstead, that in writing of the one it is impossible to ignore the -other. - -Ken Wood, a name which Loudon believed preserved the British one of -Kerns, or oak-woods, with which its site was anciently covered, is -thought by Lysons to be derived from that of some remote possessor, a -family of the name of Kentewoode having in bygone times held land in this -neighbourhood and in Kentish Town. - -Mr. Lloyd quite recently, in a lecture entitled ‘Caen Wood and its -Associations,’ gives it as his opinion that the name comes from the -French Caen; and he says that in all probability the Conqueror gave the -property to a relation of his own, who, having lands at Caen in Normandy, -naturally called his new estate after that town. I give this suggestion, -which is very probable, for what it is worth. - -In the time of Charles II., I learn from Somers’ Tracts, Ken Wood -was not the name of a part only, but of the whole remaining portion -of the great woods belonging to the See of London, part of the old -Forest of Middlesex, of which Park, with reason, imagines Ken Wood to -be a remnant.[194] It is situated in the Manor of Cantleowes, in the -north-east corner of the parish of St. Pancras, and ‘is a portion of one -of its four great manorial properties, viz., Cantleowes, Kentish Town, -St. Pancras, Somerstown, Ruggemere, Marylebone, and Tottenhall, Tottenham -Court Road.’[195] - -Leaving the names of its more ancient proprietors to the dead past, -in 1640-42 Sir James Harrington resided at Ken Wood. He was an active -Commonwealth man, and fled beyond seas at the Restoration, having -narrowly escaped arrest. Subsequently we find Mr. John Bill, the younger, -whose father, John Bill, Esq., one of the King’s printers,[196] had been -sequestered for delinquency by the Long Parliament, writing to Sir Harry -Vane for his advice touching the purchase of the property, which he (Sir -Harry), then—1658—resident in his fine house on Hampstead Hill, knew all -about. He reports that the ‘estate of Ken Wood appears to him to require -handling well; the home demesne is particularly good, and capable of -much improvement, but _that little castle of ruinous brick and stone_ -could only be used for materials to build another house. There are nearly -thirty acres of waste, as ponds, moate, etc., and a deal of trees to -be cut down, and many serious expenses to be considered.’ He adds that -it is not worth by £100 the price asked for it, and advises his friend -not to purchase—advice which appears to have met with the usual fate of -counsel that runs counter to the inclination of the client, for two years -afterwards (1660) Mr. John Bill the younger purchased the estate. It then -consisted of 280 acres of land, well covered with timber, and the house -is described as a ‘capital messuage of brick, wood, and plaster.’ That -‘little castle of ruinous brick and stone’ on the demesne must have been -a mere excrescence, a relic of more antique times. There were, besides, -eight cottages, a farmhouse, windmill, and fishponds.[197] The windmill -occupied the summit of what is now known as Parliament Hill, where, says -my authority, ‘the trench formed by the removal of its foundation is -still to be traced.’[198] - -It was, no doubt, the Manor Mill, a source of much profit to the Lord, -‘the tenants being compelled to grind their corn there, at his own -price.’ Having ‘found a place that he could live in with comfort,’ as he -expresses it, Mr. John Bill married Diana, daughter of Mildmay, Earl of -Westmoreland, and widow of John Pelham, Esq., of Brokesly, Lincolnshire, -whose name the lady preferred and retained. The St. Pancras register for -1661 records the baptism of Diana, daughter of John Bill and Lady Pelham, -at Caen Wood, an event that inspired James Howell, the author of ‘Poems -on Several Choice and Various Subjects: Lond. 1663,’ to write one - - ‘Of Mrs. DIANA BILL, - Born and Baptized lately in Cane Wood, - Hard by Highgate.’ - -The title is sufficiently curious, and so are the lines that follow, for -which I refer my readers to Lysons, or Park. - -I am reminded that Pepys in his Diary records that he and Lady Bill -(a well-bred but crooked woman) stood sponsors for a friend’s child. -Meanwhile Mr. Bill has been busy with his estate, and has surrounded -twenty-five acres of it with a brick wall. In 1661 occurred the strange -outbreak[199] of the Fifth Monarchy men, who, being driven out from -St. John’s and Hornsey Woods, took refuge in Cane Wood (as it was then -written). Here flew their banner, with its wild motto, ‘The King Jesus, -with their heads on the gate!’—that gate, as someone writes, that from -reign to reign ‘resembled a butchery with the heads and quarters of men.’ - -Here Venner, preacher and cooper, with his scanty handful of followers, -for three days in mid-winter, when Mr. Pepys’ pew was gay with rosemary -and bays, kept their woody stronghold, and prayed and starved, till -Raresby, ‘who wanted a little action,’ rode out with a band of soldiers -and surrounded them. Even then Venner, who fought desperately, would not -suffer himself to be taken till he was badly wounded, and most of his -party cut down or prisoners. In 1673, much to his wife’s (Lady Pelham) -satisfaction, we may be sure, the name of John Bill, Esq., appears in -the list of Middlesex gentry, an honour he survived for seven years, -dying at Caen Wood in 1680. He was buried in Hampstead Church. Their -only daughter—and, I believe, their only child, for in his will he -desired that the estate might be sold at the death of his wife—had in the -meantime married Captain Francis D’Arcy Savage, and died, his widow, May -23, 1726. She ‘lies buried,’ Park tells us, ‘against the north wall in -Barnes churchyard.’ - -Nine years after the death of Mr. Bill, the estate of Caen Wood was the -residence of a Mr. Withers; and some time prior to 1698 Mr. William -Bridges, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, resided here. - -When Mackey wrote his ‘Tour through England’ (1720), Ken Wood had become -the property of one Dale, an upholsterer, who is said to have bought it -out of the ‘Bubbles.’[200] His hold upon it appears to have been quite as -fleeting, for he very soon mortgaged it to Lord Hay for £1,575. Fifteen -years later we find his lordship bringing an action[201] to foreclose, on -the plea that he can neither get principal nor interest from him, and -that a second mortgage had been made to William, Lord Forbes, and the -mortgagee had suffered the house to go to ruin, had felled a quantity of -timber, and committed great waste. The end was that, after being allowed -six months to pay £1,907 7s. 6d. (October 24, 1724), the miserable -upholsterer found himself absolutely foreclosed of all equity of -redemption of the mortgaged property, and shortly after, February, 1725, -the same order was made against Lord Forbes, the second mortgagee. ‘This -is interesting,’ says Mr. Lloyd, ‘as showing the value of the property -167 years ago. It is set out as a messuage, pleasure-grounds, orchards, -kitchen-garden, paddock, and woodlands, with four ponds, covering 22 -acres, together with £5 per annum parcel of £15 a year secured upon lease -granted to the Governors of the Waterworks. Yet, all this only brought -as much as would cover the first mortgage, under £2,000—little more than -£100 per acre; and yet within the last three years (1892) some 200 acres -of the adjoining bare land has been sold by Lord Mansfield for public -purposes at £1,000 per acre! and the vendor was so completely master -of the situation as to compel the erection of a fence by the public of -something approaching the value of the fee simple of the estate when it -was sold by order of the Court in 1724; and doubtless it would have sold -for more if cut up for building purposes.’ - -In the same year that Lord Hay recovered the estate the famous Duke of -Argyle purchased it; and at his death he left it to his nephew, Lord Bute. - -Horace Walpole, his old schoolfellow, describes him as a man of taste, -who he thinks ‘meant well.’ He was said to be the favourite of the -Dowager Princess of Wales (mother of George III.), who, according to the -above authority, forced the King to employ him. He proved a weak and -incompetent Minister, who, in his desire to fuse all parties, offended -all. He married the only daughter of the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley -Montagu, the sometime friend and correspondent of Horace Walpole and -Pope, and, Court scandal apart, proved passably amiable in his domestic -relations.[202] - -Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in her letters to her daughter, tells her that -she well remembers Caen Wood (she spells it Kane Wood[203]) House, and -cannot wish her a more agreeable place. But in those days the house was -comparatively insignificant, and the gardens and grounds not nearly so -extensive or so well laid out as at present. Neither was it so secluded -or self-contained. The road to Highgate at this time came close up to the -principal entrance. - -A wood called Turner’s Wood adjoined it, which became in 1737 the site -of the very original and favourite place of amusement, New Georgia—a -tea-drinking house, and pleasure-grounds, with waterworks, and -various ingenious contrivances laid out, invented, and executed by a -sexagenarian, who appears to have had considerable mechanical skill, -and some humour in his application of it. The cottage, on which an -inscription set forth that he, Robert Caxton, had built it with his own -hands,[204] contained several rooms, in one of which a chair sank on a -person sitting in it, while another contained a pillory, into which, when -a gentleman put his head, he could only be extricated by a lady kissing -him—a grace which the free manners of the times allowed on the part of -maids or matrons without the fear of scandal or the police-courts. We -learn from contemporary writings that this contrivance became exceedingly -popular, and the _Connoisseur_[205] informs us ‘that it made a favourite -Sunday recreation of the citizens to put their necks into the pillory at -New Georgia.’[206] - -But the close neighbourhood of this popular place of resort could -scarcely have added to the charms of Ken Wood or the peace of its noble -proprietor, and accordingly, some time subsequent to 1755, ‘for a cause -that did him honour’ (the payment of his debts), Lord Bute sold Ken Wood -to the then Attorney-General, the erewhile Mr. Murray of the Chicken -House. - -Turner’s Wood, with the humorous cottage, garden, ponds, labyrinths, -etc., became absorbed in the grounds of that domain.[207] - -Notwithstanding the sneers of Malone, it is impossible, in tracing the -career of Mr. Murray, not to agree with Boswell’s opinion of him, that -he was ‘no mere lawyer.’ The life-long friend and companion of some of -the greatest wits and writers of his time (and there were giants in those -days) must have had more in him than _good company_ to have deserved, -and retained, their friendship, or to have felt sympathy in their -society. There is more poetry in human nature than finds expression in -verse; the courage, faith, and self-reliance—precious but easily packed -possessions—that sat as lightly in the breast of the poor but well-born -boy as he himself upon the rough Scotch pony on which he made his two -months’ journey to the Metropolis, like the younger son in a fairy tale, -with three good gifts for his portion, have in themselves the elements of -poetry. He seems through life to have retained these gifts, and to have -owed to a strong will, brave heart, and noble ambition, the achievement -of eminence that has won him a historical name, independent of his -father’s, and has made that of Mansfield little less memorable than that -of Murray. - -Roscoe tells us that his success was the legitimate and logical result -of the means he sedulously employed to secure it. Remembering his want -of wealth, the well-known predilections of his house for that of the -Stuarts, and his consequent want of influence with those in power, it is -pretty evident that in the early part of his professional life he had -no honours thrust upon him that he had not hardly and justly earned. -Ten years before the purchase of Ken Wood, in the ever historically -memorable 1745, we find Mr. Murray, then Solicitor-General, called -before the Privy Council and put to his purgation touching his suspected -Jacobite tendencies, being accused (though a Westminster boy at the -time) of having drunk the Pretender’s health upon his knees; and also -that on the trial of the Scotch rebels, instead of applying to them the -latter epithet, he had referred to them as ‘unfortunate gentlemen.’ -Yet in the next year, when the heads of the Lords Lovat, Kilmarnock, -and Balmerino had fallen on Tower Hill, the astute Scotch lawyer -maintained his legal and social status; but when, eight years later, he -was made Attorney-General (1754), it is said that he was so afraid of -the accusation he had been called to answer before the Privy Council -being brought against him in the House of Commons that he offered his -Sovereign, George II., to resign his place, saying that ‘the person -who served His Majesty in that high office should not be suspected of -treason.’ ‘Sir,’ replied the King, ‘were I able to replace you with as -able a man as yourself, I might perhaps permit you to give up your place.’ - -A year afterwards he became Chief Justice of the King’s Bench (1755), and -entered the House as Baron Mansfield. - -Recollecting his passionate admiration of the neighbourhood of Ken Wood -(I call it so because he did), his purchase of it reads like the crowning -chapter of a romance. It was Lord Mansfield who first declared that the -air of England was too pure for a slave to breathe, and that every man -who inspires it is free!—a decision pronounced in favour of a runaway -negro, James Somerset.[208] - -He decided against the barbarous custom of wrecking then, and till -comparatively modern times, prevalent upon our coasts. He also favoured -freedom of religious opinion, gave literary copyright to authors, -and is said _to have been the founder of the commercial law of this -country_. But his liberality only extended to a certain limit. He took -the part of the Crown against the North Americans’ righteous resistance -to taxation[209] without representation; and he would have restricted -the liberty of the press. He had not sufficient magnanimity to forego -monopoly of his highly-paid offices, for it was said of him that ‘next -to the King he regarded the coinage,’ and had a keen appetite for -emoluments.[210] - -About the years 1767-68 he had become so thoroughly unpopular, that -not only were the public prints filled with abuse of him, but the very -potters emphasized this feeling by making him figure disagreeably on -articles of pottery and porcelain. At a recent sale of ceramic ware, -I remember to have met with a curious example on a Chelsea porcelain -punch-bowl, which was painted with portraits of John Wilkes in a -shield surmounted by the British lion, with Lords Camden and Temple as -supporters, inscribed ‘Wilkes and Liberty!’ with the motto underneath, -‘Always ready in a good cause,’ and a pendent portrait of Lord Mansfield, -surmounted by a serpent, with George III. and the devil as supporters, -and underneath a motto, ‘Justice en pettee!’ - -But the silver-tongued Murray bore all this, and much more, with -apparent equanimity, and exhibited even to his political enemies a -heroic moderation. To his honour, he assisted in reversing the sentence -of outlawry against Wilkes, who had returned from abroad in 1767, and -had been chosen to represent Middlesex. On that occasion we find from -his speech that he was suffering from a similar persecution to that -complained of by the late Lord Chief Justice during a famous trial[211]: -‘Numerous crowds attending in and about the hall;’ ‘audacious addresses, -dictating to us from those they call the people the judgments to be -given;’ ‘reasons of policy being urged from danger to the kingdom by -commotions and general confusion.’ ‘I pass over,’ said his lordship, -‘many anonymous letters I have received.... The threats go farther than -the abuse; personal violence is denounced. I do not believe it. It is -not the genius of the worst men of this country in the worst times. -But I have set my mind at rest. The last end that can happen to any man -never comes too soon if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his -country ... for liberty is synonymous with law!’ - -[Illustration: _Lord W. Mansfield._] - -In the ‘Historical Chronicle’ of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, under the -date of January 1, 1773, it is recorded: ‘This day the Right Hon. Lord -Mansfield entertained at his house at Caen Wood, near Hampstead, about -four hundred people, and gave each a half-crown and a quartern loaf after -dinner.’ - -Years of scarcity were but too common in the last century, and this -might have been one. Under any circumstances such seasonable hospitality -was calculated to make the donor popular with the masses, yet seven -years later, in the course of the Gordon Riots, when, under pretence -of religious zeal, the mob resented his lordship’s supposed favour of -Catholicism,[212] we find Horace Walpole writing to the Countess of -Ossory, June 7, 1780, that Lord Mansfield’s house in Bloomsbury was in -ashes, and that George Selwyn had just told him that 5,000 men were -marching on Kane Wood. ‘It is true,’ he adds, ‘and that 1,000 of the -Guards are gone after them.’ Then, by way of postscript: ‘Kane Wood is -saved! It will probably be a black night. I am decking myself with blue -ribbands like a May-day garland.’ - -But Horace Walpole was not alone in adopting blue ribands on that -occasion. Every wayfarer donned the same colour, and every house had a -blue flag or favour hung out. The very Jews inscribed on their dwellings, -‘This house true Protestant’; and chalk was in great request, affording -as it did an easy washable way of asserting ‘No Popery!’ The father of -Grimaldi chalked up, ‘No Religion!’ - -We already know the result of the raid on Ken Wood, and the enterprise of -the quick-witted landlord of the Spaniards.[213] - -Literature still deplores the loss of his lordship’s fine library, his -splendid collection of law books and autograph letters, but most of all -his private notes and papers, which it is said had been accumulating for -fifty years. - -[Illustration: _The Spaniards._] - -All his contemporaries bear witness to the calmness and dignity with -which he bore this irreparable loss,[214] nor (for all that is said of -his love of money) would he accept of any pecuniary compensation for -it. His hard, inflexible animosity to his noble opponent, Lord Chatham, -whose death ‘he witnessed without compassion, whose funeral he refused -to attend, and when the House moved for a pension to be granted to -the widow and her children had kept silence, voting neither one way -nor the other,’[215] was the great moral blot on Lord Mansfield’s -character. But on this occasion of keen mental pain and bitter personal -disappointment—far beyond his great monetary loss—he exhibited no -vindictiveness against the perpetrators of it, and himself directed the -acquittal of Lord George Gordon. - -One wonders if he came face to face in the hour of his calamity with the -memory of his own past want of mercy, and recognised in fire and the -devastation of his best-prized treasures the form of a protean Nemesis. - -Not long after this event Mrs. Boscawen, writing to her friend Mrs. -Delany, tells her that she has called at Ken Wood; that Lord Mansfield -appears to bear his trial with great equanimity, but that Lady Mansfield -is looking very ill. - -It was a happy thing for the Chief Justice that, like his neighbour -and friend Erskine (notwithstanding all their occasional professional -antagonism), he too found pleasure in simple things, especially in the -improvement of his grounds; and though not so ardent and practical an -arborist as Lord Erskine, several of the trees in the demesne are of his -plantings—especially the cedars of Lebanon, which make so interesting an -appearance in the grounds opposite the house. There are three of them, -planted at the angles of an equilateral triangle, and, unlike most cedars -of Lebanon, they grow from 50 to 60 feet high without branches. The trunk -of the largest measures in girth, just above the ground, 24 feet.[216] - -Another source of relief from mental corrosion was his fondness for the -society of young persons, and it is pleasant to learn from a letter in -the correspondence of Mrs. Delany that twelve months after the Gordon -Riots he had recovered, if, indeed, he had ever lost, his accustomed -serenity. - -This lady, then in her eighty-first year, was visiting Mrs. Boscawen -(widow of the Admiral) at Glanville, Colney Hatch, and she writes to her -niece under the date of July 23, 1781: - -‘Last Friday Lady Mansfield and Miss Murray (grand-niece to the Lord -Chief Justice) came here from Kenwood, and invited Mrs. Boscawen and all -her guests to dine there yesterday, which we did. A most agreeable day it -proved, Lord Mansfield in charming spirits; and after dinner he invited -me to walk round his garden and through his wood; and by the time we -came back to tea it was eight o’clock. We had walked two miles at least, -and though I felt a little tired, the pleasure of the place and his -conversation made me not sensible of it till I came home.’ - -This walk was most probably the serpentine path which is mentioned by -Brewer, nearly two miles in extent, and which conducted round the most -interesting part of the grounds, and through the large and venerable -woods. In this perambulation some charming views occur, revealing -landscapes wholly unconnected with the demesne, but which add greatly to -its apparent extent and picturesqueness. Looking at an engraving of Caen -Wood House, taken after its restoration and enlargement by Robert Adam, -and subsequently Saunders, soon after it came into the possession of the -then Attorney-General, it looks a fitting home for learned leisure, or -the refreshment of one weary of the toil of public life. Handsome without -magnificence, lapped amongst bowery woods, with charming views, fine -gardens, water, and beautifully laid-out grounds. We read that within -the house the arrangements were more imposing than the exterior would -suggest, the rooms being large, lofty, and well proportioned.[217] -Amongst the pictures were several portraits of celebrated men, notably -two by Pope (who took lessons of Jarvis, the face-painter), the famous -head of Betterton, the actor, and the portrait of the poet himself. -After the burning of his lordship’s house in Bloomsbury Grove, hundreds -of persons called at Caen Wood to inquire if Pope’s portrait had been -saved.[218] Lord Mansfield lived to be eighty-six years of age, and -voluntarily resigned in 1788 (not a day, it was said, before it was -imperatively necessary for him to do so) the Lord Chief Justiceship of -the Court of King’s Bench, which he had held for thirty-two years. - -[Illustration: _Caen Wood House._] - -When Fanny Burney, on the occasion of her visit to Mrs. Crewe at -Hampstead, was taken by that lady to see, amongst other places of -interest, Caen Wood, she tells us Lord Mansfield had not been out of his -room for four years, though he continued to see his intimate friends. - -His last years, she is careful to note, were brightened by the assiduous -attentions and tender care of his nieces, the Hon. Miss Murrays. He died -March, 1793. - -Lord Mansfield was noted for the charming quality of his voice—an -immense force in oratory, helping as it does to sway the feelings of the -audience. Pope is said to have had this charm in so remarkable a degree -that in his childhood he was called ‘the little nightingale,’ a term more -applicable to vocalization than to speaking, and, like Pope, Murray had -studied elocution. - -[Illustration: _Hogarth._] - -He is said to have had a greed for money-getting, and never to have -given an opinion gratis or unprofessionally. There is a story told of a -lady who, wishing to have the authority of his ideas upon the subject -of the French Revolution, inquired how he thought it would end, and -was answered that, ‘as the event was without precedent, so the end was -without prognostic,’ a sentence that could not have greatly added to her -enlightenment. - -It was through Lord Mansfield’s suggestion that the Honourable Society -of Lincoln’s Inn are in possession of Hogarth’s picture of ‘Paul before -Felix.’ A legacy of £200 had been left to the Inn, and as the best way -of spending it his lordship recommended the Benchers to employ Hogarth to -paint them the picture, which hangs, or did hang, in the Benchers’ old -hall. - -It is pleasant to record of Lord Mansfield that, at a time when the -criminal law of England was Draconic in its indiscriminating severity, -he, as a rule, leaned to the side of mercy. It was Lord Mansfield who -directed a jury to find a stolen trinket less in value than ten shillings -in order that the thief might escape capital punishment, to which the -jeweller who prosecuted demurred, asserting that the fashion of the thing -had cost him twice the money. ‘Gentlemen,’ replied the judge, with grave -solemnity, ‘we ourselves stand in need of mercy; let us not hang a man -for the fashion’s sake!’ - -His kinsman and successor, the second Earl of Mansfield, spent much -of his time at Hampstead, of which he was also a warm admirer; and -when, in the autumn of 1829, it became necessary for the freeholders -and copyholders to consider what measures should be taken for the -preservation of their own privileges, and the prevention of further -encroachments on the Heath, by breaking up and destroying the herbage, -for the digging and selling of sand, etc., and also to oppose the further -progress of what was called Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson’s Estate Bill, which -had actually arrived at its last stage in the House of Lords without -their knowledge,[219] and, consequently, without a voice being raised -against it, Lord Mansfield wrote to the committee promising to support -the opposition, and subscribing £50 towards the necessary expenses. - -Six years later, in the summer of 1835, Caen Wood received the honour of -a royal visit, in the gaiety and gratulation of which event Hampstead -naturally shared. Their Majesties William IV. and his amiable Queen, -Adelaide, on whom kindness sat more easily than state, had announced -their intention of being present at a garden-party to be given by the -Earl and Countess of Mansfield, and forthwith the loyalty of the village, -whose church bells had not rung out on such an occasion since the passing -by of Queen Mary, wife of William III., in the summer of the year of -her death—1694—was put upon its mettle how best to demonstrate itself. -Eventually the exultation and excitement of the inhabitants, guided by -the good taste of the gentlemen (there were a hundred of them) who had -formed themselves into a committee of management, took the pretty form -of dressing the houses on the line of route from Rosslyn Hill to the -top of Heath Street with green boughs, flowers, and variegated lamps. -At the entrance of the Heath, just short of the White Stone Pond, the -decorations culminated in a triumphal arch, not quite as large as Temple -Bar, but far more ornamental. It spanned the road, and was draped with -the royal standard and St. George’s banner, and many other flags, the -bright colours of which, mingled with garlands and festoons of flowers -and greenery, lent themselves well to picturesque effect.[220] - -On either side were enclosed recesses for the ladies privileged by rank -or courtesy to represent the élite of the neighbourhood; and here their -Majesties’ carriage was to pause while Colonel Bosanquet, chairman of -the committee, read a loyal address. The rejoicings were to end with a -pyrotechnic display upon the Heath and the illumination of the village. - -The day was radiant, as days will sometimes be even in England in the -solstitial season, and Caen Wood, with its fifty acres of flower-garden -and pleasure-grounds, its leafy woods and park, and sheet of water, -broken by groups of trees, and crossed by an artificial bridge at a -distance, looked its very best, especially from the terrace along the -south front of the mansion, on which a state sofa had been prepared -for their Majesties. On this occasion the whole suite of apartments on -the ground-floor had been thrown open to the company, the principal -dining-room being reserved for the royal party. - -If we look back to the _Court Journal_ of that day, we shall find that -the six carriages, in the last of which, drawn by four white horses, -were the King and Queen, entered the village of Hampstead a little after -4 p.m. The parochial authorities had met them at the boundary of the -parish; charity children were drawn up in ranks and had saluted them; -and the spectators all along the line of road from Tottenham Court Road -to Chalk Farm had made the air resonant with hearty cheers, which were -caught up and continued all the way to Caen Wood. - -A royal salute notified their Majesties’ arrival at Hampstead. A moment -after hurrying avant-couriers appear on the edge of the Heath. The -band of the 1st Life Guards struck up the National Hymn, the tiers of -elegantly-dressed women rose on either side of the triumphal arch, at the -entrance of which the royal carriage stopped, the steps were let down, -and Colonel Bosanquet and a deputation of the committee approached. The -Colonel, bowing profoundly, laid a white-gloved hand on the carriage -door, and, apologizing for arresting their Majesties’ progress, read -the address of the loyal inhabitants of Hampstead. Whereupon the King -answered that he received with pleasure on the part of himself and -the Queen the loyal expressions of the inhabitants of all classes of -the parish and ‘beautiful village of Hampstead.’ Let that phrase be -remembered as an unpremeditated pearl of praise from the lips of Majesty, -in sight of the loveliness of views expanding on both sides of him, an -echo intensified, as it were, of Constable’s ‘sweet Hampstead.’ - -Thence to Caen Wood, as we have said, the route was a popular ovation, -the way lined with spectators and carriages that were filled with them. -At Mansfield House—so we find it called at this date, their Majesties -were received at the north entrance by Lord and Lady Mansfield, the -Ladies Murray, and Lord Stormont, then a boy of seven years of age; while -a brilliant company (700 in number) gathered in the grounds, where tents -and marquees shone white upon the lawns. Small boats, decked with flags, -floated on the water or glided to and fro, giving colour and animation to -its surface. The woods echoed to the notes of the Styrian Hunters[221] -and the Coldstream band; and subsequent to the banquet, when the twilight -deepened into dusk, and the lake, boats and bridge appeared outlined with -coloured lights, and many of the trees entwined with them, the whole -resembled fairyland. Their Majesties remained till past ten o’clock, and -departed amidst the same enthusiastic crowds of loyal people and the same -manifestations of popular regard, every house in the ‘beautiful village’ -along the line of road vying with its neighbour in illuminated devices, -ciphers, etc. - -At Caen Wood the ‘pleasures of the place,’ the dance music of Weippert’s -band, the delicious strains of the Coldstreams, and various other devices -of delight, kept the company enthralled till - - ‘Some stars the tranquil brow of heaven still crowned; - The birds upon the trees sang one by one. - Dark night had flown, bright day was not yet come.’ - -This was the first and last semi-state visit of royalty to Hampstead. -The drive along the Broad Walk and by Caen Wood and Fitzroy Farm is said -to have been a favourite one with Queen Victoria in her early days, on -which a strict privacy was observed. But on philanthropical occasions, -when the Divine gift of charity is supposed to be largely moved by the -honour of presenting purses to royal receivers of them, kind-hearted -Princes and Princesses have never been wanting; and once, on the occasion -of a benevolent and unforgotten function by those who witnessed it, the -opening of Vane House as an asylum for soldiers’ daughters, the Prince -Consort himself inaugurated it, and was right loyally received. - -But of late years neither the ‘beautiful village’ of Hampstead nor the -sylvan beauty of Caen Wood had power to lure the third Lord Mansfield, -who was High Constable of Scone, from his Northern palace for more than -three months in the year. In the absence of the proprietor, this charming -demesne—one of the brightest jewels, as it were, in the coronet of his -ancestral honours—has been left to solitude and comparative neglect. - -The late Lord Mansfield died at his Castle of Scone, August 2, 1898. He -was born February 20, 1806. Caen Wood House is now in the hands of his -grandson, Lord Stormont having died during his father’s lifetime. - -In 1825 the peaceful shades of Caen Wood were the scene of a sad -domestic tragedy, for here, in a wood near the house, Colonel James -Hamilton Stanhope, who was on a visit to his father-in-law, the second -Lord Mansfield, committed suicide. The unhappy gentleman had long been -suffering from mental depression, the result of an unhealed gunshot wound -he had received at the siege of San Sebastian. - -It is pleasant to hear that the present owner of the beautiful demesne is -likely to reside there more frequently than his predecessor. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -_THE GEOLOGY OF THE HEATH._ - - -The appearance of the Upper Heath, as that portion of it beyond Jack -Straw’s Castle to the north-west is called, shows that the purchase of it -for the sake of its preservation was not a day too soon, while as far as -preserving the primitive beauty of the Heath, it was years too late. - -The surface, originally flush with the paddock near the North End Hill, -has been delved by sand and gravel diggers into a series of pits and -hollows, with corresponding mounds and hillocks. At one period (1811), -owing to the multiplicity of building operations going on, upwards of -twenty loads a day passed through Hampstead, besides the quantity taken -away by other roads. - -Looking at the ravaged Heath as it appeared in 1872, it would seem as -if this wholesale devastation had been going on ever since, without -reference to anything but the market value of the deep layer of gravelly -sand which geologists tell us overlays the Heath in places to the depth -of 80 feet. No doubt the barren appearance of the surface east of the -Spaniard Road and in the vicinity of the Vale of Health may be attributed -to the removal of this gravelly substratum till the clay was reached, -which formed the vari-coloured hillocks that used to make quite a -feature of this portion of the landscape. Subsequently, as we have seen, -the highest part of the Heath was treated as one huge gravel-pit, the -purchasers of which dug out their loads any and every where, encroaching -within my memory on the Fir-tree Avenue, in front of the historic houses -at Park Gate, as this entrance to the Heath continues to be called; and, -not content with delving it in the open, the purchasers were permitted to -ruthlessly dig out the sand from under and between the roots of the fine -old trees, undermining many of them, and leaving them a prey to the first -tempest. - -In this way nearly all the trees on this part of the Heath have suffered; -and to this cause may be attributed the fragmentary condition of the -Stone Pine Avenue, and the curious exposition at one time of the efforts -of some of the remaining ones to support themselves by sending pile-like -roots into the ground on the side on which they are most exposed to -tempests. Fortunately for their existence, the Board of Works have taken -steps to preserve their weird beauty to the Heath, and protect the groups -of elm and ash and other trees, which so long as the season of leafage -and blossom remains to them will literally keep green the memory of that -lover of Nature, the planter of the majority of them, Mr. Turner, of -Thames Street. - -Naturalists and geologists may still find here abundant materials for -their studies,[222] and the geology of Hampstead Heath would in capable -hands prove a most interesting chapter in its history. But the writer is -not a geologist, so must be content to summarise what others have said, -or written, of it. - -Time was when a sea a hundred fathoms deep rolled over the present site -of London and the lands around it.[223] Evidence of its having been above -Hampstead Hill is found in the deposits it left on the summit of it. - -On the highest part of the Heath there lies a horizontal bed of -light-coloured ferruginous sand, mostly coarse and gritty; but an -admixture of fine sand and thin bands of loam occurs in places, which, -like the sand, is destitute of fossils. - -In the lowest part of the deposit it becomes more clayey, and passes -gradually to sandy clay, and eventually to the stiff blue clay called -London Clay. Many well-preserved fossils are found in the sandy clay, -which proves that the deposit was formed 50 fathoms below the sea-level; -while the fossils of the London Clay indicate a much deeper sea.[224] - -The lowest portion of the sandy clay is known by the appearance of -swampy ground, and by the oozing out of the springs, as in Well Walk, in -Conduit Fields, and at North End. It is the property of clay to hold up -water, and the lower part of the sand, through which it percolates, lying -horizontally on the clay, and becoming very full, the water comes out at -the edges of the hill, especially at the places indicated. The sandy clay -leading down to the London Clay is about 50 feet thick, and from that at -Child’s Hill beautiful marine shells, quite perfect, showing that they -had neither been rolled nor drifted, were found at a depth of 30 feet in -an excavation for drainage in the Finchley Road (Child’s Hill, 1872). -Below this comes the stiff London Clay, about 350 feet thick. - -The chalk at Hampstead Hill is another proof of its submarine formation. -This is many feet thick, and is pure carbonate of lime, composed of -minute sea-shells, and must have taken an immense period of time to form. -There have been found in it hard portions of animals similar to those -which now dwell in the sea. So many evidences exist around the British -Islands of change of levels, both by elevation and depression, that there -is no improbability in supposing that Hampstead Hill has through past -ages been gradually raised from below the level of the sea, and at times -has been again depressed, which change geologists believe to have taken -place more than once, the hill not taking its present form till after -several upheavals. - -The changes of temperature must have been as vast as the geological ones. -Tropical animals—large elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, etc.—are -said by Professor Owen to have inhabited the neighbourhood of Hampstead; -and though no evidence remains here of the glacial period, icebergs -floated at Finchley, and left their deposits in the shallows of the sea -that covered it, and doubtless at that period Hampstead was covered with -thick ice. The fossil nautilus, sharks’ teeth, and the plates and spines -of echini,[225] have frequently been found, the latter in gravel-pits -upon the Heath. Modern geologists have stated that the sand at the top -of the Heath is only a small patch, very irregular in shape, and that -there was another patch on the top of Highgate; and it is suggested -that perhaps these were formerly connected, but that the depression of -the ground at Caen Wood may have swept the sand from them. Park, on the -other hand, observes ‘that vast quantities of sand exist at Hampstead, -the Heath being covered with it at an average to the depth of 10 feet, -though in some places it is more than 25 feet in depth, notwithstanding -the length of time it has been supplying the Metropolis and intermediate -villages.’ Could both be thinking of the same stratum? - -That the Heath is covered with sandy gravel (in fact, the Heath is -confined to the sand) is sufficiently apparent to the ungeological eye, -especially in this rugged and denuded portion of it. It has been a vexed -question with the artists and the conservators of the Heath whether to -fill up these irregularities of the surface or leave them to Nature’s -healing. Already, taking advantage of the past year or two’s rest from -aggression, she has covered the scarred places with her green mantle, -and crowding fronds of common brake have taken to grow on the graves -of its old habitat. Great spaces amongst the gravel-pits have been -brilliant with the glittering flowers of the common broom, and where the -unquenched springs still drain themselves into pools and shallows, stocks -of willow-wood have in some instances been driven, which have taken root -and put forth branches, and in a few more seasons will be vigorous trees. - -Our hope is that the present conservators of the Heath, to whom great -praise is due for the visible improvement in its appearance, will be -patient with this seemingly most hopeless portion of it, and leave the -rest to the great Mother’s care. In time the rugged superficies will -round and soften, and the hollows be converted into bosky dells, tangles -of woodbine, wild-rose, and arching brambles. We have already seen -indications of the return of _Erica cinerea_ and _E. tetralix_, once -common on the Heath, and the tufted stems and silvery lilac flowers of -the indigenous heather. - -If loving hands a little after harvest-time would bring an alms of hips -and haws and mountain-ash berries and drop them carelessly about the -turf, the birds would scatter them, and help to bring back beauty to -the Heath, that wild beauty that is Nature’s own, and, though quite -unpremeditated, is ever in agreement with its surroundings. - - For the geological part of this chapter I am indebted to notes - taken of a lecture on ‘Hampstead Hill in Past Ages,’ delivered - by C. Evans, Esq., F.G.S., in Rosslyn Hill Schoolroom, March, - 1872. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -_THE PONDS AND WATER-WORKS._ - - -In the chain of ponds which make so charming a feature between Highgate -and Caen Wood, or in some of them at least, we have, according to the -brothers Storer,[226] all that remains visible of the river Fleet, which -originally formed them. The others are as old as the time of Henry -VIII., and owe their existence to the necessities of the citizens of -London for a better water-supply. The ancient springs, which previous to -1544 abundantly supplied the city, had about that time ‘diminished and -abated to the great discomodity of the inhabitants, and the threatened -decay of the said Citie, if a speedy remedy was not provided.’ We learn -that Sir William Boyer, Knight (subsequently Mayor of London), called -‘unto him dyvers grave and expert persons,’ who, by ‘diligent search and -exploracion found dyvers great and plentiful springes at Hamstede Heath, -and other places within five miles of London, very meet, proper, and -convenient, to be brought and conveyed to the same.’ Upon which an Act -was passed to empower the said Mayor and Commonalty to lay pipes, dig -pits, and erect conduits in the grounds of all persons whatsoever, making -satisfaction to the proprietors of the soil. Special provision being made -for the protection of the springs ‘at the foot of the hyll of the sayde -Heath, called Hamstede Heath, now closed in with brick for the comodity -and necessary use of the inhabitants of the towne of Hamstede.’ - -These works were carried on in 1589-90 by Sir John Hart, and about the -same time the course of the ancient river Fleet, which rose on the south -slope of Hampstead Hill, and fell into the Thames at Blackfriars, being -much choked and decayed, it was undertaken that by draining divers -springs about Hampstead Heath into one head and course (for which £666 -17s. 4d. were collected by order of the Common Council), and connecting -the rivulets with Turnmill Brook, or the river of Wells[227] and the Old -Bourne, which rose in a clear stream near Holborn Bar, that both the city -should be served of fresh water in all places of want, and also that by -such a follower (as men call it) the channel of this brook should be -scoured into the river. But by continual encroachment on its banks, and -casting of refuse into the stream, after much money had been spent to -little purpose, the Fleet became more ‘choaken’ than before. Subsequently -the springs were leased out by the City of London (1692), and the -Hampstead Water Company was formed, whose office, Maitland tells us, was -in his time in Denmark Street, St. Giles’s, to which belonged two main -pipes of 7-inch bore, which brought water from the ponds at Highgate and -Hampstead. - -In a terrier of the Manor of Hampstead, taken about the end of the -seventeenth century, to which Park had access, he found among the -copyholds ‘the Upper Pond on the Heath, stated to contain three roods -thirty perches. The Lower Pond on ditto, one acre one rood thirty-four -perches.’ In Park’s time the Hampstead Water Company still supplied some -parts of the neighbourhood of Tottenham Court. - -As a result of this speculation, it may not be uninteresting to subjoin -the following paragraph, which appeared in the _Times_ of August 4, 1859: - -‘Yesterday at the Auction Mart, Mr. Marsh offered to public sale -twenty-five shares in the property of this company (the Hampstead -Water-Works), which was formed in 1692, having for its object to raise -a capital for the supply of water from springs within the parishes of -St. Pancras, Hampstead and Hornsey, the right to which had become vested -in the promoters under the lease from the City of London, the lease -being renewed from time to time. By an arrangement recently effected -with the New River Company, the renewed lease and the property have been -transferred to the New River Company for the consideration of an annuity -of £3,500, payable in perpetuity by the New River Company, being at the -rate of £5 16s. 6d. per share on the 600 shares of the company.’ - -The shares sold at from £100 to £110 per share. In 1870, when the -preservation of the Heath was almost accomplished, Mr. Le Breton stated -at a vestry meeting that he had been ‘to the New River Company to make -out the history of these ponds, and he had heard what we have just -recited, that they had formerly belonged to the Hampstead Water-Works, -whose rights were bought by the New River Company. So far as they could -learn, the land was still vested in the Lord of the Manor. The company -had a right to the easement of the water, but not in the land. It was -said there was a lease of the ponds for 999 years; the secretary of the -New River Company seemed to think they only had a right to the water, -and Sir John Wilson was very anxious that the ponds should remain as -ornaments to the Heath’—a desire in which every lover of the picturesque -must join him. - -Hughson has fallen into the error of regarding Turnmill Brook, or the -River of Wells, as one and the same with the Fleet, simply because, as -already stated, it was ultimately included in its outlet; but a little -examination and research would have shown him that at the time of the -making of Domesday Book, the Fleete, the Tybourne, and the Brent, were -the principal streams which carried the waters from the northern heights -through the Great Forest to the Thames; and that Turnmill Brook, or the -River of Wells, was, as he himself observes in another place, formed ‘by -the influx of many springs in the neighbourhood,’ and not a substantive -and self-supplied stream as the Fleet was. This year, he observes (1503), -the ancient River of Wells (afterwards called Fleet Ditch) was cleared, -and made navigable for craft as far as Holborn Bridge. Maitland also -calls it ‘Fleet Dyke, now Fleet Ditch, the remains of the ancient River -of Wells.’ It is all plain enough if we admit the Fleet to have lost its -identity in that of the River of Wells, or Turnmill Brook, at an early -stage of its set-out from Hampstead Hill. - -But unless we take the word ‘Fleete’ in its general Saxon sense as a -flood, or mere watercourse, how can we separate the idea of an important -stream from one that presumably gave a name to so many objects and places? - -It was always a troublesome stream, going wrong immediately after it got -to Holborn, as early as 1307. - -‘The first mention I find of this watercourse by the name of Fleet,’ -says Maitland, quoting Stowe, ‘is in a complaint made to a Parliament -held at Carlisle by Henry, Earl of Lincoln (in the above year), setting -forth that the watercourse under Fleet Bridge, formerly frequented by -many ships, was then, by encroachments and other obstructions, rendered -unnavigable.’ And very curiously (recollecting what he has written above -of the Fleet Ditch) he goes on to observe that this complaint, through -great inattention, is quoted by Stowe to prove that the Fleet was then -denominated the River of Wells, whereas from a charter granted by the -Conqueror to the Collegiate Church of St. Martin le Grand, and also -quoted by Stowe, he had shown the direct contrary in these words: - -‘I do give and grant to the same Church all the land and the moor without -the postern which is called Cripplegate, on either part of the postern, -that is to say, from the North corner of the wall _as the River of -Wells_ there near runneth, departeth the same moor from the wall, unto -the running water (Wall-brook) which entereth the City.’ - -Moreover, the most westerly of the springs which fed the River of Wells -appears to have been St. Clement’s Well, Clerkenwell, and Skinner’s Well; -the others were much more to the east. But in describing the Liberty of -St. Sepulchre, Maitland tells us that the street vulgarly called Turnbull -Street was anciently called Turnmill Street, from the mills thereon -erected by the Knights of St. John, which were wrought _by a stream of -water from Hampstead and Highgate_, which, being apparently dried up, had -given occasion to some to represent the same as lost, whereas, had they -taken trouble to inquire, they would have found that the said stream was -brought to the suburbs of London in two large wooden pipes of 7 inches -bore each, the original contrivance of Sir John Hart, probably. - -The modern local opinion is that the Fleet had its rise about the middle -of the Flask Walk, whence it ran downhill, at the back of the cottages -and houses in Willow Walk,[228] to South End Green, where there used to -be a pond; thence by what is now Fleet Road, through Kentish Town, to -Bagnigge Wells Road,[229] the present King’s Cross Road; and so on by -Farringdon Street to the Thames, debouching somewhere about Blackfriars -Bridge. - -Undoubtedly it rose in the clay on the slope of Hampstead Hill, and, long -before the Norman took _seizin_ of our shore, is mentioned in Edgar’s -forged charters to the monks at Westminster of land at Paddington, of -which it made the eastern boundary, that on the south being the Thames, -on the north the Roman Road, and on the west the Tybourne. In maps of -the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, one stream—the -Fleet—is seen descending from the south side of Hampstead Hill. - -It is said to have been navigable as far as King’s Cross in Edward I.’s -time. When the brothers Storer published their ‘History of Clerkenwell,’ -in 1828, they tell us that from a point in their parochial boundary the -banks of the Fleet River were seen to jut out in little wild crags, and -break into miniature precipices, as it meandered originally between green -slopes at the foot of the uplands, clothed with umbrageous trees. - -[Illustration: _Charles Mathews’ House, Highgate._] - -In Crosby’s ‘Notes’ mention is made of the varying and interesting -windings of the Fleet River in its course from Hampstead to the Thames. -Even in his ‘Additional Notes’ (1845) he speaks of the silver Fleet -meandering through and irrigating those charming meadows which reach on -either side of Kentish Town to the sister hills of Hampstead and Highgate. - -It was only a little later than this date that I first knew these -meadows, and the dried channel of the winding stream he speaks of, the -course of which might be traced by the decaying alders and old willows -that fringed it through Gospel Oak fields, at the end of which it had -subsided in a ditch. - -It had remained navigable as far as Holborn Bridge till Henry VII.’s -time, from which period the less we say of its city life the better. It -had been dredged and scoured to no purpose, but after the Great Fire, -much of the débris being thrown into it, it became, in Charles II.’s -reign, an abomination. In Anne’s time, Gay gives us a sufficiently -disagreeable description of the desecrated river, and Pope, in the -‘Dunciad,’ asserts it - - ‘The king of dykes, than whom no sluice of mud - With deeper sable blots the silver flood.’ - -It was the Creek that in modern times was called Fleet Ditch. It had its -entrance immediately below Bridewell, Blackfriars being to the east of -it, and reached as far as Holborn Bridge, at the foot of Holborn Hill. -Here it received the little river Fleet, Turnmill Brook, and the rivulet -known as the Old Bourne. The latter rose at Holborn Bars (removed[230] -not many years ago), and gave its name to Holborn. It lost itself, as has -been said, in the Fleet at Holborn Bridge. - -In 1737 Fleet Ditch was covered over, and the space gained was occupied -by Fleet Market. Nearly a hundred years later (1829) this was removed, -and Farringdon Street now occupies its site. - -Upon the right, going towards Holborn, stood the Fleet prison for -debtors, founded in the first year of Richard I. I remember its removal -in 1845, and, long before I ever saw it, hearing my mother tell of -the sad feelings with which she had often passed it in her youth, by -reason of the melancholy implorations of certain of the prisoners, -wretched-looking beings, who let down bags from the windows, and cried to -the passers-by: ‘Please remember the poor debtors!’ One penny loaf per -day was the gaol allowance, and those who had not friends to supply them -with food to supplement this dole literally starved to death. - -This was the scene of the Fleet marriages. Pennant tells how in his youth -he had often been tempted by the question ‘Sir, will you please to walk -in and be married?’ and he tells us that a painted sign of a male and -female, hands conjoined, with the inscription ‘Marriages performed here,’ -was hung on the walls of the building. A dirty fellow invited you in, -and the parson, a squalid, profligate figure, ‘clad in a tattered plaid -nightgown, with a fiery face,’ stood just within, ‘ready to couple you -for a dram of gin or roll of tobacco.’ This state of things was not put -an end to till 1753. - -But the Fleet prison has a history of its own, and lies outside the -Hampstead story of the river. - -To return to the water-supply. The ponds in the valley between the sister -hills, as Thomson calls the acclivities of Hampstead and Highgate, have -often proved dangerous to children and others, from the sudden shelving -of their banks. - -Suicides, too, lured by the lonely quiet of these silent pools, -have sometimes sought oblivion in them; but, as a rule, anglers and -naturalists are their more persistent visitors, and they may generally be -trusted. One specially dangerous is that at the back of the tavern in the -Vale of Health, on which the swans make so pleasing an appearance, and -children are likely to approach too near the margin in their eagerness to -feed them. - -The town of Hampstead, till quite recent times, was supplied from the -well in Shepherd’s Fields, where a conduit had existed in very early -times, the water of which is said to have been remarkably sweet and soft. - -This well was mentioned in the last Act relating to the conduits in the -time of Henry VIII. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -_THE WELL WALK—THE EARLY PERIOD._ - - -Every period has produced some specific or other for ‘the thousand -natural shocks that flesh is heir to,’ and during the latter part of the -eighteenth century, and the early years of the present, mineral waters -were the fashionable panacea. - -From traditional times the curative properties of the spring in Well Walk -had been known to the inhabitants of Hampstead and the neighbourhood. -It oozed out of the green hillside to the east of the village into a -self-made pool, whose surface was covered with a rust-coloured film that -disclosed its ferruginous nature. But something more than a mere local -reputation must have suggested to the Hon. Susannah Noel the gift of the -‘medicinal spring, together with six acres of heathland lying about and -encompassing it,’ for the sole use and benefit of the poor of Hampstead -for ever. The indenture by which this gift is made on her own part and -that of her infant son, Baptist, Earl of Gainsborough, is dated December, -1698, and is the foundation of what is known as the Wells Charity. - -For some time after the date of this indenture, the project seems to have -remained in abeyance, but in the _Postman_ of April 16 and 20, 1700, an -advertisement appears, stating that the Hampstead chalybeate waters are -‘so highly approved by the most eminent physicians, that they are by -direction of the trustees of the Wells aforesaid, for the convenience of -those who yearly drink them in London, carefully bottled up in flasks, -and sent to Mr. Phelps, Apothecary, at the Eagle and Child in Fleet -Street every morning at the rate of 3d. per flask, and if any persons -desire to have them brought to their houses, they will be conveyed to -them upon leaving a note at Mr. Phelps’, aforesaid, at 1d. a flask more.’ -Here we have the origin of the names given to the two taverns of Upper -and Lower Flask, and of the Walk in the vicinity of the latter. It is -further stated that ‘the true waters are nowhere else to be procured, -unless they are sent for to the Wells, Hampstead.’ - -An advertisement in the same newspaper (August 27 and 29 of this year) -sets forth that: - -‘By order of the Trustees of Hampstead Mineral Waters, These are to -certify that the Widow Keys is discharged from the Wells, and carries no -more of the said waters, the Trustees now only employing Mr. Adams, a -potter at Holborn Bars, to deliver out the said mineral waters. If any -other person pretends to bring Hampstead waters, they (the purchasers) -are desired to try them, so that they be not cheated. Also, the Trustees -will let the said waters, with six acres of land, by lease or yearly -rent. Such as desire to treat about the same, may meet the Trustees at -Craddock’s Coffee-house, Hampstead, every Saturday from 10 to 12 o’clock -in the morning untill the 29th of September next.’ - -This same month and year, in the Court Rolls of Hampstead, it is ordered -that ‘the Spring by the purging Well be forthwith brought into the town -of Hampstead, at the parish charge, and yt ye money and profit arising -thereout be applied to the easing of the poors’ rates hereafter to be -made.’ - -In the early part of 1701, we find the advertisement of the letting of -the Wells, and the land attached to them, reappearing in the _Postman_, -with the effect of attracting a lessee; for soon after we read of -the Wells dwelling-house and tavern, the latter with a very fair -bowling-green attached, without which no gentleman of the period would -have been pleasurably provided for. Subsequently, tea and coffee rooms -and a dancing-room were added, and the new watering-place is announced as -ready to receive company. - -May was the pleasant month in which the water-drinking season primitively -began, though later on, from June till Michaelmas, was considered the -best time for taking them. An old advertisement of the opening of the -season reads as follows: - -‘These are to acquaint all persons that have occasion to drink Hampstead -waters that the Wells will be opened on Monday next, being the 11th of -May, with very good music for dancing, and will continue every Monday -during the season for water-drinking, and there is complete accommodation -for water-drinkers of both sexes with accomodation of a very good -bowling-green, and very good stabling and coach-house.’[231] - -There is a vagueness in the phrasing of this notice that leaves a doubt -whether it is the Wells or the music that will continue every Monday, but -from other sources we learn that ‘very good music for dancing went on all -day long every Monday during the season.’ - -Dr. Gibbons, who resided at Hampstead, was the first physician who -encouraged the drinking of the waters, setting a practical example -himself, and continuing in it till his death (1725). Others of -his profession supported the opinion of their excellence, and the -sale of them in London, as well as their local use, seems to have -largely increased in consequence. Instead of one or two agents, the -advertisements set forth that, being approved by the most eminent -physicians, the said mineral water continues to be brought fresh from -Hampstead Wells every day to Mr. Adams, Glass-seller, near Holborn -Bars; to Mr. Cresset’s at the Sugar-loaf at Charing Cross; to Nando’s -Coffee-house,[232] near Temple Bar; to Sam’s Coffee-house, near Ludgate; -to the Salmon in Stock’s Market; and by Mr. Pratt to the Greyhound in -King Street, Bloomsbury; to Howe’s Coffee-house in Cheapside by the -Half-moon Tavern, and to the Black Posts, Fleet Street. - -At this time there was no lack of small but pleasant lodgings to be -had in South End, and on the Lower and Upper Heath, weather-boarded -structures for the most part of the cottage species, some of which -survived till our own time in the Vale of Health and about Squire’s -Mount; one of the ancient customs of the Manor of Hampstead being that -the tenants of their own free will might ‘let, sell, take down, or -remove any of their tenements without any fine or forfeiture to or for -the same to the lord,’ a custom that greatly facilitated the raising of -inexpensive removable dwellings. - -A few of the houses in Well Walk in the early part of the century were -probably of this description, and, I suspect, of an earlier date than the -flat-faced, narrow-windowed brick edifices with fan-lighted hall doors -that faced the Walk in the fifties. Instead of that decorous straight -line, I imagine irregularity in the appearance, as well as in the -positions, of the original structures, which followed no fixed plan, but -were added to as wanted.[233] - -Neither do I imagine that the tenements which arose between the date of -the advertisement of the letting of the Wells, and that which announces -their opening in the summer of the same year (1701) could have been of -very solid construction. There was no time for the work that English -builders in those days put into the building of brick houses, and -everything shows that the preparation for the convenience of visitors -to the spa must have been of a hurried, and for the most part of a -temporary, nature. - -Very soon we read of bun-houses and raffling-shops, which appear to -have been set up over against the Long Room, from which some years -later Steele crossed over to watch the cheating play in one of them. In -deference to the religious wants of the visitors, we find the proprietor -of the Wells building a chapel at his own expense, of which I shall have -more to say farther on. - -Happily, the most interesting, from its associations, of the Wells -buildings, the Long Room, still exists in Weatherall Place, a long, low, -white structure when I first knew it, of timber, brick and mortar. It has -been used as a private residence for quite a hundred years, and a late -proprietor, Mr. Routh, has wholly metamorphosed its appearance by having -it cased with red brick. - -Sion Chapel, which afterwards became notorious in the history of -Hampstead, was a much-needed and, for some time, decently conducted place -of worship, at which one or other of the many ejected Nonconformist -ministers of the time officiated, for even then the ancient chapel of St. -Mary (now St. John’s) was almost ruinous, and inadequate to the yearly -increasing number of parishioners, and so could afford little, if any, -accommodation for strangers. - -From 1701 to 1712-13, that happy period when, as Dr. Gibbons tells -us, the Wells were frequented by ‘as much and as good company as go -yearly to Tunbridge Wells, in Kent,’ the searcher of old newspapers -will find concerts of vocal and instrumental music, as well as other -entertainments, to have been constantly advertised to take place in the -Long Room. The prices of admission to the concerts were one shilling in -the morning, and (except on extraordinary occasions) sixpence in the -evening, when, ‘for the convenience of gentlemen returning to town,’ -the concerts commenced at five o’clock. The early hour is suggestive of -the then state of the roads in the suburbs of London. At this period a -stage-coach started for Hampstead every morning, from the Greyhound in -Holborn, and another from the Chequers, returning at night,[234] besides -a carrier daily; but in all probability the coachmen preferred driving -home by daylight, not only on account of the roughness of the roads, but -to avoid running the risk of being stopped by highwaymen on their track, -or at the meeting of the ways at the half-way house, the Old Mother -Red-Cap, a place noted for waylaying the coaches, probably from the -facility of escape which the divergence of three separate roads afforded. - -It happened, fortunately for the fashionable visitors to the Wells, that -the summer meetings of the Kit-Cat Club, which had been instituted a -few years before (though some say after their opening) coincided with -the period of drinking the Hampstead waters, and as people walked after -dinner in those days, some one or other of the witty brotherhood would -often saunter down from the bosky covert of the gardens of the Upper -Flask, or across the Heath from the Bull and Bush, at Wildwood Corner (as -Camden calls North End) to greet their friends in the Long Room or in -the walks, or look in, as Steele was wont to do (with an eye to copy and -the correction of morals), at the cheating play in the raffling-shops, -the proprietors of which appear to have been knaves of the worst order. -Steele took great pleasure in exposing them. It is to such a passing -inquisition that the subscribers to the _Tatler_ in the summer of 1709 -owed the witty paper that describes one of these rogues as ‘a person deep -in the practice of the law, who, under the name of his maid Sisly, had -set up this easier way of conveyancing and alienating estates from one -family to another.’ - -Some years later, the _Spectator_ informs us—probably by the same -hand—that ‘a Count figures amongst this fraternity, who is humorously -described as “the errantist Count of all the Courts of England,” and who, -believing the fair diversion-table at Hampstead to be all foul play, has -vouchsafed to set up another himself, in imitation of it.’ The company, -under these circumstances, became, we may be sure, considerably mixed; -adventurers of both sexes found their way to the upland village, and the -idle and profligate, as well as the invalid and ennuyé, mingled with -personages of rank and fashion at the Wells. - -Card-playing went on all day in the Long Room, and dancing pretty well -all night. But, then, card-playing was the general amusement of all -classes in that day. At Hampstead it became a passion, especially with -women, ‘who, possessed by excitement and avarice, and in the hope of -winning seven guineas for one by giving the enamelled ball a graceful -twirl to induce it to fall upon four cards nominated for luck’s sake, -out of two-and-thirty, staked and lost money, diamonds, beauty, and -reputation at the fair diversion,’ as our essayist calls it, all which -had been translated from the neighbourhood of Bloomsbury and Red Lion -Square to the Wells and raffling-shops of Hampstead. - -It is not until 1710 that I find in the _Postboy_ (April 18) the -following advertisement: - - ‘As there are many weddings at Sion Chapel, Hampstead, five - shillings only are required for all the church fees of any - couple that are married there, provided they bring with them a - license, or certificate, according to the Act of Parliament. - Two sermons are continued to be preached in the said chapel - every Sunday, and the place will be given to any clergyman that - is willing to accept of it, if he is approved of.’ - -In _Read’s Weekly Journal_, September 8, 1716, we come upon this: - - ‘Sion Chapel at Hampstead, being a private and pleasure place, - many persons of the best fashion have lately been married - there. Now, as a minister is obliged to attend, “This is to - give notice that all persons upon bringing a license, and who - shall keep their wedding dinner in the gardens, only five - shillings will be demanded of them for all fees.”’ - -Park adds that, from these advertisements, Sion Chapel would seem to -have been the prototype of the Fleet and Mayfair marriages, but this is -incorrect. Fleet marriages took place as early as 1704. The honour of -primitive suggestion belongs rather to Gretna Green.[235] - -Amongst other popular attractions of Hampstead, though hardly to -the taste of the more refined visitors, was a pleasure fair. In the -_Spectator_ for July 29, 1712 (No. 443, original edition), a notice -appears that Hampstead Fair will be held upon the Flask Walk on Friday, -August 1, and will hold four days. As fairs were annual occurrences, we -must conclude that for four days yearly the rural quiet and beauty of -Hampstead were delivered over to ‘rude mirth and tipsy revelry,’ much as -it is in these days at the holidays of Easter and Whitsuntide.[236] - -A triangular bit of waste ground, open in my time at the upper part of -Flask Road, was pointed out to me by an archæological friend as the place -where _anciently_ that earliest institution of social life, the village -pound, and subsequently the stocks and cage, stood, as the after-site -of the fair. The fair (continued for more than thirty years after this -date)—a fair for the sale of gingerbread, toys, sweetmeats, chap-books, -wares such as Autolycus the rogue sold, or affected to sell, the maids. -But a pleasure-fair by no means precluded the presence of unpleasant -company, and here, as at other fairs, to intoxication, rioting, and -uproar, robberies were superadded. - -The fair, not being a chartered one, but simply permissive by license -of the Lord or Lady of the Manor, or the Middlesex magistrates, had -frequently been written about and complained of; but the nuisance was -suffered to go on till, at length (as late as 1746), it became so great a -drawback to the comfort of the respectable inhabitants and visitors, that -it was forbidden by the authorities at Hicks’s Hall, a prohibition that -did not prevent an impudent attempt, two years subsequently, to revive -it, on the part of one Thomas Keate, probably the landlord of the Lower -Flask Tavern, who made his purgation in a London newspaper as follows: - - ‘THE FLASK, HAMPSTEAD, - - ‘_August 2, 1748_. - - ‘Whereas I published an advertisement on Saturday last, - declaring a sale of goods and toys to be held at Hampstead, - which advertisement was addressed to persons usually - frequenting Hampstead Fair, and occasioned great numbers of - loose and disorderly people to resort to Hampstead, under the - notion that the Fair suppressed two years since as illegal, - would be revived, and held in the Flask Walk ... I take this - publick opportunity to declare that I am extremely sorry, - that I should ignorantly be engaged to act in opposition to - the Magistrates of the County, in any endeavour to revive - a Fair deemed illegal by authority; and I hope this public - acknowledgment of my error will satisfy their worships, and - declaring that I will desist from any such attempt for the - future. - - ‘THOMAS KEATE.’ - -This epistle, as far as I have discovered, is final with regard to -the fair in Flask Walk, though sadly out of chronological order here. -Happily for the lovers of historic Hampstead, the site of the ancient -Pump-house in Well Walk has been discovered, while that of the modern -one is preserved by an inscription on a part of the house now occupying -its place. But the situation of Sion Chapel, of which we completely lose -count after the early advertisements I have transcribed, is not known. - -Unfortunately, the easy access to the Wells from London—a walk of -only four or five miles being but an ordinary recreation to persons -unaccustomed, as a rule, to any other mode of locomotion—made it -impossible to maintain the exclusiveness dear to the dignity of the -Ladies Betty, Moll, or Susan, who stepped so stately, - - ‘Alack! the little heels won’t let them haste!’ - -under the _then_ young limes shading the Well Walk. This ease of access -bounced into their midst the City madams and pert, Fleet Street -seamstresses, that furnished the fun of Baker’s comedy, a force stronger -in the end than the _Bon ton_, who, after a decade of endurance, forsook -the _Fons Sanitatis_ of Hampstead, and its high-priest, Dr. Gibbons. - -But intermediately the proprietor of the Wells had been doing a thriving -business in illicit marriages and frequent wedding-dinners; and Hampstead -had won for itself a quite unenviable notoriety. Play often ran so high -at the gaming-tables that the Justices at the Quarter Sessions at Hicks’s -Hall recommended the great room at Hampstead to the particular attention -of the petty constables and head-boroughs of the parish, to prevent -all unlawful gaming, riots, etc. As for the rest, Baker’s comedy, to -which I have alluded (and which is still extant) offers a very graphic -description. Park has quoted at considerable length from it, but Park -is not often read out of the reading-room of the British Museum, or the -Public Library at Hampstead. - -Smart, in the said comedy, discussing philosophically the social -peculiarities of the Long Room, observes that assemblies so near town -give us examples of all degrees. ‘We have Court ladies, all air and no -dress; City belles, overdressed and no air; and country dames with broad -brown faces like a Stepney bun; besides an endless number of Fleet Street -seamstresses, that dance minuets in their furbeloe scarfs, and whose -clothes hang as loose on them as their reputations.’ - -Arabella (another character in the same play) observes: ‘Well, this -Hampstead is a charming place; to dance all night at the Wells, and -be treated at Mother Huffs’;[237] to have presents made one at the -raffling-shops,’ etc. Occasional visitors to the Wells on assembly nights -might reasonably desire to dance the day-dawn in for safety’s sake; -and the extension of the hours at the Long Room might possibly have -originated in the perils of getting home from it. The roads, hazardous -even by day, were doubly so after dark, especially in the neighbourhood -of towns. The Hampstead coach had quite recently been stopped and -robbed (1713), although a portion of the Hampstead road was just then -unpleasantly occupied by the body of a murderer hanging in chains,[238] -an object-lesson our forefathers were fond of exhibiting with deterrent -intention, and with about as much practical result as from the suspension -of criminal crows in a harvest-field. - -But to return to the Wells. Let us be thankful for the old newspapers -and magazines, that in feeble type and quaintly-worded paragraphs and -advertisements have yet preserved for us faithful transcripts of the -ways and fashions of the times, so that with a file of old _Postboys_, -_Mists_, and _Read’s Weekly Journal_, and the _Lady’s Magazine_, but -little imagination is required to revivify the company in Well Walk (that -focus of fashion whilst fashion clung to it), to reclothe them in the -costumes they wore, and busy them again in all their old occupations and -amusements. - -We can see in fancy the large, cumbrous, top-heavy coach toiling up the -steep hill, tacking like a ship against a head-wind, until it landed its -passengers at the coach office, the Bird-in-Hand,[239] or, higher up, -at the Upper Flask. Say that it is the afternoon of a summer’s day in -1713-14. Amongst a crowd of other passengers, a lady in a little flutter -of expectation, her head-dress a lace or muslin hood, with turnover (a -species of fichu) ... and ruffles to match, steps out on the points of -her high-heeled shoes, letting her hoop expand with a grace totally -unknown to the modern wearers of crinoline.[240] - -Be sure she has in her netted or embroidered hand-bag a little of the -famous ‘Bavarian red liquor,’ which gave such a ‘delightful blushing -colour to the cheeks pale or white,’ and which is not ‘to be discovered -as other than the natural colour by the most fine sight.’ Nor is she -without a bottle of Hungary, or citron water, for being a fine lady she -must have nerves. - -To-morrow what a stir she will create on the Well Walk in her voluminous -brocade or Italian silk gown, shining with gold or silver flowers, and -cut in the latest fashion! - -There is no dearth of matters to be discussed by the general company. The -Lottery and the South Sea Scheme are flourishing, and afford interesting -topics for all grades of society; then there is the opera and the -theatres, and the last duel, and, apart from the ladies, the recent -doings at Hendon and Hockley-in-the-Hole. - -Should Arbuthnot, or Swift, or Steele, happen to be amongst the crowd of -visitors, Pope, who has already made a name in literature, and, like his -friend Mr. Murray, been early admitted to the fellowship of the wits at -Button’s and the Scriblerus Club, is not likely to find their criticisms -on his recently-published verses wholly favourable, though regarded as -giving great promise, which the ‘little fellow,’ as Johnson subsequently -called him, is bound to make good. - -Quite in opposition to Dr. Gibbons’ advice, the ladies, one and all, file -into the tea-room, where the best Bohea at eighteen shillings a pound is -dispensed in diminutive Nankin china cups without handles, to hold and -drink out of which gracefully is in itself a fine art. Pope describes - - ‘How her red lips affected zephyrs blow - To cool Bohea, and inflame the beau; - While one white finger and a thumb conspire - To lift the cup, and make the world admire.’ - -Or they stroll off to ransack the raffling-shops for gloves, fans, etc., -while the gentlemen smoke, play at bowls, or adjourn to cards. In the -Long Room the musicians play, and those who like may dance, or rehearse -their steps and figures for the evening exhibition of them. Some wander -away to the green skirts of Caen Wood, or seek the deep-hedged lanes, -where the elm boughs meet overhead. While others are content to find -their pleasure on the Heath, with its ever-varied, ever-lovely views, or -choose the pleasant shade of its leafy groves, that both diversify the -scene and break the force of the winds that blow upon it. Others, again, -ride or drive to some of the many pretty places, or the seats of friends -in the vicinity, Highgate, and Hornsey, and Colney Hatch being in much -favour with the gentry as sites for country-houses. Then at the orthodox -hour for the promenade, what a flutter of fans, and tapping of fine -snuff-boxes, and lifting of laced or feathered hats, as the company bow, -and curtsey, and smile, and ogle, as they pass and repass in the walks, -the ladies resplendent in ‘stained silks,’ damasks, and flowered satins, -that from the perfection of their texture would, in the parlance of old -folks describing them, have literally stood alone. Nor was the dress of -the gentlemen less superb. Their quaintly-cut, wide-skirted coats, with -great cuffs bound with gold or silver lace, and deep flapped waistcoats -richly embroidered, were often of the most costly materials, accompanied -with flowing cravats—or falls, as they were called—and hanging ruffles of -Mechlin or other lace. Then there were the shoes—the beaux wore them—with -red heels and silver or brilliant buckles; and, again, the sword-hilt, -band, and knot, allowed of a variety of dainty devices, the sword-hilt -being sometimes of plain steel or silver only, but sometimes gilt and -jewelled. - -No record remains to us of the great ladies who gave the encouragement -of their presence to the fashion of the Hampstead Wells in those early -years; but we know that Addison, and Garth, and Steele, and Arbuthnot, -Sir Godfrey Kneller, Swift, and all the Kit-Cats, were of the company. -And their presence there has made the Heath and Well Walk classic ground -for all who love the eighteenth century. It was a time of lordly bows, -deep curtseys, stately manners, and coarse speech, and the day of -depraved morality and affected sentiment. Women in want of an expletive -had hardly given up the use of oaths; Her Grace of Marlborough habitually -retained them; and men felt but little restriction in the presence of -women. Indecent equivoke and _double entendre_ were thought witty even -in good society, and judging from Swift’s correspondence with Lady Betty -Germain and Miss Arbuthnot, there was a freedom of speech between the -sexes that astonishes one. Modesty must have been relegated to the fan, -for evidently it was not on guard in the ear any longer. - -Away from the temptations, engagements, and frivolities of town life, -as housewives and mothers (to give them their due), these ladies took -an active part in domestic affairs, and taught their children, harshly -enough sometimes, the lesson of dutifulness and obedience—a lesson too -much neglected in modern education. But for a woman to exhibit a love of -learning or a predilection for its pursuit was to incur the suspicion and -contempt of her own sex, and the derision of the other. Ordinarily women -read, in the language of the day, ‘to kill time,’ and this amusement was -chiefly supplied to them by the playwrights or the novels of Fielding or -Mrs. Aphra Behn, works of fiction that taught their readers a new use for -the squabs of the settee or sofa whenever a visitor was announced. - -The mission of the essayists who produced the _Spectator_ and _Guardian_ -was to purify the manners of the times, to awaken an interest in -literature for its own sake, and to show through the amusing medium of -narrative and anecdote the meanness and wickedness of much that was going -on unconcealed, and yet unnoticed, around them. - -It is said that the publication of these works exercised a perceptible -influence on society, and produced a permanent improvement in morals, no -mean mission, nor contemptible result, if they ever effected it. - -Few country ladies, unless privileged persons who desired to keep -up their relations with the Court, came to London in those days, -except on urgent occasion. The great trouble and expense the journey -involved, the execrable condition of the roads, and terror of the -highwaymen who infested them, were reasons quite sufficient to -account for the home-staying, which has often been put to their -account as a virtue, and flaunted in the face of their travel-loving -great-great-great-grand-daughters. The principal event in the lives -of many country ladies was the summer visit to one of the fashionable -spas—Bath or Harrogate, Tunbridge or Hampstead Wells—where they met old -friends and renewed acquaintances, picked up the threads of unfinished -family histories, saw dress ‘as worn in the politest circles,’ compared -notes with one another, and acquired the newest information of the world -that lay outside their own, so that on their home-going they became -exemplars and oracles on all social and society matters to those of their -acquaintance who had not had the felicity of visiting the spa. - -But to return to Hampstead. The light-hearted indifference to what was -going on around them enabled the fashionable visitors to endure the -scandal of the runaway marriages at Sion Chapel, the hurly-burly of -the four days’ fair, and the company brought together by these doings; -but at last the cheating play at the raffling-shops, and the morals of -Hampstead, became so notorious ‘that persons of character were almost -ashamed to be seen there, even with their own relations,’ and the most -reckless of the rank and file of fashion found it necessary to turn -their backs upon it. Yet, before it reached this last depth of moral -degradation, Hampstead Wells must have exhibited a brilliant epitome -of Bath and Tunbridge. Of course, the behaviour of the company at the -Assembly and Long Room was not lost sight of by the wits and satirists of -the day. The ballad-singers preserved the follies of the Wells in wicked -verse; the playwrights—at least one of them, as we have seen—dramatized -them; and I should not wonder if Baker’s holding of the ‘mirror up to -Nature,’ or the modish pretence of Nature that so often passes for it, -had something to do with the waking up of thoughtful people, and the -falling-off of fashion from the place. - -A few people of the upper class, who had learned to love sweet Hampstead -for its own sake, continued, from season to season, to return here for -change of air, so that the better kind of lodging-houses in Pond Street -and elsewhere were not wholly deserted. Neither were the Wells, of which -we have a rather deterrent proof in the following advertisement from the -_Daily Courant_ of June 18, 1718: - - ‘HAMPSTEAD.—Whereas it has been reported that a robbery has - been committed this season upon the road to Hampstead Mineral - Well, this is to inform ladies and gentlemen that for the - future at half-past ten in the evening, every Monday, Thursday, - and Saturday (being public days), there will be a sufficient - guard, _well armed_, sent by the inhabitants of the said Wells, - to attend the company thence to London.’[241] - -Evidently the citizens and their wives, and others of the inhabitants of -London, did not forsake the allurements of the Long Room and the Walks. -Neither did the City seamstresses in their vamped-up fine clothes, nor -the City fop, - - ‘Who put on belt and sword at Temple Bar.’ - -The early termination to the evening’s entertainment, in contrast with -the all-night dancing Arabella had enjoyed at the Wells, is noticeable in -the above advertisement, but is by no means attributable to the improved -morals of the place. It appears to have sunk year by year. - -The cheating at the gambling-tables led to fighting and riots. Footpads -lurked in the fields and hedges, and highwaymen infested the roads, -making them more than ordinarily perilous for foot-passengers, and adding -greatly to the duties of the magistrates at Hicks’s Hall (the annals of -which would, I imagine, throw considerable light upon the story of the -Hampstead Wells at this intermediate period). - -Ten years after the decline of their fashion, many of the buildings in -the Well Walk disappeared, but the tavern, then known as the Whitestone -Inn,[242] the Assembly-room and pump-room (under the same roof), and the -Long Room, with the tea and coffee rooms adjoining it, remained. Dr. -Gibbons still lived, and still retained his faith, as did Dr. Arbuthnot -also, in the valuable curative quality of the water, and the invigorating -air of Hampstead, which, when occasion required, he not only recommended -to his friends, but sought himself. In this way it is that we find Gay -here in the summer of 1722, whose friends had ‘brought him,’ as he -says, ‘to Hampstead at a time when his life was despaired of,’ after -the failure of the South Sea Scheme, in which his slender fortune was -invested. Here, in Well Walk, we can imagine him seated, with Pope and -Arbuthnot by him, owing his recovery almost as much to the tenderness of -the author as to the skill of the doctor. - -It was during Gay’s stay at Hampstead that he wrote his tragedy of ‘The -Captive,’ which he was requested to read to the Princess of Wales at -Leicester House. On that occasion, when the hour came, and he saw the -Princess and her ladies in expectation, advancing ‘with reverence too -great for any other attention, and pre-resolved to impress Her Royal -Highness as favourably towards the poet as the poem, he quite lost sight -of a footstool in the way, and, stumbling over it, fell against a large -screen, which he overset, and thus made his obeisance in a style that -threw the ladies into no small disorder, and himself into such a state -that but for the good-nature of his royal auditor must have told severely -against the effect of the tragedy,’[243] which was brought out at Drury -Lane, and played on the third night by particular desire of the Princess -of Wales.[244] Think of the good-natured merriment with which Arbuthnot, -‘who was seldom serious but when attacking some great enormity,’ received -the account of his fat friend’s sudden projection into the royal circle; -how Swift must have chuckled over the comicality, Pope and the rest of -the witty brotherhood joining in a loud laugh that none would enjoy more -heartily than the genial-tempered subject of it. - -In 1723 I find Mrs. Pendarves writing to Swift that ‘the beautiful Irish -girl, Miss Kelly’ (the _Syren_ of this lady’s letters to her sister) -‘is at Hampstead, quite alone, and she deserves it. She is in a very -expensive way, with her sickness, her servants, and her horses, high -passions, low spirits, and a tyrannous father.’ - -Not a very pleasing picture of the wilful Irish beauty who paid Hampstead -the compliment to prefer it to more fashionable places. Yet the fair -widow had previously written of Miss Kelly as ‘very harmless, and not at -all _coquet_; she brings in all the news that flies about, and now and -then adds a little of her own.’ - -This is the lady about whom Lady Betty Germain eight years later writes -to Swift, observing: - -‘Miss Kelly was a very pretty girl when she went from hence, and the -beaux show their good taste by liking her. I hear her father is now kind -to her, but if she is not mightily altered, she would give up some of her -airs and equipage to live in England.’ - -In a letter of a later date, to the Dean, Lady Betty says: - -‘Surely your Irish air is very bad for darts, if Miss Kelly’s are blunted -already. Make her cross father let her come here, and we won’t use her so -in England.’ - -Once more, May 1, 1733, Lady Betty, still writing to Swift, says: - -‘I am extremely Miss Kelly’s humble servant, but I will never believe she -is more valued for her beauty and good qualities in Ireland than she was -in England.’ - -Then comes a bit of ill news concerning the Hibernian beauty: - -‘I am heartily sorry for your new friend, Mrs. Kelly, who writes in a -desponding way to Mrs. Chambers (Lady Betty Germain’s niece) about her -health, and talks of going to Spa. This is a melancholy subject, and I -hate to be vexed, so I will say no more of it.’ - -But she does say some more about it in a letter to the Dean from Knowle -(or, as she spells it, Knole), July 9, 1733: - -‘I hear poor Mrs. Kelly is not near so well as she says; and a gentleman -that came from Bristol says she looks dreadfully, and fears that it is -all over with her, and that no mortal could know her. So ends youth and -beauty!’ - -And so exit the beautiful Miss Kelly, of whom I find no further traces at -Hampstead or elsewhere. Her story, I think, may easily be traced in these -few epistolary extracts: ‘That she belonged to the beau monde is evident, -or she would not have been received into that “old courtiers’” set,’ as -Mrs. Pendarves calls Lady Betty, whose name visitors to Knowle will be -familiar with.[245] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -_THE WELL WALK—THE SECOND PERIOD._ - - -Although it could not be said that the Wells were ever actually closed -till subsequent to 1809, the visits of the head-borough and a _posse_ -of constables at unexpected hours had so disarranged the system of play -in Well Walk that before 1725 the gaming-tables, and with them the -raffling-shops, had disappeared. - -Defoe, in an early edition of his ‘Tour of Great Britain,’ tells us, in -describing the Hampstead Wells, that _besides the Long Room_, where the -gentry meet to amuse themselves and play at cards publicly, on Monday -evenings, there is an Assembly-room for dancing 60 feet long and 30 -feet wide, elegantly decorated. Every gentleman who subscribes a guinea -has a ticket for himself and two ladies; to non-subscribers the fee for -admission is two and sixpence. Another authority adds that most of the -resident gentlemen are subscribers.[246] - -In these days of incandescent gas and electric light, one shudders at -the thought of this handsome sixty-feet-long assembly-room illuminated -by chandeliers filled with pyramids of candles, with others in plated or -pewter sconces at set distances on the walls. - -At Almack’s, long afterwards, where only the best wax-lights were -tolerated, complaints of the destruction to the ladies’ dresses, and -gentlemen’s also, from the dropping of the melted wax upon them, were -frequent. I have no doubt the same lamentation was heard at Hampstead, -where the method of lighting could scarcely have been as perfect. But if -the illumination inside be thought inadequate, what is to be said as to -the state of things outside? It was a happy circumstance when a full moon -fell due upon an assembly night, and was accordingly set forth in the -advertisement. Otherwise a row of lanterns, suspended from tree to tree -above the Well Walk, lighted the visitors to the rooms, though these, -towards the end of the century, were superseded by ill-smelling and -uncertain oil-lamps. - -Under these circumstances, leaving the rooms was perilous. Groups of -flambeaux in the hands of waiting serving-men and link-boys threw a -lurid glow through the foul-smelling smoke that clouded them, and under -cover of which cut-purses and pickpockets, amongst them, perhaps, the -notorious Jenny Diver herself,[247] were enabled to mix with the company -leaving the doors, and relieve them of laced handkerchiefs, fans, purses, -snuff-boxes, and jewellery, without detection. Not unfrequently the -throng was swelled by a mob of roughs (as we now call them), who, getting -up a quarrel for the express purpose of creating confusion, could so -cover the retreat of the thieves. - -This state of things was often recurring in Well Walk, and continued -down to quite the end of the eighteenth century. Cradock, quoted by Lord -Campbell in his ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors,’ tells his readers that -one evening the Misses Thurlow (there were three of them),[248] being at -the Hampstead Assembly, were on returning in some danger from a riot at -the door, from which they were rescued by a young officer who happened to -be present, and who handed them in safety to their coach. The incident -reads like the opening of a Della Cruscan romance; but, alas! the Lord -High Chancellor Thurlow had outlived romance, though he made a point -of calling the next morning on the young gentleman, whom he found at -breakfast, and satisfied his sense of obligation to him by offering to -partake of it, which he did. - -How or when the notorious Sion Chapel was disposed of we learn -nothing.[249] Park is silent on the subject. I think it not impossible -that on the falling off of visitors to the Wells, and the probable -discontinuance of marriages at the chapel, the latter being private -property, the owner may have turned it wholly to secular uses, and have -converted it into the fine Assembly Room, with the hope of adding a new -attraction to the place for the general public. - -If so, he appears to have wholly failed in his speculation, for, owing -to the questionable company who found admittance to it, the resident -gentry withdrew their patronage, and held their assemblies in the long -room of the Upper Flask. This movement must have destroyed at one stroke -the prestige and prosperity of the beautiful Assembly Room, the assured -support of which rested with the resident subscribers. - -But if Park ignores the fate of the degraded Sion Chapel, he is almost -as reticent with regard to the New Episcopal Chapel in Well Walk. He -makes a mistake of eight years in the date of its opening. The bell, and -the altar plate, the first given by Mr. Rous and Mr. Wood (a name long -known in connection with Hampstead), the latter by the old physician, -Dr. Gibbons, were severally inscribed, ‘New Chapel, Hampstead, 1725,’ -and ‘Nova Capella de Hampstead, 1725.’ Park did not know of this till -the editor or a contributor to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ challenged the -correctness of the date he had given (1733) for the opening of the new -chapel. - -In 1725 Dr. Gibbons died, leaving, as a testimony of his concern for -them, £100 to the poor of Hampstead. Six years later I find in the -obituary of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, under the date of September 26, -1731, ‘At Hampstead, Mr. Rous, who built a chapel there.’ Park states -that the New Chapel in Well Walk was _universally_ understood to have -been the Assembly room of the Wells Tavern,’ but he admits that Mr. -Rous having built a chapel, and the expressions ‘Nova Capella’ on the -altar plate, and ‘New Chapel’ on the bell, seem rather to contradict the -traditionary account that it was originally a ballroom; but he observes -with the tenacity of an unconvinced man, ‘I have met with no positive -evidence on this subject.’ - -During the lapsed quarter of a century between the opening of the Wells -and the opening of the New Chapel in Well Walk, great additions and -alterations had taken place in the village. The beauty of the situation -and the well-known healthiness of the air induced many of the wealthy -merchants of London to purchase or build mansions on and about the Heath, -and their example was followed by some of the well-to-do people of a -lower grade, who began to run up (every man being his own architect) -edifices that in their fantastic reality vied with the imaginary -structure of Joseph Wilks, of Thames Street, Esq., who, in the event of -his ticket in the lottery winning, resolved to fit up a snug little box -at Hampstead in the Chinese taste for his retirement on Sundays.[250] - -I find from a guide-book of 1724 that at that time Hampstead had risen -from a little country village almost to a city. In October, 1734, Dr. -Arbuthnot, who was ill at Hampstead, says when writing to Swift: ‘I -am going out of this troublesome world, and you, amongst the rest of -my friends, shall have my last prayers and good wishes.’ He had gone -there so reduced by a dropsy and asthma that he could ‘neither sleep, -breathe, eat, or move,’ and, contrary to his expectation, had recovered -his strength to a considerable degree, and was able to ride, sleep, and -eat with appetite. He tells his friend that he expects upon his return -to London and the coming of winter that the symptoms of his disease will -return with them, for that ‘no man at his age could hope to recover.’ - -His experiment had been, not with a view to life, but _ease_. ‘I am at -present,’ he says, ‘in the case of a man that was almost in harbour, and -then blown back to sea; who has a reasonable hope of going to a good -place, and an absolute certainty of leaving a very bad one;’ and then -he corrects himself, having experienced many comforts in this world in -the affections of his family and the kindness of friends, and gives a -touching peep at his domestic relations in three or four lines: - -‘My family give you their love and service. The great loss I sustained -in one of them gave me my first shock, and the trouble I have with the -rest to bring them to a good temper to bear the loss of a father who -loves them, and whom they love, is really a most sensible affliction to -me.’[251] - -Shortly after the date of this letter, Pope, writing to one of the Miss -Blounts, tells her that he had seen Dr. Arbuthnot, who was very cheerful: - -‘I spent a whole day with him at Hampstead. He was in the Long Room half -the morning, and has parties at cards every night. Mrs. Lepell and Mrs. -Saggione and her sons and two daughters are all with him.’ - -In the March following Dr. Arbuthnot died, as he believed he should on -his return to London. - -‘Poor Arbuthnot, who grieved to see the wickedness of mankind, and was -particularly esteemed by his own countrymen,[252] is dead, to the great -regret of everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him intimately.’ - -Of him Swift wrote to Pope, referring to his humanity and benevolence, -‘Oh that the world had but a dozen Arbuthnots in it! I would burn my -travels’ (‘Gulliver’); and when a lady asked the satirical Dean for the -Doctor’s character, he summed it up in a sentence, ‘He has more wit than -we all have, and his humanity is equal to his wit.’ - -The presence of such an invalid at the Wells is a proof that faith in -the potency of the regimen observed there, and in the health-giving air -of the Heath, was by no means withdrawn from them. Indeed, we read that -at this date and during the previous season, more company had been seen -in the walks than had visited the village for years—a fact not lost upon -Dr. Soames, the friend of, and possibly the successor to, Dr. Gibbons, -whose treatise afforded him the literary material and groundwork for -his pamphlet on the ‘Hampstead Mineral Wells, with Directions how to -Drink the Waters’—an essay calculated to impress his patients, and even -the general public, with the sanitary combinations of the rural resort. -It was published in 1734, and is not without interest. He repeats the -description of the older writer and physician, that Hampstead ‘is -situated somewhat romantic, but every way pleasant, on several little -hills, on high ground of different soils.’ - -‘That here persons may draw in a pure and balmy air, with the heavens -clear and serene, at that season of the year that the great and populous -City of London is covered with fogs and smoke. And what adds,’ observes -the doctor, ‘to the blessings of the place is the salubrious water of -Hampstead, which may be justly called the Fountain of Health.’ - -He describes the chalybeate as breaking out from the declivity of the -hill, to the east of the town, near the chapel and bowling-green, and -tells us that it was conveyed through a pipe to a marble perforated bowl -or reservoir adjoining the chapel. Dr. Soames, as his predecessor had -done, notices the views from the Heath, its soils, and the number of -aromatic plants growing on it, and adds that the Apothecaries’ Company -seldom miss coming to Hampstead every spring to have their botanizing -feast.[253] ‘As for walks and shady groves,’ he continues, ‘we have our -share, and those are very delightful.’ But his praises of the spring -which trickled till within the last few years into its basin on the -left-hand side of the walk on entering it from the Heath, and his regimen -for the water-drinkers, are the most amusing part of his treatise. He -assures his readers that ‘the chalybeate, though as strong, if not -stronger, than that of Tunbridge Wells of the iron mineral, is not at all -unpleasant; that if well corked and sealed down, and kept in a cellar for -one or two years, when you have drawn the cork it will be most ready to -fly, and when poured into a glass, will sparkle and knit up like a glass -of champagne or Herefordshire cider.’ - -He recommends the drinking of this water in cases of defective digestion, -in preference to the drinking of drams (a thing too common in his day), -which he hopes ‘may not spread its contagion beyond his own sex.’ At the -same time he greatly hopes that the inordinate drinking of _thea_ may -be retrenched, which, if continued in, will infallibly ‘cause the next -generation to be more like pigmies than men and women.’[254] The best -time to take the waters is from June to Michaelmas; the time of day an -hour after sunrise (no wonder music began in the Long Room at 6 a.m.). -He allows his patients balm, or sage tea, with a little orange-peel in -it for breakfast; or chocolate, milk, porridge, or mutton-broth, with -bread-and-butter. An hour after taking the water, coffee may be used—the -less the better—but as for the green or bohea _thea_, that ‘ought to be -banished.’ - -Smoking appears to have been allowed, for Dr. Soames observes that those -who take tobacco ‘may do so with all safety’; only he politely suggests, -‘let them not offend the company, especially the ladies, who cannot well -relish that smoke with their waters.’ He recommends his patients a ride -of four or five miles one hour after drinking them, or, where there is -an objection to riding, to divert themselves with the amusements of the -place. These, as we have said, had considerably contracted since the days -when the members of the Kit-Cat Club had mingled with the visitors in the -walks, and exchanged smart repartees together, as was the fashion of the -day, when the last bon-mot at Button’s was set against the newest scandal -at the Wells. - -Dr. Soames’ regimen, it will be seen, consisted in early hours, -temperance, pure air, invigorating exercise, and whatever tended to -maintain a cheerful temper; these made the curative charm of the -Hampstead waters, and for a time restored the reputation of the Wells. - -It is rather amusing to find the curate in league with the doctor, and -setting himself forth as an example of the efficacy of the waters. -‘Could my pen convey to others the idea I have of them,’ exclaims this -enthusiastic partisan, ‘and the advantages we should have in using them, -we should see the walks crowded as heretofore, twenty or thirty years -ago. And it is some pleasure,’ he adds complacently, ‘to be informed that -this summer they have not been without a pretty number of visitors.’ - -[Illustration: _Old Cottages, North End_] - -If we add the amount of satisfaction felt by Mr. Watts, Curate and -Lecturer of Hampstead, to that of the inhabitants whose tenements were at -the disposal of the said visitors, we get the idea that Hampstead must -have smiled all over this season with a satisfaction it had not known -in many preceding ones. All the little green-fenced white cottages in -the neighbourhood of South End and the Vale of Health (reminiscent in -its very name of the Gibbons and Soames period), as well as those on the -upper slope of the East Heath and Squire’s Mount (to which a then leafy -lane ran up from the Wells), had had a fresh coat of spotless paint put -on. The mistresses of them were nodding and smiling to one another at -their doors, and asking if they were ‘all let,’ or ‘quite full,’ or some -question or other, indicative of a personal and neighbourly interest, -which left it without doubt that they themselves had not another room -to spare; while the select houses in Pond Street, and Lower Flask Walk, -with their better accommodation and superior landladies, received such an -access of purification and polish, that the flashing of the fanlights -over the hall doors, and the shining of brass knobs and knockers, and the -superlatively white, neatly-festooned blinds to every window, were in -themselves so many letters of recommendation writ large. - -Lodgings were to be had in the High Street, where little else was to be -had, the few shops in it, with their half-hatch doors, open shop-boards, -and hanging shutters, showing only the most simple necessaries of -village life—always excepting the so-called general shop, with its -heterogeneous stock of dry-goods, drapery, and drugs. Every household -in those days baked its own bread, and an itinerant butcher visited the -village weekly.[255] But the farms and cottages around supplied the -freshest butter, eggs, milk, cream and poultry, with the common kinds -of vegetables and fruit; for the rest, there was the London carrier, -who led his horse by easy stages up the hill, bringing provisions, as -requisitioned from day to day, for the visitors. - -At the opening of the season, the farmhouse productions rose to famine -price; the laundresses who lived in a congeries of cottages, at the -bottom of the Vale of Health, with their backs to the east wind and the -pool—for the pond as we see it now was not made till 1777, previous to -which date it was a mere pool fed by a spring that trickled from the bank -that margined it—immediately raised their prices. The parson bethought -him of charity sermons, and the doctors of increased fees; and thus the -whole social system of the village found itself comforted, and enriched, -by a restored faith in the medicinal springs. In fact, to again quote -Baker, ‘everything became as dear as a freeholder’s vote, and as great an -imposition as a Dutch reckoning.’ - -But the Hampstead of these later days was an altered place from what it -had been when Baker’s comedy was written. It had been made to see the -error of its ways, and as the greatest sinners are said to become the -greatest saints, so the peccant village appears to have recoiled to the -opposite degree from its former self, even to the verge of decorous (some -said dismal) dulness, and had fallen into neglect, as Dr. Soames very -oddly phrases it, ‘through the knavery of some, the folly of others, and -the exceeding great zeal for the glory of God and the good of the poor.’ - -The raffling-shops shut up, Mother Huff’s no longer heard of, the -tea-gardens deserted for the most part by all but the common people, ‘who -on Sundays, always mindful of the commandment which enjoins them to do no -work on that day, took occasion to eat buns at Chelsea, drink beer at St. -Pancras, of being sworn on the Horns at Highgate,[256] and of drinking -tea at Hampstead or _Little_ Hornsey,’[257] which was in the centre of -the present Finsbury Park. - -New Georgia was as yet unheard of, but, if I remember aright, the -bowling-green had not disappeared. The tavern is doing a brisk business; -the Long Room is full of fine company, and the walks between the elms and -limes in blossom, bright with colour, and gay with mirth, which, more -robust than in these artificial times, laughed out merrily and was not -ashamed. - -Cards, I am obliged to say, were as much in request as ever, but the -cheats at them were not professionals; and though Dr. Soames distinctly -set his face against the ‘violent exercise of country dances,’ the -fortnightly meetings in the Long Room were not thinned thereby. Concerts -were of frequent occurrence, and the following ditty,[258] originally -printed on a broad-sheet, and which afterwards appeared in the _Musical -Entertainer_, and was set to music by Mr. Abel Whichello, under the -title of ‘The beauties of Hampstead,’ was, in all probability, first sung -at the Wells: - - ‘Summer heat the town invades, - All repair to cooling shades; - How inviting, how delighting, - Are the flowery hills and vales! - - ‘Here, where lovely Hampstead stands, - And the neighbouring vale commands, - What surprising prospects rising, - All around adorn the lands. - - ‘Here ever-woody mounts arise, - There verdant lawns delight the eyes, - Where Thames wanders—in meanders— - Lofty domes approach the skies. - - ‘Here are grottos, purling streams, - Shades defying Titan’s beams; - Rosy bowers, fragrant flowers, - Lovers’ wishes, poets’ themes. - - ‘Of the crystal, bubbling well, - Life and strength the currents swell; - Health and pleasure, heavenly treasure. - Smiling, here united dwell. - - ‘Here, nymphs and swains, indulge your hearts, - Share the joys the scene imparts; - Here be strangers to all dangers - All but those of Cupid’s darts!’ - -It is not impossible that a local speculator may have bribed the muse of -one or other of the ever-ready Grub Street poets to compose these verses, -which read very like a lyrical advertisement of the place; while the -broad-sheet form in which they first appeared was the usual one in which -such poetical puffs were presented. - -Nothing can be more Arcadian than the conceits and images in this -effusion; no one reading it at this time of day would imagine danger -lurking in the shape of footpads in St. Pancras Vale, where Smollett -makes one of his heroes walk with a drawn sword by the side of his -mistress’s coach on her way to town from the Flask Walk. It was better to -fall into the hands of the redoubted Turpin himself than into those of -these cruel and rapacious robbers.[259] He, on the other hand, affected a -certain bonhomie in his proceedings, and loved best to disembarrass his -victims of their property without unnecessary violence. His wit appears -to have been heavier than his hand. - -‘You will soon be caught!’ cried out an angry but non-combative -gentleman, one of two in a chaise, whom, besides others, he had robbed on -a certain Sunday on the road between Hampstead and Highgate. - -‘So I have thought myself,’ returned Dick, ‘but believe I am in no danger -from you!’ - -During the years that had passed between the first opening of the Wells -and this temporary resuscitation of their popularity, death had broken -up that knot of brilliant wits and writers whose presence there has made -Hampstead classical. Addison and Steele, Arbuthnot and Gay, were, in -one sense, simply names, but names so intimately interwrought with the -literature of their age and country as to be for ever inseparable from it. - - ‘Those sovereigns of the Muse’s skill - Are the true patterns of good writing still!’ - -Swift, parted by the Irish Sea from his old associates, still lived, -Dean of St. Patrick’s; and only Pope, pale and sickly, represents the -bright band of literary brothers who had found many suggestive themes, -in the Well Walk and its vicinity, for the exercise of their genial -humour or piquant censorship. Jarvis, the friend of the poet, writing -about this period to Dean Swift, observes: ‘Pope is off and on, here -and there, everywhere, _à son ordinaire_, therefore as well as we can -hope for a carcase so crazy.’ Jarvis was the well-known ‘face-painter,’ -contemporary with Sir Godfrey Kneller, and who had given lessons to Pope -in portrait-painting.[260] - -The latter continued to visit Hampstead for Murray’s sake, whose love for -the charming place ‘amounted almost to a passion,’ and who sought it on -every opportunity. - -One of the persons most constantly seen in the Long Room and the walks, -at this period, was the newly-made Poet Laureate (Colley Cibber), a man -of vast intelligence, though a little too full of self-importance, and -perhaps egotism. His ‘Birthday Odes’ were the delight of the wits and -the amusement of the critics, who pounced down upon them in the _Grub -Street Journal_, and other publications, and literally tore them line -from line. Colley was himself insensible to satire, though he could -wield it very successfully against others. He always remained perfectly -satisfied with his own performances as playwright, manager, and poet. So -devoid was he of any sense of the absurdity of his odes, that he was in -the habit of carrying them about with him, and reading them to those of -his acquaintances who would listen, all the while unconscious that the -little ill-dressed man, with the pain-drawn, sallow face and large, dark, -luminous eyes, who was never without a knot of the best people in the -company, _la crême des beaux esprits_, about him, was passing round an -epigram of his own, the reading of which occasioned hilarious laughter. - -The lines ran as follows: - - ‘In merry old England it once was a rule, - The King had his poet, and also his fool; - But now we’re so frugal, I’d have you to know it, - That Cibber can serve both for fool and for poet.’ - -Let us take Swift against Pope: - - ‘Sir, I admit your general rule, - That every poet is a fool.’ - -No doubt Colley Cibber, who at seventy years of age aped the airs of a -man of fashion, made himself as ridiculous on the walks at Hampstead -as he subsequently did on the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, where -Richardson describes him making love to the handsome Miss Chudleigh -(the pseudo Duchess of Kingston[261]), and growing green with jealousy -when she bestowed a smile on anyone but himself. His appointment to the -Laureateship, and the Birthday and other odes in which he exhibited his -poetical fitness for the honour of the wreath, occasioned Lady Betty -Germain to remark, in one of her clever letters to Dean Swift, that if it -was the Queen, and not the Duke of Grafton,[262] that picked out such a -Laureate, she deserved his poetry in her praise. - -In May we find Mrs. Donnellan,[263] sister to the Bishop of Killala, -and a friend of Swift’s and Mrs. Delany’s,[264] writing to the latter -that she is waiting in Dublin to cross to England ‘when the wind -served.’ This lady, who appears to have frequently renewed her visits to -Hampstead, was received in the best society, and especially sought that -of distinguished literary people. She was the Philomela of the Widow -Pendarves’ correspondence with her sister—an affectation that suggests -that, like so many of her charming country-women, she had the gift of -a melodious voice added to that exquisite Gaelic endowment of taste -and feeling in the use of it. Richardson, who after the appearance of -‘Pamela’ had become famous, and was fêted and run after, especially by -women who affected literature, was a friend of hers. She appears to have -preferred Hampstead, not only for the sake of the Wells, but from her -innate love for the natural beauty of the place. - -In 1748, the year ‘Clarissa’ took the reading world by storm, Richardson -succeeded in persuading her that the air of the north-west suburb was -too sharp for her, and so lured her for a time to North End, Fulham. But -though getting into years, the lady appears to have had a will of her -own, and in the summer of this year returned to her favourite place of -abode and the shelter of Pond Street. - -Richardson, writing to Mrs. Delany, informs her of her friend’s removal, -and adds: ‘I did myself the honour to dine with her there (Pond Street) -yesterday. The weather was not propitious ... she complained.... I -chid her for her removal. But upon my word, madam, I do think it is -not so very much amiss sometimes that control ... but no more on this -subject.... I will only add that she rejoices in her prospects variegated -with hill and dale. They are certainly very fine.’ To this epistle, the -style of which is very like that of his epistolary novels, Mrs. Delany, -whose ‘deportment was all elegance, and speech all sweetness,’ as Burke -expressed it, a born courtier at heart, replies that she has written -to Mrs. Donnellan, ‘condemning her, though she was loath, for going to -that _ugly Hampstead_, which she had never loved since Clarissa had such -persecutions there.’ - -Nevertheless, Mrs. Donnellan continued to enjoy the air of Hampstead -from time to time for ten years longer. Mrs. Barbauld, in her ‘Life of -Richardson,’ tells us that a friend of hers at Hampstead could remember -her ‘a venerable old lady with very sharp, black eyes.’ - -She was an intimate friend of the famous Mrs. Montague, the acknowledged -patron of the literary and artistic celebrities of the time, the entrée -to whose drawing-rooms bestowed a sort of diploma on the favoured -recipient, which, by the way, was never extended to the literary -bookseller. Mrs. Donnellan died of what Mrs. Montague calls ‘a cold and -fever,’ the precursor, probably, of our modern influenza, as universal a -plague in 1772 as the latter in 1893-94. - -Though for a brief period after the publication of Dr. Soames’ treatise -the presence of an increased number of visitors gladdened his heart, it -soon became apparent that no persuasive pamphlet, no poetical puff, could -restore it. The favour of people of fashion had passed away from it. - -The walk without the raffling-shops and gaming-tables, and the ballroom -without the freedom of the all-night dancing, had no charms for any -others than the real lovers of the delightful suburb for its own sake. It -came to be considered as a sort of natural sanatorium, a pleasant rustic -summer resort and resting-place; and as the fame of the waters fell away, -except in the grateful remembrance of those who had imagined themselves -benefited by them, the reputation of its pure, health-giving air and the -natural beauty of its situation and surroundings became more obvious to -persons who, like Mrs. Donnellan, Mr. Murray, and others, were permeated -with an ever-growing love of them. - -It was no doubt the dearth of entertainment for the visitors that -suggested to the inventive imagination of the sexagenarian Robert Causton -the idea of opening the tea-drinking house, with pleasure-gardens, -waterworks, and various ingenious contrivances (to which I have -elsewhere referred) in a part of Turner’s Wood, the wood where the -lilies-of-the-valley, once indigenous on Hampstead Heath, lingered latest. - -It was opened in 1737, and became so popular with Londoners and the -general public, that it remained open twenty years afterwards, so that -the enterprise must have amply repaid the originator. - -From this it would seem that not only Mother Huff’s, but others of these -apparently innocent places for refreshment and recreation (so-called tea -and bun houses), with their fair bowling-greens, and garden bowers, for -summer evenings’, and Sunday afternoons’ rest and pleasure, were included -in the general blight which the drastic measures of the magistrates -at Hicks’s Hall had inflicted on Well Walk and its neighbourhood. We -recognise the reason for this measure when we learn that many of their -proprietors had succeeded, through a direct infringement of the law, -in obtaining licenses for the sale of wine and punch, and in this way -tea-houses had become sources of dissipation and vice. - -In 1744, Pope, whose life had been one long illness, finally disappeared -from the Well Walk, where with Murray and so many other wits and -celebrities he had shared with the lighter crowd in the fashions and -follies of the place—the last but one of that bright galaxy of literary -stars in which it had been his privilege to shine and mingle. He died, -to the regret of many admirers and the sincere sorrow of his friends. -With all his faults—and they were flagrant—there must have been something -lovable and sympathetic in his nature, to have won and kept the life-long -friendship of men with minds and dispositions so differently constituted -as Dr. Arbuthnot’s, Dean Swift’s, John Gay’s, and Mr. Murray’s. - -His love for his mother and Gay was almost feminine in its steadfastness -and tenderness, and I fancy we may discover something noble in his -self-restraint when tending the latter from time to time during his -illness at Hampstead, for, though suffering himself from the same -circumstances, he never seems to have alluded to his own share of loss in -the South Sea Bubble. - -How affectionately each of the three ‘Yahoos’—Jonathan Swift, John Gay, -and Pope—alludes to the time they spent together at Twickenham, and how -much of real pathos he, the most artificial of poets, crushed, as it -were, into the two last lines of his intended epitaph on Gay!— - - ‘For all thy blameless life the sole return, - My verse, and Queensberry’s tears above thy urn.’ - -Everyone knew of the misunderstanding between him and Addison from -the commencement of his career; yet in expressing his regret for the -essayist’s death, he observed there was in Addison’s conversation ‘more -charm than he had heard in any other man’s.’ High praise from a supposed -adversary, but praise that was assuredly due to him. - -In the _Penny London Advertiser_, under the date of June 13-15, 1744, and -the heading ‘Home News,’ it is stated that ‘Last week the body of Mr. -Pope was privately interred at Twickenham, when twelve men and twelve -women were entirely new cloathed, and attended his corpse to the grave, -pursuant to his will.’[265] No reference is made to his genius, no word -is said of his works; nor does it appear that any personal friends -attended his funeral. I have said that, owing to his deformity and other -causes, his life had been pronounced one long disease. I wonder if his -more robustly-constituted critics took this fact into consideration when -sitting in judgment on the bitterness, irritability, and other sins -of omission and commission of the man of whom the friends around his -death-bed observed ‘that his humanity survived his understanding,’ and -whom Gay had said ‘he loved as his own soul.’ Think of fifty-six years’ -habitation of a misshapen, dwarfed, feeble body, in which he could never -have known freedom from physical depression, and say how many of us under -the same conditions might not have dentated sharpest incisors rather than -wisdom-teeth. - -In 1748 Richardson, after eight years’ abstinence from novel-writing, -produced his crowning work, ‘Clarissa Harlowe,’ a book that occasioned -intenser excitement and more eager expectation than any work of fiction -that had preceded it. To understand this, one has only to take a course -of eighteenth-century belles-lettres, as exhibited in the romances of the -magazines, and so-called memoirs, and narratives of the day. - -In these no attempt is made to depict human nature naturally, or to endue -the characters represented with the ordinary language, idiosyncrasies, -temper, or feelings of living beings. Richardson’s style was formal and -spiritless, and the epistolary form in which he developed his long-drawn -stories absolutely wearisome; but he painted men and women, and made -them speak. Their joys and sorrows, trials and temptations, were true -to Nature, as were their weaknesses and vices; and this living force in -his delineations—the human passion and the human pathos, that make many -of his descriptions throb with life—touched the hearts of his readers, -unaccustomed to such graphic treatment, with spontaneous sympathy, and -set all England weeping over the imaginary wrongs and sorrows of _Miss -Clarisse_, which Mr. Lang tells us the Young Pretender, with a reward of -£30,000 for his apprehension hanging over his head, requested a lady of -his acquaintance to secure for him. Not only matrons and maidens, but -men also, persisted through the seven or eight volumes with unflagging -interest, and any amount of lachrymatory effusion, amongst them a -Bishop, who cheerfully averred that he had ‘shed buckets full of tears -over its pages.’[266] No wonder if the author (whom Horace Walpole and -others regarded as a ‘conceited prig’) did feel a little lifted up in -self-estimation, especially when Johnson sententiously observed to him -that in writing his story of ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ he ‘had enlarged the -knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the -command of virtue.’ - -There is no doubt that Richardson’s writings initiated the English novel, -which henceforth became the favourite form with writers of fiction. It -will be remembered by those who have read ‘Clarissa Harlowe,’ a reprint -of which, edited by Dallas, was brought out some years ago, that the -heroine, in her innocence, takes shelter at the Upper Flask Tavern, and -subsequently finds lodgings in Flask Road. Mrs. Barbauld tells us of her -own knowledge of a Frenchman who paid a visit to Hampstead for the ‘sole -purpose of finding the house in Flask Walk where Clarissa had lodged, and -was surprised at the ignorance or indifference of the inhabitants on the -subject,’ just as if Clarissa had been a living being. - -Her story indelibly associates the author with Hampstead, where, indeed, -the smooth-faced, precise, placid-looking little man might often be -seen in retired corners of the pump-house or Long Room, or sidling -behind the trees in the walks, or propped upon his stick, his favourite -attitude, ‘one hand in his bosom, and the other supporting his chin.’ -The year in which ‘Clarissa’ appeared was that in which Johnson, in -spite of his poverty, had taken lodgings for the exacting Tetty in that -‘little house beyond the church,’ and was hard at work upon the ‘Vanity -of Human Wishes,’ possibly to provide the means of paying for them. In -this year—the ‘Clarissa’ year—the inhabitants of Hampstead being ‘very -desirous to prevent any robberies or felonies being committed in the said -parish,’ had joined with those of Hackney, Clapham, and probably other -outlying suburbs, and subscribed amongst themselves to a common fund, -which enabled them to offer a reward of ‘ten pounds to any person or -persons who shall apprehend or take any highwayman or footpad, who shall -commit any robbery within the said parish.’[267] - -Similar announcements, differing in no way but in the name of the place, -appeared almost simultaneously in the columns of the _Daily Advertiser_ -in the month of June, 1748. - -As early as 1736 the gentlemen of Hackney, then a beautiful subrural -village, much affected by rich City men and merchants, had agreed to -have ‘a good and substantial watch to patrol the footway between London -and Hackney, from six at night till ten, all armed with halberts’; and -years previously the turnpike men had provided themselves with long -speaking-trumpets, that upon the first notice of a robbery they might -alarm the distant villages, and enable the inhabitants to pursue the -robbers. It was this state of social terror that roused the householders -from time to time to band themselves together, and, armed with -blunderbusses and cutlasses, to patrol the roads in the neighbourhood of -their homes for mutual protection. Evidently a lawless time, with only -one remedy, the gibbet, which an appearance before Sir John de Veil, or -other Bow Street justice, was almost certain to be the prelude to. - -The laws of England were draconic, the quality of mercy unknown. All -gradations of crime were condemned together, and convicts came out by -cart-fulls to Tyburn, where the cruel, stealthy, midnight murderer, and -the pitiful thief who had filched a sixpence from a farmer’s boy,[268] -came to the same end, and were hanged. ‘The death penalty,’ says Horace -Walpole, ‘was as frequent as curses in the Commination Service.’ - -Through all these years no attempt had been made by those in authority to -remedy the dangerous state of the roads. All round the Metropolis, even -at noonday, no traveller was safe. Barnet, Hoxton, the Hendon Fields, -Finchley Common, Tottenham Court Road, Pancras Meadows, the Half-way -House (Mother Red-Cap), Kilburn, and the Highgate Road, were all haunts -of footpads and highwaymen, of whom, in 1736, Dick Turpin, especially -in Epping Forest, was the most active and successful. Hence the crude -co-operation of the inhabitants of Hampstead and other villages to defend -themselves. - -A pamphlet written by Henry Fielding, the novelist, who had been himself -a magistrate, lets us into the fact that the sympathies of the working -classes were with the law-breakers, who, though publicly known for -such, rode impudently through the streets[269] in the very sight of an -officer who held in his pocket the warrant for their arrest, but dare -not serve it for his life’s sake. It was verging towards the close of -the eighteenth century before Sir Richard Ford established his plan of -the horse patrol, or blind Sir John Fielding his system of Bow Street -runners—his ‘black band,’ as they were called—and it was not till the -fifteenth year of George III. (1774) that an Act was obtained for the -lighting of the streets, roads, and public passages within the town of -Hampstead, and for the establishment of a nightly patrol between the said -town and London. - -With light, and the horse patrol, the vocations of footpad and highwayman -very soon showed signs of decline; but intermediately we read such -paragraphs as the following: ‘On Saturday night between eight and nine -o’clock four men were attacked in a field between Tottenham Court Road -and the Half-way House to Hampstead by a single footpad, who came to them -with a pistol in each hand, and robbed them of what money they had.’ - -A Mr. Herman was robbed of eight guineas and some silver on Finchley -Common, on his return from Barnet, by two well-mounted highwaymen. A man -was stopped close to the barn near the Mother Red-Cap by some villains, -who robbed and murdered him, leaving him under the eaves of the barn, -and two ladies were robbed on Hampstead Heath by a young man who informed -them that he was ‘a baronet’s son, but in great distress.’ - -Very often we read of persons dying from wounds received in these brutal -encounters, the scene of which, as in the instances above quoted, was -often very near to Hampstead. ‘Mr. Bocket, an old inhabitant, remembered -the mail-coach being robbed opposite Pilgrim Lane in 1800’—a fact for -which I am indebted to Martin H. Wilkin, Esq. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -_THE MODERN WELL WALK._ - - -At the present day all that remains of the original Well Walk are the -great elms on the bank above the bench at the Heath end of it, with -two houses so facially improved that I do not recognise them, and the -celebrated Long Room (Weatherall Place), converted to a private house -about a hundred years ago. Gainsborough Mansions on one side of the way, -and Gainsborough Gardens on the other, which memorise the name of the -donor of the Wells, and the 6 acres of waste land lying about it, afford -a striking proof of the growing value of ground for building purposes in -the near neighbourhood of town, and the magnificent increase in the value -of the Wells property to the poor of Hampstead. - -In 1811 Well Walk and thereabouts contained thirty-nine houses. In one of -these lived Thomas Park, the engraver, father of the precocious historian -of Hampstead. It did not escape Mr. Abrahams that he was occupying a -house rated at £24 per annum, which should rightly have been rated at -£36. It is a pity that no inhabitant of Hampstead appears to have taken -any particular notice, or have kept any record of the remarkable young -man—Park junior—who, at an age when other youths are scarcely out of the -playground, was eagerly collecting materials, and seeking every fragment -of information he could obtain towards the history of this interesting -suburb. - -Beyond the fact of his valuable work[270] and that he was the son of a -respectable inhabitant, we know nothing of the youth whose after-career -it would have been interesting to follow.[271] - -In 1817, between the publication of his first poems and ‘Endymion,’ Keats -was lodging in Well Walk. The house was either the first or second from -the tavern,[272] and its proprietor was Bentley, the postman. It was -here, feeling the benefit that Hampstead air had been to himself, that he -invited his consumptive brother Tom to join him; and here he nursed and -tended him till his death, probably hastening by this act of fraternal -devotion the development of the germs of the same fatal disease in -himself. - -His next-door neighbours were two ancient, soft-hearted single -gentlewomen, whom Keats, who had a lively sense of humour, informed his -sister ‘possessed a dog between them, who had grown so fat,’ ‘a corpulent -little beast,’ he calls it, ‘that when taken out for its daily exercise -it had to be coaxed along at the end of an ivory-tipped cane.’ The -ladies, the Miss Jacksons, continued to reside in Well Walk long after -Keats had left it, and the one who lived longest attained a sort of local -fame and memory, from the fact of her leaving her dog a legacy, to insure -its being taken care of after her death, the legacy taking the form of a -life annuity to the animal. - -Keats’ visit to Scotland occurred whilst he was Bentley’s tenant, and -at a time when his bodily strength was scarcely equal to the fatigue of -rough roads and climbing hills, and he writes: - -‘I assure you I often long for a seat and a cup of tea at Well Walk.’ - -After his return, this walk with its seats and shade became his favourite -outdoor resort; and here it was, as we have elsewhere said, that Hone saw -him for the last time. - -[Illustration: _Well Walk._] - -In 1830 Well Walk received another memorable tenant in Constable, -the painter, who from his first coming to London had known and loved -Hampstead. Immediately after leaving the mills and streams of Berghold, -we find him passing whole days upon the Heath, and, with all a poet’s -ineffable love of Nature, making his fairest transcripts of her at his -‘Sweet Hampstead’—an endless treasury to him for all the purposes of his -art. After his marriage he had been in the habit of spending a portion -of the summer months here with his wife and children, always with the -same result, ‘no illness amongst them.’ But this year (1830), instead -of returning to the old lodgings at No. 2, Lower Terrace, he rented a -house in Well Walk, from which in the August of the same year I find him -writing to his friend Leslie: - -‘Will this weather tempt you to walk over the fields to my pretty -dwelling in Well Walk?’ - -In the next year (1831) I think it is quite clear that, for some reason -or other, he gave up this house in favour of a larger and better situated -one, else why should he write thus to his friend Dean Fisher?— - -‘This house is to my wife’s heart’s content.... It is situated on an -eminence _at the back of the spot in which you saw us_’ (Well Walk), -‘and our little drawing-room commands a view unsurpassed in Europe, from -Westminster Abbey to Gravesend. The dome of St. Paul’s in the air seems -to realize Michael Angelo’s words on seeing the Pantheon, “I will build -such a thing in the sky.”’ - -‘We see the woods and lofty grounds of the East Saxons to the north-east.’ - -The Well Walk then extended some distance, but in a straight line and on -level ground. Dean Fisher says the house he visited was at the bottom -of the walk, and Constable himself that the one he is writing of was on -an eminence. I imagine that it must have stood on the same side of the -way as the Long Room, but beyond the walk, on the slope of the rising -ground about Christchurch, where at that time of open spaces such a view -was possible. I remember an old and respected inhabitant of Hampstead -High Street telling me in 1859 that thirty years previous you could see -from what he called ‘Perrin’s Corner’ Erith Reach, and the ships sailing -up and down the Thames, while the back-windows of his house looked over -open fields to Pancras. The house we are in quest of was rented at £52 -per annum, and £24 taxes—not an unimportant house in those days—yet when -William Howitt wrote his ‘Northern Heights of London’ there was no house -in Well Walk possessing such a view as Constable had described; nor -could he,[273] though not much more than thirty years had passed since -the delightful painter of the ‘Cornfield, a View near Hampstead,’ and the -‘Fir-tree Avenue on the Heath,’ had resided in the vicinity, discover his -sometime abode. - -Here the artist lost his beloved and loving wife, and wrote in his diary -under the date of her death, ‘I shall now call Hampstead home.’ - -Whereabouts, I wonder, stood that elegant group of trees, ashes, elms -and oaks, of which he made a study, and that were to be of as much -service to him as if he had bought the field in which they grew? But -his sketch-books were full of the likenesses of the sylvan beauties -of the Heath and its neighbourhood—the beautiful trees that, like the -clouds, seemed to ask him to do something like them. Perhaps those in the -grounds of Mr. Charles Holford, of which he made a sketch, may still be -flourishing. - -In 1832 he exhibited ‘Sir Richard Steele’s Cottage, Hampstead,’ and the -next year finds him lecturing on art in the Assembly Room on Holly Bush -Hill. The date of his last lecture before the Literary and Scientific -Institution was July 26, 1836. I was told a little story of Constable, -recounted by his son to an old gentleman who resided at Hampstead, -which exhibits the painstaking genius of the painter. As a boy, he -said, he used to sleep in his father’s studio, and one of his earliest -recollections was that of being startled by seeing his father enter the -room in the middle of the night, very lightly clad, with a candle in -one hand and a brush in the other, for the purpose of adding a suddenly -conceived idea or additional touch to a picture, before the suggestion -should have faded away. After the death of his wife, Constable retained -his Hampstead house as an occasional residence. He died in London in -1837, and rejoined his beloved and two of their little ones in the -churchyard at Hampstead. - -In the magnificent summer of 1834 the brothers Chalons, as full of charm, -brightness and fancy as their pictures, spent six delightful weeks at -Hampstead, giving Constable an opportunity he never lost of pointing out -his pet views and all the loveliest trees and best bits of his ‘Sweet -Hampstead.’ - -I remember Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Bartholomew, who knew them well, -telling me the following story of the pleasant brothers: how a very -large, straggling old vine which covered the back of their house, and -that of a titled neighbour in a quiet street off a then fashionable -square, suddenly appeared _en papilotte_, to the astonishment of the -next-door household, whose share of the vine had never developed a single -blossom. A few days later a ladder was laid against the wall, and one -or other of the brothers ascended it, and appeared deeply interested -in examining the vintage, which, looking at the number of paper bags -covering the vine, appeared to be quite wonderful. The artists’ old -French manservant and the housekeeper next door were on very friendly -terms, and she had essayed all her arts to discover the mystery of the -one-sided behaviour of the vine; but the secret of its productiveness -was his master’s, and Le Brun was impenetrable. At last—for there had -been other innocent delusions and merry conceits on the part of the -light-hearted brothers—this daughter of Eve fell upon the plan of -pretending distress at the fruiterer’s failing to send grapes in time for -dessert, conscious that, if there was any reality in appearances, this -feint would discover it, and was more than ever confounded when the old -Frenchman made his appearance no great while after, with messieurs his -masters’ compliments, and a basket of delicious grapes—‘their own fruit.’ - -Doubtless there have been other residents in Well Walk of ‘mark and -likelihood,’ but I am ignorant of them. The most important houses in -it in my time were the Pump-House School, the Long Room, and its close -neighbour, the gloomy-looking Bergh, then the officers’ quarters of the -militia barracks close by. This, I am told, is now a private residence, -with handsome grounds and garden, concealed by high walls. The Wells died -out slowly, for outsiders still retained their faith in the potency of -the waters. - -When Dr. Hughson in 1809 published his ‘History of London and its -Neighbourhood,’ he states that Hampstead then ranked high for the -number and variety of its medicinal waters; that beside the old spa of -chalybeate quality, there were two other kinds of mineral water. One -of them, a saline spring, was discovered by Mr. John Bliss, an eminent -surgeon of Hampstead, 1802. The other owed its disclosure to Dr. Goodwin, -another local practitioner; so that it would appear that, though no -longer a place of amusement, the Wells continued to be resorted to by -invalids. - -In my own time it was quite common for working men from Camden and -Kentish Towns, and even places much farther off, to make a Sunday -morning’s pilgrimage to Hampstead to drink the water, and carry home -bottles of it as a specific for hepatic complaints, and as a tonic and -eye-water. - -We know from modern analysis that only one of the springs contained -sufficient iron to be of any medical use, but, on the other hand, we -have the practical testimony of Dr. Gibbons, and of the royal physician, -Dr. Arbuthnot, to their curative qualities. May not modern building and -drainage have interfered with the sources of the springs and deteriorated -them? - -There has always been an uncertainty in modern times as to the origin -of the chapel in Well Walk. Hampstead’s own historian, Park, appears -to have had no better foundation for his short notice of it (p. 236, -1818 edition) than surmise and tradition; but there are cases in which -Tradition may be trusted as the handmaid of Truth, and this is certainly -one of them. - -The chapel appears to have served a very useful purpose for more than a -hundred years, ninety-three of them as a chapel of ease to the parish -church, St. John’s Chapel, on Downshire Hill, not having been built -till 1818. For many years after I knew Hampstead these three continued -to be the only places of worship connected with the Establishment; now I -understand there are, within the fourteen ecclesiastical districts into -which the parish is divided, as many churches, besides a number of other -places of worship. - -The opening of St. John’s Chapel of Ease to St. John’s, Frognal, does not -appear to have interfered with the congregation attending the chapel in -Well Walk, who continued to worship there till Christ Church was built, -when the congregation removed to it, about 1852-53. Then the chapel in -Well Walk was let to the Scotch Presbyterians, and it remained their -place of worship till about 1861-62, after which (never having been -consecrated) it was let to the Hampstead Rifle Volunteers, who were in -want of a drill-hall, and it continued to be retained for this purpose -till about a dozen years ago, when it was taken down and the site used -for building upon. - -A gentleman then connected with the Hampstead Rifle Corps, and who was -deputed to oversee the alterations in the building, necessary to fit it -for its new purpose, has kindly enabled me to follow, and with his help -unravel, the story of the origin of the Wells Chapel. - -The conversion of this mutable building to military uses involved the -taking down of all its former fittings—pews, galleries (of which there -were three), etc. The space thus gained resulted in a vast room, 90 -feet long by some 36 feet wide, and 24 feet high. A wainscot, about 4 -feet high, ran round the wall, and on removing a portion of it at the -north-east end of the apartment, a sort of niche or recess in the depth -of the wall, which was very thick, disclosed itself, and was clearly, -to men acquainted with such appearances, the place where the basin and -discharge-pipes of an old fountain had been. It had remained hidden -behind the wainscot from the time this had been put up. This was surprise -the first; but ‘some time after’ (I will let my correspondent tell the -story) ‘the workmen, who were cleaning the walls for recolouring, came -to tell me that they had found some old paintings on the walls. On going -to look at them, I found that there were just nine life-sized figures -representing the Muses. There could be no doubt about this, for the name -was painted under each figure—Clio, Euterpe, and so on. These paintings -were seen by various people; but they were rather faint and much damaged, -and, as the work of redecoration had to go on, they were again coloured -over with distemper.’ Now, leaving the region of fact and entering that -of speculation, I think that this large apartment, some 90 feet long -by 36 feet wide, could not have been the chapel spoken of by various -writers.[274] I cannot but think it was the old Pump Room, converted -afterwards into a large chapel (with its galleries capable of holding -some 1,000 persons). My correspondent adds: ‘Besides its great size, -one can hardly imagine that such uncanonical figures as the Muses could -ever have been painted on the walls of a chapel, and I am sure that the -paintings I saw were as old as the building itself.’ - -[Illustration: _Assembly and Pump Rooms, Well Walk._] - -All this mystery was delightful to me, for I felt sure I held the key -to it. I remembered the fine Assembly Room, 60 feet long, and elegantly -decorated, and felt confident that Park’s belief was vindicated, and -that, as he had stated, the chapel in Well Walk was ‘made out of the -old Assembly Room.’ This room, however, was stated to have been 60 feet -long, and here were 90 feet to be disposed of. But my informant quickly -wrote: ‘Thanks to our correspondence, I think I see a way of explaining -that which has perplexed you with respect to the chapel mentioned by -the authors you quote. Your last letter seems to give the clue to the -whole matter. If you will kindly refer to the sketch-plan I sent you, -you will see that the size of the building there depicted is given as 90 -feet long by 36 feet wide. I have, perhaps, rather mistaken the width. -Now, if you take off from this building 60 feet, you will have left an -apartment 30 feet long. Was not this smaller room the Pump Room, and the -other the Assembly Room? If you look at the view of this old building -given in Baines, you will see that it is one as seen from the outside, -and I know from my own observation as a surveyor that from its style this -building must have been built about the commencement of the last century. -I consider,’ adds this gentleman, ‘that the Pump Room and Assembly Room -were converted into what was known as Well Walk Chapel in the last -century.’[275] The change took place, as we know, in the first quarter of -it. Subsequently I learned that the paintings were at the end and sides -of the building farthest from the recess, which, of course, appertained -to the Pump Room. Baines’ view shows that there were eight windows on the -north-west side of the building, next the Well Walk, and my informant -thinks the windows on the opposite side were equal in number. The figures -of the Muses were painted in the spaces between the windows and at the -end. The exterior walls of the building were of red brick, but had been -coloured over, and, after the mode of building in those times, were very -solid. I think this discovery definitively establishes the origin of the -Well Walk Chapel, and proves Park to have been correct. - -Until pretty deep in the fifties, the upper part of Well Walk possessed -a small but beautiful grove of century-old lime-trees, now very nearly -destroyed by the unskilful hands of someone ignorant of the knowledge of -forestry. It is perhaps noteworthy that Mr. Gurney Hoare, his brother, -wife and children, were members of the Well Walk Chapel congregation, the -first part of the family, it is said, to become members of the Church of -England. - -About fifteen years ago the public basin on the left-hand side of Well -Walk as you entered it from the Heath was removed, and a new stone -structure, with pipe and basin, was placed by the Wells Charity on the -opposite side of the Walk. A memorial tablet attached to this structure -bears the following inscription: ‘To the Memory of the Honourable -Susannah Noel, who with her son Baptist, third Earl of Gainsborough, gave -this Well, with six acres of land, to the use and benefit of the poor of -Hampstead, December 20, 1691.’ - -Under this inscription appear the following lines: - - ‘Drink, traveller, and with strength renewed - Let kindly thoughts be given - To her who has thy thirst subdued, - Then tender thanks to Heaven.’ - -G. W. Potter, Esq., a gentleman eminently interested in all that -concerns Hampstead and its inhabitants, and to whom I am indebted for -much valuable information, tells me that people come in numbers to the -fountain of a morning, but the water barely drips, and is only very -slightly chalybeate in character. But this circumstance induced him, as -one of the trustees of the Wells Charity, to get his fellow-trustees -to make a small grant of money to be expended in the endeavour to -discover the old chalybeate spring, and in greater volume. The Vestry’s -workmen were accordingly employed under his direction, with the result -that a source of the true chalybeate waters in abundant quantity was -discovered. ‘Unfortunately, the analysis showed that the water contained -a small amount of organic matter, and the local officers of health very -properly will not allow the water to be used by the public unless it is -practically pure.’ - -‘I have reason for thinking,’ continues my correspondent, ‘that the -water was fouled accidentally by the workmen making the trial shaft, and -further efforts are to be made.’ With what results to Hampstead who can -tell? - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -_HAMPSTEAD LATER ON._ - - -In later years, as soon as May fretted the Kilburn meadows with cowslips, -and the birds began to warble the livelong day and half the night in the -woods and the thickets and groves upon the Heath, sensitive persons ‘in -populous city pent’ found themselves irresistibly drawn to one or other -of the many paths crossing the Marylebone fields, or that ran up from the -west, by Lisson Grove, then a tree-shaded, pleasant neighbourhood of good -houses, and so by Kilburn meadows to the Heath and Hampstead, ‘each rural -sight, each rural sound, fraught with delight.’ - -Such persons sought it simply for the pleasure of the place, the charming -views, the ‘sweet, salutary air,’ the walk, and a few hours’ idling on -the turfy slopes of the West Heath, or elm-shaded lovers’ bank now lost -to us. Every breath was an inspiration of health, every whiff of air came -laden with the odours of melilot and sweet-scented vernal grasses—not yet -quite ready for the scythe. For some travellers there followed luncheon -or a cosy dinner at one or other of the favourite taverns (there were -no hotels in those days), and for frugal mothers and their little ones -tea or new milk, home-made bread and fresh-churned butter, the milk from -the Morland-like farmhouse at North End, familiar to us as Collin’s -farm,[276] or at some convenient cottage, the cleanliness and modest -charges of which were well known, and tried by past experiment. - -[Illustration: _Dr. Johnson._] - -Amongst these summer visitors to Hampstead in the last half of the -eighteenth century many old familiar names jostle. Here we again meet -Dr. Johnson, with his dictionary speech and ponderous learning, dogmatic -and dictatorial as ever. But he has in the meantime finished his great -word-book, and, no longer dependent on booksellers, but much to his -comfort, though directly against his principles (thanks to Lord Bute), -is in the receipt of a Government pension of £300 a year, and able to -indulge the active benevolence of his nature, and to make his house -in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, an asylum of bounty to many grumbling -dependents, hardly grateful to him. Mercifully, ‘Tetty’ had deceased -before the augmentation of her husband’s means could help her in the -larger development of her personal wants; and though he decorously -mourned her with closed doors for forty days, he by this time, with the -aid of company and the clubs, appears to have overcome his sorrow, and to -be having an excellent time of it in the society of Mr. Reynolds (not yet -Sir Joshua), with whom almost from the period of his coming to town he -had had a club and tavern familiarity. At last, according to Northcote, -after many failures, he had succeeded in getting admission to the great -painter’s house in Leicester Fields, as well as to the tea-table of his -sister, Miss R. Reynolds, with whom he soon became a prime favourite. - -It was after criticising the “Percy Ballads,” and drinking unnumbered -cups of his favourite beverage, that the Doctor (the rhythm of the verses -running in his head) burst into his clever impromptu imitation of it: - - ‘Oh, hear it then, my Renny dear, - Nor hear it with a frown: - You cannot make the tea as fast - As I can pour it down.’ - -It was after this that he made the acquaintance of the rich Bermondsey -brewer, Mr. Thrale, and his young and clever papillon wife (afterwards -Mrs. Piozzi), and became a weekly guest, and subsequently almost a -fixture, at their hospitable Streatham home, Thrale Park. Better fortune -has made but little change in him so far as appearance is concerned: he -is just as slovenly and personally uncared for as in the years gone by; -perhaps, if possible, he is even more awkward and ungainly, because grown -more massive, so that, though written of another,[277] it might be said -of him, - - ‘When _Johnson_ treads the street the paviours cry, - “God bless you, sir,” and lay their rammers by.’ - -Yet it is something added to the interest of Hampstead and its walks, -that they have known the weight of the great Doctor’s tread, and the -pressure of the serviceable oaken staff with which he steadied the -uncertain movements of his unwieldy frame and vacillating legs, which, -like his arms, to quote Lord Chesterfield, were never in the position -which, according to the situation of his body, they ought to be in. - -His burly figure is so familiar to us—thanks to friend Reynolds—that -we can easily imagine him rolling along, not averse to a talk with any -intelligent passer-by, for he himself was an illustration of his own -remark, ‘that one man would learn more in a journey by the Hampstead -coach, than another would in the course of the Grand Tour.’ - -It is not the love of Nature, however beautiful, or of fine views, that -brings him here—he valued neither. Either he accompanies friends, or -expects to meet some or other of his club associates, Goldy or Garrick, -whom he ‘allows no man to find fault with but himself.’ Or it may be -Hogarth in his sky-blue coat, who, with the actor, likes to be where -folks foregather, and loves Hampstead for its own sake. Did he not select -the Hampstead Road for the scene of his “March to Finchley”?[278] There -was a time when he brought with him his favourite friend, the genial old -sea-captain, Thomas Coram. How could a kindly-hearted man, the merriest -in Fleet Street, enjoy the finest views, and air nearest heaven in his -neighbourhood, and not desire the Jonathan of his soul to share them -with him? While he, having seen his scheme of a foundling hospital -accomplished, could with a white conscience afford himself a ‘sunshine -holiday.’ But all that is past. The old philanthropist died in 1751, and - - ‘Home had gone and ta’en his wages.’ - -As it is, what a unique party they must have made at one or other of the -pleasant taverns, and how much has Boswell lost for us, by not hearing -the rich after-dinner talk of them over the ‘wine and walnuts,’ or bowl -of punch, or often the homelier refreshment of brown ale and clean -Broseley pipes! The number they smoked and the quantity of ale they -consumed remains a social problem of their times unsolved. - -The Well Walk is clean swept out of many of its old properties, but -the Tavern, the Episcopal Chapel, with a modern Pump House, and the -Long Room on the other side of the way, still remain. In summer the -Walk is seldom destitute of company; either the force of habit or the -associations of the spot attract visitors to it. At this period patients, -though few, were never wholly absent, and conversation and cards had -still their headquarters in the Long Room; invalids naturally preferred -the level walk and the benches in the Lime-tree Avenue, from which the -unimpeded view eastward must have been very charming. - -[Illustration: _James Boswell._] - -It seems a long way back to the days when Addison, with that knot of -literary men (‘who gave a more undying lustre to the reign of Queen Anne -than even the brilliant victories of Marlborough’) met here; yet Pope, -the last of them (save Swift), had been lavish in praise of Richardson’s -“Pamela,” and knowing nothing personally of Johnson at the time, but the -reputation of his scholarship, and of his poverty, upon the publication -of the latter’s poem, “London,” used all he had of influence with Swift, -and that of others with Lord Gower, to procure the writer of it an -Irish degree, so that the title of Doctor might enable him to obtain a -mastership of £60 per annum. The act was unsolicited, and should always -be remembered to the credit of the bard of Twickenham. Pope had passed -away, but Johnson had personally known him. Richardson, whom we last met -in 1748, and who had fed ever since on the honey of feminine adulation, -is still an occasional visitor to Hampstead, and finds his way to the -Well Walk with his old friend Mrs. Donnellan, where Mrs. Delany and the -Dean, who managed to spend a considerable portion of their time on this -side of the Channel, might sometimes be met with, for they had personal -connections and friends in Hampstead and the neighbourhood.[279] - -Dapper little Colley Cibber, ‘the greatest fop either on or off the -stage’ that Lady Braidshaigh had ever seen—‘an irreclaimable old sinner’ -she calls him—still visits his favourite suburb, and haunts the precincts -of the altered Wells, hunting after new faces, and as happy if he can -obtain the notice of a fine woman as he was at the age of seventy-seven, -when Richardson found him dabbling with the Tunbridge Waters, and -described his vanity in a letter to Miss Mulso. In the interim one of -his odes has been set to music by Mr. Greene, and been sung in the -clubs and coffee-houses. But some things have gone out of his life. Mr. -Foote is too busy with his summer performances at the Hay market to be -wiled from business by the ancient Laureate, and his old friend, the -handsome, clever Barton Booth, has long since found a place amongst the -celebrities in Poets’ Corner. - -Pertinaciously present at the Assembly balls and in the Long Room, we -should see Dr. Akenside, pale and proud, and with the stamp of genius on -his handsome brow, passing without recognition, or meeting supercilious -looks of contempt, which he is not slow to return with scorn. - -Sometimes Garrick brings his graceful Viola (she was called Violette by -command of Maria Theresa), on the occasion of a special concert or other -entertainment in the Long Room, where Goldsmith, who loves music, and -still better to escort Miss Reynolds and her friends, appears in bag-wig -and sword and his second-best suit of ‘Queen’s blue silk,’ lined with -satin. Once Miss Reynolds was asked to toast the ugliest man she knew, -and instantly named Oliver Goldsmith, but on reading “The Traveller,” -rescinded her opinion. The beautiful thoughts of the poet transfigured -the man, and she could never after think him ugly. - -Another noticeable person seen here from time to time was the cheerful, -chatty Dr. Young, the protégé of Mrs. Boscawen, widow of the Admiral who -resided at Colney Hatch, the friend and correspondent of Richardson. -Young’s daily utterances had no affinity with his sombre “Night -Thoughts,” lines lit with loveliness though many of them be. Charming -Mrs. Montague, too, occasionally appeared—a little later than May Day, -when she was wholly engaged with her annual feast and garden-party, her -guests being the little sweeps of London, enfranchised for one summer day -in their miserable existence by this lady’s compassionate thought for -them. Her death must have been a real sorrow for the black brotherhood -of London climbing boys, their one friend out of all the great multitude -of its inhabitants, till Elia’s gentle-hearted friend Jem White for some -years resumed the festival. - -As we have said, the persons we have recalled are well known to us, -almost as well as if we had lived, and walked, and talked amongst them; -they stand out saliently from the general company. But there is a new -order amongst these whom we know not. The Toupees, young gentlemen of -fashion, who, while periwigs were still worn, wisely took the ordering -of their heads into their own hands, and wore their own hair powdered -and brushed up from the forehead in a top-knot or toupee. They appear to -have been the precursors of the modern masher, and when on the Mall, or -at Ranelagh, or Vauxhall, were said to be composed of powder, lace, and -essences. ‘You may know them,’ says one authority, ‘by the dress of the -toupee, the buckles in their shoes, the choice of the waistcoat, and the -cock of the hat.’[280] - -But there were times when these ‘pretty fellows’ aspired to quite -another rôle, that of hackney-coach and curricle driving, the latter -vehicle being of such a height and build as to render the exercise -really dangerous. Yet to drive furiously was a _sine quâ non_; and as -the public parks scarcely admitted of such performances, the race-course -at Hampstead was a favourite rendezvous for these “young bloods,” and -the Chicken House, and other summer lodgings, were for some seasons much -patronized by Templars, and other youths in the ranks of the Toupees. - -To old ladies they seem to have been a terror in more ways than one, and -they do not always appear to have put off the characteristics of the -hackney coachman with his three-caped coat. When Swift, remembering the -clever horsewoman Lady Betty Germain had been when Lady Betty Berkeley, -recommended her for her health’s sake to ride when in London, among other -reasons which she gave him for not doing so was this: that ‘nothing -would more rejoice the Toupees than to see a horse throw an ancient -gentlewoman.’ Miss Burney a few years later introduces us, in ‘Evelina,’ -to some of these eighteenth-century Jehus. - -Meanwhile, one after the other of the frequenters of the Hampstead walks -we have recalled is missed from them. First the soft-hearted old seaman, -Captain Coram, passes away; then Colley Cibber vanishes; and Richardson -dies (1761), and is followed a year later by his venerable friend, -Mrs. Donnellan. More than a dozen years after Richardson’s death, I -find in the delightfully-named ‘Flowers of Parnassus,’ in the _Monthly -Miscellany_ for 1774, ‘Lines addressed to a Lady weeping over “Clarissa.”’ - -From the period of what is called the Augustan Age of English literature, -Hampstead had claims to be considered, if not the literary suburb which -it subsequently became, at least an appanage of the Muses. If their most -famous representatives did not absolutely reside here, they were, at all -events, frequent visitors, so much so that the Muses themselves were -poetically fabled to have forsaken - - ‘Aganippe’s font, - And hoof-ploughed Hippocrene,’ - -for - - ‘Hampstead courted by the western winds,’ - -as Dr. Armstrong in his poem to ‘Health’ sings of the upland suburb, -where he and his brother resided for some time, being very well regarded -by the inhabitants. Could the doctor have been that other ‘tame genius’ -that Horace Walpole bracketed with Akenside? - -In those years plain little Thomas Gray,[281] who could see the ‘northern -heights’ from his lodgings west of the museum, with their woods and massy -elms, and loved them as much as Milton had done—Gray of the deathless -‘Elegy,’ that, had he never written another line, would have ranked -him with the immortals, might occasionally have been met wandering -alone upon the Heath, or in the company of friends in the walks, an -incomprehensible poet to the author of ‘Rasselas,’ who could neither feel -his sensitiveness to the influence of Nature nor the exquisite pathos of -this poem. - -As one by one the bright lights of literature faded out, others arose -in their stead, and found their way as visitors to the topmost of the -London levels. Dr. Johnson still survives the greater number of his -contemporaries, and is occasionally to be found at Hampstead, a guest at -the suburban feasts given by his friends. - -In 1778 Miss Burney’s ‘Evelina’ appeared, to the surprise and delight of -the world of letters, and little Fanny Burney, Dr. Johnson’s ‘Fannikin,’ -became famous. Certain scenes in her novel assure us of her acquaintance -with Hampstead Wells and its sometime visitors. Her description of the -ball in the Long Room has done as much to memorise that building as -Richardson’s ‘Clarissa’ did for the Upper Flask and Flask Walk. - -When, in 1782, ‘Cecilia’ was published, Miss Burney’s fame enlarged. -The greatest men of the day eulogized her works, and overwhelmed her -with compliments and congratulations, Burke, Johnson, Reynolds, Windham, -Gibbon, and Sheridan being of the number. At public places she became the -‘observed of all observers,’ and the gaze of admiring crowds ‘followed -her along the Steyne at Brighton, and the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells.’ -Two years later, in 1784, the year her friend Dr. Johnson died, Mrs. -Barbauld was staying in London, and witnessed a balloon exhibition at -the Pantheon, which occupied the site of the future opera-house. In a -letter to her niece she observes that next to the balloon Miss Burney -is the object of curiosity. In the next year, 1785, when the Barbaulds -moved from Wimbledon to Hampstead, Mrs. Barbauld brought her literary -reputation with her, and was at once received in the best local society, -the centre of which at this time, as I have elsewhere said, was Heath -House, the home of the liberal-minded Quaker banker, Samuel Hoare. Here -she made the acquaintance of many literary persons of note, amongst -others that of Dr. Beattie, and Dr. George Crabbe, the author of the -‘Borough,’ the poet of the poor as he was called, and subsequently -that of Mrs. Hannah More, Miss Seward, Mme. Chapone, and, in curious -contrast with them, the banker-poet, Samuel Rogers, and later still -Montgomery, whose sobriquet was ‘Satan,’[282] and nearer again to this -century Campbell, and Coleridge. In the autumn of 1788 I find Samuel -Rogers writing to Mrs. Barbauld that they are to have an assembly at the -Long Room on Monday, October 22, ‘which they say will be a pretty good -one,’ inviting her to join their party. He was probably staying with his -sisters at Hampstead, a frequent practice in those days instead of going -to the seaside. - -In 1855 the author of the ‘Pleasures of Imagination’ and various other -works died, aged ninety-two years. He was born in 1763. - -In 1785 there had appeared in the journals and magazines of the day the -appointment of Miss Burney to the Court function of Dresser to the Queen, -and for five years the literary world lost sight of the clever novelist, -who at their expiration managed to get enfranchised from what had proved -to her the house of bondage, and we find her at Hampstead in 1792, the -guest of the celebrated Mrs. Crewe. - -At this time many notable persons were living here. Lord Loughborough, -rather tolerated than trusted, resided in the Chesterfields’ old house, -which we are told resembled in appearance an ancient French château, and -on receiving the title of Lord Rosslyn he renamed it Rosslyn House. Lord -Erskine had his home at the Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, as it was -sometimes called, not very far from Caen Wood, Lord Mansfield’s seat, -and Lord Thurlow, the ‘lion of the law,’ had a retreat at Hampstead. His -town residence was in Great Ormond Street, then abutting in the rear on -fields, whence the thieves who stole the Great Seal made their way to -the house. Other men high in legal office, bankers, and rich merchants, -were living at Frognal, and North End; and so far as rank and wealth were -concerned, the village of Hampstead at this period was eminently favoured. - -Lord Thurlow, who seems to have ostentatiously set social laws at -defiance, in spite of fashion, was wont to appear amongst the visitors -‘wearing his full suit of cloth of the old mode, great cuffs, massy -buttons, great wig, long ruffles,’ his black eyebrows exceeding in size -any Lord Campbell had ever seen, and ‘his voice, though not without -melody, was like the rumbling of murmuring thunder.’[283] Fanny Burney -says of his voice: ‘Though low, it was very melodious.’ I do not know if -when at Hampstead he permitted the companionship of the tame white goose -by which he was generally attended in his London home, and which followed -him about his grounds, and is said to have been never absent from his -consultations. If so, the presence of his feathered pet must have -considerably added to the grotesqueness of his own; for a gentleman’s -dress of the period, as established ‘in the polite circles of St. James’s -and at Bath,’ consisted of a light-coloured French frock, with gilt wire -or gold buttons, breeches of the same colour, and tamboured waistcoats -for afternoon dress. His lordship’s wide-skirted coat, like the rest -of his habiliments, must have been a score of years behind the mode. -Strong passions and a hard, vindictive, unforgiving nature lowered in the -large dusky eyes and thick, almost meeting eyebrows of his lordship. His -treatment of the daughter who had offended him by marrying the man she -loved, but who nursed her father with the greatest tenderness in his last -illness, fully bears out the character that his countenance indicated. - -With the commencement of the present century, new names appear in -connection with Hampstead and its celebrities. Joanna Baillie, the shy -girl of Mrs. Barbauld’s acquaintance, upon the publication of her tragedy -of ‘De Montfort,’ was at once accepted as a genius and poetess. A few -years later Sir Walter Scott visited Sweet Hampstead to do her honour, -and heralded the poet of Rydal Mount,[284] some years in advance of his -appearance there in person. Later on in the present century we find Lord -Byron, for his health’s sake, I presume, spending some weeks of summer -in one of the toy cottages in the Vale of Health, two doors distant from -that subsequently tenanted by Leigh Hunt. It was on a window-pane of this -humble habitation, and not, as has been stated, in Leigh Hunt’s cottage, -which he never visited, that he wrote with a diamond (a favourite -amusement of the time when diamonds were less common than in these days) -two lines which are said to have afterwards appeared in ‘Childe Harold.’ - -In 1816 the presence of Leigh Hunt, fresh from expiating, by a fine of -£1,000 and three years’ confinement in Horsemonger Lane Gaol, the crime -of libellously characterizing the Regent as ‘a fat Adonis of fifty,’ -is felt as a social shock by some of the eminently loyal residents of -Hampstead, especially when the magnetism of the man attracted Shelley -to him—the disowned and denounced Shelley; then came Charles Lamb[285] -and Keats, and robust Charles Cowden Clarke, with his voice and laugh as -strong as the blast of the rams’ horns that levelled Jericho—in brief, -the brotherhood who constituted what the critics of that day called the -‘Cockney School of Poets,’ a school whose works—those of three of them, -at least—were destined to a worldwide reputation. The ‘Essays’ of Leigh -Hunt are too delightful reading to be ever wholly laid aside. - -When Keats’ first book of poems appeared, one of these critics, more -mannerly than most of them, admitted that the author had ‘a fine ear for -the grand, elaborate, and abstracted music of Nature, and now and then -catches a few notes from passages of that never-ending harmony which -God made to retain in exaltation and purity the spirits of our first -parents.’ A curious limitation to the power of an eternal harmony. At the -same time, he accuses the poems of ‘savouring too much of the foppery and -affectation of Leigh Hunt.’ - -When the tall, fragile figure and beautiful face of Shelley were no more -seen on the Heath, when Keats had forsaken the ‘places of nestling green -for poets made,’ and Elia and his sister were no longer met with in the -vicinity of the Vale of Health, and Leigh Hunt himself—the slight, rather -tall, straight gentleman with the wide low forehead, dark eyes, and -foreign complexion, whom Godfrey Turner remembered and described to me, -and to whom (except in height) his son Vincent, whom I knew, must have -borne a strong resemblance—had all left Hampstead, there still remained -Joanna Baillie and her literary home, which had, as time went on, become -a pilgrimage and shrine, not only to the most celebrated men and women of -England, but of those of other countries also. - -[Illustration: _Keats._] - -As we approach contemporary times, we find Hampstead as attractive to -the Howitts, and the authors of ‘Festus ’ and ‘Orion,’ poets who almost -‘achieved greatness,’ and yet failed to grasp it; and Westland Marston, -and William Allingham, and Ruskin, and Tennyson himself, and all the -wits of the first _Punch_ period; and that bunch of novelists who bloomed -almost simultaneously—Thackeray and Dickens, Ollier and Ainsworth, Lover -and Lever, Anthony Trollope and Douglas Jerrold, and a host of other -authors and artists; for, from the days of Addison and Sir Godfrey -Kneller, no neighbourhood has proved more in sympathy with the pursuits -of both brotherhoods, whether of pen or pencil. - -Oh, those old taverns!—those trysting-places of successive generations of -wits and men of genius! May your walls, coeval with the Kit-Cats, keep -their memories green for generations yet to come, and with them those of -the men of genius of our day, whose names are ‘household words’ in the -land of their birth, and in every other English-speaking country also. - -To-day, as in the older days we have attempted to recall, artists and -literary men and women still feel the attractions of the pleasant suburb, -and increase them by the magnetism of their own; for delightful as the -natural beauties of Hampstead are, how much less would they loom without -the charm of these associations that meet us everywhere, and people the -Well Walk, and the Hill, and Heath with memories of the deathless men and -women who have trodden them! - -Nor do we forget that a share of this interest is due to our American -kinsfolk, who have freely sent us their stars, whilst reserving their -stripes for our enemies; for them, as for us, the facts that Washington -Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne of the ‘Scarlet Letter,’ the fated Margaret -Fuller, Mrs. Stowe, Wendell Holmes, and many others of their gifted -nation, have made pilgrimages to the gleby Heath, and looked with loving -eyes on scenes made sacred by the transition of immortals through them, -whose works live on through the dead centuries, and whose names have -passed into glories, are so many added charms to the intrinsic ones of -our Sweet Hampstead. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -_A RETROSPECT._ - - -As I approach the end of my pleasant task, the contrast between the -‘Sweet Hampstead’ of Constable’s (and even of my own) time with the -present, makes itself felt with a sense of loss and change that is almost -pathetic, so many of its lovely accessories are now missing. It is like -contrasting the simplicity and grace of childhood with the conventional -man or woman it has subsequently developed. - -Instead of rejoicing in its enlargement, and the importance of the -townlike outgrowths on its skirts, at the increase of its wealth, and the -growing numbers of its population, I like to think of it as it was in -those far-away days, when the walk to it through Gospel Oak Fields was -such an easy one to me, and the toil of the ascent of what is now the -East End Road repaid itself in refreshing draughts of the ‘impalpable -thin air’ one breathed upon its summit. - -Then Hampstead was a street of village shops upon the slope of the -hill, with a broken sky-line of red-roofed, one-storied, brown-brick or -weather-boarded houses, with small windows, often glazed with glass that -darkened light. Some of the shops had still hanging shutters, and open -shop-boards, and many of them half-hatch doors, a few of which, with -a fine vein of what was called independence, were comfortably bolted -against all comers during meal-times. Not many years ago I met with the -same custom in practice at Totnes, on the river Dart. - -A narrow footway paved with cobble-stones followed the irregular outlines -of the street, and made Hampstead, like other places of pilgrimage, a -place of penance also for the pilgrims who chose that narrow way. The -shops then were dusky little places, with not much choice of goods; and -what there were, were exhibited with little taste in the arrangement -of them. What did it signify? Everyone knew of what his neighbours’ -stock consisted, and consequently where to get what he wanted. There -was no hurry in those days, and plenty of time for everything. Very few -people except visitors were to be seen about, and there was a delightful -freedom from the sounds of vehicles—a stillness in the uphill street that -suggested somnolence. The little windows seemed to blink at the sunshine -like the half-shut eyes of the sleek tabby I used to see there taking her -afternoon nap amongst the soft goods in one of them. - -There was another peculiarity in many of the Hampstead shops: the earth -had so accumulated outside the houses that the difference in the level -of the street with the floor had to be taken into consideration when -entering them, otherwise the unaccustomed customer was very likely -to make a more precipitate than graceful entry. This state of things -continued even as late as 1895, at the old post-office and elsewhere. -Such things as these only proved the antiquity of the delightful suburb, -and its unlikeness to other places. - -In the old sunny days South End lay, a picturesque little hamlet of -red-roofed houses, embosomed in green trees—an integral part of the -parish of St. John, but unenfolded in it—a sort of Hagar’s child, outside -Hampstead. - -I am told that part of South End still remains in South End Road, close -to Hampstead Heath Station, and that South End Green—with a few houses -that have not been converted to shops, with their palings and gardens, -in a very dilapidated condition—also exists. The Green has on it a -fountain, erected in 1880 by a lady resident (Miss Crump) to the memory -of a relative. It stands on a piece of greensward, surrounded by iron -railings, nearly opposite her house, and no doubt answers a very useful -purpose, for South End Green is now the terminus of the tramcars, which -in summer bring many thirsty children and travellers to Hampstead. - -In the days I am recalling, a road ran out of South End over the sloping -fields, sweet with white clover flowers, to Parliament Hill, and the -mounds like tumuli on the sunk road in the field at the east end of the -Heath. I used to think these mounds were barrows, but am told that they -only cover the dead hopes of a rapacious Lord of the Manor, who between -forty and fifty years ago intended building houses on the field, but, -having only a life interest in the estate, was prevented doing so. The -road and ground delved for foundations, and thrown up in great heaps -here and there, was left neglected and desolate. But Nature soon covered -the scarred earth with a green mantle, and turned its unsightliness -to beauty. Only a few years ago a subscription was raised amongst the -inhabitants of Hampstead, and the fields, with Parliament Hill, and the -storied Pancras meadows, were purchased and added to the Heath. - -But in my time there were what Shelley, who knew the whole of Hampstead -by heart, and remembered it with yearning amidst the lovely landscapes -of Italy, called the beautiful meadows near Shepherd’s Fields, and tells -his friend Hunt that he often longs for them, and the Hendon Road, and -Hampstead lanes, and the pretty entrance to the village from Kentish Town. - -How well I remember the Shepherd’s Fields,[286] and the old conduit in -them, round the margins of which the yellow stars of the lesser celandine -first opened, and Shakespeare’s ladies’ smocks were soonest seen. - -Then there were other pretty meadows near Chalk Farm, the peacefulness of -which had often been desecrated by duellists, and of which some tragic -stories might be told, but not here. - -[Illustration: Old Chalk Farm.] - -In those days my walk from the White Stone Pond often led to the Nine -Elms and the old bench beneath them. The trees grew in a sort of -irregular half-circle around it, tall and straight, of no great girth, -being planted too close together; they drew one another, as gardeners -say, but the boughs and upper branches afforded plenty of shade. The -floor was paved with a sort of natural parquetry, made by the interlacing -of the roots, which was smooth and polished in places by innumerable feet -of loiterers. This was said to have been the favourite resting-place of -Pope and Murray. - -It did not need much imagination to see them in the serene moonshine of -a summer’s night, approaching from the Upper Flask towards the elms. -They walked slowly across the turf, on which the moonlight played freaks -of exaggeration with the crooked figure of the poet, and caricatured -the wide-skirted coat, and three-cornered hat, and the little sword he -wore. But Pope is familiar with the ugly shadow, knows himself superior -to it, and is indifferent about it. Moreover, at noonday, into whatever -assemblage of his fellow-men he takes that defective frame of his, the -people crowd around him; or else, as when Sir Joshua Reynolds saw him -at a book auction, they make a lane for him to walk through, he bowing -prince-like right and left as he passes. I saw the same thing happen to -plain little Charlotte Brontë at the Hanover Square Rooms, a compliment -at least on a par with the homage shown to the physical beauty of the two -lovely Irish girls, the Miss Gunnings. - -But to return to the Nine Elms. Here, with the stillness and solitary -beauty of Nature, the wits became philosophers, and gave their spirits -air and space in higher realms, and exercised themselves in profounder -thoughts than any of the salons, clubs, courts of law, or the great town -itself, suggested to them. At such times the gravest and profoundest -cogitations of the human soul by some celestial attraction rise to the -surface, and compel us to oracular confession. At such seasons one can -imagine the nature of the little satirist enlarged, and softened, the -spirit of the ‘Universal Prayer’ filling his heart, and the natural -influence of their surroundings imparting a gravity, mingled with poetic -exaltation, to their converse, that must have made it as solemn, and -yet more sweet than Johnson’s talk with Boswell in Dr. Taylor’s garden -on that serene autumn night, when, emboldened by his friend’s ‘placid -and benignant frame of mind,’ his hereafter biographer ‘directed the -discourse to a future state.’ - -Seated here, how often must Pope have seen the shades of friends and -kindred spirits flit across the old familiar paths, - - ‘Under the silent blue, - With all its diamonds trembling through and through,[287] - -Steele, Gay, Arbuthnot, and the rest, who, as we know, had slipped out of -the daylight of the sweet landscape, years and years before, but now - - ‘Revisiting the glimpses of the moon,’ - -with nothing earthly about them but the still clinging likeness of their -old humanity. No one will ever more dream dreams or see visions under the -Nine Elms, that made such a charming landmark from the East Heath, and of -which it was locally said that when they fell Windsor Castle would fall -also. This prophecy was, of course, attributed to Mother Shipton, whose -power to prophesy had ceased long before the Nine Elms were planted, and -which, I cannot help thinking, had its origin in a transverse reading of -two lines of Edward Coxe’s poem, ‘To Commemorate the Preservation of the -Nine Elms on Hampstead Heath’: - - ‘While yonder castle towers sublime - These elms shall brave the threats of time.’ - -In the years I am writing of, the Heath possessed more natural beauty -than at present; then the grove of pine-trees opposite the old citizen’s -house who had reared and planted them looked much as it looked when -Constable painted it, or as it appeared in Blake’s illustration of Dante, -which gave these trees (amongst the artist’s friends) the name of ‘the -Dante Wood.’ Twenty years farther on in my remembrance of them, time and -winter storms had thinned their boughs, and bared them of their foliage -(if one can apply this phrase to their needle-shaped leaves); moreover, -the sand and gravel diggers had excavated under and between their roots, -leaving them bare, and with scarcely any hold upon the earth, an easy -prey to the first hurricane. - -[Illustration: _Judge’s Walk._] - -But the contrast of the tall, orange-brown trunks with the dusky green, -jagged and stretched-out branches made them picturesque objects; and -seeing how well they once flourished on that windy eminence, and the -proofs some of the best artists have given of the eminently pictorial -effect of these trees, let us hope that the conservators of the Heath may -be induced to plant others. - -In those far-off days the Judge’s Walk, though greatly despoiled of -its primal beauty, retained sufficient of it to show what a handsome -double grove this triple row of elms, magnificent in height and form in -the amplitude of spreading boughs and summer foliage, must have made. A -friend of mine possessed a very fine lithographed drawing of the walk -when at the apparent acme of its perfection, the recollection of which -makes one grieve at its present almost hopeless decadence, the trees -pollarded and lopped out of all resemblance of their old forms, and more -than three parts of their number dead. - -I hear of the planting of flowering shrubs and trees, and of artificial -cascades, and as I do so my heart goes back to the wild picturesqueness -of the uncared-for Heath, with its groups of storm-bent old hawthorns, -its thickets of blackthorn, and twisted crab-apple-trees, pink all over -with their rosy blossoms in May. - -It was under the Hawthorn bushes on the Heath that Gerard found lilies of -the valley growing. I remember its coverts of swarthy furze, twice yearly -glorified with golden blossoms, and how on one of these occasions, when -every hillock was ablaze with its brightness, Frederika Bremer, whom her -friend Mary Howitt had brought with her to the Heath, burst into tears at -the first sight of the floral splendour. Her great countryman, Linnæus, -is said to have fallen on his knees and thanked God for the sight. - -It was on a gorse bush on North End Hill that I first found dodder, ‘like -a red harp string winding about it.’ Black alders grew on the margin of -the Leg of Mutton Pond, and there used to be wide spaces covered with -the creeping willow, and great beds of close-growing whortleberry, which -turns red in autumn, and dyed portions of the Upper Heath at that season -with its crimson leaves; and upon North End Hill, breast-high coverts of -branching ling, with ferns of other species, besides the common _Lastrea -felix mas_, and _Athyrium felix femina_. - -The vari-coloured clay and sand and gravel that overlies the Heath were -then the cause of very picturesque effects. The deep orange and yellows -of the gravel-pits were contrasted by the glistering hollows scooped -in the hillside beyond Jack Straw’s Castle, where brown gipsies dug the -‘lily-white sand’ with which they supplied London and other housewives -for domestic purposes; while in various places there cropped up little -hillocks, patched with blue and yellow and ferruginous brown clay, -occasionally verging to red, dashing in bits of colour in the landscape -with charming pictorial effect. The very irregularity of the surface -made one of its chiefest charms, and the wide beds of treacherous -sphagnum bordering the old watercourse that drained into the deep-set, -sullen-looking Leg of Mutton Pond were full of interest for the botanist. -There grew, with their roots in the stream, clusters of turquoise-blue -forget-me-nots, and the pretty yellow pimpernel, the ‘creeping Jenny’ of -the London area and attic, with purple brook-lime, and pink ragged-robin -with torn petals, between groups of straight brown rushes, and beds of -flags, and water-mint. The silken flocks of the greater cotton-grass that -lie before me grew there once, as did the little red-leaved _Rosa solis_ -or sundew, with its crook-shaped flower-scape, and atomic insect remains -still held in its hinged leaves; and this brown bit of dried vegetation, -a specimen of one of the loveliest of wild flowers, ‘buck-bean,’ with -its curiously-feathered corolla, and these unfaded rosy flowers of -bog-pimpernel, looking so large by comparison with the slender stems -and tiny leaves set in couplets on them—all lived upon those pale-green -sphagnum beds. - -It was a delight to trace the descendants of the plants old Gerard found -upon the Heath, still lingering in their ancient habitats, all but the -primrose, the odorous violet, and the lily of the valley, which, before -the fashion of the Wells had waned, retired from the Heath to Turner’s -Wood, and was wholly lost sight of by outsiders when Lord Mansfield -enclosed it in Caen Wood. - -In those far-away times gipsies, with glittering eyes, bangled arms, -and bright orange or red kerchiefs snooding their blue-black hair, were -not the only picturesque figures to be met with on the Heath. It was no -unusual thing to meet with speculative lace-makers from Buckinghamshire, -in their short red cloaks, frilled with black lace, and wonderful black -bonnets, with cushion and pendent vari-coloured bobbins swinging from it, -selling their thread lace to chance customers, and taking orders from -others who had learned the value of their wares. - -But, after all, their appearance was an accident, while the gipsies’ was -of common occurrence. You passed a furze clump or a sheltered hollow, -and saw no one, but an instant later a nut-brown palmist stood in your -path, with speculation in her eyes, and promises of love and fortune on -her lips. We have changed all this. The brown hand goes uncrossed with -silver, and faith in palmistry is reserved for drawing-room professors of -it. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -_THE SUB-MANOR OF BELSIZE._ - - -The sub-manor of Belsize, lying on the south side of the parish of -Hampstead, was given to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster by Sir Roger -le Brabazon in 1317, upon condition that they should provide a priest -to say a daily Mass in their church for the souls of Edmund, Earl of -Lancaster, Blanch, his wife, the said Sir Roger, and all the faithful -departed this life. - -Whether, at the dissolution of the abbey, it passed through the hands of -the Bishop of Westminster is not known. At present it is the property -of the Dean and Chapter of that minster. The manor-house was for a long -period the residence of the Waad (subsequently Wood) family, who held the -lease during many years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, under -the said Dean and Chapter. - -Armigall Waad was Clerk of the Council to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. -He was also a nautical adventurer of some notoriety, and Anthony Wood -asserts the first Englishman who discovered America. This idea, for it -amounts to nothing more, is derived from the inscription formerly on an -old monument in Hampstead Church—apart from which, it is said, there is -not a shred of evidence of a discovery to which, as everybody knows, -he had no claim. It is not even clear that he was amongst the first -Englishmen who visited that country. Fuller says that his voyages are -fully described by Hakluyt; but Park says that readers may search there -or elsewhere in vain for Waad’s voyages, although in Hore’s account of -his voyage to Newfoundland, in 1536, Waad is mentioned as an adventurer -in that undertaking. - -Queen Elizabeth employed him on an undertaking of some importance, and in -old age he retired to Belsize, where he died in 1567. He was buried in -Hampstead Church, under a fair monument of alabaster, the inscription on -which Nordon copied. Gerard tells us that in a wood by a village called -Hamstede, ‘near unto a worshipful gentleman’s house (Belsize), one of the -clerks of the Queen’s Council called Mr. Waade,’ he found betony with -white flowers, whence he brought the plant into his own garden at Holborn. - -[Illustration: _Pepys._] - -James I., who hoped to buy popularity by scattering titles broadcast, -knighted Mr. Waade’s son and heir, who succeeded to his father’s office -as Clerk to the Council, and after being employed in various foreign -embassies and other high official services, was made Lieutenant of the -Tower. His widow (a second wife), daughter of Sir Henry Browne, Knt., -Lady Anne Waad, disposed of her interest in Belsize in 1640.[288] -Twenty-eight years afterwards Pepys, in his ‘Diary’ under the date of -August 17, 1668, tells us that he went to Hampstead to speak with the -Attorney-General (Sir Geoffrey Palmer), whom he met in the fields by his -old route and house, and, after a little talk about business, went and -saw the Lord Wotton’s house and garden (Belsize), ‘which is wonderfully -fine, too good for the house the gardens are, being, indeed, the most -noble that ever I saw, and brave orange and lemon trees.’ In June, 1677, -Evelyn pronounces the gardens ‘very large, but ill-kept.’ - -Remembering that the Tradescants, father and son, were successively -gardeners to the Wotton family, it is not to be wondered at that the -gardens and grounds of Belsize House exceeded in beauty any that the -diarist had previously seen. Lord Wotton made Belsize his principal -residence for many years—Brewer says from 1673 till 1681. - -In the year 1681, under the head of ‘London, October 18,’ we read: - - ‘Last night eleven or twelve highway robbers came on horseback - to the house of the Lord Wotton, at Hampstead, and attempted - to enter therein, breaking down part of the wall and the gate; - but there being four or five men within the house, they very - courageously fired several musquits and a blunderbuss upon the - thieves, which gave an alarm to one of the Lord’s tenants, a - farmer that dwelt not far off, who thereupon went immediately - into the town, and raised the inhabitants; who going towards - the house, which was half a mile off, it is thought the robbers - hearing thereof and withall finding the business difficult, - they all made their escape. It is judged they had notice of - my Lord’s absence from his house, and likewise of a great - booty which was therein, which put them upon this desperate - attempt.’—_The True Protestant Mercury_, October 15-19, 1681. - -Lord Charles Wotton’s mother, Catherine, the eldest of the four daughters -and co-heirs of Thomas Lord Wotton, of Wotton in Kent, married for her -third husband Daniel O’Neale, Esq., Gentleman of the Bedchamber to -Charles II., to whom the grant of Belsize had been renewed in 1660. This -lady had married, firstly, Henry, Lord Stanhope,[289] eldest son of -Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, by whom she had one son. Her second -husband was Poliander de Kirkhoven, Lord of Hemsfleet in Holland, by whom -she also had one son, Lord Charles Henry Kirkhoven, who, on account of -his mother’s descent, was created Lord Wotton in 1650; to whom on her -demise in 1667, without issue by Mr. O’Neale, her third husband, the -grant of the manor and demesne of Belsize was renewed. - -Upon the death of Lord Wotton without issue 1682, his half-brother, -Philip, Earl of Chesterfield,[290] obtained a renewal of the grant of the -estate. - -Park states that after Lord Wotton’s death the manor had always been in -the occupation of under-tenants. But though the manor might be so let, -it seems quite feasible that the mansion and demesne should be retained -by the owner. It is hardly to be supposed that the beautiful gardens and -the house (which at some period in Charles II.’s time had been rebuilt) -would be immediately deserted by the new proprietor. It appears not only -possible, but extremely probable, that the second Earl of Chesterfield -resided here at times until his death in 1713; and five years afterwards -we find that the gardens required putting in order, a proof, I think, -that intermediately they had been kept up and attended to. In one of -Swift’s letters to Stella, dated September 7, 1710, three years before -the death of the second Earl of Chesterfield, he tells her that ‘going -into the City to see his old schoolfellow, Straford the Hombourg -merchant,’ and turning into the Bull on Ludgate Hill, where they met, the -latter forced him to go to dinner with him at his house at Hampstead, -‘among a great deal of ill company, Hoadley (afterwards Bishop) being -one of them.’ But he adds, ‘I was glad to be at Hampstead, where I saw -Lady Lucy and Moll Stanhope.’ And he notes on the 24th of the same month, -‘I dined to-day at Hampstead with Lady Lucy.’ True, he does not name -Belsize; but neither does Pepys when describing Lord Wotton’s gardens. -But Evelyn does, and says that O’Neale built Belsize House. - -Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, is said to have sold his interest in -the estate. It was either before or immediately after the death of this -nobleman that it was let to Mr. Charles Povey, who appears to have been -the first tenant. - -In 1733 we find the late Earl’s grandson, Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth -Earl of Chesterfield, obtaining a renewal for three lives of the manor -and demesne of Belsize; and in 1751 he again procured a renewal of the -grant. - -The estate continued in the possession of his kinsman, Philip Stanhope, -Esq.,[291] son of Arthur Stanhope, deceased, lineally descended from the -first Earl of Chesterfield, who succeeded to his titles and estates, till -1807, when, having obtained an Act of Parliament for selling this and -several estates, it was jointly purchased by four gentlemen resident at -Hampstead,[292] who in the next year divided the estate, containing about -234 acres, into four allotments. - -On this partition the mansion of Belsize devolved to James Abel, Esq., -the proprietor when Park published his ‘History of Hampstead.’ - -When Mr. Povey, a retired coal-merchant, entered upon his occupation of -Belsize House, he very soon found his possession a white elephant. A man -of many grievances against the Whig Government, he strove to avenge them -by publishing a violent pamphlet entitled ‘England’s Inquisition; or -Money raised by New, Secret, Extinct Law, without Act of Parliament.’ He -complained of a series of unjust extortions and persecutions practised -upon his person, property, and estate by Commissioners of Excise and -others, and enumerates amongst other services and sacrifices he claims -to have made for his country, and which had been ungratefully overlooked -by those in power, his having refused to let Belsize House to the Duc -d’Aumont, the French Ambassador, who had offered him £1,000 per annum -for the use of it during his residence in England, being resolved -that the _new_ chapel attached to the mansion should not be used as a -‘mass-house.’ - -Subsequently, in the profoundness of his patriotism, he had made an offer -of Belsize to the Prince of Wales, as an occasional retirement or as a -constant residence. But though he had taken care to inform the Prince of -the tempting offer he had had, and of his self-sacrifice in refusing it -for conscience’ sake, his future King (George II.), with scant courtesy, -never even honoured him with an answer, though he ‘waited in expectation -of it, and kept the mansion house and park unlet for a considerable time.’ - -In the meanwhile, as I have elsewhere said, Hampstead, under the -magisterial rule of Hicks’s Hall, and subjected to the inquisition of the -Head-boroughs and their men at unexpected moments, sank rapidly in the -affections of the populace. The time for a new place of entertainment was -ripe, and Mr. Povey in despair, when one Howell, who appears to have been -the Barnum of his day, conceived the idea of converting Belsize House, -with its spacious park and beautiful gardens, into a place of amusement -for the public on a more than usually magnificent scale. He made his -offer, which, after two years of Belsize unlet, Mr. Povey accepted, -and one can imagine the disgust society people must have felt on the -appearance of the following announcement in _Mist’s Journal_ of April 16, -1720: - - ‘Whereas that ancient and noble house near Hampstead, commonly - known as Belsize House, is now taken and fitted up for the - entertainment of gentlemen and ladies during the whole summer - season; the same will be open on Easter Monday next, with an - uncommon solemnity of music and dancing. This undertaking - will exceed all of the kind that has hitherto been known near - London. Commencing every day _at six in the morning_, and - continuing till eight at night, all persons being privileged - to admittance without necessity of expense, etc. The park, - wilderness, and gardens being wonderfully improved, and filled - with a variety of birds, which compose a most melodious and - delightful harmony. N.B.—Persons inclined to walk and divert - themselves, may breakfast on tea or coffee as cheap as at their - own chambers.’ - -From time to time we find the proprietor of this ancient prototype of -Cremorne, under the title of ‘His Excellency the Welsh Ambassador,’ -introducing various novelties for the diversion of his visitors. Now he -announces ‘A Plate of Six Guineas to be run for by eleven footmen!’ At -another time, ‘For the better diverting of the Company he designs to have -Duck-hunting every evening; and what will be more extraordinary, the -proprietor having purchased a large Bear-dog that will hunt a duck as -well as any spaniel in England; and any gentleman may have the liberty to -bring his own spaniel to try him.’ - -Who doubts that this announcement proved a triumph to the money-getting -sagacity of Mr. Howell, more especially when we know that the great -canals and walks in the grounds were very commodious for the purpose, -and that all ‘the expense attending the diversion is met by the payment -of sixpence for gentlemen at the time of going into the park; while the -ladies are admitted free.’ But to meet certain inconveniences attending -this liberality, an N.B. adds that ‘No person will be admitted but who -will be thought agreeable.’ - -Again we learn that a great quantity of wild deer have been purchased, -and that it is the spirited proprietor’s intention ‘to hunt one down -every Thursday and Saturday through the whole season; and that on these -days, for the convenience of single gentlemen, there will be a good -ordinary at two o’clock, and for one of the dishes there will constantly -be venison.’ Verily, this Welshman appears to have been exceedingly -astute as to the sporting and gastronomic propensities of Englishmen, -Metropolitan or otherwise. This advertisement involved a double -pleasure—the delight of the chase, enhanced by the expectation of this -feast in kind afterwards. - -Twelve months after the opening of Belsize Gardens, _Read’s Journal_, -July 15, 1721, contained the following announcement: - - ‘Their royal highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales dined - at Belsize House, near Hampstead, attended by several persons - of quality, where they were entertained with the diversions - of hunting, and such others as the place afforded, with which - they seemed well entertained, and at their departure were very - liberal to the servants.’ - -On such occasions the mounted company rode over the park with horns -blowing, and beagles barking, the proprietor leading the hunt in person. -I have tried in vain to find the advertisement of this royal visit, -which doubtless figured on handbills, or otherwise, in advance of the -event, and with as successful an issue to the treasury of Belsize House -as the appearance of the Prince of Oude, or the Siamese Ambassador, -at Cremorne or the Surrey Gardens in modern times, or the Shahraza at -the Crystal Palace in the summer of 1895. Such visitors, of course, -bestowed a certain prestige on the new place of amusement, and brought -it into favour with (to use a pet phrase of the day) the bon-ton. But -this ‘delightful place of amusement’ was by no means dependent on the -patronage of lords and ladies; those who could not afford silver were -encouraged to spend their pence, ‘a part of the house being set aside -for the accommodation of the meaner sort’; while the beaux and coquettes -of fashion, who promenaded the Long Room, or minced in high-heeled -shoes over the lawns or through the garden alleys, sipped coffee, tea, -chocolate, or ratafia, or dined at princely prices _à la Pontac_, do not -appear to have secured perfect immunity from vulgar and even questionable -associates, since ‘sham gentlemen’ not unfrequently crept in—anyone, -according to the writer of a satirical poem, written only two years after -the opening of Belsize as a place of entertainment, - - ‘Who would at charges be, - Might keep their noble honours company.’ - -Indeed, the irregularities of the establishment seem to have led to -the proprietor’s imprisonment in Newgate within the first year of his -lesseeship. No wonder, therefore, that in May, 1722, we find Belsize -included in the Justices’ order to the Head-borough of Hampstead, -touching the prevention of unlawful gaming, riots, etc. Yet the fashion -of the place does not appear to have declined greatly on account of its -disreputable notoriety and inexclusive character, or the license of -which it was said to be the scene. On the contrary, its vogue increased, -so that on a day of June, 1722, the attendance of the nobility and -gentry was so numerous, that they reckoned between three and four -hundred carriages. On this occasion a wild deer (which in the satirist’s -description becomes a starved buck) was hunted down and killed in the -park, after affording the company three hours’ diversion. - -It is easy to imagine the crowds thronging between the painted -grenadiers[293] that stood sentinel on either side of the gates, or -walking up the grand old avenue, or dispersing over the greensward, -fluttering and glittering amongst the trees and glades, for, after all, -gold and silver lace, steel sword-hilts, brilliant buckles, hoods of all -hues, that made a box at the theatre in those days look like a bed of -tulips, hooped petticoats, gorgeously-coloured gowns, and floating scarfs -and ribbons, are fine things at a _fête champêtre_. One can fancy the -blue sky with fleecy cloudlets dappling it, and a tepid breeze lifting -the leaves, rippling the long grass in the adjacent meadows, and giving -motion to the lace and ribbons of the ladies’ dresses—a sunny, breezy day -of ‘leafy June,’ before our seasons grew sophisticated, and the prime of -the year took to the ways of April, and became lachrymose—for June was -always the grand month of the season at Belsize, and, looking back, one -sees the day and the place in all its pristine brightness. If we could -pass out of the breezy sunshine and shifting shadows into the Long Room, -where balls and concerts were given, we should find it, according to -the satirist before quoted, the focus of the quintessence of vanity in -both sexes. The women were there to captivate, the men to admire and be -admired; and if outward appearance counts for anything, the embroidered -coats and waistcoats, gold-clocked stockings, red-heeled shoes, feathered -hats, and clouded canes of the beaux, betrayed as absolute a desire for -effect as any modish madam or lisping coquetilla of the day could have -aspired to. - -Gay describes them on the promenade ‘tuning soft minuets between their -pretty nothings,’ but here, between the breathings of the dance, the -snuff-box helped their little affectations, and - - ‘Spanish snuff to modish nose is put: - At which the perfumed handkerchief’s drawn up, - T’ adjust some bold disorder of the face, - And put the chin-patch in its proper place.’ - -No doubt Gay, for all his despondency and ill-health, being at Hampstead -this summer, visited the fair gardens at Belsize, and yet oftener -the assembly and gaming rooms, where the Captain Macheaths and Polly -Peachums of the times were frequent visitors. This mention of the -Captain naturally reminds one of the state of the roads, which, owing to -the fields and woods in the vicinity, were so beset with footpads and -highwaymen that in the handbills of the entertainments at Belsize House -for this season (1722) it is stated that for the safety of the company -the proprietor has hired twenty stout labouring men, well known about -Hampstead, to line the road betwixt Belsize and London, so that they -will be as safe by night as by day. In the first announcement of this -arrangement the number of these bucolic guardians of the road is only -twelve, so that the highways round the Metropolis had meanwhile become -doubly hazardous. - -Not only did the stage-coaches carry an arsenal of cutlasses and -blunderbusses, and equestrians ride with pistols in their holsters, but -private carriages were built with a sword-box at the back, as much for -the safety as the convenience of their occupants, and no one thought of -venturing out after nightfall between the suburbs and the city unarmed. - -The satirist already mentioned aims an ill-natured blow at the Welsh -Ambassador’s arrangement, and suggests as questionable whether one-half -of what he calls - - ‘the rabble guard, - Whilst t’other’s half-asleep on watch and ward, - Don’t rob the people they pretend to save.’ - -Belsize is noticed in an old London guide-book of 1724 as ‘an academy of -music, dancing, and play for the diversion of the ladies,’ and it adds -with heavy playfulness that ‘where they are the gentlemen will not fail -to be also.’ It describes the ballroom and gaming-rooms as particularly -fine and handsomely adorned, and intimates that it would surprise one to -see so much good company as came hither in the season. - -Concerts of music, open-air fêtes, hare and buck hunting, fine grounds -and sweet gardens, with fishing, dancing, etc., from six in the morning -till eight at night, were sufficient inducements to render a less -agreeable spot attractive. The free admission was, of course, a bait -by which the visitors were drawn in just far enough to induce them to -go farther. At any rate, it became a place of resort for persons of -all ranks, and some of the most questionable characters, and according -to contemporary writers, appears to have exceeded in immorality and -dissipation any place of the kind in modern times. - -In 1729 Galloway Races, to be run for a Plate of £10 value, were -advertised to take place at Belsize, the horses to pay one guinea -entrance, and to be kept in the stable at Belsize from entrance to the -time of running. - -Long after rank and fashion had deserted it, Belsize continued to be -popular with the multitude, and remained open as a tea-drinking house, -etc., till 1745, when foot-races were advertised to take place. This, -however, was nothing new. A paragraph under the head of ‘Domestic -Intelligence’ in the _Grub Street Journal_ of April 1, 1736, informs -its readers that ‘yesterday Mr. Pidgeon and Mr. Garth ran twelve times -round Belsize for £50 a side, which was won with great difficulty by Mr. -Pidgeon, although Garth fell down and ran ten yards on the wrong side of -the post, and was forced to return back; yet he lost it only by a foot.’ - -This diversion appears to have been amongst the last devices of the -proprietor to retain the patronage of the people. But new tea-gardens -had been opened; New Tunbridge Wells at Islington had put forth renewed -claims to popular favour, and a new generation had arisen indifferent to -the past prestige of Belsize House, which was subsequently restored as a -private mansion, and tenanted by several persons of importance, amongst -them the unfortunate Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, who was shot -in the lobby of the House of Commons, May 15, 1812, by Bellingham, ‘a -mild-mannered man,’ maddened by misfortune. - -Mr. Perceval, whose character, both in public and private life, -appears to have been unimpeachable, had taken an active interest in -all that concerned the well-being of Hampstead and its inhabitants, -especially where the poorer classes of them were concerned. But when, -on the suggestion of his colleagues in the conduct and support of the -Sunday-school (less than half of the scholars in which were unable to -attend a day-school for want of funds), it was proposed to introduce the -Lancastrian system, Mr. Perceval withdrew his patronage and resigned his -presidency of the schools, to which Mr. Holford (an old and honoured name -in Hampstead), who had been vice-president for years, was nominated. Park -says nothing of it, but in the _Lady’s Magazine_, 1812-13, it is noted -that Mr. Samuel Hoare had obtained permission to establish a Lancastrian -school. - -Subsequently Belsize House was let to other persons of position, and -in 1811-12 Mr. Everett occupied it, and afterwards Mr. Henry Wright, -a London banker, resided here.[294] How it was afterwards tenanted I -do not know. In 1841 the house and demesne were offered for sale for -building purposes, and subsequently the whole fell into dilapidation and -decay. When I first knew it a great gloom seemed to have settled on the -place. Many of the windows were boarded up, and the house assumed that -air of mystery that always appertains to large, old uninhabited houses. -If one inquired, unknowing that it waited purchasers, the reason for -the neglected appearance of the mansion and grounds, curiosity was met -by a common cause for it in those days, viz., that the property was in -Chancery, which it was not. - -But one was free to wander in the unpruned wilderness and forgotten -flower-garden, and under the large-limbed magnificent trees, the planting -of which one or other of the Tradescants might have superintended. - -At this time Belsize Lane was absolutely rural.[295] Great elms shaded -its high grassy banks, with woodbine, wild-rose, and elder blowing in -them. There you might still hear a ‘charm of birds’ on summer mornings, -and gather blackberries in autumn. Between 1842-45 the estate fell into -the builder’s hands, and the site of the famous mansion, which had had a -name in local history from the time of the Crusades, became mapped out in -formal lines, parallels, and parallelograms, which have since resulted in -Belsize Avenue, Belsize Gardens, Belsize Square, Belsize Crescent, etc., -and with a church in its own precincts. It may be that some of the fine -old elms—part of the grand avenue that led from Haverstock Hill to the -mansion; they were but few when I last saw it—may remain. If so, these -and the name are all that are left to remind us of Belsize House, except -the sketch of it in the doggerel verse of the satirist when the Welsh -Ambassador was Master of the Revels: - - ‘This house, which is a nuisance to the land, - Doth near a park and handsome garden stand, - Fronting the road betwixt a range of trees, - And is perfumed by the Hampstead breeze.’ - -[Illustration: _Belsize Lane, 1850._] - -There was, when I knew it, a little-used, gloomy, thorn-hedged footpath -running out of Belsize Lane to Chalk Farm—now covered with houses, but -then a very solitary place of ill repute after nightfall—which on the -evening of February 21, 1845, became the scene of the murder of Mr. James -Delarue by Thomas Henry Hocker, a young man only twenty-one years of age, -who was convicted and executed. Jealousy was said to have provoked the -crime, but the treachery, falsehood, and cruelty of the culprit appear to -have hardened all hearts against him.[296] This is how Lucy Aiken writes -of the unsavoury affair: - -‘I rather congratulate myself on not being in Church Row during the -delightful excitement of the murder’ (the murder of Delarue) ‘and the -inquest, which appear to have had so many charms for the million. One -comfort is, that the murdered man appears to have been anything but a -loss to society. But I think the event will give me a kind of dislike -to Belsize Lane, which I used to think the pleasantest, as well as the -shortest, way from us to you.’[297] - -From this time Belsize and the beautiful lane became suspected; people -looked shudderingly down the by-paths before entering them, and few cared -to pass that way after nightfall. - -For some time part of the house remained, with windows boarded, the -garden run to waste, the paths weed-grown, the lilied ponds filled up, -the park a wilderness, the great trees lopped and broken, till the -builder and his men set about their business in earnest, and evolved -almost a suburban town on what had been a nobleman’s mansion and park for -centuries. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -_THE HAMLET OF KILBURN._ - - -As only one side of this hamlet is in Hampstead parish, there is not much -to be said of it here. It was rapidly increasing when Park wrote his -description of it; but that was nothing to the proportion of its increase -during the last ten years, when it has grown to the dimensions of a town. -Its name comes from two Saxon words, _kele_, cold, and _bourn_, a rivulet. - -By this cool stream,[298] which rose on the southern slope of Hampstead, -hard by the forest-side, one Godwyn, in the time of Henry I., built -himself a cell, and for a time at least led a hermit’s life. - -There can be little doubt, from the fact of his ultimately making over -this nucleus of the future nunnery, with the grounds belonging to it, to -the Church of St. Peter of Westminster, in trust to the Abbot for the -use and abode of three retired Maids of Honour to Queen Matilda (herself -a Benedictine nun), that Godwyn was a penitent courtier or nobleman. -Eventually he himself was made Warden of the abode and guardian of the -maidens, Emma, Christiana, and Gunilda, who took upon themselves a holy -life, though no particular monastic rule is mentioned, nor does it appear -in the foundation deed that they were vowed to celibacy. - -On the death of Godwyn some other person was to be chosen to his office, -with the advice of the Abbot of Westminster, and with the consent of the -nuns themselves; no one could be appointed without their approval, nor -was to interfere with matters relative to their temporal affairs, nor -with the affairs of the church, except at their desire. - -The Abbot, Osbert de Clair, Prior of Westminster, augmented the grant -to the cell of Kilburne by a rent of thirty shillings and land at -Knightsbridge, after which it became a nunnery of the Benedictine Order, -dedicated to the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. At the dissolution of -the monasteries the lands of Kilburn nunnery at Hampstead and Kilburn -were given by Henry VIII., in exchange for Paris Garden and other -estates, to the Knights of Jerusalem, whose Order he soon after dissolved -(1540). - -Subsequent to the dissolution of the Knights of St. John it became the -property of John, Earl of Warwick, who lost no time in alienating it to -Richard Taverner, Esq. In 1604 Sir Arthur Atye died seized of Kilburn and -Shuttop Hill. It was recently in the family of the Powells, an old name -at Hampstead. - -At no time does it appear to have been a religious house of any -importance, though dignified with the name of Priory. Park states its -revenue at the time of the Dissolution to have been under £200 per annum. -Dugdale sets it down at £74 7s. 11d. per annum, and the whole building, -inclusive of kitchen, larder, bakehouse, and brewhouse, beside the -church, contained only twelve rooms. - -From a rude but interesting etching in Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ of -some parts of the domestic buildings, the only relics of it remaining, -and which were standing in 1722, no idea can be formed of the appearance -of the conventual structure, the site of which was distinguishable at the -beginning of the present century by a rising bank in what was called the -Abbey Fields, near the Tea Gardens. - -No doubt the Kilburn well, a mild chalybeate, was one of the so-called -holy wells with which the vicinity of London abounded in Catholic -times. But it was not until 1714 that some speculator bethought him of -converting the slightly-medicated waters to use. - -[Illustration: _The George Inn before 1870._] - -The spring or well is situated at the south-western extremity of the -parish of Hampstead. It rises about 12 feet below the surface, and is -enclosed in a large brick reservoir, with the date cut in the keystone -of the arch over the door. It is a simple saline water with too little -iron to give it the character of a true chalybeate, as may be easily -imagined when we read that in 1813 it was used chiefly for the domestic -purposes of the adjoining tavern. In 1773 the Kilburn wells were attached -to a tea-drinking house, ‘well known to the holiday folk of London,’ the -advertisement of which, transcribed by Park from the _Public Advertiser_ -in the July of that year, is amusing: - - ‘KILBURN WELLS, NEAR PADDINGTON.—The waters now in the utmost - perfection; the gardens enlarged and greatly improved; the - house and offices repaired and beautified in the most elegant - manner. - - ‘The whole is now opened for the reception of the public, - the great room being particularly adapted to the use and - amusement of the politest companies; fit for music, dancing, or - entertainments. - - ‘This happy spot, celebrated for its rural situation, extensive - prospects, and the acknowledged efficacy of its waters, is most - delightfully situated on the _scite (sic) of the once famous - Abbey of Kilburn_, on the Edgware Road, at an easy distance, - being but a _morning’s walk_ from the Metropolis, two miles - from Oxford Street, the footway from Marybone across the fields - still nearer. A plentiful larder is always provided, together - with the best of wines and other liqueurs. - - ‘Breakfasting and hot loaves. - - ‘A printed account of the waters, as drawn up by an eminent - physician, is given gratis at the Wells.’ - -Brewer tells us that this house was much frequented by holiday people -from London. - -We have noted elsewhere that Oliver Goldsmith had lodgings in a cottage -near a place called The Priory at Kilburn. Poor Goldy had retired thither -with the intention of practically studying the habits of some of the -animals he was writing of in his ‘Animated Nature.’ His range of subjects -must have been necessarily restricted, for, beyond the humble farmyard of -his landlord, the rusticity of Kilburn appears at that point of time to -have been limited to cow-keepers and market-gardens. It had an evil fame -for dog-fights and pugilistic encounters, at which Hogarth is said to -have been a frequent spectator—not from a love of such sights, but with a -view to the work of humanity he was then doing, in displaying the coarse -brutality and repulsively cruel features of those so-called sports with -all the realism of his caustic pencil. - -Many years later Kilburn lay heavy on the minds of the Middlesex -magistrates, and during the first half of the present century its -reputation was decidedly low, and its inhabitants, or the additional -ones they sheltered, a frequent trouble to the constables of those days. - -Time and the builders have amended all that, and the village of Kilburn -is (1860) partly a suburb of genteel villas, and a struggling ground for -newly-started professional men and tradesmen of large hope and small -capital, with ultimate success as the prize for those who can play a -losing game longest. - -Before leaving Kilburn I may add that, in the spring of 1878, when the -work of widening the London and North-Eastern Railway was going on at -Kilburn, the workmen came upon a curious brass coffin-plate, bearing an -effigy supposed to be that of an Abbess of Kilburn Nunnery. The nuns gave -a touching reason for the dilapidated condition of their house (which -lay close to the highway for wayfarers and pilgrims to the shrine of St. -Alban’s) in the daily charity of the poor sisters to those of the poorer -sort, a charge they were ill able to bear; and this fact, in connection -with the well-known poverty of their house, exempted them from taxes to -the Crown, which recompensed itself at the dissolution of the religious -houses by taking the whole of the little they possessed. At this time -the buildings of the priory consisted of the hall, the chamber next the -church, the middle chamber between that and the Prioress’s chamber; -the buttery, pantry, and cellar; the inner chamber to the Prioress’s -room, the chamber between the latter and the hall, the kitchen, the -larder-house, the brewhouse and bakehouse, the three chambers for the -chaplain and the hinds or husbandmen, the confessor’s chamber, and the -church. The orchard and cemetery, valued at ‘xx_s._ by the yere, and one -horse of the coller of black at vs. For all these chambers 2 bedsteads of -bordes, 1 featherbed, 2 matteres, 2 old coverlettes, 3 wollen blanketts, -a _syller_ of old stained work, and 2 pieces of old hangings paynted,’ -appear a sparse allowance of comfort. They were better off in the matter -of church furniture and vestments, as not only altar-cloths, curtains, -hangings, copes, which were nuns’ work, and very likely made by them, -but chalices are enumerated; and they also possessed, closed in silver, -and set with counterfeit stones and pearls, a relique of the Holy Cross, -and a cross with certain other reliques, ‘wt silver gilded. Item, a case -to keepe in reliques, plated and gilt ... and a clocke.’ These were the -nuns’ small treasures, and all were confiscated. - -In the ‘Romance of London,’ by the late industrious Mr. Timbs, there -is a legend, quoted by Mr. Walford, of Kilburn Priory. He calls it -traditionary, and says that Mr. Timbs could not trace it to any authentic -source; yet it appears to have been well known to that enthusiastic -collector of ancient ballads and legendary lore, Sir Walter Scott, who -had written a lyrical version of the story long before Mr. Timbs produced -his ‘Romance of London,’ though without publishing it. Here is the tale -of its origin, according to Mr. H. G. Atkinson, who tells us the verses -(which I give further on) remained unpublished till their appearance in -the columns of the _Athenæum_, September 17, 1881: - -‘My father, an architect, was a friend of Scott’s, and helped him, as -a friend, in the decoration and finishings of Abbotsford. Scott would -often dine with my father when in London, and was greatly interested -in the garden. In one corner there was some rockwork, in which were -inserted some fragments of stone ornaments of Kilburn Priory, and -crowning all was an irregularly-shaped stone, having a deep red stain, -no doubt of ferruginous origin. This stone was sent to my father by Lord -Mulgrave in one of his cement vessels, my father having been struck with -its appearance on the shore at Whitby, and from these simple, really -unconnected facts Scott made out the following story in verse, which -might be regarded as a kind of friendly offering in return for services -rendered. Here are the lines; I had supposed them lost, but my sister, in -turning over some old papers, found a copy.’ - -This I have taken the liberty to reproduce: - - THE MUCKLE STAIN, OR BLEEDING STONE OF KILBURN PRIORY. - - For the blessed rood of Sir Gervase the Good - The nuns of Kilburn pray; - But for the wretch who shed his blood - No tongue a prayer shall say. - - The bells shall ring, and the nuns shall sing, - Sir Gervase to the blest; - But holiest rites shall never bring - His murderer’s soul to rest. - - ‘Now tell me, I pray, thou palmer gray, - Why thou kneelest at this shrine; - And why dost thou cry so eagerly - Upon the help Divine? - - ‘Oh, tell me who the man may be, - And what his deadly sin, - That the Church’s prayer, for his soul’s despair, - The mercy of Christ may win.’ - - ‘I cry at this shrine on the help Divine - To save the soul of one - Who in death shall lie ere morning shine - Upon this ancient stone. - - ‘Sir Gervase rode forth far in the north - To Whitby’s holy see; - In her bower alone his lady made moan, - A fairer could not be. - - ‘His false brother came to the weeping dame: - “Oh, I love you dearer than life.” - “Hence! would you win to shame and sin - Thy brother’s wedded wife?” - - ‘“He is far away, thou sweet ladie, - And none may hear or see; - So, lady bright, this very night, - Oh, open your door to me. - - ‘“Sir Gervase rides forth far in the north, - ’Tis long ere he comes back, - And thine eyes shine bright like stars by night, - From thy hair of raven black.” - - ‘“The fire shall burn at the door stone - Ere I open my door to thee, - And thy suit of hell to Sir Gervase I’ll tell, - And a traitor’s death thou wilt die.” - - ‘“Then fare ye well, Dame Isabel, - Thou lady of mickle pride; - Thou shalt rue the day thou saidst me nay, - When back to thee I ride.” - - ‘The day declined, the rising wind - Sung shrill on Whitby sands; - With ear down laid, and ready blade, - Behind a rock he stands. - - ‘Sir Gervase rode on in thought alone, - Leaving his men behind; - The blow was sure, the flight secure, - But a voice was in the wind: - - ‘“False brother, spur thy flying steed, - Thou canst not fly so fast; - But on this stone where now I bleed - Thyself shall breathe thy last.” - - ‘That stone was then on Whitby’s shore, - And now behold it here; - And ever that blood is in my eye, - And ever that voice in mine ear!’ - - ‘Now, thou palmer gray, now turn thee, I pray, - And let me look in thine eye. - Alas! it burns bright with a fearful light— - Like guilt about to die. - - ‘That stone is old, and o’er it has rolled - The tempest of many years; - But fiercer rage than of tempest or age - In thy furrowed face appears.’ - - ‘Oh, speak not thus, thou holy man, - But bend and pray by me, - And give me your aid in this hour of need, - Till I my penance drie. - - ‘With book and beads, with ave and creed, - Oh, help me while you may; - When the bell tolls one, oh, leave me alone, - For with me you may not stay.’ - - Sore prayed the friar by the gray palmer, - As both knelt o’er the stone; - And redder grew the blood-red hue, - And they heard a fearful groan. - - ‘Friar, leave me now, on my trembling brow - The drops of sweat run down; - And alone with his sprite I must deal this night, - My deadly guilt to atone.’ - - By the morning light the good friar came - By the sinner’s side to pray; - But his spirit had flown, and, stretched on the stone, - A corse the palmer lay. - - And still from that stone at the hour of one— - Go visit it who dare— - The blood runs red, and a shriek of dread - Pierces the midnight air. - -Mr. Timbs’ prose variant of the story, briefly told, is as follows: - -At a place called Kilburn Priory, near St. John’s Wood, there was a stone -of a blood colour, which stain was caused by the blood of Sir Gervase de -Morton, or de Mortonne, who was slain by his brother centuries ago. The -latter, Stephen de Morton, had sinfully fallen in love with the beautiful -wife of Sir Gervase, whom he persecuted with his illicit passion, till at -length she threatened to inform her husband. To prevent this, and enraged -by hate and jealousy, the wicked brother lay in wait in a narrow lane -through which Sir Gervase had to pass on his way home, and on one side -of which was a quarry with some rocks projecting. Here Stephen de Morton -lay in ambush, and, as soon as his brother passed, stepped from his -concealment, and stabbed him in the back. Sir Gervase fell forward upon a -part of the rock mortally wounded, and in dying recognised his brother in -his murderer, who he solemnly predicted should also die upon that stone. - -Stephen appears to have thought but lightly of his crime, and less of -his murdered brother’s denunciation. He returned immediately to the -prosecution of his design; but the lady was obdurate, and resented his -insulting proposals with indignant scorn, upon which his base passion -turned to hate, and he pitilessly consigned her to a dungeon. - -Subsequently he strove to forget his crime, and the innocent cause of -it, by riotous living, but all to no purpose; his conscience would not -rest, and he suffered such an access of remorse that at length he caused -the remains of his brother to be brought to Kilburn Priory, and ordered -a handsome tomb to be erected to his memory. The stones used in building -it were brought from the neighbourhood of the place where the murder was -committed, and amongst them was the one on which the blood of Sir Gervase -had flowed, and which, as soon as the wretched Stephen approached it, -oozed out blood. Upon this the horrified man confessed his crime to the -Bishop of London, submitted himself to severe penance, and bequeathed all -his worldly possessions to Kilburn Priory. But all in vain; he soon after -pined away and died, breathing his last upon the stone stained with the -blood of his brother, and this miraculous stain was the ‘Bleeding Stone’ -of Kilburn Priory. Not a word is said of the unfortunate lady’s release -from her undeserved dungeon, from which we can only hope she was freed -to find a place amongst the nuns, and be near the resting-place of her -husband. - -Mr. Atkinson, in writing of Sir Walter Scott’s verses, thinks their -origin interesting, equally in an artistic, literary, and psychological -point of view; but looking at Mr. Timbs’ independent presentation of the -same story, the inference is that, the legend being known to Sir Walter, -the juxtaposition of the red stone and the fragmentary relics from -Kilburn Priory quickened the imagination of the poet, and helped him to -produce the lines. In some place or other the tradition must have had an -independent existence, or it could not have appeared in Timbs’ ‘Romance -of London’ previous to its publication in the _Athenæum_. - - - - -APPENDIX. - - -HEATH HOUSE. - -It would be doing injustice to a family long known and honoured in this -neighbourhood to bid farewell to Hampstead and the Heath, without some -special notice of Heath House, the present residence of Lord Glenesk, but -in 1790 the home of Samuel Hoare, Esq. - -It is a large, square, heavy-looking Georgian house of brown brick, -surrounded by trees and shrubs, close to the Broad Walk on one side, and -divided by a narrow roadway from Jack Straw’s Castle on the other. It -stands upon the highest ridge of the Heath, at the same elevation as the -tavern, and the windows command fine views east, west, and north, whilst -from the flat, lead-covered roof one may see on a clear day, it is said, -six counties. - -In 1772 Mr. Hoare had joined the firm of Bland and Barnett, bankers, of -62, Lombard Street, in which his son, grandson, and great-grandsons were -afterwards partners, when the bank was known as Barnett, Hoare and Co. - -When the first Samuel Hoare moved to Heath House, his family consisted -of himself and second wife, whom he had married two years previously; -his only son Samuel, a boy seven years old; and a little daughter. The -coming of this family to the Heath was an epoch in the social history of -Hampstead. - -Refined, intellectual, religious in the best sense of the phrase, yet -largely liberal, the Quaker banker opened wide his hospitable doors to -friends and neighbours, and brought into their midst the men and women -then most distinguished in literature, philanthropy, and for high social -aims. Nor were the poor forgotten in the ‘beneficent schemes that filled -the mind of this benevolent man.’ Whatever could improve the condition, -or help the needs of his humble neighbours had his earnest aid. England -had been for some time conscience-smitten, and agitated with the wrongs -inflicted on the unhappy negro race. Young Clarkson was calling the -attention of every man of influence he could get at to their cause, and -Wilberforce, one of his earliest converts, had become his eloquent and -pertinacious second. It is well known that the first petition for the -abolition of the slave trade presented to the House of Commons came from -the people called Quakers. To this amiable and unobtrusive sect belongs -the honour of having taken the initiative in the crusade against this -barbarous traffic, and the young enthusiast Clarkson, who was preparing -for the Church, but had chosen a wider platform for the diffusion of his -impressions of Christian charity, found in Mr. Hoare, not a disciple, but -an apostle already in close sympathy with his purpose, and daily working -for its accomplishment. - -Here at Heath House these ever-to-be-remembered men discussed with their -host their trials, hopes, and disappointments; for during a series of -sixteen or seventeen years the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave -Trade, which Wilberforce Session after Session presented to the House of -Commons, was as constantly thrown out, and two years before the final -triumph of their cause (1827) their associate and helper, Samuel Hoare -senior, died (1825), aged seventy-five. - -I have not seen it mentioned in the History or ‘Records of Hampstead,’ -but find in a paragraph of the _Lady’s Magazine_, December, 1812, that -‘the Lancastrian school which Mr. Hoare, the banker, has erected at his -own expense at Hampstead was opened a few days ago with about a hundred -children. The establishment is capable of accommodating about one hundred -and fifty, and promises to be soon filled up.’ - -Some years before his father’s death, Samuel Hoare junior had married one -of the famous Earlham sisters, Louisa, daughter of John Gurney, banker, -of Norwich, and had gone to reside at the Hill, North End (the house a -wedding-gift from his father). Later on Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, who -had married Hannah, another of the Miss Gurneys, also resided for some -time at North End, at a house now known as Myrtle Wood, a delightful -event for the sisters, their relatives, and friends. It is of Hill -House, during the residence of Sir Fowell and Lady Buxton in its near -neighbourhood (1820), that the celebrated Severen of Cambridge wrote: -‘More of heaven I never saw than in the two families at Hampstead’ (the -Hoares and Buxtons). - -Of course, the same circle of friends were received at the houses of -both father and son; but when the death of Samuel Hoare senior occurred, -though his widow and daughter continued to occupy Heath House, the -delightful reunions that have made it memorable ceased. - -Like his father and his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Samuel -Hoare the second entered heartily into the views of his friends, Clarkson -and Wilberforce, and gave their great scheme for the abolition of slavery -his steady help and influence. He lived long after the cause they battled -for so pertinaciously had been won, and, with his sympathetic wife, -inaugurated various projects for bettering the condition of the poor of -Hampstead, some of which I am told are still actively beneficial. - -There are just two or three old inhabitants of Hampstead who remember the -tall figure of the second Samuel Hoare, who used to go down to town on -horseback followed by his servant; later on I am told the servant’s place -was changed, and he rode very close to—indeed, side by side with—his -master, who towards the end of his life was subject to sudden seizures. - -This gentleman died December 26, 1846, at the comparatively early age of -sixty-four, and Hill House became the property of his son Samuel, who did -not live very long to enjoy it, dying in the twenty-sixth year of his -age, October 27, 1833. The present Sir Samuel Hoare, Member for Norwich, -is the fourth of the name, and the great-grandson of the first Samuel -Hoare of Heath House, of which he is the owner, as well as of the Hill, -and other property at Hampstead. - -Mrs. Hannah Hoare, the second wife and widow of Samuel Hoare of the -Heath, continued to reside there with her step-daughter for many years in -the near neighbourhood of their relations at the Hill. There is something -touchingly suggestive in the fact that they both died in the same year, -the widow on January 21, and her step-daughter on October 21, 1833. Mr. -Gurney Hoare, son of the second Samuel Hoare, lived at Hill House many -years, and died there. The only representatives of this family now at -Hampstead (1899) are Mrs. MacEnnis and her sister, Miss Greta Hoare, who -reside at Wildwood Avenue. - - -WENTWORTH PLACE, JOHN STREET. - -The now frequented thoroughfare of John Street has been long in coming -into its inheritance—namely, the interest it derives from the fact that, -after the death of his brother, John Keats resided here for nearly twelve -months, and the last month of his life in England was spent here. - -Wentworth Place lies on the right side of the road going from St. -John’s Chapel (on Downshire Hill) to the station. It consisted of two -adjoining houses, one of them occupied by Charles Armitage Brown, the -personal friend and sympathetic admirer of the poet; the other by the -Dilkes—Charles Wentworth Dilke, the critic, who was afterwards editor and -part proprietor of the _Athenæum_, and his brother William.[299] A lady, -born at Hampstead, and who resided there till twenty-two years of age, -remembers that a low fence encircled the garden, within which was a hedge -of laurustinus and China roses; latterly it was railed round. - -I can imagine the road then, with only a few houses bordering it, each in -its setting of greensward and evergreens, almost impinging on the green -slope of South Hill, and leading round by Sol’s Row, where Wilkie at one -time had lodgings, and where a great nobleman and his wife and daughter -called upon him with a proposal for him to paint the portrait of one or -both the ladies, to which the unsophisticated Scotchman bluntly replied -that ‘he would think about it.’ - -Sol’s Row then looked out upon a wide stretch of meadow-land, beautiful -with divisional elms and other trees, and had a fair-sized pond in the -foreground. - -It was with his friend Brown, as I have before said, that Keats visited -Scotland, but had not strength left to attempt it a second season. He -occupied the front sitting-room in his friend’s house, and here he -wrote the greater part of ‘Hyperion,’ and the Odes to ‘Indolence’ and -to ‘Psyche,’ ‘On a Grecian Urn,’ and to ‘A Nightingale.’ Here also he -commenced the unfinished ‘Cap and Bells,’ and wrote ‘La Belle Dame sans -Merci’; and here, at a party given by the Dilkes, he met Miss Brawne, the -lady who ‘was not Cleopatra, but was at least Charmian,’ and who, with -her fine eyes and fine manners, and her rich Eastern looks, was fated to -play so large a part in the inner tragedy of his short life. - -The lady whom I have just now alluded to, who knew Miss Brawne till she -herself was fifteen years of age, when the latter left England, describes -her as a very striking, dignified-looking woman, fair, but pale, with -bright dark eyes and light brown hair. She remembers her mother saying -that Fanny Brawne was a lovely girl, but that she had lost her colour in -an illness she had after her engagement with Keats was broken off—‘that -mad boy Keats,’ as they used to call him. - -When subsequently the Dilkes moved to Westminster, Mrs. Brawne and her -daughter took their house, so that the lovers must have seen each other -daily. Keats resided with his friend from 1818 to 1819, when, in order -to be near Leigh Hunt, who had left the Vale of Health and was living -at Kentish Town, he removed there. Afterwards, when Hunt left England -for Italy, Keats made trial of a cheap lodging in College Street, -Westminster, where he only remained a week, returning instinctively to -Hampstead, where the Brawnes, from womanly compassion, received him (he -was then hopelessly ill), and tenderly nursed him in the white bedroom, -with the white curtains and white quilt, in which Haydon, the painter, -saw him, the bright hectic of his flushed cheeks the only relief to the -surrounding wanness. Here he remained a month, the last month of his life -in England, and Hampstead and his lady-love possessed it. - -If ever a spot of earth could claim as its own one whose charmed gift of -poesy has impenetrated and irradiated the whole sphere of intellectual -life, surely Hampstead may call Keats her own. - -When the Brawnes left Wentworth Place, an actress of some eminence—a Miss -Chester, who held the post of Reader to George IV.—took both houses, -threw them into one, and called her home Lawn Bank, by which name it -continued to be called till inquiries began to be made for Wentworth -Place, which readers of the ‘Northern Heights of London’ will remember -William Howitt could not find. The name has now been restored. - -Upon this house the Society of Arts placed a memorial tablet of -terra-cotta, inscribed: - - JOHN KEATS, - POET, - LIVED IN THIS HOUSE. - BORN 1795. DIED 1821. - -Not a very clearly-expressed inscription, since anyone ignorant of the -poet’s history might naturally infer that he had not only lived, but -had been born and had died here. However, this is better than barren -forgetfulness, and now John Street has its visitors, as Flask Road had in -times gone by, but with far livelier interest, for he who lived and wrote -some of his most lovely poems within these walls, to paraphrase his own -prophecy, ‘lives among the English poets after death.’ - -Alas! it would seem that even this poor, long-delayed honour, the only -one his countrymen have afforded him, was a mere mockery, for I find -it stated in the public papers under the date of August 1, 1898, that -Wentworth House has been sold on a building lease of ninety-nine years, -with a proviso that only houses of a superior class shall be erected on -the site. - - -VANE HOUSE. - -It is generally believed that the fine old red-brick mansion to the left -of the road as you ascend Rosslyn Hill, now the ‘Home of the Soldiers’ -Daughters,’ is the veritable house which the unfortunate Sir Harry Vane -built for himself on Hampstead Hill, a place in which he had hoped to -pass the declining years of his life in peace. - -Of the original house only an old staircase leading to the garden exists, -but the interior of the mansion has suffered so many changes, both before -and after it became the residence of the celebrated Dr. Butler, that, -together with the alterations necessary to fit it for its present use, -not one of the original apartments remains. - -The south wing of the house has been cut off; the northern half is in -good repair, and makes a commodious house. It has received the name of -Belmont. When Baines wrote the ‘Records of Hampstead’ this was the home -of H. J. Griffiths, Esq. The fine avenue of elms that anciently skirted -Vane House, some of which were standing in quite recent years, has wholly -disappeared. - -The gardens and grounds were very extensive and well laid out, but these -have been despoiled, though ‘one ancient mulberry-tree survives.’ - -When the grand old house was converted to its present use, two-thirds of -the garden were taken for the children’s playground, and quite recently -half an acre of the kitchen garden has been sold for £5,000! - -It seems extraordinary that there should be any question as to the -identity of the house. Its original owner was executed on June 14, 1662, -just thirty years before the birth of Butler, who was born in 1692. -The Bishop, who only lived to be sixty, dying in 1752, appears to have -resided here for many years, and ornamented the windows with a quantity -of painted glass. - -One would imagine that a building of such distinction, so strikingly -situated, and tenanted from time to time by important personages—it was -afterwards the home of Mr. Thomas Neave and of J. Pilgrim, Esq.—without -the tragic story attached to it, was not one to be lost sight of in the -annals of the then small village. Its history might, one would think, -even without the aid of highway and parish books, be fairly trusted -to oral tradition from one generation to another, in a period covered -by ninety years, from the date of Sir Harry Vane’s execution till the -death of Dr. Butler. The architectural characteristics of the building -when intact bore out its claim to have been built in the days of the -Commonwealth. - -Eliza Meteyard, in her ‘Hallowed Spots of Ancient London,’ a book -deserving a better fate than it has met with, tells us that the famous -avenue was the scene of Sir Harry’s arrest. Here on the evening of an -early day in July, 1660, just as the sun was setting, Sir Harry walked -and meditated, as was his wont, till the glowing splendour of the -western sky gradually faded, as did the sounds of the cotter children -at their play, the barking of a sympathetic dog, or some broken scrap -of hymn, and still Sir Harry continued to pace beneath the elm-trees, -the sweetness and the stillness deepening with the twilight, when the -measured tramp of soldiers on the hill, some of whom marched straight -to Vane House, whilst others guarded the exits, struck terror into the -hearts of his humble neighbours, who, before night settled fully down, -saw Sir Harry taken from his home, a prisoner on his way to the Tower, -whence, after two years of torturing uncertainty, and removals from one -place of captivity to another, he came forth on another summer’s day, -June 14, 1662, to die by the hand of the executioner on Tower Hill, -another martyr to the liberties of his country. - -Readers will remember Pepys’ hurry to shut up his office that morning, -and get off with his friends to see how the great Commonwealth man would -comport himself on so public and so trying a platform as the scaffold. He -is a witness, amongst others, to the calmness and self-command which the -ill-used enthusiast exhibited in parting from mortality. - - -POND STREET. - -POND STREET—evidently the fashionable street in the eighteenth -century for the reception of visitors of the class dignified as the -‘quality’—appears to have been in the early years of this, the Harley -Street of Hampstead. Here resided Baron Dimsdale, in a house on the -left side of the road going down, the physician who inoculated the -Empress Catherine of Russia for small-pox. It will be remembered, to the -Empress’s credit, that she requested him to leave the country as soon as -possible after the operation, as in the event of her death he would be -held guilty of it. - -Dr. Rodd, Dr. Lond, and various other medical men, lived in Pond Street. - -I can remember it with a row of trees on the right-hand side of the way -as you entered it from the highroad, and a strip of greensward running -down it—a quiet street of formal appearance, with an air of genteel -frigidity characteristic of its period. - -It was in Pond Street that ‘poor Kirkman,’ as Keats sympathetically -calls him, ‘fell amongst thieves,’ who stopped and beat and robbed him -of his watch. He had been visiting the poet at Wentworth Place, and left -about half-past eight in the evening, and was on his way to the London -Road, probably intending to meet the coach there, when he was waylaid, -maltreated and robbed. This was in 1818, so that the middle passage -between Hampstead and the Metropolis was not even then without its danger. - -Keats, writing to his brother some days after the event, tells him he had -been to see Kirkman, who had not recovered of his bruises. - - -A FRAGMENT OF THE FLORA OF HAMPSTEAD. - -In the reigns of Elizabeth and James the herbalists appear to have had -Hampstead Heath very much to themselves. The laundresses must have had -light feet, and children have been comparatively few. - -Otherwise they did not wander so far as Bishop’s Wood, or the old Target -Bank, where the lilies of the valley grew so plentifully in Johnson’s -time. Johnson was the pupil of Gerard, and the editor of a new edition -of his master’s work, the ‘Great Herbal.’ To this lover of Nature, an -apothecary by profession, is due the honour of having prepared the first -catalogue of local plants ever published in England, the locality of -these plants being the Heath and the Woods of Hampstead; many of the -plants have survived the predatory habits of London flower-vendors, and -still flourish in their old habitats. - -Of the survivors, we are glad to give the following list from personal -acquaintance with them: - - -_March and April._ - - COMMON DAISY (_Bella perennis_).—Perennial everywhere. We - gathered it on the East Heath January 26, 1874. - - BLACKTHORN (_Prunus spinosa_).—Upper and West Heath. - - MARSH MARIGOLD (_Caltha palustris_).—The borders of the - old watercourse at the back of Jack Straw’s Castle. This - watercourse is now extinct (1895). - - PASQUE FLOWER (_Anemone Pulsatilla_).—On a bank at the edge of - the Upper Heath. A small bed of it amongst the whitethorn-trees - going to the Leg of Mutton Pond. - - DANDELION (_Leontodon taraxacum_).—In grassy places. East and - West Heaths, everywhere. - - WOOD CROWFOOT, GOLDYLOCKS (_Ranunculus auricomus_).—Amongst the - trees beyond the red viaduct, Lower Heath. - -We look in vain for the primroses which adorned the hedgerows and -overspread the woods in Gerard’s time, and the cowslips ankle-deep in the -meadows between Kilburn and the Heath. Like the lilies of the valley, the -orchids and ophreys, they have long since been exterminated by mendicant -root-vendors, or buried under the foundations of modern streets. - - -_May._ - - WILD HYACINTH, BLUEBELL (_Hyacinthus non-scriptus_).—Plentiful - on the grassy banks beside the New Road leading to Child’s Hill. - - SPEEDWELL GERMANDER (_Veronica_).—In the same neighbourhood. - - WOOD SORREL (_Oxalis acetosella_).—Under the shade of some old - thorn-stocks, south side of the watercourse, Upper Heath. - - BUTCHER’S BROOM (_Ruscus aculeatus_).—Bushy places about the - neighbourhood of the pond, near the red viaduct, Lower Heath. - - SHEPHERD’S PURSE (_Bursa pastoris_).—Common by roadsides - everywhere. - - CRAB APPLE (_Pyrus malus_).—On the right hand of the - watercourse behind Jack Straw’s Castle, descending the Heath, - near the pond. - - HAWTHORN, HAGTHORN, MAYBUSH (_Crategus oxyacanthus_).—In the - same neighbourhood, right and left. - - DOG VIOLET (_Viola canina_).—In various places on the West - Heath. - - DWARF WILLOW (_Salix repens_, Smith, _Salex repens_, - Bab.).—Near the bog opposite the grounds of Hill House, North - End. - - -_June._ - - COMMON WATERCRESS (_Nasturtium officinalis_).—In a pool at the - lower end of the watercourse. - - RAGGED ROBIN (_Lychnis flos-cuculi_).—On the moist margin of - the same place near the pond. - - MARSH STITCHWORT (_Stellaria glauca_).—Same habitat as the - above. - - WATER RANUNCULUS (_R. aquatilis_).—In the pond at the bottom of - the old watercourse. - - NEEDLE GREEN-WEED, PETTY-WHIN (_Genista anglica_).—On high - ground on the West Heath. - - COMMON BROOM (_Cytisus scoparius_).—Frequent on both Heaths, - making the gravelly hollows luminous. These now effaced (1895). - - BUCK BEAN (_Menyanthes trifoliata_).—On the sphagnum by the - watercourse. - - MARSH RED RATTLE (_Pedicularis palustris_).—Beds of its rosy - flowers in moist places frequent on the West Heath. - - COTTON GRASS, DOWNY-STALKED (_Eriophorum pubescens_).—Once - plentiful in May and June beside the watercourse, in the bed of - which I found it lingering in the summer of 1873. Abundant June - 3, 1874; lost 1895. - - COTTON GRASS (_Eriophorum angustifolium_).—Same habitat. - - MARSH PENNYWORT (_Hydrocotyle vulgaris_).—In damp places on the - West Heath. - - CUCKOO-FLOWER, LADY’S SMOCK (_Cardamine pratensis_).—On bogs on - West Heath, of a beautiful deep lilac hue. - - COMMON MILKWORT (_Polygala vulgaris_).—I call it gay-wings. - Blue, pink, purple and white, disports itself in all the grassy - hollows on the Western Heath. - - SWEET WOODRUFF (_Asperula odorata_).—In the shade of the trees - in the neighbourhood of the red viaduct, near Lord Mansfield’s - grounds, Lower Heath. - - SCARLET PIMPERNEL, SHEPHERD’S WEATHER-GLASS (_Anagallis - arvensis_).—Borders of the sandy roadsides, fields and paths. - - LESSER STITCHWORT (_Stellaria graminea_).—In the little dells - on lower part of West Heath. - - REST HARROW (_Ononis arvensis_).—On Upper Heath. - - COMMON FURZE (_Ulex europæus_).—Everywhere amongst the gravelly - mounds and hollows on the Upper Heath and North End Hill. - - MARE’S-TAIL (_Hippurus vulgaris_).—Margins of ponds, Upper and - Lower Heath. - - BROOKLIME (_Veronica beccabunga_).—In channel of the old - watercourse. - - COMMON ELDER (_Sambucus nigra_).—Plentiful in hedgerows and - lanes in the vicinity of the Heath. Constable noticed the - beauty of its rounded cymes. - - SPEEDWELL (_Veronica spicata_).—On West Heath, near Leg of - Mutton Pond. - - SHEEP’S SORREL (_Rumex acetosella_).—Abundant on West Heath, - its deep red clustered spikes of flowers conspicuous above the - yet unopened white ones of _Galium saxatile_, among which it - frequently appears. - - GREATER STITCHWORT (_Stellaria holostea_).—Amongst the bushes - near the Leg of Mutton Pond, West Heath. - - WHITE DUTCH CLOVER (_Trifolium repens_).—Sparsely on the - West Heath, near the reservoir, and in the fields going to - Parliament Hill. - - DWARF MALLOW (_Malva rotundifolia_).—Under the garden-wall of - Hill House, North End. - - -_July._ - - DEVIL’S-BIT SCABIOUS (_Scabiosa succisa_).—On the higher part - of West Heath. - - COMMON EYE-BRIGHT (_Euphrasia officinalis_).—On the high ground - under the western plateau of the Heath. One of Milton’s flowers. - - COMMON BUGLE (_Ajuga reptans_).—In moist places; abundant over - all the Heath; perennial. - - UPRIGHT ST. JOHN’S WORT (_Hypericum pulchrum_).—On the dry - banks above Leg of Mutton Pond, at the foot of the watercourse. - - COMMON FILAGO (_F. germanica_).—Frequent about the gravel-pits, - Upper Heath. - - WOOD SAGE (_Teucrium scorodonia_).—Abundant on Upper Heath. - - COMMON BIRD’S-FOOT TREFOIL (_Lotus corniculatus_).—Abundant on - the West Heath. - - GREATER BIRD’S-FOOT TREFOIL (_Lotus major_).—Near the old - watercourse, towards the pond. - - PURPLE SANDWORT (_Arenaria rubra_).—On the sandy paths and - hillocks east of Jack Straw’s Castle, Lower Heath. - - TORMENTILLA (_T. reptans_).—Its red trailing stems, - strawberry-shaped leaves, and bright yellow flowers, common - everywhere upon the Heath all summer. - - HEATH BEDSTRAW (_Gallium saxatile_).—Great spaces on the high - ground of the Upper Heath snowy white with the dense panicles - of this lovely little plant. - - HAREBELL (_Campanula rotundifolia_).—Common over all the upper - parts of the Heath.[300] - - LESSER SPEARWORT (_Ranunculus flammula_).—Along the margins of - the old watercourse. - - CELERY-LEAVED CROWFOOT (_R. sceleratus_).—In the same - neighbourhood. - - GREAT REEDMACE, OR CAT’S-TAIL (_Typha latifolia_).—In the pond - on Lord Mansfield’s grounds, beside the viaduct, where an old - boat lies stranded (1856). - - WATER VIOLET (_Viola palustris_).—Margin of the same pond, - and in the pool at the bottom of the watercourse behind Jack - Straw’s Castle. - - MEADOWSWEET, QUEEN OF THE MEADOW (_Spiræa ulmaria_).—In the bed - of an old runnel on the right of the New Road going to Child’s - Hill. - - SUNDEW (_Drosera rotundifolia_).—Boggy places amongst sphagnum - beds in the vicinity of the watercourse, West Heath. - - COMMON YARROW, MILFOIL (_Achillea millefolium_).—Almost - everywhere on the Heath. - - MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED (_Hieracium pilosella_).—Runs over all the - little mounds and hillocks on the Western Heath; abundant all - the summer. - - -_August._ - - COMMON CHAMOMILE (_Anthemis nobilis_).—In many places on the - Upper Heath. - - DODDER (_Cuscuta epithymum_).—Found on furze bushes on the - Upper Heath August, 1859. - - BETONY (_Betonica officinalis_).—Amongst furze clumps in a line - with the old watercourse. - - FINE-LEAVED HEATH (_Erica cinerea_).—On the West Heath in - gravelly, grass-grown hollows. - - LING (_Calluna vulgaris_).—Amongst the gravel-beds frequent. - - YELLOW WATER-LILY (_Nuphar lutea_).—In the pond at the viaduct, - Lower Heath. Note its flask-like seed-vessels, which have - libelled it with the name of ‘brandy-bottle.’ - - COMMON ARROW-HEAD (_Sagittaria sagittifolia_).—Margins of the - same pond. - - SMALL-FLOWERED HAIRY WILLOW HERB (_Epilobium - parviflorum_).—Lower end of old watercourse. - - SWEETGALE (_Myrica_).—On West Heath.[301] - -To this list I may add a few other plants found on the Heath and its -vicinity by Messrs. Bliss, Hunter and others, leaving out those proper to -Caen Wood, which is still rich in the plants that flourished on the Heath -and in the woods when Gerard wrote: - - HENBANE (_Hyoscyamus niger_).—Near the Vale of Health. - - LESSER CENTAURY (_Erythræa pulchella_).—In the same habitat and - on the West Heath. - - GREAT YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE (_Lysimachia vulgaris_).—In a field - near North End. - - LESSER PERIWINKLE (_Vinca minor_).—Under the hedge in Belsize - Lane. - - BOG PIMPERNEL (_Anagallis tenella_).—Boggy places on the Heath, - west side. - - BLACK WHORTLEBERRY, OR WHINBERRY (_Vaccinium myrtillus_).—On - several parts of the Heath. - - LESSER SKULLCAP (_Scutellaria minor_).—Among the bushes near - the bogs on the west side of the Heath, and very abundant on - the east side between the Vale of Health and Well Walk. - - MUSK MALLOW (_Malva moschata_).—In a field between Turner’s - Wood and North End. - -Only two species of moss were said to grow in a bog to the west of the -Heath, and these I found still growing there, viz.: _Hypnum stramineum_, -straw-like feather moss, and _Hypnum cuspidatum_, pointed bog feather -moss. In 1895, the researches of the London Natural History Club added -quite a long list to them, and they appear to be as numerous in the bogs -and on the Heath as in the strictly preserved precincts of Caen Wood. - - -BENEFACTORS OF HAMPSTEAD AND THE CHARITIES. - -One of the earliest benefactors of Hampstead was Elizabeth, Dowager -Viscountess Campden, widow of Sir Baptist Hicks, the donor of Hicks’s -Hall to the county of Middlesex, and Lord of the Manor of Hampstead -(whose town house, by the way, was Campden House, Kensington), ‘with -whom, in all peace and contentment, she lived, his dear consort and wife, -for the space of forty-five years.’ - -She bequeathed by will, dated February 14, 1643, the sum of £200 to -trustees for the purchase of land of the clear yearly value of £10, ‘in -trust to pay yearly for ever one moiety towards the better relief of -the most poor and needy people that be of good name and conversation, -inhabitants of the Parish of Hampstead; to be paid to them half yearly -at or in the Church porch. The other moiety to put forth annually one -poor boy, or more, of the said Parish to apprenticeship.’ To this gift -was joined the sum of £40, bequeathed by an unknown but eccentric -gentlewoman in the same year, for the purpose of distributing a halfpenny -loaf (probably a crossed bun) annually on Good Friday morning to the -inhabitants of Hampstead, rich and poor. Mad as a March hare! for what -did the rich inhabitants of Hampstead want of a halfpenny loaf on Good -Friday, or any other morning, even in the days when a crossed bun was a -panacea for almost every ailment? Yet the bequest proved as bread cast -upon the waters, and seen after many days; for being joined to Lady -Campden’s £200, the whole was laid out in the purchase of fourteen acres -of meadow-land at Child’s Hill, in the parish of Hendon, of the clear -value of 10s. per acre. - -When Park wrote, this estate was rented at £84 per annum; at the present -day it must be worth much more, though on inquiry being made on the part -of the Vestry into the management of this charity in 1873, it was said -that it had not been developed. - -Next on the list of Hampstead benefactions, in point of time, but far -beyond the Campden charity in its importance, is what is called the -Wells Charity, that gift of ‘six acres of waste land lying about and -encompassing the Well of Medicinal Water,’ which the Hon. Susanna Noel of -the one part, and the grantees of a piece of waste ground on the Heath of -the other (on behalf of Baptist, Earl of Gainsborough, her son, then an -infant), bestowed with all the improvements of the same in trust to the -sole use and benefit of the poor of Hampstead. - -On this land stand the houses and chapel in Well Walk, which when Park -lived there produced £95 per annum, the trustees having at that period -£1,100 stock in the Three per Cents. In 1859 the estate was said to be -capable of producing from £2,000 to £3,000 per annum. - -This charity is applied—or at least a portion of it—to apprenticing -poor children of both sexes. The parents of the children must have been -parishioners (not receiving parochial relief) for three years. The boys -must be fourteen, the girls twelve years of age; and in order to enter an -application it is necessary to obtain a recommendation from one of the -trustees. - -Appertaining to this charity there is also a fund for charitable -distribution. Besides these gifts, certain poor widows and housekeepers -were to be maintained and assisted by the benefactions of Elizabeth -Shooter, spinster, the possible foundress of one or other of the four -almshouses formerly existing at Hampstead, and one of which, being -removed from a part of the Heath by Sir Francis Willes, and the site -taken into his grounds at North End, was rebuilt by him in the Vale -of Health. A Mrs. Mary Arnsted, of Hampstead, widow, assisted in this -charity. - -Francis Marshall, Esq., of Hampstead, in 1772 left £100 in the Three -per Cents., to be distributed to poor housekeepers annually on Easter -Day. Besides these, there is another important bequest, known as Stock’s -Charity. - -One would like to know the ancient whereabouts of the donor, John Stock, -Esq., paper-stainer, citizen, draper, and philanthropist, while resident -at Hampstead, who, having, as the white marble tablet in the north-east -corner of Christ Church, London, tells us, ‘acquired with the strictest -integrity considerable wealth, bequeathed the greater part of it at his -death, September 21, 1781, for the promotion of religion and virtue ... -the advancement of literature and art ... the relief of the decrepit -and comfort of the blind.’ He specially bequeathed £1,000 (which, with -the dividends that had accrued, and some donations from the trustees, -purchased £2,000 in the Three per Cents.) to the minister and gentlemen -parishioners of Hampstead for the purpose of clothing, educating, and -putting out apprentice ten poor fatherless children of the parish—viz., -six boys and four girls, the former to receive £5 as an apprentice-fee, -the latter £2. Eight boys and seven girls received the benefit of this -fund in 1812, and as it increased a proportionate number have benefited -since then. - -To these generous and useful charities many a poor widow has been -indebted for the training and suitable settling in life of her otherwise -destitute children; but for them many a household would have been broken -up and scattered, and decently-born children and respectable matrons -reduced to the dead-level of the poor-house. But the large compassion of -those ancient benefactors of the beautiful village, and the more recent -charities of honest John Stock,[302] have enlarged and widened, as it -were, with the years and the number of the necessitous, and continue to -strengthen the hands and comfort the hearts of the widows and fatherless -with timely and efficient aid. - -The funds of the Wells Charity have grown out of all proportion to the -original intentions of the donor of them, and proposals have been made to -utilize them for the benefit of a class above those whom the foundress -desired to benefit. But the working classes themselves, or their -representatives, have suggested many ways of using them without wresting -them from their proper channel, by which not only they themselves, but -the whole community, will be advantaged. It has been suggested to build -baths and wash-houses, and a working men’s hall and institute; and who -can doubt the reciprocal blessings to rich and poor that must spring from -cleanliness, temperance, and those mental improvements which come of -intelligent association and rational means of amusement? - -Other charities exist in the parish—various bequests of small sums, which -if amalgamated, like the Campden Fund with the £40 for annually bestowing -halfpenny loaves, would create useful stock, and go far to relieve the -ratepayers of the parish. - -While these lines were being penned, we had the pleasure to see that a -memorial to the Attorney-General, with Mr. Gurney Hoare at its head, had -been signed to provide a working men’s club and institute at Hampstead -with a portion of the revenue of the Wells Charity. - -It has also been suggested, in accordance with the necessities of the -times, that a larger premium be given with apprentices, to ensure -better masters and mistresses. Some persons have even advocated a plan -for improving the dwellings of the local poor, and others, again, a -middle-class school for poor tradesmen’s children; but, unless the -funds are capable of extension to cover the whole of these plans, the -middle-class school scarcely seems to come within the scope of the -Hon. Susanna Noel’s intentions. It appears the germ of a working men’s -unsectarian club has been for some little time in existence, and that the -want of class-rooms and other suitable premises has made the members, and -the projectors and encouragers of it, actively alive to the prospect so -appositely thrown open to them. - -Soon, therefore, we may hope that a handsome building will arise—an -ornament to the town and a monument to the memory of the foundress of the -Wells Charity. - -We have already alluded to the practical services rendered by Mr. -Perceval and Mr. Montagu during their residence at Hampstead and in -its neighbourhood. It would not be difficult to trace the seeds of -the present anxiety for mental and social improvement on the part of -local working men, and the desire to aid them in their advance on -the part of their employers and friends, to the discussions of the -Philo-Investigists, and the Sunday and night schools on Rosslyn Hill. -Mr. Fearon’s philanthropy took a wider field: it belonged to no party, -or time, or class; his efforts were for the freedom of human intellect, -and the advancement through education of all. He belongs by right of -residence to Hampstead. - -There is in the churchyard a monument to two children of the Hon. and -Rev. Edward John Tornour, a member of the noble family of that name, -the seventh and, at that time, the only child of the Right Hon. Edward -Garth Tornour, Earl of Winterton, Viscount Tornour, and Baron Winterton, -who had been resident at Green Hill, Hampstead, for several years. -Benevolence seems to have been a hereditary virtue of this noble family. -Mr. Tornour took Holy Orders for love of the sacred office, and not -for the emoluments of the Church; and previous to becoming a permanent -resident of London, whither he was obliged to move for the sake of his -health, he had accepted the offices of curate, afternoon preacher, and -evening lecturer at Hampstead, where he resided till he could no longer -bear the sharp air. While there he acted as a county magistrate and -guardian of the poor. It is impossible to look at the engraved portrait -of him, after a painting by Drummond, without feeling the fine nature -of the man; the broad, full, philanthropical forehead, the large, -sweet, compassionate eyes and kindly mouth, are full of benignity and -goodness, though we are not aware that he benefited the parish he served -pecuniarily. He was living there about, or shortly before, the date -of Park’s History. The tears and blessings of the poor do not follow -the unreal Christian minister, nor the unworthy magistrate, nor the -uncompassionate guardian, and from the character given of him on his -death, and which may be seen in the pages of the _European Magazine_, we -venture to regard him as one of the Hampstead worthies. - -We find the following notice in the columns of the _Grub Street Journal_: - -‘Yesterday [April 16, 1736], of the gout in his stomach, Mr. Andrew Pitt, -of Hampstead, one of the most eminent of the people called Quakers.’ -After thirty years’ attention to business, he had, in the language of -Voltaire, who corresponded with him, ‘the wisdom to prescribe limits to -fortune and his desires, and settle in a little solitude at Hampstead.’ -Ceasing from business, however, by no means prevented his active -occupations in other ways. - -At the beginning of this year (1736) all the Nonconformists of England -were petitioning against the cruel Test Act, and Tithe Bill, and Mr. -Pitt, as the representative of his ‘people,’ waited upon the Prince of -Wales to solicit His Highness’s favour in support of the Quakers’ Tithe -Bill. Perhaps there is no greater proof of the charm of manner ascribed -to the Prince, and the tact with which he could soften even the refusal -of a request when so minded, than the fact that, though Mr. Pitt failed, -he came away greatly pleased with the Prince’s reply and his excellent -notions of liberty. - -It is evident that Voltaire had personally known Mr. Pitt.[303] He -describes him as hale and ruddy, a perfect stranger to intemperance of -any kind, and as never having suffered from sickness. - -Another inhabitant who deserves notice was Mr. Thomas Hayes, who as a -poor lad began life in the humble and unpromising capacity of a pot-boy -at a local public-house, from which post he raised himself, ‘entirely -by his own merit,’ to that of a surgeon. He received his knowledge of -pharmacy from Collins, whom Park calls ‘the glossarial stalking-horse -of Steevens.’ Mr. Hayes died May 7, 1787, beloved and regretted by his -friends and neighbours, respected and unenvied. He was laid in his native -churchyard in Maiden Lane. - -Another inhabitant of Hampstead who has won the right to be remembered -in a description of it was Mr. Thomas Mitchell, for twenty of his -forty-eight years of life a schoolmaster in the town. He was the real -founder of the Sunday-school, ‘and, by great application and attention -to its interests, left it supported on a firm basis.’ He appears to have -carried out with great earnestness the spirit of his self-made motto, -‘Do all the good you can.’ The poor were special objects of his care, -and, without the aid of money, his practical good sense and actively -philanthropical nature enabled him to strike out permanent means of -assisting them. He was one of the Society of the Philo-Investigists, -a society which, as we have elsewhere said, aimed at intellectual -improvement, and suggested the benefit society afterwards known as the -Flock of the Philo-Investigists. He did not live to see his benevolent -scheme in action; but some years after his death, in 1799, it came into -effect under the name of the Parochial Benefit Society. - -In 1802 Josiah Boydell appears to have taken a very keen interest and an -active part in the care of the poor inhabitants of Hampstead, and to have -materially aided in procuring better quarters than the old workhouse at -Frognal for the superannuants and ailing pensioners of the parish. - - -THE FATE OF A REFORMER. - -I have had occasion to speak of Mr. Abrahams’ pamphlet[304] several times -in the course of these pages, a publication that fell like a bomb in -an unexpectant place, and aroused among the well-to-do inhabitants of -Hampstead anything but gratitude. - -This gentleman, who had ‘a way,’ he tells us, ‘of looking into things for -himself,’ having become a parishioner of St. John’s, proceeded to act as -he had done when resident in St. Luke’s, London, where his scrutiny into -parochial transactions had resulted in a saving to Government of upwards -of £2,000, and a reduction of the poor rates from 4s. 8d. in the pound -to 3s., a result that led to an annual commemoration of the event at -Canonbury House. - -But the people of Hampstead did not desire to be saved from themselves, -and resented this new inhabitant’s interference with indignation. There -is something very amusing in Mr. Abrahams’ account of the proceedings. - -Provided with a list of the names of the inhabitants, he called on -the overseer of the parish and requested he would return it to him -with the figures at which they were rated to the poor. Whereupon the -irate overseer demanded to know if he came to disturb the harmony that -existed among the parishioners in a parish where everything was properly -conducted; they wanted no looking after, and therefore he should treat -his request and the list accompanying it with the contempt they deserved -by setting his pipe alight with the latter. Upon which Mr. Abrahams made -no more requests to the courteous official, but possessed himself by -other means of the amounts to which the inhabitants were assessed, and -drew public attention to the matter by the publication of his pamphlet. -It would have been well for parishes generally had they possessed a -representative as energetic as this new parishioner of St. John’s, for -the ignorance and dishonesty his pamphlet disclosed appears to have been -pretty general. - -Six years later (1817) we find Sir Walter Scott writing to his friend -Mr. Moratt, who had himself written a pamphlet on the subject, ‘Pray let -me have your pamphlet on the poor-rates as soon as it is out. It is an -Augean stable; it is the very canker in the bosom of the country, and no -small claim will he have on the gratitude of England who can suggest a -practical remedy.’ - -But the people of Hampstead, until they had tasted the fruits of Mr. -Abrahams’ interference, thought otherwise. At that time they were paying -from the inequalities of the rates 4s. 8d. in the pound poor rates, and -1s. 9d. in the pound for lighting, watching, and repairing the roads. - -In the happy days which preceded the appearance of this reformer, neither -the parson, vestry clerk, nor beadle paid rates, and, as has elsewhere -been said, the landlord of the Spaniards Inn enjoyed the same pleasant -immunity. The Lady of the Manor (Lady Wilson) was rated at £100 for the -Heath, to which the critical Abrahams objects that ‘when the rate was -made, and till within the last few years, when _so great an impetus had -been given to building_, sand, that now sold at 4s. 6d. a load, and -gravel[305] at 6s. per load, had sold for 2s. 6d. and 4s. 6d.;’ he rated -the Heath therefore at five times the sum, £500. - -Lord Erskine’s house, garden, pleasure-grounds, stables, coach-house, -etc., were also rated at £100, and very few proprietors were rated higher. - -The following are the places named in his report: Church Street, -Hampstead Hill, the Lower Flask Walk, New End, the Well Walk and -thereabouts, the Square, part of the Heath, the Terrace, Nag’s Head side, -Frognal, the Heath, and North End, the whole of which produced at that -time £21,078, but might, according to Mr. Abrahams’ rating, produce above -a fourth more, or £26,788, and reduce the poor rate by 1s. 2d. in the -pound. Amongst the land-owners mentioned at this period are the names -of Neave, Todd, Milligen, Holford, Hoare, Lord Mansfield; Everett (late -Perceval), Belsize House, Haverstock Hill; Lady Watson, Well Park—a list -not very different from Carey’s notes of the inhabitants a twelvemonth -later, in the fifth edition of his ‘Book of the Road,’ 1812.[306] He is -describing the Barnet road, which led up to and skirted Hampstead Heath: - -‘On the left of the three-mile stone from St. Giles’s Pound, Pryor, Esq.’ -(a name retained in the ‘Pryors,’ the present home of Walter Field, -Esq.), ‘whose family have been for some time resident at Hampstead.’ ‘A -little further on Belsize House, William Everett, Esq., and C. Todd, -Esq., nearly opposite to which is T. Cartright, Esq. Farther on the left -Roberts, Esq., and Coke, Esq. An eighth of a mile on the left, Rosslyn -House, Mrs. Milligen. On the top of Red Lion Hill, to the right, is T. -Gardner, Esq.; opposite is Pilgrim, Esq., adjoining to which is Mrs. Key. -On the entrance to the Heath, T. Sheppard, Esq., M.P. for Frome’ (who -resided in Steevens’ old house, now the home of the Misses Lister); and -‘across the Heath, S. Hoare, Esq., and a distant view of Caen Wood, with -the seats of Charles Bosanquet, Esq., and Lord Erskine.’ - -He does not mention Edward Coxe, the poet, who was their neighbour the -preceding year. ‘On the right is Caen Wood, Earl of Mansfield, and near -it Fitzroy Farm, Lord Southampton. Between the Castle (Jack Straw’s) and -North End, on the left, Kerney, Esq.; adjoining Ware, Esq., and opposite -S. Hoare junior, Esq., Hill House, and James Kesteven, Esq. On the right -Robert Ward, Esq., and opposite John Thompson, Esq., The Priory; and -beyond the Hoop on Golder’s Green are seats of Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., -Beck, Esq., and Amand, Esq.’ - -Abrahams tells us that in 1811 Church Street (as he calls it) had 25 -residences; Flask Walk, 58; New End, 59; the Well Walk and thereabouts, -39; the Square, 20; part of the Heath, 20; the Terrace, 58; Nag’s Head -side, 74; the Heath and North End, 38; Heath Street is not mentioned. - -In this year it is stated in the _Lady’s Magazine_: - -‘We hear that it is in contemplation to form a new Ranelagh and Vauxhall -near Chalk Farm, and a contract has been entered into for forty acres of -land to be appropriated to that purpose.’ - -New Georgia had long gone to increase Lord Mansfield’s demesne and the -acreage of Caen Wood. North End Hall and Well had proved a failure; -but the people of Hampstead and its neighbourhood still hankered after -the flesh-pots of Egypt, and regretted the affluent days of the Wells -fashion, and the bankruptcy of Belsize. Nothing, however, appears to have -come of the idea, and long years passed before the beautiful meadows in -the neighbourhood of Chalk Farm disappeared. - - -THE STRUGGLE FOR THE HEATH. - -As early as 1829 we find the freeholders and copyholders of the Manor of -Hampstead meeting at the Assembly Rooms on Holly-bush Hill, to discuss -the best means to prevent further damage being done to the Heath, by -destruction of the herbage, and digging sand and gravel thereon, as well -as to inaugurate a subscription to try by law the right of the Lord of -the Manor to so disturb and destroy it, or to build on or enclose any -part of it. - -Even prior to this date there seems to have subsisted an ill-feeling -between the inhabitants of Hampstead and Sir Thomas Wilson. The -copyholders claimed the right to improve their own copyholds by building -on them, or otherwise, as also to get materials for such purposes off -their own land, or from the waste. This matter had been tried between -Lady Wilson and Sir Francis Willes, and had gone against the latter, -because his removing the herbage had been detrimental to the rights of -the other copyholders, who on certain parts of the Heath had a right to -turn in their cattle, _levant et couchant_. Yet from the beginning of the -century, as we have seen, the digging of sand and gravel for the benefit -of Lady Wilson, and subsequently for the Lord of the Manor, had been -going on without stint, and with scarcely any intermission, though in -doing so (to quote the phrase of Professor Vaughan of Oxford, a resident -near the Heath) they were carting away the climate and the drainage, and -therefore the health of the neighbourhood, which depended on the sand and -gravel. - -But the then Lord of the Manor was not living for posterity, but for -himself. In the May previous to the meeting we have mentioned, without -even the courtesy of giving the usual notice to the copyholders, Sir -Thomas Wilson had brought his Estate Bill before Parliament, by which he -sought to abrogate the privileges of the copyholders, and appropriate -to himself the power of granting licenses to improve their customary -estates, and licenses to get materials for that purpose from their own -copyholds, upon payment of 40s. fine to the Lord of the Manor, and £3 3s. -fee to the steward for every such license. The Bill also sought power to -grant building leases of the Heath, or other wastes of the manor, and to -extend the power of granting building leases over certain lands formerly -part of the waste, which were granted by the Lord of the Manor to -himself, in the name of a trustee, with the consent of the homage, upon -the express condition _that no buildings should at any time be erected on -them_. - -It was by mere accident, it is said, that the people of Hampstead heard -of this Bill being before the House, and only just in time to oppose its -being carried through surreptitiously. - -No wonder that there were meetings in hot haste, and resolutions passed -to defend the rights and privileges of the freeholders and copyholders, -and at the same time those of the inhabitants and visitors. The -sympathy of the public, as well as of the principal residents in the -neighbourhood, was with them. Lord Clifton favoured the opposition. Lord -Mansfield headed the subscription, as we have elsewhere said, with a -donation of £50. - -The inhabitants, well aware how much of their prosperity was due to the -natural beauty of the Heath and its surroundings, gave with no niggard -hands towards the fund for its protection. But, as we subsequently learn, -the £3,000 raised by voluntary contributions was expended with no other -result than the prospect of endless litigation. - -It was impossible for this state of things to exist without a certain -degree of personal ill-feeling being imported into it. Sir Thomas was -rich and resolute, but the copyholders had their rights, and determined -to hold by them. The years ran on without any radical adjustment of the -questions at issue. - -Every now and again, not Hampstead only, but the heart of Nature-loving -London, was shaken by reports that the Heath was forthwith to be built -on, and then would come appeals for further subscriptions, with the hope -of purchasing it, appeals headed grandiloquently, but earnestly, ‘Awake! -arise! or lose the Heath for ever!’ and thenceforth other meetings would -ensue, fresh resolutions be declared, but to little apparent purpose, -so far as the assurance of the preservation of the Heath was concerned. -Happily, in the meantime, Government had taken up the question of public -parks and recreation-grounds for the people, and measures were being -adopted for the preservation of the commons at Wandsworth, Wimbledon, -Clapham, Tooting, and Putney. - -The Hampstead Heath Committee put themselves into communication with the -Board of Works, and authorized it to negotiate the purchase of the Heath -with the Lord of the Manor of Hampstead. - -But though propositions had been made for its purchase in 1856, it -was not till the latter end of 1866 that, from information received, -the Board imagined that the time had arrived when Sir Thomas Wilson -might be willing to negotiate for the sale of his rights in the Heath. -Accordingly an interview was arranged between the then Chairman of the -Board of Works, Sir John Thwaites, and the Lord of the Manor, upon what -proved to be wholly delusive premises. Instead of being willing to listen -to overtures on the subject, Sir Thomas was altogether indisposed to -entertain any such proposition, or to acquiesce with the Board in any -application for the necessary powers to deal with the Heath. - -Though himself having only a life-interest in the estate, he insisted -on regarding it as building land, and modestly estimated the value of -the property at from £5,000 to £10,000 per acre, a prohibitory price, of -course, to those who sought the purchase of the Heath. - -At the commencement of 1870 there stepped in an unexpected arbitrator, -or, as one of the vestrymen expressed it, ‘the hopes of Hampstead people -were brightened by the death of Sir Thomas Wilson.’ His brother succeeded -to the estate, and once more, and with reason in this instance, it was -said that if an offer of £50,000 was made by the Board to the new Lord -of the Manor, Sir John Maryon Wilson would be disposed to accept of -that sum, and surrender all his rights and interest in the property, -comprising an area of about 240 acres. - -In consequence of this belief, negotiations were renewed at the -suggestion of Mr. Le Breton, the representative of Hampstead at the -Metropolitan Board, an honoured name in the neighbourhood from its -associations with that of the Aikins family, Mrs. Barbauld’s grand-niece -being the wife of Mr. Le Breton. - -This gentleman, in conjunction with Mr. Gurney Hoare, and a committee of -the influential lease and copy holders, reopened the overtures for the -purchase of the Heath, which had so signally fallen through with the late -Lord of the Manor (Sir Thomas Wilson), and happily with success. - -Sir John Maryon Wilson and his son, Mr. Spencer Wilson, agreed to give up -all the rights of the Lord of the Manor of Hampstead in the Heath for the -sum of £45,000—costs to solicitors, surveyors, etc., not to exceed £2,000. - -The Lord only reserved certain defined portions for the making new roads, -which will not affect the enjoyment of the public. - -Thus the struggle between the Lord of the Manor and the people of -Hampstead—we may say, the people of the Metropolis—came to a final -close. The Bill for the Preservation of the Heath passed the Houses of -Parliament in the next spring, and the Act by which the ownership of -Hampstead Heath was transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works in -trust to maintain it for ever as an unenclosed space for the purpose of -health and recreation received the Royal Assent June 29, 1871, a day to -be long remembered in the annals of Hampstead. - -Very general pleasure and gratification was felt on the occasion by -all who knew the lovely suburb, and regarded it as a pleasure spot -of the Metropolis; and when the fears which the name of the Board of -Works evoked, of straight lines, gravel-paths, and frigid plantations, -had spent themselves in deprecating any attempt to make it other than -itself, a wild heath, disfigured by turf and gravel-digging, scarred in -all directions, and naked in parts, but with sufficient recuperative -strength, if let alone, to renew its greensward and gorse and heather, -and to restore the vigour of trees and undergrowth, a formal taking -possession of it, and dedicating it to the use of the public for ever, -was resolved on. - -The circuit of its extent was marked out with flags. The officers of -the Board of Works and local authorities were to perambulate it. But -the free atmosphere of the vagrant Heath seemed to resent the intended -formalities, and a downpour of rain put an end to the whole programme. -Flags and bands and festive company were out of the question, and the -ceremony consisted of a few officials and other gentlemen in close -carriages making the partial circuit of the Heath, pausing at certain -points where alterations and amendments were to be made, but eventually -taking the shortest road to the Flagstaff and Jack Straw’s Castle, where -the Vestry were about to entertain the officers of the Board of Works, -the local authorities, and other guests at a handsome déjeûner. At the -Flagstaff Colonel Hogg, in a brief but graceful speech, proclaimed the -fact that Hampstead Heath was dedicated to the free use and recreation -of the people for ever, and expressed a hope that it would prove -that blessing which had been so long and fondly desired by the great -Metropolitan community, the spirit of which speech, no doubt, the hearts -of all present echoed. - -Having thus far traced the story of this loveliest of London suburbs, we, -too, rejoice that its wide views on three sides can never be impeded, -but that, as in the days of Defoe, visitors to the Heath may on a clear -day distinguish in the north-west Hanslip steeple, which is only eight -miles distant from Northampton, and see the Langden Hills in Essex to the -east—objects which lie at least sixty-six miles apart. Then there is the -prospect of London, and beyond to Banstead Downs, Shooter’s Hill, and -Redhill; while on the west the view is uninterrupted to Windsor Castle. -But to the north topographers tell us we can see no further than Barnet, -which is only six miles distant. - -But, unfortunately, there were other troubles to be encountered. The -Board of Works were privileged to make grants of some portions of the -Heath, a privilege that resolved itself into helping certain influential -individuals to enclose some of the loveliest and most interesting -portions of it into their own premises. The angle of ground on which -stood the famous group of trees, the Nine Elms, was made over to the -late Lord Mansfield, with what result we all know. Another gentleman, -before a voice could be raised against it, was allowed to enclose the -loveliest bit of North End, known for generations as the Lovers’ Walk, -in his demesne. And just when a third claimant was bargaining for -the historic grove of trees called the Judge’s Walk, the remnant of -which recalls a memorable fact, not only in the history of Hampstead, -but of England,[307] Mr. Le Breton, who had fortunately heard of the -transaction, was enabled to interfere and frustrate it. - -A similar piece of good fortune helped the inhabitants to preserve the -remains of the Old Avenue at North End from being enclosed in an adjacent -demesne. The committee of the Hampstead Heath Protection Society, who now -charge themselves with looking after the Heath and maintaining it intact -for the people, are resolved on getting back as many of its original -acres as possible. When, therefore in the summer of the year 1898 the -beautiful estate of Golder’s Hill, the residence of the late Sir Spencer -Wells, was to be sold, the inhabitants of Hampstead were naturally -disturbed by the report that a syndicate of builders were plotting its -purchase, with the intention of covering the charming grounds with -streets of houses. - -Part of these grounds impinge upon the Heath, and it was said included -the Flagstaff Hill, the very crowning point of view upon it, the -threatened loss of which affected all the inhabitants, and roused, says -my authority, a collective spirit of resistance. A letter from Mrs. Hart, -widow of the artist, who had left a sum of money for such contingencies, -appeared in some of the London papers, and called popular notice to the -threatened vandalism. A committee was formed, and subscriptions were -raised, to which the local and London County Councils, as well as many of -the inhabitants of Hampstead, generously contributed, till the whole of -the purchase-money, £40,500, was in a very short time happily provided. - -It is intended to let the house, but the picturesque grounds are to be -kept in their integrity and added to the Heath, from which, the new ride -now divides them. The cost of the ground purchased averages about £1,000 -per acre. This was the price paid to Lord Mansfield for 209 acres of the -Heath, while Sir Spencer Wilson received £100,000 for sixty-one acres, -making together, with all extra expenses in the purchase of the Heath, -£302,000. - -Everyone who knows the pleasant suburb must rejoice that a neighbourhood -which has delighted the people of successive ages, as well as our own, -is reserved to give enjoyment to those who shall come after us, and that -henceforth, from generation to generation, each being, we may hope, more -able to appreciate its natural beauty than the last, Hampstead will -continue to be the scene of unnumbered holidays; the Heath, - - ‘Where sweet air stirs - Blue harebells lightly, and where prickly furze - Buds lavish gold,’[308] - -with its wide margin of hundreds of added acres, under the wise -supervision of skilled conservators, growing year by year into fuller -beauty of Nature-planted wild-flowers and indigenous furze and ferns. - -Long may the people of the close courts and alleys of London come hither -in their tens of thousands on the gold-letter days of their sparse -holidays, to revel in the winnowing freshness of its breezy height, and -pleasant groves and lanes and grassy nooks, and take back with them to -their crowded homes a measure of the health that ‘floats upon the genial -atmosphere.’ So shall Hampstead still (as in old Drayton’s time) ‘remain -the noblest hill.’ - -The old Heath covered 220 acres, so that 261 acres acquired by recent -purchase up to 1889, have more than doubled the expanse of the old Heath -(1899). - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] One find I specially remember in connection with this neighbourhood -of peculiar interest with reference to the great forest that once covered -the site: When making the railway through Gospel Oak Fields, a hillock -had to be cut through; some gigantic roots of trees, hard as ebony -and black as bog-oak, were unearthed, bearing witness to the ancient -woodlands that had covered it. - -[2] Written 1855-60. - -[3] Built in 1845-46. - -[4] Quoted by Park. - -[5] No cause is mentioned for the great increase of deaths. - -[6] ‘Pomander’: a round, perforated box, filled with musk, ambergris, -civet, or other sweet-scented ingredients. It was used to perfume -apartments, and was frequently made of some precious material. Doctors -used them for the head of the cane they usually carried as a prophylactic. - -[7] Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’ - -[8] The present sign, the copy of an older one, represents her in a red -conical hat, with a glass of ale in her hand. Her modern memorialist says: - -‘She was an old camp-follower through the campaignes of the Duke of -Marlborough, and set up a hedge alehouse after the Peace of Utrecht, with -her own portrait as a sign.’—_Ante_ ‘The Anecdote Library.’ - -[9] Blake. - -[10] Mr. Rhodes died at a house on Muswell Hill. Rhodes of Rhodesia is -said to be a near descendant. - -[11] This house appears in Hogarth’s ‘March to Finchley.’ - -[12] For some years Portland Place was used as a fashionable promenade by -the rank and fashion of the town. - -[13] Gray’s ‘Letters.’ - -[14] Romilly’s childhood’s home was in the High Street, Marylebone, then -a small village about a mile and a half from London, with the cheerful -country close to it. Sir Samuel was born 1757; he died 1818. - -[15] At the present time it is said to contain 2,245 acres. - -[16] The charter of Ethelred II. (who began to reign 979) to St. Peters, -Westminster, A.D. 986: ‘Starting from Sandgate east to Bedgar’s “Stywei” -(? lea); then south to Dermod’s house; from Dermod’s house to middle -Hamstead: so forward along the hedge to the rushes; from the rushes west -by the side of the marsh to the _barrow west_ along the boundary to the -stone pit; from the stone pit to Watling Street, so north along Watling -Street to the boundary brook, back east by the boundary to Sandgate.’ - -This last document has only lately become accessible. It is one of the -Stowe MSS. recently secured by the British Museum. This charter has, -I believe, never before been printed, except in Mr. Maude Thompson’s -catalogue of the Stowe MSS. It is No. 10 in that catalogue.—Article by -Professor J. W. Hales, M.A., F.S.A., in Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead.’ - -[17] ‘The Common-place Book’ of the late Miss Catherine Fry. - -[18] ‘Planché, who has gone deeper into the subject of the Peverels -than either Eyton, the Shropshire historian, or Mr. E. Freeman (who -rejects this supposition with contempt and indignation), puts it in this -wise: “During all the battles and commotions in Normandy preceding the -Conquest, we hear nothing of the Peverels. No land is called by their -name, nor do we hear of it till that of Ranulph, in Domesday Book, when -he figures as the lord of sixty-four manors. Planché suggests what Mr. -Eyton has overlooked that the Saxon lady of rank might have visited -Normandy before 1051, a circumstance that would remove the only serious -difficulty in the story. The latter Ranulph Peverel was the founder -of Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, as shown by Camden, Glover, Dugdale, -Sandford, Weever and others.”’ The author of the ‘Roman de la Rose’ makes -no mention of Peverel. - -[19] Norden. - -[20] London was a city long before the Romans entered it. Ammianus -Marcellinus says that 1200 years before his time it was a city, _i.e._, -about 900 B.C., which, if correct, would make it 200 years older than -Rome itself.—C. A. W. - -[21] Unfortunately, when copying this account, having no idea of using -it, I neglected to note the date or number of the magazine, but I believe -it was during Mr. Ainsworth’s editorship. - -[22] Where was Roman Lane, which Dr. Hughson must have known? - -[23] ‘Bordarii,’ I think, Park scarcely understood for a Domesday Book -word. These would not be bordarii before, but Saxon churls; and ‘hame -stead’ is ‘home station,’ _i.e._, the outhouses or cots to the big lord’s -residence.—C. A. W. - -[24] Hughson thinks that it possibly referred, by way of pre-eminence, to -the residence of the Lord of the Manor. - -[25] Sanctus Albanus Verolamiensis. - -[26] Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’ - -[27] In the reign of Henry VI., in the fifteenth century. - -[28] See Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ pp. 100, 101. - -[29] ‘Eccles. Hist.,’ ii. 324, quoted by Park, ‘History of Hampstead,’ p. -21. - -[30] Lysons. - -[31] The Heath was generally so called. Lord Erskine speaks of his house -on Hampstead Hill, The Evergreens, near the Spaniards. - -[32] Park. - -[33] _Daily Advertiser_, July 19, 1748: ‘To-morrow, the 20th inst., will -be run for on Hampstead Course, a considerable sum, between two poneys, -at the Castle on Hampstead Heath. There are great bets depending. The -poneys will be rubbed down at the Castle aforesaid.’ In reference to this -race we read: ‘On Wednesday a race was run on Hampstead Heath between a -bay poney belonging to Lord Blessington, and a gray poney of Mr. Woods, -of Jack Straw’s Castle, for a considerable sum of money, which was won by -the former.’ - -[34] Horace Walpole’s Letters. - -[35] Hampstead, July, 1810. It is stated in the _Morning Post_ that the -Hampstead Volunteers, who had been practising firing at a large target on -the Heath, ‘had fired many excellent shots, some of which nearly entered -the bull’s eye.’ They have improved upon this since then, as have also -their firearms. - -[36] Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’ - -[37] Morden’s Map of Middlesex, 1593, shows this road, which skirts the -Fleet for a short distance in the neighbourhood of old St. Pancras, and -runs up Tottenhall or Tottenham Court Road, passing by Lower Chalcot and -Upper Chalcot to Pond Street. - -[38] Burnet’s ‘History of his own Times.’ - -[39] See Macaulay’s ‘Essays.’ - -[40] Steele had his office at the Cockpit, in Whitehall. He held the post -of Gazetteer and Commissioner of Stamps. - -[41] There has been a question as to the burial-place of Steele, which -the following note, kindly forwarded me through a friend, sets at rest: -‘Sir R. Steele was buried in the church at Carmarthen, and only in -August, 1876, was there a memorial tablet placed over his remains by a -gentleman of the name of Davies. It bears the inscription: - - ‘“SIR RICHD. STEELE, KNIGHT, - - Author, Essayist, and first chief promoter of the periodical press - of England. - - Born in Dublin, March 12, 1671. - - Buried in this church, and below this tablet.”’ - -[42] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[43] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[44] A contributor to Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead’ states: ‘Under an -old thorn-tree, near the house, on the north side of the avenue, there -was within the memory of living people a dipping-well for public use.’ Is -this, I wonder, the small fountain of delicious water, the footpath to -which from the High Street Lord Rosslyn tried to stop? But, though on the -Woolsack, he failed to do so. The case appeared in a _Times_ newspaper of -1878. - -[45] At the present (1899), only one of the beautiful trees is standing. - -[46] Subsequently Sir Rowland Hill resided at Bartrum Park, a little to -the east of the green, on the same side of the way. - -[47] Where the small-pox sheds stood, the Hampstead Hospital for Fever -and Small-pox stands now (1899). - -[48] There is an engraving of this house in Mr. Gardener’s collection, -copied in Mr. Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’ - -[49] An engraving of this picture appeared in the _European Magazine_. - -[50] See Appendix. - -[51] The father of this gentleman, the second Thomas Norton Longman, -resided here. He was unfortunately killed by a fall from his horse about -1842. Soon after his daughters came to live at Frognal Rise. - -[52] ‘The Presbyterian Chapel on Rosslyn Hill was built by Isaac -Honeywood, Esq., who inhabited the adjoining mansion, and died there, -November 8, 1740. He was cousin-german to Sir Edward Honeywood, the first -baronet. Frazer Honeywood and Sir John Honeywood, of the same family, -were subsequently resident at Hampstead.’—Baines, ‘Records of Hampstead.’ - -[53] ‘Worthies of Middlesex.’ - -[54] James I., in his speech to Parliament, 1609, says that on his -entrance to England he made knights by hundreds and barons in great -numbers. - -[55] This was called Hicks’s Hall; many of the milestones were reckoned -from it. - -[56] Stowe. - -[57] This family held the Manor of Hampstead for nearly a century. - -[58] See _Notes and Queries_, s.s. viii. 511. - -[59] Park, 1813. - -[60] Spencer Perceval, who was shot by Bellingham, and is buried at -Charlton in Kent, had married the youngest of the three daughters of Sir -Thomas Spencer Wilson. - -[61] Howitt. - -[62] W. Howitt. - -[63] ‘There are periods in which the human mind seems to slumber, but -this is not one of them. A keen spirit of research is abroad, and demands -reform. Perhaps in none of the nations of Europe will their articles -of faith, or their Church establishments, or their models of worship, -maintain their ground for many years in exactly the same position in -which they stand at present. Religion and manners act upon one another. -As religion, well understood, is a most powerful agent in ameliorating -and softening our manners; so, on the other hand, manners, as they -advance in cultivation, tend to correct and refine our religion. Thus, -to a nation in any degree acquainted with the social feelings, human -sacrifices and sanguinary rites could never long appear obligatory. The -mild spirit of Christianity has, no doubt, had its influence in softening -the ferocity of the Gothic times; and the _increasing humanity of the -present period_ will, in its turn, produce juster ideas of Christianity, -and diffuse through the solemnities of our worship, the celebrations of -our Sabbaths, and every observance connected with religion, that air -of amenity and sweetness which is the offspring of literature and the -peaceful intercourse of society. The age which has demolished dungeons, -rejected torture, and given so fair a prospect of abolishing the iniquity -of the slave-trade, cannot long retain among its articles of belief the -gloomy perplexities of Calvinism, and the heart-withering perspective of -cruel and never-ending punishment.’ This is very clever writing for her, -but how absurdly wrong she is in the total! - -[64] Miss Aikin published her ‘Life of Queen Elizabeth,’ 1813. - -[65] A great man, and student of Swedenborg. - -[66] In 1461 we find the Abbot and Convent of Westminster instituting -John Barton to the Rectory of Hendon _cum capella de Hamsted_ eidum -annexa.—PARK. - -In the time of Edward VI., the curacy of Hampstead was valued at £10 -per annum; but up till that time the inhabitants chiefly consisted of -laundresses and their families. - -[67] Park’s ‘History.’ - -[68] He built St. Giles’s Church. - -[69] For a portrait of Harrison, see the _European Magazine_, October, -1789. - -[70] I regret that on my recent visit to the churchyard I found this -description no longer true. An air of neglect, very painful to one who -remembers its appearance thirty years ago, pervades it now; and all the -neatness and care seems to be transferred to the newer portion of the -graveyard on the opposite side of the church. - -[71] On the last occasion of my visiting the graveyard (1896), I could -not find this tomb. - -[72] Copied for me by Mrs. Godfrey Turner. - -[73] The toll is still exacted. Several attempts have been made by the -parish authorities to extinguish the right, but they have never come to -terms with the successor of Miss Sullivan (1899).—G. W. P. - -[74] The church now St. John’s. Rebuilt in 1745. - -[75] Lysons, ‘Environs of London.’ - -[76] The Rev. Samuel White, at that time resident at Frognal. - -[77] ‘At the above date Hampstead, with many other parishes, took -advantage of a statute passed in the reign of George I., which, with -the consent of the major part of the parishioners, empowered the -churchwardens and overseers of parishes to purchase or hire any house -in the parish, or to contract with any person to lodge and keep and -employ the poor ... hiring them, in fact, to contractors. The system, -for a while, appeared to work well, but after a time ceased to be -useful.’—HOWITT, ‘Northern Heights.’ - -[78] It was he who built the magnificent Chesterfield House, Mayfair. - -[79] Park, p. 342. - -[80] Obituary, _European Magazine_, 1804. Haydn says 1805, which is wrong. - -[81] Howitt, ‘Northern Heights of London.’ - -[82] Every ticket was sold before the drawing took place. - -[83] Obituary, _European Magazine_, of this month and year. Haydn says -1805. - -[84] Fenton House has had many tenants in modern times, amongst them the -Honourable Miss Murrays and the Baroness Grey. It has been called the -Clock House, a resident, some thirty years ago, having placed a sham -dial-plate on the front of the entrance porch. - -[85] Park, the historian of Hampstead, so often referred to in these -pages.—C. W. - -[86] I have a clinging impression that much of the ‘Vanity of Human -Wishes’ was composed in Greenwich Park without being committed to paper, -but I cannot refer now.—Note by C. A. Ward, Esq. - -[87] Mrs. Desmoulins had lived with Mrs. Johnson for some before her -marriage with the Doctor. - -[88] Mr. G. W. Potter reminds me that a very interesting discussion -and much correspondence has recently (May, 1899) taken place as to the -house inhabited by Dr. Johnson, the result being that Park’s account is -believed to be quite correct, viz., that it was the last house south in -Frognal. Park’s father had lived for years in Hampstead, and at the same -time as Dr. Johnson; he must, therefore, have given his son accurate -information on the point. The house in question is now called Priory -Lodge, and the difficulty arose from its being a large house with a very -large garden and stabling. ‘I was enabled,’ continues my correspondent, -‘to point out that the large garden and stables were taken from Frognal -Hall only some thirty-five years since, and that at the same time large -additions were made to the house itself. A Mr. Watson, whose father I -well remember, saw my letter in the _Hampstead Express_, and corroborated -it, saying that his father, who had lived in it—_i.e._, Priory Lodge—some -fifty years ago, had also enlarged it. An inspection of the house shows -that it has grown from a very moderate-sized house to a much larger -building.’ - -[89] Howitt. - -[90] In 1868 Frognal House was used as the Sailors’ Daughters Orphan -School, and continued for some twelve years to be so used, till the house -on Green Hill was ready for their occupation. - -[91] The original house was known as North Court, and a public well which -existed on Branch Hill, Park tells us, was known as North Hole. - -[92] Lord Burlington was the friend of Handel, who lived in his house -for three years. ‘He used to drive down to the Foundling Hospital with -Gay in his coach-and-four, to hear Leveridge sing there—“Leveridge, with -his voice of thunder.”’ Lord Burlington patronized music, literature, -painting, and architecture. - -[93] Exactly opposite Montagu House is the modern North London -Consumption Hospital, on Mount Vernon. - -[94] Park, ‘History of Hampstead.’ - -[95] The first charity school was established in St. Margaret’s, -Westminster, 1688. - -[96] Henry James, _Harper’s Magazine_, September, 1897. - -[97] At one period Miss Jane Porter occupied Grove House. - -[98] Constable painted it, and subsequently exhibited his picture, ‘A -Romantic House, Hampstead.’ - -[99] Hone, of the ‘Table-Book,’ has given an account of Thompson. - -[100] It was said that Soho Square and many streets in its neighbourhood -belonged to him. - -[101] A Jacobean porch said to have belonged to an old Shropshire -manor-house. - -[102] I believe Thompson did bequeath to the Queen a beautiful bedstead -of ivory or some costly material.—C. A. Ward. - -[103] _Vide_ Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights.’ - -[104] T. Norton Longman, who died at Hampstead, February 5, 1797, aged -sixty-six, and was buried at Barnet. Nichols gives an account of him in -‘Literary Anecdotes,’ vi. 439. _Vide_ Park. - -[105] The sketch referred to is now in the collection of Landseer’s early -drawings in the South Kensington Museum. It is said to be wonderfully -lifelike. - -[106] Park. - -[107] I am informed by Mr. G. W. Potter, who was a member of the court -for thirty years, that the manorial courts are still held at Manor Lodge, -which is in the lane near Frognal, and which is said to stand on the site -of the old manor-house. - -[108] It now stands an empty and desolate building. The tenant, for some -breach of the law, forfeited his license about three years ago, and the -disreputable old inn is now (1899) advertised for sale as a building -site.—G. W. P. - -[109] This year (1896) it is said that this is to make room for a new -road. - -[110] Mr. Joseph Hoare died at Child’s Hill House in 1886. - -[111] This house is now let as a school for young gentlemen. - -[112] Her real name was Mrs. Hemet, Lessingham being the name she adopted -for the stage. - -[113] In January, 1773, Mrs. Lessingham was playing Lucy in ‘The Rivals,’ -at Covent Garden. - -[114] This gentleman died some twenty years ago, and the house is now -occupied by its owner, Mr. Gross. - -[115] Mrs. Miles, widow of John Miles, Esq., was buried in the family -vault in Hampstead Parish Church, which was specially opened for the -purpose. - -[116] Neither Park nor Abrahams mentions Heath Street, though many of the -houses look very old. - -[117] This is now the middle of Heath Street, and divides old or Upper -Heath Street from Lower Heath Street, leading to Fitzjohn’s Avenue. - -[118] It has been suggested to me that it was so called from Kit’s cates. - -[119] Cunningham says _circa_ 1700. - -[120] ‘Dunciad.’ - -[121] ‘Mirror.’ - -[122] It was Dr. Garth who, being present on an occasion when the Duchess -of Marlborough was pressing the Duke to take a medicine, and, with her -accustomed warmth, added, ‘I’ll be hanged, Duke, if it do not prove -serviceable!’ exclaimed, ‘Do take it, my Lord Duke, for it must be of -service in one way or the other!’ - -[123] Lately blown down and destroyed (1895). - -[124] Park. - -[125] Edward Coxe. - -[126] Mr. Steevens left the greater part of his property to his niece, -Miss Steevens, who died at Hampstead. - -[127] Locally memorable as the last person who wore a pigtail at -Hampstead. - -[128] Park. - -[129] C. Deane was another artist who loved and painted Hampstead Heath. -He exhibited a scene from Hampstead at the British Gallery in 1823—a most -perfect representation of local scenery. I owe this note to an odd number -of the _Literary Gazette_. - -[130] Alfred Edward Chalon proposed to give, in 1859, to the inhabitants -of Hampstead his own large collection of sketches, and his brother’s -unsold works, and some endowment to uphold the collection, if they would -provide suitable premises; but it fell through by their default, and he -died on October 3, 1860. - -[131] Varley was very chary of drawing horoscopes. He was often -terrifically right. - -[132] ‘A copy of the ancient customs used in the Manor of Hampstead was -made, February 14, 1753, from a paper found by Mr. Tims at Jack Straw’s -Castle, where several of the bailiffs of the manor had lived, and, from -the style of the writing, appeared to have been written eighty or ninety -years before.’—Baines, ‘Records of Hampstead.’ - -[133] ‘Pickwick Papers.’ - -[134] There is a quaint detached tea-room at the Spaniards, approached by -an outside flight of wooden steps. Until about thirty years ago there was -inscribed on one of the panes of glass in the end window the autograph of -the late Emperor of the French. He is said to have cut this inscription -with a diamond ring, about 1845-46, when in exile here as Prince Louis -Napoleon. The window has been altered, and the pane has disappeared.—G. -W. P. - -[135] When Gibson wrote his additions to Camden, 1695, Mother Huffs was -a house of entertainment on Hampstead Heath. I have recently learned -that in an old map of 1630 a small house near the Elms is marked ‘Mother -Houghs.’ - -[136] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[137] It was Martin who inaugurated the idea. - -[138] This house was occupied for many years by Captain Sir Edward -Parry, the Arctic explorer, who was connected by marriage with the Hoare -family.—G. W. P. - -[139] ‘Sylvan Sketches,’ by the author of ‘Flora Domestica,’ 1825. - -[140] ‘Collins’ and Tooly’s Farm were two adjoining but separate -grass-farms; now they are one, in the occupation of the late Mr. Tooly’s -son. Mr. Collins was the occupant of the other, and lived in the -farmhouse, or cottage, where Dickens and so many other famous men have -lived. This cottage is now occupied by Mr. Arthur Wilson, the son of the -late Rev. Daniel Wilson. He has added to the cottage without in any way -spoiling it.’—G. W. P. - -[141] The new paling at the end of the holly hedge shows the place where -the nine elms and the old seat stood. - -[142] Said by some writers to have been married in 1776—a statement -disproved by the magazines of the day, and by the fact of Mrs. Crewe’s -magnificent masquerade in 1775. There is a portrait of Mrs. Crewe painted -by Reynolds. - -[143] The members of this celebrated club included the Dukes of Roxburghe -and Portland, the Earl of Strathmore (whose encounter with the highwaymen -on Finchley Common I have alluded to), Mr. Crewe, Fox, Sheridan, Lord -Carlisle, and others. The club was established in Pall Mall in 1764, -and the proprietor in 1775 founded the present Brooks’s, in St. James’s -Street. - -[144] Mirabeau, in one of his letters, tells of two ladies just arrived -from Paris with tall feathers in their hats, who, as he was conducting -them from the Bell Inn, Holborn, to Hatton Garden, were surrounded by -a mob, from whom they were only rescued by some English gentlemen on -horseback, who used their whips on the crowd, and thus dispersed it. - -[145] Sir Aston Lever, who had just made a present of his collection to -the British Museum. - -[146] Fox’s verses to Mrs. Crewe were printed at Strawberry Hill. - -[147] On his death-bed Fox observed: ‘There are two things I wish -heartily to see accomplished—peace with Europe, and the abolition of the -slave-trade; but of the two, I wish the latter.’ - -[148] While rewriting this chapter, a sale of Romney’s engravings took -place at Christie’s, when Lady Hamilton as ‘Nature,’ engraved in colours -by Meyer, sold for 100 guineas (May, 1894). - -[149] This picture, I am told, is not by Romney. - -[150] It must be patent to everyone that, had the Assembly House been -originally built for that purpose, a proper entrance would have formed an -essential part of it, whereas, as I have said, it was without one till -quite modern times. - -[151] I am indebted to Mr. G. W. Potter for the above information. - -[152] The birch-tree, with its light sprays and silvery bark, is very -frequently styled the ‘Lady of the Woods.’ Constable used the appellation -in connection with the beautiful ash metaphorically. - -[153] ‘Goldsmith’s English, when English comes to be the sole tongue -wanted to run the wide world round, as it spins by day and night under -the sun, will necessarily be more and more resorted to as the best -model to be had of plain and simply effective speech. His “Village” -and his “Vicar” will be carefully searched into to help counteract the -ever-augmenting virus of vulgar dialectical debasement from oversea -offshoots, colonial or enfranchised, that is to-day poisoning the living -font of Chaucer. Addison will then be less read than even now he is, and -Johnson will never be sought for at all out of Boswell. The huge autocrat -of yesterday is with the worms to-morrow, and Oliver, “who talked like -poor Poll,” will then sit enthroned as preceptor of English to the -universe.’—Mr. C. A WARD. - -[154] I am reminded that Mr. Richardson, the friend and correspondent of -Sir W. Scott, resided here for several years. - -[155] - -DE MONTFORT: A TRAGEDY. - -PLAYED FOR THE FIRST TIME AT DRURY LANE, APRIL 29, 1800. - -_Characters._ - - De Montfort Mr. Kemble. - Rezenvelt Mr. Talbot. - Albert Mr. Barrymore. - Manuel Mr. Powell. - Jerome Mr. Dowton. - Conrad Mr. Caulfield. - Jane de Montfort Mrs. Siddons. - Countess Miss Heard. - -[156] ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott,’ vol. ii., pp. 267, 268. - -[157] Sir Walter Scott paid his last visit to Hampstead and Joanna -Baillie in April, 1828. It might have been on this occasion that Mrs. -Howitt met him. - -[158] To-day the inscription on her tomb needs the tender hand of Old -Mortality to remove the lichen that hides it! - -[159] _Athenæeum_, March 20, 1861. - -[160] There is but one good portrait of Goldsmith—that painted by his -friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, now at Knowle. - -[161] Loggan had been dwarf to the Princess of Wales. He kept a -hairdresser’s shop on the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, and painted fans, -which were ornamented with likenesses of all the most important persons -who appeared there. - -[162] See p. 165. - -[163] At this time Miss Aikin had published her ‘Memoirs of the Court of -Queen Elizabeth,’ and Miss Edgeworth was writing ‘Comic Dramas.’ - -[164] It will be remembered that the Hoare family allied themselves by -marriage with the Norfolk Gurneys, the Buxtons, and the Frys. - -[165] This name is now given to a row of poor little modern dwellings at -North End. - -[166] I find it is a tradition in one of the oldest families on Hampstead -Heath that this avenue formerly belonged to Lord North’s House. - -[167] Mr. G. W. Potter tells me a very aged walnut-tree still stands in -this paddock, and may be the tree referred to. - -[168] It shows a want of archæological interest to have altered the name. - -[169] Dryden. - -[170] North End House is now the residence of Mr. Figgis; and I read -in Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead’ that the room fraught with such sad -interest is used as a day-nursery. - -This does not appear to be the description of a room that would adapt -itself, or be capable of adaptation to the uses of a day-nursery; and we -sincerely hope that Mr. Baines has been misinformed, and that the room -remains as when Mr. Howitt described it, sacred to the memory of the -great orator. - -[171] I have several times been in this historic room, and visited it -only last summer with the Hampstead Antiquarian Society. The room is a -double one: the smaller apartment has the double-hatch door, and the -larger room opening from it is quite large enough for a nursery. The -tradition is that the Earl of Chatham occupied the double apartment.—G. -W. P. - -[172] Horace Walpole, who also vindicated Byng, and regarded his fate as -a gross injustice, or, rather, we should say, a judicial murder, tells -us that, being with Her Royal Highness Princess Amelia at her villa of -Gunnersbury, amongst other interesting anecdotes, she told him that while -Byng’s affair was depending, the Duchess of Newcastle sent Lady Sophia -Egerton (the wife of a clergyman, by the way) to beg her to be for the -execution of the Admiral. ‘And, indeed,’ she continued, ‘I was already -for it. The officers would never have fought if he had not been executed; -nor would Lord Anson have been head of the Admiralty.’ - -[173] I have seen it this year (1895), and rejoice at its healthy -appearance. - -[174] Tom Hood. - -[175] The bower or seat at the Bull and Bush is about 12 feet from the -ground, among the branches of the yew-tree, and is reached by a rude -staircase. The tree was a very ancient one, but a ring of young shoots -have sprung up from the roots, and are growing vigorously round the spot -where the old trunk stood.—G. W. P. - -[176] Hughson’s ‘History of London,’ 1809. - -[177] This well-known physician has died since these lines were written. - -[178] These fields are now covered with houses. - -[179] Mrs. Barbauld’s ‘Richardson’s Correspondence.’ - -[180] I believe the elm has been preserved, but the house has been -removed. - -[181] Mr. Le Breton, who heard him, says it was the first large elm-tree -on the Heath. - -[182] The Park, Brussels. - -[183] Said to have been one of the most reliable of Charles Kean’s stock -pieces. - -[184] Leigh Hunt and his brother had been condemned to two years’ -imprisonment each, and a fine of £1,000, for having, as he ludicrously -phrases it, contrasted the _Morning Post’s_ description of the Regent -as an Adonis in appearance, and the Mæcenas of his age, with the old -real, fat state of the case, and for having said that H.R.H. had lived -for fifty years without doing anything to deserve the admiration of his -contemporaries or the gratitude of posterity. - -[185] A tradition of the inhabitants of the cottage when I saw it. - -[186] These lines do not appear in ‘Sleep and Poetry,’ in Moxon’s edition -in the Pocket Series. - -[187] Old John Cleave, the publisher, and friend of Douglas Jerrold and -William Linton, who visited Leigh Hunt in his Surrey cage, told me that -not only were the walls covered with a rose-patterned paper, but that the -poet had trained living roses on them. - -[188] _Vide_ Mary Cowden Clarke. - -[189] Millfield Lane is said to be a very ancient road. This was the -road traversed by the mounted messenger in 1780 who was despatched for -the military, while the would-be wreckers of Lord Mansfield’s house were -being regaled by the landlord of the Spaniards Inn. - -[190] A fungus so called. - -[191] Hammond’s house was in Elm Row. - -[192] Some persons have asserted that Lord Byron was one of Leigh Hunt’s -visitors in the Vale of Health, but Hunt himself tells us that though -Lord Byron visited him in Horsemonger Lane Gaol, he did not afterwards. -His interviews with Lord Byron took place at his lordship’s town-house. - -[193] In the garden of which her three-year-old son celebrated his -mother’s birthday by eating laburnum seeds, which nearly killed him. - -[194] Those who have had experience of forestry consider the mighty -beeches and oaks in Caen Wood to be the real descendants of the primeval -giants of the old Forest of Middlesex. - -[195] Lloyd’s ‘Caen Wood and its Associations.’ A lecture. - -[196] State Calendars of Charles I. and II., April 24, 1630, and -September 21, 1660. - -[197] There is a tradition that the ponds were enlarged, if not made, by -the Monks (Lloyd). - -[198] The old mill has still a local tradition in Millfield Lane, by -which it was approached from the hamlet of Green Street, Kentish Town -(_ibid._). - -[199] Haydn. - -[200] The South Sea Scheme, thus called. - -[201] Lloyd. - -[202] It was Lord Bute who granted Dr. Johnson a literary pension of £300 -a year. - -[203] Here are all the letters—Kaen, Caen. - -[204] The inscription was as follows: ‘I, Robert Caxton, begun this place -in a wild wood ... stubbed up the wood, digged all the ponds, cut all -the walks, made all the gardens, built all the rooms with my own hands. -Nobody drove a nail here, or laid a brick, or a tile, but myself; and ... -thank God for giving me strength at sixty-four years of age, when I began -it,’ etc. - -[205] Edited by Colley Cibber. - -[206] Mr. G. W. Potter informs me, that while a skating pond was being -enlarged about seven or eight years ago, traces of this strange building -were found. - -[207] It was said of Murray, that he had less law than many lawyers, but -more practice than any. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was one of his -clients. - -[208] Referred to in a speech, at a City banquet, by Sir Bartle Frere, -July, 1874. - -[209] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[210] _Ibid._ - -[211] That of the claimant to the Tichborne baronetcy. - -[212] It is curious to notice the different description of the event -which Mrs. Delany (writing at the same time as Horace Walpole) gives -us, the latter averring that the Guards, a thousand strong, had been -despatched to prevent the intended arson, whilst the lady writes that the -mob was met by a regiment of militia on the march, who turned them back. -It is plain that Horace Walpole’s description was correct, otherwise -there would have been no obligation to the landlord of the Spaniards, -which, it is said, Lord Mansfield never forgot. - -[213] Abraham states that the Spaniards Tavern paid no poor rate. There -may be no relation between the facts, but as cause is wanted for this -exemption, one wonders if the saving of Caen Wood had anything to do with -it. - -[214] More than £30,000 by the burning of his house. - -[215] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[216] Lambert tells us that amongst the celebrated cedars of Lebanon at -Caen Wood, young when he saw them, was one planted by Lord Mansfield -himself. - -[217] The ‘Man Milliner,’ as a correspondent of the _European Magazine_ -writes himself, suggests in the August number of that year (1781) that -Lord Southampton at Fitzroy Farm might with advantage stucco the front of -his three rooms to the west. His neighbour Lord Mansfield’s south front -will show him the permanent beauty of the _new stucco_. - -[218] I have been told that this portrait is still preserved at Caen Wood -House. - -[219] The freeholders and copyholders of the manor did not even receive -the courtesy of a notice of the intention to bring in the Bill, which was -almost surreptitiously passed through the House. - -[220] Prints of the handsome arch were treasured in Hampstead homes long -after the event. One of them, coloured and gilt, is now before me, rather -the worse for sixty-three years’ wear and tear. - -[221] The Styrian Hunters were a band of foreign musicians so called, -very popular in London just then. - -[222] This was written in 1872 before the great hillocks had been -levelled, or the pits and hollows filled up. - -[223] It is the belief of geologists that the whole of Middlesex was the -bed of an estuary of the sea, from which the waters subsided into the -Thames. - -[224] A lady whose girlhood was spent at Hampstead tells me she used to -find bright little stones amongst the gravel, locally known as ‘Hampstead -diamonds’; a ring made of them, in her possession, still sparkles very -prettily. - -[225] These have been found in the gravel-pits, and also a specimen of -_Concha rugosa_. - -[226] Authors of the ‘History of Clerkenwell,’ London, 1828. - -[227] So called because formed of the united streams which supplied the -city and suburbs with clear, sweet, and wholesome water in the west part, -whose first decay was owing to certain mills erected thereon by the -Knights of St. John, and by degrees gave it the name of Turnmill Brook, -which name is still preserved in Turnmill Street, through part of which -it took its course. In time this name was lost in that of Fleet Dyke or -Ditch. - -[228] There is a mystery about this Walk which, when I first knew -Hampstead, I often heard spoken of. Now I am told, on very reliable -authority, that no such Walk exists; yet the above traditional account -of the course of the Fleet was given me as late as 1895 by a very -intelligent inhabitant, and he spoke of Willow Walk as if he knew it. - -[229] After great falls of snow or heavy rains, the Fleet frequently -overflowed the Pancras valley and the Bagnigge Wells Road, rendering them -impassable in places. - -[230] The Holborn Bars are removed, but the posts stand. - -[231] These latter buildings, or part of them, I am told, are still in -being, and used for their original purpose. - -[232] A celebrated house, much frequented by the wits. This mention of -Nando’s Coffee-house reminds me that it figures in one of the amusing -papers in the _Tatler_ (No. 180), which Steele had started in 1709. In -this paper the public are informed that ‘a coach runs daily from Nando’s -Coffee House to Mr. Tiptoe’s Dancing School’; and then is added by way of -postscript, ‘Dancing shoes not exceeding four inches height in the heels, -and periwigs not exceeding three feet in length, are carried in the coach -box gratis,’ a satire upon the high heels and exaggerated wigs then in -vogue. - -[233] There was, I am told, an old weather-boarded house opposite the -Wells Tavern called _Willow_ House, which remained till some twenty years -ago, when its site, and that of its large garden, were built upon, and -six or more houses were erected there. This was probably the type of the -early houses in Well Walk. - -[234] There was a coach running in 1708. - -[235] See Haydn’s ‘Dictionary of Dates.’ - -[236] Bank Holidays, though in the near future, had not been inaugurated -when this was first written. - -[237] Gibson, who published his additions to Camden at the Black Swan, -Paternoster Row, 1695, tells us that Mr. Pittiver found what he calls -cluster-headed goldy-locks (_Ranunculus bulbosus?_) in going from Mother -Huffs’ to Highgate. Mother Huffs’ would seem to have been situated pretty -near the Spaniards Inn, and was in all likelihood a tea-drinking house. - -[238] The murderer of a Mr. Posto. - -[239] The Bird-in-Hand, like the old post-office, was said to be of the -same age as the Chicken House. - -[240] This ungraceful adjunct to dress was flourishing when these lines -were first written (1852-53). - -[241] I respect the unknown hand that appended the above newspaper -cutting to Soames’ ‘Treatise on the Hampstead Wells,’ in the -reference-room of the Hampstead Library. - -[242] In 1721 the tavern in Well Walk was called the White Stone Inn. - -[243] Anderson’s ‘Life of Gay.’ - -[244] In this same year, 1722, I find Gay writing to Swift that he -is persuaded Pope had borne his share in the loss of the South Sea—a -sentence that says much for the fortitude and unselfish forbearance of -the latter who had taught himself in this instance to forget his own loss -in endeavouring to strengthen and comfort his friend and fellow-sufferer. - -[245] Lady Betty Germain, second daughter to Earl Berkeley, Lord Chief -Justice of Ireland, to whom Swift was either private secretary or -chaplain, or both(?). Visitors to Knowle will remember Lady Betty’s -chamber, and the bed-hangings, chair-covers, etc., of the lady’s own -embroidering. - -[246] This description is repeated in every edition of this work, long -after the Assembly-room had ceased to exist, and is given verbatim in -several topographical descriptions of Hampstead. - -[247] That this too ambidextrous individual visited Hampstead is well -known. But so she did Belsize and Ranelagh, as well as the opera, -the theatres, and, indeed, the churches—every place, in fact, where -well-dressed persons congregated. Many years ago an old inhabitant of -Hampstead lent me a scrap-book in which was a likeness of Jenny Diver, -a by no means unpleasant-looking woman. She was represented with an -ostentatious display of pearls and other ornaments round her neck and -waist. She held a watch in one hand, and a purse in the other, and under -a cap wore her hair turned back from a rather clever forehead; the -remainder, while tied behind with a ribbon, fell in loose curls upon her -neck. Gay introduces her in the ‘Beggars’ Opera.’ According to the text, -she was demure-looking. March, 1740, closed Jenny’s career at Tyburn. - -[248] The daughters of Mrs. Hervey. - -[249] It could not have been the Marriage Act that put an end to it, as -that was not passed till 1753, and Sion Chapel had ceased to be before -1725. - -[250] _Connoisseur._ - -[251] Dr. Arbuthnot died in March, 1734-35. - -[252] He was a Scotchman. Letter of Mr. Pulteney to Swift. See -‘Correspondence.’ - -[253] I am told that this custom is still maintained. - -[254] This is precisely the language of Jonas Hanway, the traveller, -and introducer of that useful article, the umbrella. This was also the -favourite argument of the clergy, when preaching against the use of tea, -as they also did against vaccination. - -[255] I am told by an old resident that as late as 1830 there was but one -butcher’s shop in Hampstead. - -[256] A ridiculous custom, of which an account will be found in Hone’s -‘Table Book.’ - -[257] _Connoisseur._ - -[258] Quoted in ‘Hampstead and the Heath,’ which appeared in _Sharpe’s -Magazine_ early in the sixties. - -[259] Twelve months later, 1736, Turpin rides on the Highgate road, -wearing an open gold-laced hat, while his companion (who sometimes passes -for his man) has a plain gold-laced hat. - -[260] He was Court painter to George II., and the translator of ‘Don -Quixote.’ Sir Joshua Reynolds thought so little of his paintings that -when asked where they were to be seen he replied, ‘In the garret.’ - -[261] Tried for bigamy, and found guilty, 1776. - -[262] The Duke of Grafton was Lord Chamberlain. - -[263] Mrs. Donnellan (the prefix Mrs. was then frequently applied to -unmarried ladies) was the daughter of Chief Justice Donnellan, and sister -to the Bishop, of Killala. Dr. Clayton married her sister, and gave his -wife’s fortune to Mrs. Donnellan, who seems to have passed a great part -of her life in England, making Hampstead a frequent place of residence. - -[264] The rich and beautiful Widow Pendarves married the Irish Dean -Delany, 1732, to the great disgust of John Gay. See his letter to Swift -in the correspondence of the latter. ‘As Dr. Delany hath taken away a -fortune from us, I expect to be recommended in Ireland. If authors of -godly books are entitled to such fortune, I desire you would recommend me -as a moral one—I mean in Ireland, for that recommendation would not do in -England’ (Swift’s Correspondence). - -[265] I have seen it stated that the burial-place of Pope is unknown. - -[266] Clergymen extolled ‘Clarissa’ in the pulpit, and Pope observed of -‘Pamela’ that it would do more good than all their sermons. - -[267] The _Daily Advertiser_, September 26, 1748. - -[268] William Moray, for robbing John Head, a farmer’s boy, of sixpence -(_Universal Magazine_, February 15, 1775). - -[269] About nine o’clock on a July morning, Turpin was seen by two -gentlemen who knew him, at Tottenham High Cross, mounted on a gray horse, -with a boy behind as servant on a brown horse, with a black velvet cap -and silver tassel. He rode through the town without molestation.—_Grub -Street Journal_, 1736, No. 397. - -[270] Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ published when the author was little -more than of age. - -[271] Mr. Baines, in his ‘Records of Hampstead,’ has remedied this -oversight, and has given some interesting particulars of the young -historian’s after-life. - -[272] Then the Green Man. - -[273] I am told upon excellent authority that the house Constable lived -in was taken down and rebuilt about six years ago; this house is now 44, -Well Walk. - -[274] Sion Chapel. - -[275] Mr. G. W. Potter. - -[276] Now Tooley’s Farm. - -[277] Lintot. - -[278] Hogarth is said to have painted this picture at Hampstead. - -[279] Mrs. Delany was a Granville. - -[280] Richardson’s ‘Correspondence’ - -[281] ‘Gray was a little man of very ungainly appearance.’—HORACE WALPOLE. - -[282] The name of one of his poems. - -[283] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ - -[284] Wordsworth. - -[285] Charles and Mary Lamb were at this time living in Russell Street, -over a brazier’s shop. - -[286] The fields commonly called the Conduit Fields lie under Fitzjohn’s -Avenue, and a fountain at a corner of it represents the conduit. - -[287] Keats. - -[288] Brewer’s ‘Middlesex.’ - -[289] Park calls him her second husband, which is wrong. See Pepys’ -‘Diary,’ vol. i., p. 6. - -[290] See Lord Braybrooke’s ‘Notes to Pepys’ Diary,’ vol. iv. - -[291] Not his son, as a recent writer on Belsize asserts. - -[292] These gentlemen were German Lavie, James Abel, Thomas Roberts, and -Thomas Forsyth, Esqs., of Hampstead. - -[293] - - ‘And on each side the gate a grenadier; - Howe’er, they cannot speak, nor see, nor hear; - But why they’re posted there no mortal knows, - Unless it be to fright jackdaws and crows.’ - -A modern writer on the neighbourhood appears to have been misled by these -lines into the supposition that the gates were guarded by living soldiers. - -[294] Belsize House stood at the bottom of the present avenue. One of the -last inhabitants was old Mr. Martinez, of the famous firm of port-wine -shippers, Martinez, Gassiot and Co, Mark Lane, about 1847.—C. A. Ward, -Esq. - -[295] When Lysons wrote his ‘Environs of London,’ 1812, Belsize was a -subrural place, the house modern. - -[296] There was a little stile in the lane, at the south-west corner of -the estate, and this was the spot of the murder, just as Delarue was -mounting it. - -[297] Letter of Lucy Aiken to Mrs. Mallett, Hampstead, September, 1845. - -[298] The Kilburne rises near West End, Hampstead, and passes through -Kilburn to Bayswater, supplying the Serpentine River, Hyde Park; and in -Park’s time it flowed through the fields to the Thames at Ranelagh. - -‘In a note sewn into a copy of the “Speculum Britanniæ,” wrought by -Travaile, and view of John Norden of Fulham, in the year 1596,’ the name -is spelt three different ways—Kylburne, Keylbourne, Kulleburne (quoted -from Baines’ ‘Records,’ etc.). - -[299] Great-uncles to the present Sir Charles Dilke. - -[300] The author of the ‘Saturday Half-Holiday Guide’ mentions a pure -white variety of _Campanula rotundifolia_ growing on the Heath, but I -never had the good fortune to meet with it. - -[301] All the plants enumerated in this catalogue have been found by the -writer in the habitats indicated on Hampstead Heath. - -[302] In reference to this charity, the following paragraph from the -‘Monthly Chronicle’ of the _European Magazine_ for January, 1790, is -interesting: ‘At a meeting held in London of the trustees of John Stock, -Esq., of Hampstead, who bequeathed a bounty of £100 a year to be divided -amongst ten poor curates of the Church of England, whose incomes should -not exceed £40 per annum ... thirty-eight petitions were presented and -read from poor curates to partake of his benevolence, many of whose -stipends were not more than £25 yearly, with which they have to support -numerous and burdensome families. As ten only could receive the gift, -twenty-eight were unsuccessful candidates.’ - -[303] In the winter of 1727 Voltaire was lodging at the White Peruke, -Covent Garden, and visiting Pope at Twickenham. It may have been on this -occasion that he made the acquaintance of Mr. Pitt. - -[304] ‘A Pamphlet on the Unequal and Partial Assessments; or, The Book -of Assessments to the Poor Rates of the Parish of St. John, Hampstead, -in the County of Middlesex, laid open by A. Abrahams, 1811, with a view -to Meliorate the Situation of the Middling and Lower Classes by a New -Assessment.’ - -[305] At this time twenty loads per day passed through Hampstead, besides -what went other ways. - -[306] Abrahams mentions Miss Baillie at Frognal, and G. Paxon the -Flask—the Lower Flask, of course. - -[307] The reason for the name of this avenue has been gravely questioned, -and the legend attached to it is looked upon as a mere fable. But in 1859 -Sir Francis Palgrave, then Deputy-Keeper of the Record Office, discovered -a full account of the assize which was held under these memorable trees -in the year 1662—Communicated by G. W. Potter, Esq. - -[308] ‘Endymion.’ - - - - -INDEX. - - - Abbey Fields, 346 - - Abel, James, 100, 333 - - Abraham, Mr., ‘Book of Assessment’ by, 66 - - Adam and Eve, The, 15 - - Adelaide, Queen, visits Hampstead, 231-233 - - Addison, 45, 121, 261, 280 - - ‘Additional Notes,’ Crosby’s, 2 - - Aikin, Dr., 67 - - Aikin, Dr. John, 67 - - Aikin, Lucy, 67, 75, 166, 343 - - Ainsworth, Harrison, 4, 14 - - Airy, Julius Talbot, 89 - - Akenside, Dr., 95, 176, 314 - - Albert, Prince, 56 - - Alexander, William, 87 - - Alfred, King, 6 - - Alvanley, Lady, 36, 89 - - Alvanley, Lord, 89 - - Ampthill Square, 14 - - Andrews, Alderman Sir J. W., 90 - - Angler’s Lane, 3 - - Arbuthnot, Dr., 121, 261, 272, 273, 280 - - Argyle, Duke of, 219 - - Armstrong, Dr., 312 - - Askew, Dr., 83 - - Assembly Room, 145, 270, 300-302 - - Assessment, Abraham’s Book of, 66 - - Atye, Sir Arthur, 345 - - - Baillie, Agnes, 157 - - Baillie, Dorothea, 153 - - Baillie, James, D.D., 153 - - Baillie, Joanna, 81, 100, 143, 154-158, 315 - - Baillie, Matthew, 153 - - Baillie, W. H., 158 - - Baines, 2 _et passim_ - - Baker, William, 121 - - Ballantyne, Mr., 76 - - Barbauld, Mrs., 67, 153, 159, 313 - - Barbauld, Rochemont, 58, 67 - - Bartholomew, Valentine, 15 - - Battle Bridge, 13 - - Baxter, John, Gent., 10 - - Beattie, Dr., 313 - - Bedford Garden, 18 - - Bedford House, 13, 18 - - Bedingfield, Daniel, 80 - - Bell, Mr., 49 - - Bellingham, assassin of Spencer Perceval, 340 - - Belsize, 11, 329-343 - - Belsize Avenue, 50, 341 - - Belsize Crescent, 341 - - Belsize Gardens, 50, 181, 335, 341 - - Belsize Grove, 50, 53 - - Belsize House, 333-341 - - Belsize Lane, 53, 341, 342 - - Belsize Square, 341 - - Benefactors of Hampstead, 368 - - Bentham, General Sir Samuel, 110 - - Bergh, 297 - - Besant, Sir Walter, 101 - - Bill, John, sen. and jun., 5, 11, 216 - - Bird in Hand, The, 58, 259 - - Bishop’s Wood, 195 - - Blackmore, Sir Richard, 121 - - Blackwood, Mrs. _See_ Dufferin, Lady Helen - - Blackwood, Sir Stevenson Arthur, K.C.B., 53 - - Blake, William, 14, 43, 126, 136 - - Bliss, John, 298 - - Bockett family, The, 97 - - Bolton House, 143, 144, 158 - - Booth, Barton, 87, 122, 310 - - Bosanquet, Charles, 135 - - Boswell, James, 308 - - Bowes, Andrew Robinson, 15 - - Bowling Green House, 13 - - Boydell, Alderman, 90 - - Boydell, Colonel Josiah, 36, 88, 117 - - Branch Hill, 97 - - Branch Hill Lodge, 97, 98 - - Bremer, Frederika, 326 - - Brewer quoted, 55 _et passim_ - - Bridges, William, 218 - - Brill Tavern, 13 - - Britton, 12 - - Broad Walk, 115 - - Brown’s Dairy, 15 - - Brown’s Well, 45 - - Buckingham, Duke of, 56 - - Bull and Bush, The, 47, 174 - - Burford Lane, 58 - - Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, 61 - - Burlington, Lord, 99 - - ‘Burlington Harry,’ 79, 98 - - Burney, Frances, 70, 138, 313 - - Bute, Lord, 219 - - Buxton, Sir Fowell, 180 - - Buxton, Mrs. Charles, 180 - - Byron, Lord, 198, 209, 315 - - - Caen Wood, 6, 10, 11, 19, 133, 203, 206, 215-235 - - Caen Wood House, 220 - - Caenwood Farm, 191 - - Camden, 23 - - Camden Town, 14, 16, 50 - - Campbell, Lord, 50 - - Campden Charity, The, 115, 186 - - Cannon Place, 190 - - Cantleowes, Manor of, 216 - - Carey, John, 124 - - Carey’s ‘Book of the Roads,’ 43 - - Carlton Road, 4 - - Carr, Thomas, 100 - - Cattle Market, The new, 50 - - Causton, Robert, 220, 284 - - Cedar Lawn, 115, 164 - - Chalk Farm, 321; Old, 322 - - Chalon, Alfred Edward, 125 - - Chalons Brothers, 297 - - Chapone, Mrs., 70, 313 - - Charities of Hampstead, 368. _See_ Campden - - Charles, Elizabeth Rundle, 102 - - Charter of Ethelred II. to St. Peter’s, Westminster, 21 - - Chatham, Lord, 169-172 - - Chesterfield, Earls of, 52, 332, 333 - - Chicken House, The, 55, 221, 311 - - Child’s Hill, 113, 183 - - Child’s Hill House, 113 - - Child’s Hill Lane, 185 - - Christchurch, 295 - - Christian, Princess, 102 - - Chronometer, John Harrison, inventor of the, 80 - - Church, The, 65 - - Church Lane, 65 - - Church Row, 65, 77 - - Cibber, Colley, 87, 122, 281, 309, 311 - - Clarke, Charles Cowden, 202, 208, 316 - - Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, 208 - - Clarke, Sir Thomas, 97 - - Clock House, 93 - - Cock and Hoop, The, 111 - - Codrington, Robert, 31 - - Cole, Mr., 89 - - Coleridge, S. T., 134, 205 - - Collins, 53 _et passim_ - - Collins’ Farm, 136 - - Collins, Wilkie, 76 - - Collins, William, 135, 178, 204 - - Combe Edge, 101 - - Common Rights, 116; struggle for, 231, 377 - - Conduit Fields, 54, 55, 321 - - Consort, Prince, 235 - - Constable, John, R.A., 81, 102, 125, 149, 188, 204, 294-296 - - Consumption Hospital, North London, 99, 101 - - Copenhagen Fields, 50 - - Copenhagen House, 50 - - Coram, Captain, 307, 311 - - Cort, Henry, and the iron trade, 80 - - Coxe, Edward, 134, 137, 324 - - Crabbe, Dr. George, 313 - - Craddock’s Coffee-house, 250 - - Craik, Mrs., 180 - - Crewe, Mrs., 138, 314 - - Crewe, John, 139 - - Crokesley, Richard de, Abbot of Westminster, 27 - - Crosby, 2 - - Crump, Miss, 320 - - - D’Aumont, Duc, French Ambassador, 333 - - Davy, Sir Humphry, 100 - - Day, author of ‘Sandford and Merton,’ 176 - - Defoe, 25 - - Delany, Mrs., 69, 225, 283 - - Delarue, James, Murder of, 342 - - Denman, Lord, 71 - - Dickens, Charles, 129, 136 - - Disney, Admiral, 52 - - Diver, Jenny, 269 - - Dobson, Austin, 76 - - Doddridge, Dr., 67 - - Domesday Book, 8 - - Donnellan, Mrs., 282, 309, 312 - - Downing, Sir George, 11 - - Downshire Hill, 54 - - Drayton, Michael, 25 - - Dufferin, Lady Helen (Mrs. Blackwood), 211 - - Du Maurier, George, 101 - - Dyson, Hon. Jeremiah, 176 - - - East Heath, 124 - - East Heath Tavern, 196 - - Edgeworth, Lovell, 176 - - Eleven Sisters, The, 168 - - Elizabeth House, 58 - - Elm, Irving’s, 187 - - Elm, The Great Hollow, 31 - - Elm Row, 119 - - Elms, The Nine, 323 - - Enfield, Dr., 67 - - England’s Lane, 49 - - Erskine House, 130 - - Erskine, Lady, 83 - - Erskine, Lord, 130, 133, 227, 314 - - Ethelred II., Charter of, to St. Peter’s, Westminster, 21 - - Euston Road, 13 - - Evelyn, John, 23, 24, 333 - - Everett, Mr., 340 - - Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, 131, 314 - - - Faux, Guy, 5 - - Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, 107 - - Fenton House, 91, 165 - - Fenton, Philip Robertson, 93 - - Ferns, The, 107 - - Finchley Common, 45 - - Finchley Road, 183 - - Fir-tree Avenue, 148 - - Fisher, Mr., 166 - - Fitzjohn’s Avenue, 321 - - Fitzstephen, 23 - - Flagstaff, The, 127 - - Flask Walk, 4 - - Flaxman, 136 - - Fleet, The, 2, 29, 241 - - Fleet Road, 2, 49 - - Flitcroft, Mr. (‘Burlington Harry’), 79, 98 - - Flora of Hampstead, A fragment of the, 362-368 - - Foley House, 18 - - Foley, Lord, 18 - - Folkard, Master, and common rights, 116 - - Footpads, 14, 16, 18, 34, 111, 129, 183, 254, 264, 280, 289-291 - - Forbes, Lord William, 219 - - Forsyth, Thomas, 333 - - Fortune Green, 109 - - Foundling, The, 13 - - Fox, Charles James, 71 - - Francis Street, 14 - - Francis’s Fields, 14 - - Frazer, Colonel, 118 - - Freeling, Sir Francis, 52 - - Friars, Preaching, 2 - - Frognal, 23, 85 _et seq._ - - Frognal End, 101 - - Frognal Grove, 86, 99 - - Frognal Hall, 86, 89, 95 - - Frognal House, 86, 89, 97 - - Frognal Lodge, 86 - - Frognal Priory, 102-106 - - Frognal Rise, 87, 97 - - Fry, Miss Catherine, 22 - - Fuller quoted, 61 - - - Gainsborough, Baptist, third Earl of, 62, 249, 303 - - Gainsborough Gardens, 292 - - Gainsborough Mansions, 292 - - Gale, the antiquary, 56 - - Galloway, Earl of, 52, 54 - - Games, William Langhorne, 63 - - Garrick, 310 - - Garth, Dr., 121, 261 - - Gate-house, The, or Park Gate-house, 128 - - Gay, 14, 17, 280, 286, 338 - - Gayton Road, 58 - - Gell, Sir William, 71. - - Geology of the Heath, 236-240 - - George Inn, Kilburn, 346 - - Gibbet Elm, 172 - - Gibbons, Dr., 194, 251 _et seq._ - - Gilchrist, 124 - - Gillies, The Misses, 75 - - Gipsies, 115, 327 - - Godfrey, Sir Edmondbury, 43 - - Godwyn, a hermit, 344 - - Golden Square, 119 - - Golder’s Green, 182 - - Golder’s Hill, 177, 182 - - Goldsmith, Oliver, 122, 128, 151, 160, 310, 347 - - Goodwin, Dr., 298 - - Gordon Rioters and Lord Mansfield, 225 - - Gospel Oak Fields, 2, 6 - - Granville, Lord, 182 - - Gray, Thomas, 18, 312 - - Gray’s Inn Road, 13 - - Great Plague, The, 10, 14 - - Green Hill, 57, 58 - - Greening, Mr., 148 - - Gregory, proprietor of the _Satirist_, 104 - - Greville, Fulke, 138 - - Grey, Baroness, 93 - - Grisoni, Signore, 56 - - Gross, Mr., 116 - - Grove Passage, 119 - - Gunpowder Plot conspirators, 5 - - Guyon family, The, 89 - - - Hales, Professor J. W., 21 - - Hall Oak Farm, 110 - - Hall, Rev. Newman, 190 - - Hamilton, Duchess of, 118 - - Hampstead, Benefactors of, 368 - - Hampstead Fair, 256 - - Hampstead, Flora of, 362-368 - - Hampstead Gardens, 54 - - Hampstead, Geology of, 236-240 - - Hampstead Green, 53 - - Hampstead Hill, 33, 161, 289, 383 - - Hampstead, Old, 1-11; population, 1811-1891, 12; early history, - 20-32; in the Great Plague, 32; view of the Great Fire from, - 33; volunteers in 1803-4, 36; and the Church, 60 - - Hampstead, Old Ways to, 41 - - ‘Hampstead, Records of,’ Baines’s, 2 - - Hampstead Road, 17 - - Hampstead Water Company, 242 - - Hampstead Woods, 30 - - Harraden, Miss, 76 - - Harrington, Sir James, 5, 216 - - Harrington Square, 14 - - Harrison, John, inventor of the chronometer, 80 - - Harrison, Mrs., 191 - - Hart, Mrs., 382 - - Hart, Sir John, 242 - - Haverstock Hill, 43, 49, 50, 145 - - Haverstock Terrace, 50 - - Hay, Lord, 218 - - Haydon, 109, 202 - - Hazlitt, W., 202 - - Heath, The, encroachments on, and Sir Maryon Wilson’s Estate - Bill, 231; the struggle for the, 377 - - Heath Cottages, 191 - - Heath End House, 134 - - Heathfield House, 124 - - Heath House, 354-357 - - Heath Lodge, 115, 173 - - Heath Street, 58, 119 - - Hendon, 8 - - Henry VIII.’s Palace, 15 - - Henry VIII., Hampstead in reign of, 8; proclamation of, - regarding game at Hampstead, 28 - - Hicks’s Hall, 61 _et passim_ - - Hicks, Michael, 61 - - Hicks, Sir Baptist, 61 - - Highgate, 50 - - Highgate Hill, 6 - - Highgate Ponds, 204 - - High Street, The, 58 - - Hill, The, or Hill House, 115, 164, 166 - - Hill, Sir Rowland, 53 - - Hindley, John, complacent egotism of his tombstone, 84 - - Hoare, Francis, 164 - - Hoare, Gurney, 168 - - Hoare, Joseph, 113 - - Hoare, Samuel, 340, 354 - - Hocker, Thomas Henry, murderer, 342 - - Hodgson, Mrs., 164 - - Hogarth, 230, 307, 347 - - Holford, Charles, 296 - - Holford, George, 148 - - Holford, Major Charles, 36 - - Holford, Mr., 340 - - Holford Road, 124, 137, 190 - - Holly-bush Assembly Room, 143-145 - - Holly-bush Hill, 143, 149 - - Honey, Maria, 81 - - Honeywood, Frazer, 58 - - Honeywood, Isaac, 58 - - Honeywood, Sir Edward, 58 - - Honeywood, Sir John, 58 - - Hooker, W. J., 23 - - Howell, Mr., an eighteenth-century Barnum, 334 - - Howitt, Mary, 326 - - Howitt, William, 2; ‘Northern Heights of London,’ 52 _et passim_ - - Hughson, Dr., 26 - - Hunt, Leigh, 16, 109, 196-211, 316 - - - Incledon, 82 - - Inns. _See_ Taverns - - Iron Trade, Henry Cort and the, 80 - - Irving, Edward, 187 - - Irving’s Elm, 187 - - - Jackson, The Misses, 293 - - Jack Straw’s Castle, 34, 126 - - James I., 56 - - Jeffrey, Lord, 43 - - Johnson, Dr., 70, 93, 94, 95, 122, 152, 305, 313, 324 - - Johnstone, Mrs., 187 - - Judd Street, 15 - - Judges’ Walk, 76, 137, 188, 325 - - - Keate, Thomas, 256 - - Keats, 200, 202, 293, 316, 317; bust of, 83 - - Kelly, Miss, ‘the beautiful Irish girl,’ 266 - - Ken Wood. _See_ Caen Wood - - Kentish Town, 3, 14 - - Kestevan, Thomas, 100 - - Kilburn, Hamlet of, 344-353 - - Kilburn Priory, 122, 347, 349-353 - - Kilburn Nunnery, 345, 348 - - Kilburn Wells, 346, 347 - - King’s Cross, 3 - - King’s Hill, 30 - - Kirkhoven, Poliander de, 332 - - Kirkhoven, Charles Henry, created Lord Wotton, 332 - - Kit-Cat Club, 43, 120, 254 - - Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 121, 122, 261, 281 - - - Lamb, Charles, 36, 202, 209, 316 - - Landseer, Sir Edwin, 108, 124 - - Langhorne, Sir William, 62 - - Lavie, German, 100, 333 - - Le Breton, Mrs., 73 - - Le Breton, P. H., 75, 157, 243 - - Leg of Mutton Pond, 114, 115, 326 - - Leggett, Mrs., 88, 192 - - Leslie, 124, 149, 204 - - Lessingham, Mrs., 115 - - Lime-tree Avenue, 308 - - Linnell, 124 - - Lister, Mrs., 124 - - Lloyd, Mr., 5 - - Load of Hay, The, 43, 45 - - London, Predicted destruction of, in 1750, 35 - - ‘London Improved’ (1766), 12 - - Long Room, The, 253, 269, 278, 281, 295, 297, 308, 314 - - Longman, T. Norman, 108, 111 - - Longman, William, 57 - - Loughborough, Lord. _See_ Rosslyn, Lord - - Lovells, The, 212 - - Lovers’ Bank or Walk, 180 - - Lower Flask Walk, 58, 194 - - Lower Heath, The, 43 - - Lyndhurst Road, 53 - - Lysons, 2 _et passim_ - - - Macclesfield, Lord Chancellor, 97 - - Manor Farm, 110 - - Manor House, The, 108 - - Manor Lodge, 111 - - Mansfield, Lord, 5, 56, 129, 221-235, 314 - - Mansion, The, Frognal, 85 - - Marsham, Henry, Lord Scrope of, 8 - - Martinez, Mr., 340 - - Maryon, Mrs. Margaret, 63 - - Maryon, Rev. John, 63 - - May, Richard, 61 - - Meteyard, Eliza, 47, 76, 180 - - Middlesex, Elections for, on top of Hampstead Heath, 33 - - Miles, John, 117 - - Millfield Lane, 204 - - Milligan, Mrs., 52 - - Mitchell, Thomas, 100 - - Montagu, Edward, 99 - - Montagu House, 98 - - Montague, Mrs., 72, 284, 310 - - Montgomery, ‘Satan,’ 314 - - Moore, Tom, 43 - - More, Mrs. Hannah, 313 - - Morel, L’Abbé, 85 - - Morland, 136 - - Mother Huffs’, 258, 285 - - Mount, The, 119 - - Mount Vernon, 87 - - Mulock, Dinah, 180 - - Murray, Hon. Misses, 93 - - - Neave, Thomas, 98 - - Netley Cottage, 152 - - Netmaker, Mr., 10 - - New End, 192, 193 - - New Georgia, 220 - - New Grove House, 101 - - New North End Hall Wells, 181 - - New Reservoir, 124 - - New Road, 13 - - New West End, 113 - - Newton, Sir Adam, 63 - - Nicoll, Miss Christian, 77 - - Nine Elms, The, 137, 323 - - Noel, Hon. Susannah, 249, 303 - - Noel, Sir Edward, 62 - - Norden, 24, 25 - - North Court, 98 - - North End, 135, 160 - - North End Hill, 34, 115, 326 - - North End House, 168, 170, 182 - - North End Road, 115, 182 - - ‘Northern Heights,’ Howitt’s, 2 _et passim_ - - North Heath, 135 - - North Hole, 98 - - North London Consumption Hospital, 99, 101 - - North, Lord, 169 - - Norway House, 58 - - Nunnery, Kilburn, 345, 348 - - - Oak Hill House, 187 - - Oak Hill Lodge, 187 - - Ogilby’s Guide, 17 - - Old Mother Red Cap, The, 13, 15 - - Old Ways to Hampstead, 41 - - Ollier, 202 - - O’Neale, Daniel, 331 - - Otley, Richard, 192 - - Oussulston, Hampstead in Hundred of, 20 - - Oxford Street, 14, 18 - - - Palgrave, —, 18 - - Palgrave, Sir Francis, 53 - - Palmer, Sir Geoffrey, 11, 331 - - Pancras, St., boundaries of Hampstead, 2 - - Pancras Vale, 17 - - Parish Church, 78, 82 - - Park, 2 _et passim_ - - Park Gate-house, 128 - - Park Road, 49 - - Park, Thomas, 292 - - Parker, Colonel, 98 - - Parliament Hill, 4, 5, 217 - - Parnell, 121 - - Parry, Sir Edward, 134 - - Patmore, Coventry, 181 - - Pavilion Cottage, 211 - - Paxon, Mr., 197 - - Pelham, Diana, 217 - - Pennant, —, 18 - - Pepys, 11, 330 - - Perceval, Spencer, 64, 340 - - Perrin’s Court, 65 - - Peverel, Ranulph, 21, 22 - - Peverel, William, 22 - - Piozzi, Mrs., 70, 184 - - Plague, The Great, 10, 14 - - Platt, Thomas, 113 - - Platt’s Lane, 113 - - Pond Street, 43, 53, 194, 361, 362 - - Ponds and Waterworks, The, 241-248 - - Pool, Thomas, 111 - - Poor Robin’s Almanack, 18 - - Pope, 14, 45, 121, 280, 285, 286, 324 - - Portland, Duke of, 18 - - Portland Place, 18 - - Potter, G. W., 95, 303 - - Povey, Charles, 333 - - Powell, D., 116 - - Powell family, The, 345 - - Preaching Friars, 2 - - Priestley, Dr., 67 - - Prince Arthur’s Road, 57 - - Priory, The, at Kilburn, 122, 347; legend of, 349-353 - - Priory Lodge, 95, 96 - - Prospect Terrace, 188 - - Pump-House School, 297 - - Pump Room, The, 300-302 - - - Queen Square, 13, 18 - - - Race-course, The, 34 - - Raresby, 218 - - Red Lion Hill, 58, 67 - - Reformer, The fate of a, 374-377 - - Reynolds, Miss, 310 - - Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 151 - - Rhodes, Mr., 14 - - Rich, Lady Charlotte, 123 - - Richardson, Samuel, 162, 283, 287, 309, 311 - - Roads, Carey’s Book of the, 43 - - Robarts, Abraham, 180 - - Roberts, Thomas, 333 - - Robinson, Crabb, 71 _et passim_ - - Rogers, Samuel, 314 - - Romilly, Sir Samuel, 19 - - Romney, 143, 145 - - Rosslyn Hill, 56, 67 - - Rosslyn Hill Schools, 57 - - Rosslyn House and Park, 19, 50, 314 - - Rosslyn Lodge, 54 - - Rosslyn, Lord Loughborough, Earl of, 50, 314 - - Rosslyn Street, 54, 56 - - Rous, Mr., 271 - - Routh, Mr., 253 - - Russell, Admiral Lord Edward, 33 - - Rye, Walter, 87, 97 - - - Sadleir, John, M.P., suicide of, 38 - - Sailors’ Daughters Orphan School, 97 - - St. Giles’s Pound, 17 - - _St. James’s Gazette_, 1685, 11 - - St. John’s Parish Church, 78, 107 - - St. John’s Wood, 30 - - St. Mary, Frognal, 85 - - St. Pancras, 13, 29 - - St. Peter’s Westminster. _See_ Westminster - - ‘Sandford and Merton,’ Day, author of, 176 - - Sandy Road, 135 - - Saunderson, Mr., and St. John’s Church, 79 - - Schemelpennick, Mrs., 72 - - Scott, Sir Gilbert, 101 - - Scott, Sir Walter, 315 - - Scrope of Marsham, Henry, Lord, 8 - - Sedley, Sir Charles, 45 - - Selwyn’s ‘Diary’ quoted, 51 - - Seward. Miss, 313 - - Sewell, Dr. George, 175 - - Sharp, Henry, 101 - - Shelford Lodge, 52 - - Shelley, 200, 202, 316 - - Shelley, Mary, 4, 203 - - Shepherd’s Fields, 321 - - Shepherds’ Well, 54 - - Sheppard, Thomas, 124 - - Shipton, Mother, 324 - - Shoolbred’s, 14 - - Shuttop Hill, 345 - - Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, 82 - - Silver Street, 119 - - Sion Chapel, 253-255, 270 - - Smith, Horace and James, 202 - - Soames, Dr., 273-278 - - South End, 320 - - South End Green, 4, 245 - - South End Road, 3 - - South Hill Park, 4 - - Southampton, Lord, 84 - - Spaniards, The, 119, 226 - - Spaniards Garden, 128 - - Spaniards Road, 164 - - Spark, Michael, 32 - - Sports at Belsize House, 335, 339 - - Squire’s Mount, 4, 164 - - Stanfield, Clarkson, 57 - - Stanfield House, 57 - - Stanhope, Arthur, 333 - - Stanhope, Colonel James Hamilton, suicide of, 235 - - Stanhope, Lord Henry, 331 - - Stanhope, Philip, 333 - - Stanton, Samuel, 122 - - Steele, Sir Richard, 43, 121, 254, 261, 280 - - Steele’s Terrace, 48 - - Steevens, George, 100, 116, 123 - - Stephenson, Benj. Charles, F.S.A., 93 - - Stormont, Lord, 234 - - Strathmore, Lady, 15 - - Sullivan family, The, 85 - - Sullivan, Miss, her toll-gate, 77 - - Swift, Dean, 49, 121, 261, 266, 273, 280, 286, 332 - - - Talfourd quoted, 36 - - Taverner, Richard, 345 - - Taverns and Tea-houses: Adam and Eve, 15; Bird in Hand, 58, - 259; Bull and Bush, 47, 174; Cock and Hoop, 111; Copenhagen - House, 50; Craddock’s, 250; East Heath Tavern, 196; Flask - Tavern, 99; George Inn, 346; Jack Straw’s Castle, 126; Load of - Hay, 43, 45; Mother Huffs’, 258; New Georgia, 220; Old Mother - Red Cap, 13, 15; Spaniards, 119, 226; Tea-gardens at Kilburn, - 346; Upper Flask, 120; Whitestone Inn, 265 - - Taylor, the Water-poet, 33 - - Tea-gardens, Kilburn, 346 - - Tea-houses. _See_ Taverns - - Telford, 202 - - Thompson, ‘Memory Corner,’ 103 - - Thompson, Mr. Maude, 21 - - Thurlow, Lord, 270, 314 - - Thurlow Road, 54 - - Toll-gate, Miss Sullivan’s, 77 - - Tolmer Square, 16 - - Tonson, Jacob, 121 - - Tooly’s Farm, 136 - - Tottenham Court Road, 13-15, 17 - - Tottenham Fields, 14 - - Toupees, The, 311 - - Tradescants, The, 331 - - Traitors’ Hill, 4, 50 - - Trimmer, Mrs., 71 - - Turner, Mr., 135 - - Turner’s Wood, 220, 284 - - - Upper and Lower Flask, Origin of, 250 - - Upper Bowling-green House, 122 - - Upper Flask Tavern, 43, 47, 99, 100, 119, 120, 325 - - Upper Heath, 100, 126 - - Upper Park Road, 49 - - Upper Terrace, 113 - - - Vale of Health, 109, 110, 194, 213 - - Vale Lodge, 212 - - Vane House, 56, 235, 359 - - Vane, Sir Henry, 11, 53, 359 - - Varley, 126, 136 - - Veil, Colonel Sir John de, 17, 289 - - Venner, 218 - - Vivian, John, 180 - - Volunteers, Hampstead, 1803-4, 36, 299 - - - Waad, Armigall, 329 - - Waad or Wood family, The, 329 - - Waad, Lady Anne, 330 - - Wales, Prince and Princess of, at Belsize Gardens in 1721, 335 - - Walk, The Judges’, 76, 137, 188, 325 - - Walker, Thomas, 98 - - Walpole, Horace, 35 _et passim_ - - Walpole, Lord, 100 - - Walpole, Mrs., 118 - - Ware, Isaac, 88 - - Warwick, Earl of, 122 - - Warwick, John, Earl of, 345 - - Water Company, Hampstead, 242 - - Waterworks, The Ponds and, 241-248 - - Watling Way, The, 23, 24 - - Watts, Mr., Curate and Lecturer, 276 - - Weatherall Place, 253 - - Wedderburne, Mr., afterward Lord Rosslyn, 50 - - Well Walk, The, 191; early period, 249-267; second period, - 268-291; the modern, 292-303 - - Weller, Margaret Marie, 63 - - Weller, Jane, 63 - - Welling’s Farm, 14 - - Wells Chapel, 299 - - Wells Charity, 78, 249, 302, 303 - - Wells, Sir Spencer, 182 - - Wells, The, 12, 32, 47; New North End Hall, 181 - - Wentworth Place, John Street, 357 - - West End, 85 _et seq._, 107 - - West End Green and fair, 112 - - West End House, New and Old, 117 - - West End Lane, 107, 109 - - West Heath Road, 97, 115 - - Westminster, St. Peter’s, Charter of Ethelred II. to, 21 - - Westminster, Richard de Crokesley, Abbot of, 27 - - Whichello, Abel, 278, 279 - - White, Charles, engraver, 17 - - White, Rev. Samuel, 87 - - White, Robert, engraver, 17 - - Whitestone Inn, 265 - - Whitestone Pond, 124, 188, 323 - - Whitfield, George, 34 - - Wildwood Avenue, 137, 168 - - Wildwood Corner, 17, 254 - - Wildwood Cottage, 168 - - Wildwood Grove, 167 - - Wildwood Lodge, 174 - - Wilkinson, Mr. Garth, 76 - - Wilkes, the actor, 87, 122 - - Willes, Sir Francis, 182 - - William IV. and Queen Adelaide visit Hampstead, 231-235 - - Willow House, 252 - - Willow Walk, 245 - - Wilson, Arthur, 136 - - Wilson, General Sir Thomas Spencer, 63 - - Wilson, Lady, 182 - - Wilson, Sir John, 243 - - Wilson, Sir John Maryon, 64 - - Wilson, Sir Maryon, 7 - - Wilson, Sir Spencer Maryon, 64 - - Wilson, Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon, 64 - - Wilson, Sir Thomas Maryon, 63 - - Wilson, Thomas, 89 - - Windmill Hill, 143, 152 - - Winford, Lady Cook, 17 - - Withers, Mr., 218 - - Wood, Anthony à, 45 - - Wood, Mr., 271 - - Woods, Hampstead, 30 - - Wordsworth, 100, 109, 315 - - Wotton, Catherine, 331 - - Wotton, Lord, 11, 331 - - Wotton, Lord Charles, 331 - - Wotton, Lord Thomas, 331 - - Wright, Henry, 340 - - Wroth, John, 61 - - Wroth, Sir Thomas, Kt., 60, 181 - - - Young, Dr., 310 - -[Illustration] - -_Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London._ - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET HAMPSTEAD AND ITS -ASSOCIATIONS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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White</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Sweet Hampstead and its Associations</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Caroline A. White</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 26, 2021 [eBook #64394]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: MFR and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET HAMPSTEAD AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS ***</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_i"></a>[i]</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">SWEET HAMPSTEAD.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘A village revelling in varieties.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Leigh Hunt.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a>[ii]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/deco-rooster.jpg" width="200" height="285" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_iv"></a>[iv]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus1"> -<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>A Bit of Old Hampstead, New End.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v"></a>[v]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="titlepage larger"><span class="red">S</span>WEET <span class="red">H</span>AMPSTEAD<br /> -<span class="smaller"><span class="red">A</span>ND <span class="red">I</span>TS <span class="red">A</span>SSOCIATIONS.</span></p> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> -MRS. CAROLINE A. WHITE.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container smaller"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘When shall we see you at sweet Hampstead again?’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Constable.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage"><span class="red">LONDON:</span><br /> -ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.<br /> -1900.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a>[vi]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span></p> - -<p class="dedication">I DEDICATE THIS BOOK<br /> -TO THE<br /> -<span class="larger">CONSERVATORS OF THE HEATH,</span><br /> -AND TO<br /> -ALL WHO LOVE ‘SWEET HAMPSTEAD’<br /> -FOR ITS OWN SAKE.<br /> -<br /> -<span class="dedi-r">THE AUTHOR.</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</span></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">PREFACE.</h2> - -</div> - -<p>As illustrating the very common axiom that extremes -meet, a preface at the beginning of a book is, as -a matter of course, the last thing that is written. -In the present instance, having stated my reasons -for writing ‘Sweet Hampstead’ in the introductory chapter, -a preface seems almost redundant. Moreover, I have an -idea that prefaces as a rule are not popular reading, but -literary custom being stronger than private opinion, I must -revoke my heresy.</p> - -<p>It is very many years since the thought of writing the -story of Hampstead occurred to me. I found that previous -writers had left the most important period of its local history, -and the most interesting personages who had vitalized it, -with little more than a passing reference; and thence it was -that the desire to occupy unbroken ground took possession -of me.</p> - -<p>But the years alluded to were amongst the busiest of a -busy life, when I was ‘coining my brains for drachmas,’ or -their equivalent in British currency, and had no time for the -dreamland of topographical speculation. The engagements, -however, that hindered my design opened up many sources -of material for future use; and as topography is always -a literary mosaic, their diversity tended to enrichment.</p> - -<p>Thus it came to pass that the first draft of my book was -laid aside, but never forgotten, for more than thirty years, -and has only recently been reverted to—a task that has -been a delight, bringing back—though sometimes through -a mist of tears—images of the past, with pleasant memories<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span> -of sunny days that, looked at from the perspective of eighty-nine -years, seem brighter even than sunshine is itself.</p> - -<p>From such a pile of years I almost lose the author’s dread -of the critic. Praise or blame are to me now much the same; -but, being a woman, I still prefer the praise.</p> - -<p>I cannot close these preliminary words without expressing -my obligations to Mr. P. Forbes for the eight sketches he -has permitted to be copied for the beautifying of the book; -to Messrs. Oetzmann for some illustrations so kindly lent; to -Mr. Baines, not only for a similar favour, but for help from -his valuable ‘Records of Hampstead’; and to the proprietors -of the <i>Municipal Journal</i> for the charming picture of the -viaduct.</p> - -<p>My thanks are also due to Mrs. Rosa Perrins, to Miss -Kemp, Miss Quaritch, and Mr. M. H. Wilkin, who have all -kindly assisted me. I also desire to acknowledge my indebtedness -to Mr. Lloyd, of Highgate, for information gathered -from his clever lecture on ‘Caen Wood and its Associations.’ -To the courtesy and kindness of Mr. G. W. Potter I owe -much original material, and many interesting notes; and -I also desire to thank Mr. C. A. Ward for the personal -interest he has taken in my work, and the great help he -has ungrudgingly given me in preparing and correcting it for -the press. I can only add that should my book be found so -readable as to convey to others some share of the pleasure -I have felt in writing it, or lead in more capable hands to -future research and a fuller development of a delightfully -interesting topic, ‘Sweet Hampstead’ will have fulfilled its -intention, and I can sing with an unknown poet of the -sixteenth century:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Now cease, my lute: this is the laste</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Labour that thou and I shall waste,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And ended is that we begun;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Now is this song both sung and past:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My lute, be still, for I am done.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS.</h2> - -</div> - -<table summary="Contents"> - <tr> - <td class="tdr smaller">CHAPTER</td> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td>INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER">1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">I.</td> - <td>HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">20</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">II.</td> - <td>THE WAYS TO HAMPSTEAD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">41</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">III.</td> - <td>THE DESCENT OF THE MANOR</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">60</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IV.</td> - <td>CHURCH ROW AND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">65</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">V.</td> - <td>FROGNAL AND WEST END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">85</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VI.</td> - <td>WEST END TO CHILD’S HILL AND THE WEST HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">107</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VII.</td> - <td>HEATH STREET TO THE UPPER FLASK AND SPANIARDS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">119</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">VIII.</td> - <td>HOLLY-BUSH AND WINDMILL HILLS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">143</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">IX.</td> - <td>NORTH END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">160</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">X.</td> - <td>FINCHLEY ROAD, CHILD’S HILL, AND NEW END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">183</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XI.</td> - <td>THE VALE OF HEALTH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">194</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XII.</td> - <td>CAEN WOOD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">215</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XIII.</td> - <td>THE GEOLOGY OF THE HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">236</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XIV.</td> - <td>THE PONDS AND WATER-WORKS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">241</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XV.</td> - <td>THE WELL WALK—THE EARLY PERIOD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">249</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XVI.</td> - <td>THE WELL WALK—THE SECOND PERIOD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">268</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XVII.</td> - <td>THE MODERN WELL WALK</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">292</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> - <td>HAMPSTEAD LATER ON</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">304</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XIX.</td> - <td>A RETROSPECT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">319</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xii"></a>[xii]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XX.</td> - <td>THE SUB-MANOR OF BELSIZE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">329</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr">XXI.</td> - <td>THE HAMLET OF KILBURN</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">344</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td>APPENDIX:</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">HEATH HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#HEATH">354</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">WENTWORTH PLACE, JOHN STREET</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#WENTWORTH">357</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">VANE HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#VANE">359</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">POND STREET</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#POND">361</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">A FRAGMENT OF THE FLORA OF HAMPSTEAD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#FLORA">362</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">BENEFACTORS OF HAMPSTEAD AND THE CHARITIES</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#BENEFACTORS">368</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">THE FATE OF A REFORMER</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#REFORMER">374</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td class="h3">THE STRUGGLE FOR THE HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#STRUGGLE">377</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="tdr"></td> - <td>INDEX</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INDEX">384</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> - -</div> - -<table summary="List of illustrations"> - <tr> - <td></td> - <td class="tdpg smaller">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>A BIT OF OLD HAMPSTEAD, NEW END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus1"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SOUTH END ROAD, 1840</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus2">3</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>TUMULUS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus3">5</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VIEW OF HIGHGATE AND PONDS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus4">7</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VIADUCT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus5">9</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>JOHN EVELYN</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus6">24</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HAMPSTEAD FROM PRIMROSE HILL</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus7">44</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SIR RICHARD STEELE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus8">46</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ROSSLYN HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus9">51</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FIELDS NEAR POND STREET, 1840</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus10">54</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SHEPHERD’S WELL</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus11">55</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VANE HOUSE, 1800</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus12">57</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus13">66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>BACK VIEW OF HOUSES, CHURCH ROW</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus14">68</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>MRS. BARBAULD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus15">73</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>AUSTIN DOBSON</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus16">77</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>PARISH CHURCH, HAMPSTEAD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus17">82</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FENTON HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus18">92</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>PRIORY LODGE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus19">96</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>VALE OF HEALTH, LOWER HEATH, 1840</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus20">110</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>LEG OF MUTTON POND</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus21">114</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>WEST END HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus22">117</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiv"></a>[xiv]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SWIFT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus23">121</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>JACK STRAW’S CASTLE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus24">126</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FLAGSTAFF</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus25">127</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>THE SPANIARDS’ GARDEN</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus26">128</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ERSKINE HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus27">130</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>LORD ERSKINE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus28">133</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>NORTH HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus29">135</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FANNY BURNEY</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus30">138</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>BOLTON HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus31">144</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HOLLY-BUSH HILL, 1840</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus32">149</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus33">151</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>JOANNA BAILLIE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus34">157</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>GOLDSMITH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus35">161</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>NORTH END FROM THE HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus36">163</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FENTON HOUSE, 1780</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus37">165</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>FIRS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus38">169</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>OLD COTTAGES, NORTH END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus39">173</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>BULL AND BUSH, HAMPSTEAD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus40">174</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>COTTAGES, NORTH END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus41">179</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>MADAME PIOZZI</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus42">185</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HARROW AND WELSH HARP, FROM HAMPSTEAD HEATH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus43">189</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SQUIRE’S MOUNT, ABOUT 1840</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus44">192</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>SHELLEY</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus45">201</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>W. HAZLITT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus46">202</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HIGHGATE PONDS AND SHEEP</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus47">204</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>COLERIDGE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus48">205</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>CHARLES LAMB</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus49">209</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>LEIGH HUNT</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus50">211</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>THE VALE OF HEALTH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus51">213</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>LORD W. MANSFIELD</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus52">224</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>THE SPANIARDS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus53">226</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xv"></a>[xv]</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>CAEN WOOD HOUSE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus54">229</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>HOGARTH</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus55">230</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>CHARLES MATHEWS’ HOUSE, HIGHGATE</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus56">246</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>OLD COTTAGES, NORTH END</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus57">276</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>WELL WALK</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus58">294</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>ASSEMBLY AND PUMP ROOMS, WELL WALK</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus59">301</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>DR. JOHNSON</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus60">305</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>JAMES BOSWELL</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus61">308</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>KEATS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus62">317</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>OLD CHALK FARM</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus63">322</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>JUDGE’S WALK</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus64">325</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>PEPYS</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus65">330</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>BELSIZE LANE, 1850</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus66">342</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>THE GEORGE INN BEFORE 1870</td> - <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus67">346</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> - -<h1>‘SWEET HAMPSTEAD’ AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.</h1> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTORY_CHAPTER">INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent20">‘But if the busy town</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Attract thee still to toil for power or gold,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sweetly thou mayst thy vacant hours possess</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In Hampstead, courted by the western wind.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Dr. Armstrong.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>To the inhabitants of London and its suburbs a -history of Hampstead and the Heath may seem -wholly unnecessary. What London lad who has -not fished in and skated on its ponds, played -truant in its subrural fields and lanes, gone bird-nesting in -its woods, or spent delightful, orthodox half-holidays upon -the heath?</p> - -<p>As for the free brotherhood of the lanes and alleys before -the plague of Board schools afflicted them, or the Board of -Works stood sponsor for the preservation of the Heath, what -hand’s breadth (of its mile-wide waste) of its hundreds of -acres was there that they did not know and continue to -renew acquaintance with on every recurrence of the high -festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide?</p> - -<p>But it is not of ‘’Appy ’Amstead’ that I am about to -write, but of that older Hampstead the materials for the -history of which lie scattered through many books not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> -often read, and in the correspondence of dead men and -women.</p> - -<p>Lysons and Park are not for general readers, and such -works as William Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights’ and Baines’s -‘Records of Hampstead’ are not companionable volumes. -Yet I know of no intermediate work between them and mere -guide-books.</p> - -<p>Hence it occurred to me that I might fill a vacant place -in the literature of ‘Sweet Hampstead,’ and give to others, -without the toil, the pleasure I have had in recalling forgotten -incidents connected with it, and memories of some -of the celebrated men and women who, from the days of -Queen Anne till our own, have added to the intrinsic delights -of the place the charm of their association with it.</p> - -<p>When the idea of undertaking ‘this labour of love’ occurred -to me, the window near which I loved to write commanded -a last fragmentary view of Gospel Oak Fields, which divided -Hampstead from the parish of St. Pancras. These fields -were even then (early in the sixties) in the hands of speculative -builders, but a few green hedges, a group of elms, a pollard -oak or two—scions, perhaps, of the traditionary one that for -centuries had given its name to these now obliterated <i>prata -et pasturas</i>—remained.</p> - -<p>Ten years previously the hollow trunk of a very aged tree -(fenced round) was still standing, and was locally said to be -the remains of the original Gospel Oak, one of the many so -called, in various counties of England, from the use made -of them by the Preaching Friars, who under their shade -were wont to read and explain the Scriptures to the people. -It was at that time, and for years afterwards, used as a -boundary tree, when once in three years the clergyman, -parochial authorities, and charity children perambulated the -boundaries of the parish of St. Pancras, of which it was the -terminus in this direction.</p> - -<p>Where Fleet Road is now, the shallow remnant of the -once ‘silvery Fleet,’ as Crosby calls it in his ‘Additional -Notes,’ written only a very few years before the period I am<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span> -writing of, ‘meandered, irrigating those charming meadows -which reach on either side of Kentish Town.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus2"> -<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>South End Road, 1840.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In my time it crept, a sluggish stream, a mere ditch in -dry weather, but after copious rain it rose suddenly, brimming -to its margin, to disappear at the end of Angler’s Lane by a -subterranean channel under part of Kentish Town, where it -once more came to light as a narrow runlet in the main road -that was easily stepped over. There were persons then living -who remembered this portion of the river, a limpid stream -flowing by the west side of Kentish Town towards King’s -Cross, for it is not much more than half a century since it -was arched over and built upon.</p> - -<p>The fields through which it passed showed signs of its -meanderings, and were still lovely with trees that had figured -in many an artist’s sketch-book, and had thence imparted -the refreshment of their pictured beauty to many a home.</p> - -<p>The footpath through these meadows from Kentish Town -followed the curve of an old rivulet scarcely dry in places,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> -the whole course of which was traceable in the wavering -line of aged willows, hollow and splintered, but putting forth -hoar green branches above the exhausted stream that had -once fed their roots.</p> - -<p>This was Mary Shelley’s lovely walk from Kentish Town -through the fields, with their fine old elms and rivulets and -alder-trees, and a view to the north of the wooded heights of -Highgate. In her time Carlton Road and the region thereabouts -were all meadows.</p> - -<p>This path led over the easiest of stiles through a little -lane between hedges of hawthorn and elder by an old nursery -garden and cottage where strawberries and cream were to be -had in the season, and a cup of tea at all times, and so to -South End or such portion of it as was not already changed -to railway uses. The houses here were of a humbler description -than those in the Flask Walk, but there were sufficient -indications in little garden-borders, in roses trained about -the doors, in vines wholly untrained, running to an excess -of leafiness over walls and roofs, in a group of straw bee-hives, -sheltered in a corner, to show how pretty and rustic -the place had once been. There was the down-trodden, -worn-out Green, with its white palings and rickety turnstile, -in itself a protest to the farther use of it, and lime-trees, -out of all proportion to the small houses you saw -between them, large-limbed and flourishing.</p> - -<p>An ascending row of houses to the right, on what is now -South Hill Park, occupied the levelled slopes the summits of -which when I first knew the lovely neighbourhood afforded -charming views, and not the least charming that of the -eastern outskirts of Hampstead, sweeping up amidst a profusion -of foliage towards the high ground about Squire’s -Mount, with a foreground of water and groups of trees -studding the undulating surface, the fields on the east -bounded by the remarkable mound which now bears the -name of Parliament Hill, but was then known by the more -striking one of Traitors’ Hill.</p> - -<p>Ainsworth has made it memorable as the scene whence<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> -some of the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot watched for -the explosion of the Houses of Parliament at the hands of -Guy Faux. Park, who refers to Stukeley’s ‘Itinerary’ on -various occasions, takes no notice of this eminence.</p> - -<p>Mr. Lloyd, in his published ‘Lecture on Caen Wood,’ -tells us that when Mr. Bills purchased the estate of Sir James -Harrington, amongst the properties belonging to it was a -windmill, ‘which occupied the fine site of the summit of -Parliament Hill, where the trench formed by the removal of -its foundations is still to be traced. It was, doubtless, the -Manor mill.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus3"> -<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="500" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Tumulus.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>At one time it was presumed that, like the mound in the -field to the right of the path to Highgate, which Lord -Mansfield caused to be enclosed and planted with Scotch -firs, it was a tumulus. In support of this idea there is a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> -tradition of Saxon times still extant of this neighbourhood. -Was it not about the skirts of Highgate that Alfred encamped -with his troops to protect the citizens of London, -whilst they gathered in the harvest from the surrounding -fields, from Hastings of the Ivory Horn, who lay with his -Danish army beside the Lea, ready to pillage them of their -summer fruits? And might not some great battle have been -fought, and have resulted in the raising of this mound? -Alas for romance! When a few summers ago a child at -play in its neighbourhood unearthed the hidden treasure of -some threatened home, buried for safety’s sake in troublous -times, or the booty of some thief, whose after-career interfered -with his return for it, a search into the interior of -the mound, under the direction of the County Council, -dispelled the theories of the antiquaries and the dreams of -romancists.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> - -<p>But whatever its origin, the mound adds materially to the -visual enjoyment of the visitor; and the sight of London -from its height, especially at the early dawn of a clear -summer’s day, is said to be worth a midnight pilgrimage to -obtain. The air blows over its summit ‘most sweetly,’ -especially in June, blending the scent of the lime blossoms -from the sister villages with the aroma of the hayfields -and hedgerows, where the honeysuckle and wild-rose bloom -unmolested.</p> - -<p>Facing round, we have Highgate Hill in view, with white -modern houses showing here and there, and others roof-high -in the foliage of surrounding trees. Of the ancient -hamlet we see only a ridge of red-tiled roofs showing in the -neighbourhood of the church.</p> - -<p>To the north, where the grounds of Caen Wood come<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span> -sweeping down to the brimming ponds, on which the swans -‘float double, swan and shadow,’ the landscape widens into -one of rare beauty. Park-like beyond the park, in its alternations -of lawny slope and little dells and groups of trees, -it looks like a portion of the demesne, and not the least -picturesque and lovely part of it.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus4"> -<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>View of Highgate and Ponds.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>To the west (a proper pendant to the view of Highgate) -our vision closes with the spire of St. John’s Church, and -the town of Hampstead stretching down a peninsula of -houses in a sea of verdure, terminating in the fast-narrowing -strip of green fields between Kentish Town and the -St. John’s Wood estate on this side of Hampstead Road.</p> - -<p>I specially remember a bit of landscape in which the red -viaduct<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> in Sir Maryon Wilson’s demesne shows to much -advantage on the grassy foreground between the wooded<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> -undulations of the park. It is still pretty, but ‘with a -difference.’ Then a footway crossing the Heath led through -an old gray, weather-beaten gate to a shady path, with a -plantation of young trees on one side, and a hedgerow, -redolent in summer of wild-rose and May, dividing it from -a meadow on the other. The remains of a long-disused -tile-kiln stood on the edge of the field, the red earth of -which showed its fitness for such manufacture. This path -led through upland fields to Highgate, and was a charming -one, beloved by painter and poet. The last time I saw it -the beauty was devastated, and the meadow changed into -a brickfield, with a view to its conversion into a site for -building on.</p> - -<p>But I am forgetting, in my remembrances of the charming -suburb, that from the earliest birth of a taste for natural -beauty, Hampstead must have had a special interest for the -inhabitants of London.</p> - -<p>Beautiful as were the whole range of gently-swelling -hills forming the background of the City, and long subsequent -to Tudor times covered with dense woods, which -encroached on the north and east even to its gates, and -came down on the west as far as Tyburn, Hampstead Hill -from its altitude, and the fact, as someone has written, -that it ‘closed the gates of view in that direction,’ must -have had an interest beyond the others.</p> - -<p>Baines claims for Hampstead that it was a village before -1086; in other words, that the five manses, or homes of the -villani and bordarii on the original clearing, which are -mentioned as existing when Domesday Book was compiled, -constituted a village. In 1410, at the time of the -assignment of Hampstead, together with Hendon, to Henry -Lord Scrope of Marsham for the maintenance of his servants -and horses, he being then attending Parliament on the -King’s service, it is included with Hendon, and styled a -town (‘the towns of Hampstead and Hendon’).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus5"> -<img src="images/illus5.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Viaduct.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span></p> - -<p>But in the reign of Henry VIII. it is again called a -village, by which designation it continued to be called even -in our own times, long after it had outgrown the dimensions -of one, just as a beloved child when grown up retains the -pet name given to it in infancy; and truly Hampstead continues -to be the best-beloved of all the City suburbs.</p> - -<p>A stone in the north aisle of the old church, dated 1658, -recorded that John Baxter, Gent., had made it incumbent -on the owners of a house ‘in Hamstede Streete, where -Mr. Netmaker dwelleth’ (no other street apparently existed -to make a prefix necessary), to pay the sum of £3 yearly to -the poor of the parish. Someone of importance, no doubt, -occupied the moated mansion and demesne of Caen Wood, -and there are records of other great men and rich City -merchants resident in the upland hamlet. A peep at the -parish register,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> the earliest date in which is 1560, affords -us a clue to the growth of the population.</p> - -<p>Subsequent to the above date, 1580-89, the baptisms -averaged 13³⁄₁₀, the burials 6⅒. At the close of 1680-89 -the baptisms amounted to 33⅗, the burials to 65⁹⁄₁₀, an excess -accounted for by the visitation of the Plague (1664-65).</p> - -<p>Towards the close of the eighteenth century (1790-99) the -baptisms averaged 99⅗, the burials 141⅗,<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> a slow but steady -growth, marvellously increased in modern times.</p> - -<p>After the Great Plague, change of air in the summer -season became an article of faith with the inhabitants of -London, and an annual sojourn of some weeks in the -country or at the seaside an established custom with all -who could afford it, a custom which resulted on the part of -the wealthy merchants and citizens in the hire or purchase -of a country retreat in one or other of the suburbs.</p> - -<p>Hampstead, towards the end of the Commonwealth, -combined the advantages of ‘Air and Hill, and Well and -School,’ and these favourable circumstances, added to its -easy distance from London, recommended it to the City -fathers and mothers, and made it, of all the rural villages in -the neighbourhood of town, the most popular.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span></p> - -<p>Though its high-pitched situation precluded at that period, -and for a long time after, such an increase of buildings as -lower situations were afflicted with, its position, fine air, and -beautiful prospects made it much sought, and in the times -of the Stuarts many notable persons in connection with -the Court had houses here. Sir Henry Vane built his fine -mansion on what was then called Hampstead Hill, and -J. Bills, Esq., son of the printer to His Majesty, resided at -Caen Wood; while my Lord Wotton had his country-house at -Belsize. After the Restoration we find Sir Geoffrey Palmer, -Attorney-General, residing at Hampstead, where he died, -May 1, 1670, and though Pepys does not mention it, Sir -George Downing, Secretary to the Treasury, who so often -appears in the ‘Diary,’ and whom Pepys stigmatizes as a -‘sider with all times and changes,’ resided here, and had his -house broken into and robbed (1685). From the <i>St. James’s -Gazette</i>, published by authority, I find that, amongst other -articles of which the thieves deprived Sir George, were the -following items: ‘A large agate about the bigness of a crown -piece, with Cupid and Venus and Vulcan engraved on it. -A blue sapphire seal, set in gold, enamelled, with an old -man and woman’s head engraved on it. A pomander,<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> set -in gold. A locket, with fourteen diamonds and a crystal in -the middle, engraved with two Cupids holding a heart over -a cypher.’ This catalogue appeals to the sympathies of -every lover of delightful bric-à-brac, but one fears the advertisement -of them failed to recover the charming items, some -of which may even yet find their way to one of the table-cases -in South Kensington.</p> - -<p>Every year appears to have added to the favour of Hampstead -as a summer resort, a fact that was not lost upon the -inhabitants, who were not slow to realize the benefit of these -annual incursions.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span></p> - -<p>Copyholds were readily procurable, and Hampstead was -soon dotted about in various directions with weather-boarded -or brick dwellings, so that by the end of the seventeenth -century twelve houses had risen upon the demesne, two -upon the freeholds, and 257 upon the copyholds, besides -cottages, barns, brewhouses, etc., together with a dancing-room, -shops, and other tenements in connection with the -Wells.<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> - -<p>In the first year of the present century we find that Hampstead -possessed 691 houses, which in 1811 had increased to -842, with 5,483 inhabitants, and there were seventeen houses -building, and forty-five unlet.</p> - -<p>In 1815, when Britton revisited it, he tells us that Hampstead, -from a beautiful rural village, had become a town, with -hundreds of mean houses (intended for lodging-houses) disposed -in narrow courts, squares, and alleys, many of them -uninhabited.</p> - -<p>Yet the rate of building mentioned was insignificant compared -with its after-progress. In 1861 the inhabited houses -had increased to 4,340, with 385 uninhabited dwellings, and -169 more in course of building, while the population of the -whole parish amounted to a total of 32,271 persons, a -very remarkable feature in the succeeding census of Hampstead, -1871, being the preponderance of female inhabitants, -who exceeded by 711 the entire population of the previous -census in 1861.</p> - -<p>If anything can invest these dry details with interest, it is -the contrast they present between the Hampstead of the past -and present. At the census of 1891 the inhabited houses -numbered 9,528, with 687 uninhabited, 461 in course of -erection, whilst the population in the four wards comprised -in the parish of St. John amounted to 68,425 persons. The -population of Hampstead at the present time (1898) is said -to be about 78,000. In thirty years houses and inhabitants -had doubled their numbers. The man who published a book -in 1766, called ‘London Improved,’ which proposed to make<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> -the New Road, now Euston Road, the boundary of building -in that direction, ‘otherwise the Hills of Hampstead and -Highgate may be expected to become a considerable part of -the suburbs of London,’ wrote prophetically, for London -stretches out its infolding tentacles on all sides, and is -only nominally divided from them. This New Road, as it -continued to be quite recently called, though made under -the Act of the twenty-ninth of George II. (1746) under the -control of the Hampstead and Highgate trust, intersected -level fields from Tottenham Court Road to Battle Bridge.</p> - -<p>It takes us a little aside from the story of Hampstead, but -is a pleasant prelude to it, and one can hardly refrain from -giving a glance at the London approach to the beautiful -village as it existed at the time of, and for a considerable -period after the opening of the New Road.</p> - -<p>Midway on the south side of the road stood the Bowling -Green House, famous for nearly a century previously as a -place of rural resort, and lower down the Brill Tavern, rather -more ancient than its rival.</p> - -<p>The Old Mother Red Cap public-house (and a nickname -for a shrew of the first quality, whom a recent writer claims -as a sutler and camp-follower of Marlborough’s,<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> but who -appears to have kept this house as long ago as 1676, and -to have been widely known by the unpleasant sobriquet of -Mother Damnable, under which name some doggerel verses -addressed to her are preserved in <i>Caulfield’s Eccentric Magazine</i>)—the -Old Mother Red Cap, and old St. Pancras Church, -were the only interruptions in the view of Hampstead -from Bedford House, Queen Square, and the Foundling, -except some groups of trees near St. Pancras, and in a -lane leading from Gray’s Inn Road to the Bowling-Green -House.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span></p> - -<p>Gay and Pope both refer to the Tottenham Fields, and -William Blake, painter and poet, sings of</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘The fields from Islington to Marybone,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Primrose Hill and St. John’s Wood.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Where Harrington and Ampthill Squares now stand -‘stretched fields of cows by Welling’s Farm,’<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> the reputed -proprietor of 999 ‘milky mothers of the herd,’ which could -never be increased to 1,000, a singular tradition common to -the fields by Clerkenwell, and to the once green pastures -between the Old Kent Road and Peckham. A lady well -acquainted with Hampstead tells me that the same legend -existed with regard to a local cow-keeper, a Mr. Rhodes,<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> in -the early years of the present century.</p> - -<p>A venerable friend of the writer’s in the fifties, an old -inhabitant of the neighbourhood, remembered that where -Francis Street now is there were fields called Francis’s -Fields running up to the Tottenham Court Road, which -few persons cared to pass through after dark. Some houses -then below what is now Shoolbred’s had little gardens with -green palings before them, which she specially remembered -from the figures of the traditional blind beggar and his -daughter, who so marvellously escaped the Great Plague -of London, ornamenting one of them. Harrison Ainsworth -has preserved the story in one of his graphically-written -novels. A gentleman tells me that an old lady born in 1800, -and only lately deceased, remembered as a child waiting in -the evening at the corner of Tottenham Court Road and -Oxford Street till a party of six or more persons collected, -when, in fear of footpads, they were convoyed across the -fields to Kentish Town by a watchman.</p> - -<p>Camden Town, which had been begun to be built in 1791, -consisted for the most part of one-storied brick or weather-boarded -houses, the outlines of some of which could be -traced in my own time, though heightened and otherwise<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -altered. Other houses, with gardens and orchards lying -wide apart, led up to the half-way house we have just -mentioned—the Old Mother Red Cap—where, at the point -where the roads to Hampstead and Highgate diverge, stood, -as it still stands, Brown’s Dairy. A thatched cottage in -those days, with deep eaves, and little leaded, diamond-paned -casements sparkling under them. Over the half-hatch -door of this rustic dairy-house ladies and children -from the neighbourhood of the old-fashioned squares (who -took their morning walk through a turnstile at the top -of Judd Street, leading by hawthorn-shaded hedgerows to -the open fields), were wont to refresh themselves with -a cup of new milk, or equally innocent sweet curds and -whey.</p> - -<p>At the top of Tottenham Court Road, in the fields on the -left-hand side, were the remains of a mansion, the removal -of which my old friend Valentine Bartholomew, the artist, -remembered. It gave its name to the road, and is said to -have been a palace of Henry VIII.’s; it was taken down -towards the end of the last century (1791).</p> - -<p>On the same side of the way stood a well-known tavern -and tea-gardens, called the Adam and Eve,<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> the bowery -arbours, lawns, smooth bowling-green and garden-alleys of -which have been ill-exchanged for the gin palace opposite its -site.</p> - -<p>This house is mentioned in the curious trial of Andrew -Robinson Bowes, Esq., and others, in the King’s Bench, -May 30, 1787, for conspiracy against his wife, Lady Strathmore—a -postboy, one of the witnesses of the lady’s forcible -abduction, having orders to hire a chaise with excellent -horses, and wait at the Adam and Eve, described as on the -road to Barnet. ‘Lady Strathmore, while shopping in -Oxford Street, was made prisoner, and the peace officer -who presented the warrant, a creature of her husband’s, -under colour of taking her before Lord Mansfield, had her -carriage driven up the Tottenham Court Road, Mr. Bowes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> -himself on the box, where, meeting the postboy, he bade him -follow in the chaise.’</p> - -<p>Twenty-seven years afterwards Leigh Hunt tells us Mr. -Bowes was still in Horsemonger Lane Gaol, expiating, on the -debtors’ side of the prison, his misconduct to his wife, and -the non-payment of the fine to which he had been condemned.</p> - -<p>Ponds and pools of water were in those days common in -the public ways, and one in the near neighbourhood of this -house became, on an afternoon of September, 1785, the -scene of the following brutal outrage:</p> - -<p>A youth was suspected of picking a gentleman’s pocket -close to the Adam and Eve, whereupon some of the by-standers -took him to an adjoining pond and ducked him -very severely. A sailor, not satisfied with the discipline of -the crowd, threw him again into the water, and kept him -under till he was drowned.</p> - -<p>A little further on to the right of the road there stood in -my time a high mound, covered with grass, beneath which -was a reservoir which supplied the neighbourhood with -water; it was removed, if my memory is correct, about -1846-47, when its site was occupied by one of the earliest -experimental baths and wash-houses, which have since given -place to some sunless houses, under the shadow of the Congregational -Church, in what is known as Tolmer Square.</p> - -<p>From this mound the road to Hampstead, a comparatively -short period before the above date, was fringed with pastures -to the right, and with gardens, fields, hedgerows, and -orchards on the left, with only two or three cottages and a -roadside alehouse between the Adam and Eve and the High -Street, Camden Town.</p> - -<p>Roads, in the present meaning of the word, there had -been none subsequent to Roman times, till the Hanoverian -succession. Even when the use of carriages made them -necessary, they resembled those deep country lanes, not yet -unknown in Devonshire and Essex, where in winter the -mud imbeds the wheels of carts or waggons, or were mere -pack-horse paths, with a raised causeway running through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span> -the midst, and a deep fosse of mud on either side. Such a -road was that which, in Elizabeth’s time, ran up from Battle -Bridge between the hedgerow banks of Maiden Lane to -Green Street and Highgate, whence a path led by Caen -Wood to what was then called Wildwood Corner, across -Hampstead Heath to Pond Street, tree-shaded, with its wild -banks full of primroses and violets in spring, and redolent of -May a little later, but rendered all but impassable in winter -from the rains and overflow of the many rivulets which -drained the uplands into Pancras Vale.</p> - -<p>I have before me a view of the ‘Hampstead Road, near -Tomkins’ House,’ engraved by Charles White, probably a -grandson of Robert White, a celebrated engraver, who died -in 1704. A post-chaise, drawn by two horses, is depicted -labouring up what appears to be a mere rugged track over -rough heath-ground. The dome of St. Paul’s (finished in -1710) and the City spires and houses appear in the distance -but the view exhibits a primitive and solitary country, -only broken by clumps of trees, furze coverts, and hedgerows, -and except a single cottage and the gable of a house -(probably Tomkins’) no other habitation is to be seen.</p> - -<p>As late as May, 1736, it is reported in the <i>London Post</i> -‘that Col. de Veil had committed one of the coachmen who -was driving the Hampstead coach to Newgate, for getting -out of the track he was in and assaulting the Hon. the Lady -Cook Winford by driving his coach upon her, whereby he -threw her and her horse into a deep ditch, and she was -greatly hurt and bruised.’</p> - -<p>The Hampstead Road was not made till 1772, when -George III. was King, though the summit of the hill had -been previously cut down. When Ogilby, in the time of -Charles II. wrote his Guide, St. Giles’ Pound lay in the -open country, and the way to Holborn, like Gray’s Inn -Lane, was a pleasant rustic road. Tottenham Court Road -lay between fields and market-gardens, sprinkled with houses -of entertainment, some of which lingered long after the -making of the present road. Gay tells us that in summer<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> -‘the Tottenham fields with roving beauty swarms,’ and thirty -years later some doggerel verses in Poor Robin’s Almanack -inform us under the head of the month of May:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘The ladies now, to take the air,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To Stepney or Hyde Park repair;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While many others do resort</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For cakes and ale to Tottenham Court.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In Pennant’s time, Oxford Street, then Oxford Road, had -only a few houses on the north side of it. He remembered -it ‘a deep hollow road, full of sloughs, with here and there a -ragged house, the lurking-place of cut-throats’—a state of -things the contrast to which was set forth in some crude -lines of a song that a venerable relative, who died at the age -of ninety-six, has often repeated to me, but of which I only -remember—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘That was the time for games and gambols,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Oxford Street was covered with brambles,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ponds, and sloughs, and running water,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where now there’s nothing but bricks and mortar.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This semi-rural state of things appears to have lasted west -of Holborn for the first quarter of the present century. -When Bedford House was built (1706), the north side of -Queen’s Square was purposely left open that the inhabitants -might enjoy the charming prospect before it, terminating in -the Hampstead and Highgate Hills.</p> - -<p>When Portland Place was planned, more than half a -century later, the then Lord Foley insisted on a clause in a -lease he held of the Duke of Portland to prevent the building -of any street to intercept the pure air of Hampstead and -Highgate from Foley House, a fact to which the width of -Portland Place is attributable.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> - -<p>Gray, writing from Southampton Row as late as the -summer of 1759, tells his friend Palgrave that ‘his new -territories command Bedford Garden, and all the fields as -far as Hampstead and Highgate.’<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span></p> - -<p>In contrast with the poet’s triumph in the beauty of his -views, we find Sir Samuel Romilly, many years later, complaining, -in a letter to his sister written from his chambers -in Gray’s Inn, ‘that, having but one row of houses between -him and Hampstead, a north-west wind, sharp as the piercing -<i>bise</i>, blows full against his windows.’<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> - -<p>Long after this date, Rosslyn House and Park could be -seen from Clerkenwell Green, and later still the green heights -of Caen Wood were visible from Bedford Row.</p> - -<p>One of the advantages that Ned Ward’s public-house in -Red Bull Yard possessed was ‘commodious rooms, with -Hampstead air supplied’; and I think it is Lysons who -quotes the advertisement of a house of entertainment near -Bagnigge Wells, the proprietor of which sets forth as an -inducement for the favour of the public that his windows -command fine views of Hampstead and Highgate Hills.</p> - -<p>These details help us to realize the relation of Hampstead -to London when its wooded crest could be seen from such -distant points, and it had come to be regarded as the air-filterer -and health invigorator of the whole district. Even -as late as 1820, from the west of Oxford Street to the skirts -of Hampstead Heath, there were green fields and pastures -all the way.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HAMPSTEAD AND THE HEATH.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Hampstead, situated in the Hundred of Oussulston -and County of Middlesex, is separated from -London by St. Pancras and Marylebone, and -otherwise bounded by Finchley, Hendon, Willesden, -and Paddington.</p> - -<p>In the account of the several districts into which the -Registrar-General has divided London, Hampstead claims -the greatest elevation, standing 400 feet above Trinity high-water -mark, a circumstance that, in connection with its -gravelly soil, accounts for its dry, salutary air. It contains -in its parochial area 2,169 acres.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> - -<p>The early history of Hampstead lies very far back, though -for all purposes of respectable antiquity—whether persons or -places are concerned—an appearance in Domesday Book is -sufficient. Hamestead, in its old, pleasant Saxon name, tells -of a yet higher antiquity, and long before the astute Norman -(in the language of the Saxon Chronicle) ‘sent forth his men -to inquire how many hundred hides of land were in each -shire, so that there was not a hide of land in England of -which he knew not the possessor, and how much it was -worth.’</p> - -<p>Long before the existence of this pleasant schedule enabled -the Conqueror to parcel out the fairest portions of the land -to his favourite retainers, the five hides of land and five<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> -manses, or homes, of which this manor consisted, were said -to have been given by King Ethelred, the gift being afterwards -confirmed by Edward the Confessor, to the Abbey -Church of St. Peter at Westminster.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> These grants are -said to be spurious—forged, in fact, by the monks, the -mark of a pendent seal attached to one, and the wax adhering -to the other, proving too much, such seals not being used -in England till after the Conquest. But William, desirous -of standing well with the Church, continued the grant of -Hamsted to the Abbot of Westminster. At the making of -Domesday Book, not another roof had risen on the manor. -There were still five manses, the homes of villeynes and -bordarii, the first small farmers having certain degrees of -personal freedom, but dependent for their ground on several -corporal and servile services rendered to the lord; the others, -mere labourers, who paid rent in eggs, poultry, etc.</p> - -<p>‘“The Abbot holds four hides (arable) land to three ploughs. -To the demesne appertain three hides and a half, and there -is one plough. The villeynes have one plough, and could -employ another. There is one villeyne who has one virgate, -and five bordars who have one virgate; and one bondman -or slave. The woodlands afford pannage (beech-mast and -acorns) for a hundred swine.</p> - -<p>‘“The whole is valued at fifty shillings, of which Ranulph -Peverel, who held one hide of the land under the Abbot, -paid five shillings.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span></p> - -<p>‘There is nothing more undecided than the presumed -value of the hide. Some writers say it represented as much -land as employed a plough during the year. Another, that -it meant as much land as would maintain a family. Spelman -imagined it 100 acres. At one place in Domesday Book -20 acres are called half a hide.</p> - -<p>‘“In Maldon in Essex there were five free men holding -10 acres of ground; of these Ranulph Peverel holds 5 acres, -and Hugh de Montfort 5 acres; it was in the time of King -Edward the Confessor worth tenpence, it is now [at Domesday] -worth twelvepence.”’<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> - -<p>This Ranulph Peverel, a Norman high in the King’s -favour, who held, as Camden tells us, estates in several -counties of England, had married the discarded concubine -of the Conqueror, the daughter of a Saxon noble, and one -of the most lovely women of her time, and had given his -own name to the King’s son by her—William Peverel,<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> -subsequently Lord of Nottingham, and founder of the -famous castle in the Peak—and if it had not been shown -that such small portions of land were frequently held by -noblemen in those times in different counties, probably as -a nucleus to be added to as opportunities arose, one would -have been inclined to doubt the identity of the owner of one -hide of land at Hamstede with the Peverel whose descendants -became so important in the history of England.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span></p> - -<p>The original grant (or presumed grant) of Ethelred gives -a certain spot of land, in the place called Hamstede, of five -<i>cassati</i>—this word, we read, means hide—in perpetual inheritance, -etc.</p> - -<p>Very primitive must have been the Hamestead of those -days, a group of clay-built or wattled huts, set down in a -sheltered clearing, somewhere in the vicinity of the future -Chapel of St. Mary, the site of the present parish church, in -the district known as Frognal.</p> - -<p>The uncleared ground above this settlement rose irregularly -to the Heath, with great woods stretching dense and gloomy -west, north, south, and east of it, and in places impinging on -the sandy skirts of the Heath, originally the upheaved crust of -an old sea-bottom, 100 feet deep, but then a waste of wild -vert, on a surface of clay, sand, and gravel. These woods, or, -rather, the great Forest of Middlesex, extended for centuries -later on the east to Enfield Chace, and went crowding on -in serried masses westward to the Chiltern Hills. All the -surroundings were heavy with timbered shade, and hazardous -from the wild beasts lurking there: wolves, boars, stags, -and wild-bulls of the indigenous breed only just become -extinct in the Craven district—a whole forest region, in -fact, instinct with game.</p> - -<p>Fitzstephen, the monk whose charming description of the -country on the north-west of London reads like a prose -idyll, tells us that in these woods were many yew-trees, and -Camden, that the forest ‘was full of that weed of England, -the oak,’ whilst the mast, or fruit of the beech, as we have -seen, made part of the value of the manor in Domesday -Book. Evelyn and W. J. Hooker assure us that in these -woods grew the hornbeam, elm, and other indigenous -sylva.</p> - -<p>During the Saxon Heptarchy, the Roman Verulamium had -become St. Albans, the shrine of the British protomartyr, -and a place of great sanctity, to and from whence pilgrims -were constantly moving. I know nothing of Roman roads, -and am therefore quite neutral as regards opinion, but am<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -aware that modern antiquaries have wholly overturned the -belief of their fathers, and, while quoting Camden as a reliable -and careful authority on other matters, ignore the old -antiquary’s belief in the long-descended tradition that the -Wanderers’ Way, or Watling Street, which passed from -Kent to Cardiganshire, cutting through the great forest of -Middlesex, in a straight line from station to station, passed -by Hampstead Heath. ‘Not by the present road through -Highgate, which was made by license of the Bishop of -London 300 years ago, but that ancient one, as we gather -from the charters of Edward the Confessor, which passed -near Edgware.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus6"> -<img src="images/illus6.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>John Evelyn.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Old Norden states that on the northern edge of Middlesex -the Roman road, commonly called the Watling Way, -enters this county, leading straight from old Verulamium -to London over Hamestead Heath; from whence -one has a curious prospect of a most beautiful city and -most pleasant country. Camden, again, tells us that -‘at the very distance that Antoninus in his Itinerary -placeth Pulloniacæ, to wit, 12 miles from London, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> -9 miles from Verulam, there remaineth some marks of an -ancient station, and there is much rubbish digged up upon a -hill which is now called Brockley Hill.’ No doubt Norden, -with the fond zeal of a believing antiquary, had traced the -road many a time to Edgworth (Edgware) and so on to -Hendon, through an old lane called Hendon Wante.<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> So -completely had this tradition entered into the faith of -people generally that we find it embalmed in Drayton’s -‘Polyolbion,’ where, to paraphrase his figurative description -of Highgate and Hampstead Hills, he emphatically adds of -the latter:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">‘Which claims the worthiest place his own,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Since that old Watling once o’er him to pass was known.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Defoe, too, in his ‘Tour of Great Britain,’ tells us that he -‘went to Hampstead, from whence he made an excursion to -Edgware, a little market-town on the way to St. Alban’s, -for it is <i>certain</i> that this was formerly the main-road from -London to St. Alban’s, being the famous highroad called -Watling Streete, which reached from London to Wales.’</p> - -<p>No traces of such a road have been found on Hampstead -Heath, though Roman relics and proofs of Roman burial -have been discovered there, and accepted by our oldest -antiquaries as strengthening their theory of the Watling -Way having skirted or crossed it. That there was a road -from St. Albans to the Heath is curiously confirmed by an -old French folio, published in Paris (time of Elizabeth), -which explains the reasons why the Romans built a city -on the site of the present London,<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and states that ‘subsequent -to the recall of the legions in consequence of its rapid -growth and absorption of the population and commerce of -the other great cities, it so raised the envy and indignation -of their inhabitants, that the people of St. Albans<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> -threatened to come and destroy the rising city of London, -until the Londoners advanced as far as Hampstead Heath, -where they entrenched themselves, and prepared to do battle -in defence of their homes.’ A writer in the <i>New Monthly -Magazine</i>, commenting on this extract, says that the remains -of the entrenchments are still pointed out.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> - -<p>Dr. Hughson, writing of the Reed-mote, or six-acre field, -formerly to the north-west of White Conduit House, and -which was supposed to have been the site of a Roman camp, -observes ‘that a Roman road<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> passed this way, we have great -reason to believe, for from Old Ford we pass <i>Mere</i> (vulgarly -called Mare Street), Kingsland, Islington, Highbury, the -Hollow-way, Roman Lane, over Hampstead Heath through -Hendon to Verulam.’ With the vanishing of the pilgrims’ -route over Hampstead Heath, we lose the reason for the -name of the hamlet suggested by Lysons, who supposed the -wearied pilgrims on reaching the heath to exclaim at the -sight of the city at their feet, ‘Hame-sted!’ the place of their -home and the end of their journey. Park believes the homely -name was given to it by the Saxon churls<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> who inhabited -it previous to the date of the Domesday Survey.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> - -<p>In the time of Abbot Leofstan, when Albanus<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> had become -a very popular saint, ‘especially with merchants and traders -going beyond sea, who sought his protection, and made rich -offerings at his shrine,’ the state of the great forest, its ways -infested not only with beasts of prey, but by ‘outlaws, -fugitives, and other abandoned beings,’ with the probable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> -effect of diminishing the revenues of his Church, set the -Abbot seriously to the task of removing these obstructions. -He had the woods in part cut down, rebuilt bridges, repaired -rough places, and finally entered into a contract with -a certain knight to defend the highway with two trusty -followers, and be answerable to the Church for anything -that might happen through his neglect.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> - -<p>In the eighth of Henry III., the great Forest of Middlesex -was ordered to be disforested, giving the citizens of London, -as Stowe tells us, ‘an opportunity of buying land, and -building, whereby the suburbs were greatly extended.’</p> - -<p>But the disforesting appears to have been partial, and the -building limited to the east. Hampstead retained its woods -in all their savage wildness; the paths through them, to the -terror of passengers, continued to be scoured by wild beasts, -especially wolves, which had not all been extirpated when -the ‘Boke of St. Alban’s’ was written.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> - -<p>During Henry III.’s reign (1256) we find Richard de -Crokesley, Abbot of Westminster, ‘“assigning the whole -produce of Hamestede and Stoke for the celebration of his -anniversary in that monastery by ringing of bells, giving -doles during a whole week, to the amount of 4,000 denarii. -A thousand to as many paupers on the first day, and the -same dole to 500 others on the six days following. A feast -with wine, a dish of meat and a double pittance to the -monks in the refectory. A Mass by the Convent in copes, -on the anniversary day; and four Masses daily at four -different altars for the repose of his [the Abbot’s] soul for -ever!” With many other daily forms and ceremonies. But -the keeping of this commemoration was found to be so -heavy a burden that the monks petitioned the Pope in less -than ten years after the Abbot’s death to dispense with it, -and he very sensibly sent his mandate to Westminster, -dated 5 Kal. June, 1267, declaring that he found these things -to abound more in pomp than the good of souls, and “that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> -it was evident they accorded not with religion, nor were -suitable to religious persons,” and recommending the monks -to limit the mode of commemoration to their ideas of the -dead Abbot’s deserts, and the advantages that had accrued -to the monastery by his administration. Upon which the -said manors and revenues became at the free disposal of the -Abbot and Convent of Westminster, towards the welfare of -the abbey; an annual portion of 10 marks being assigned -for making such celebration as that sum would admit of for -the said Richard de Crokesley.’<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> - -<p>At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII., by -way of a sop to the Church, created a new bishopric, that -of Westminster, giving it for its diocese the county of -Middlesex, of which he deprived London. Great part of -the revenues of the dissolved monastery were settled upon -the new bishopric, the manor and advowson of Hampstead -making a portion of it, but in nine years the new Bishop -had alienated his lands to such an extent that there was -scarcely anything left to maintain ‘the port of a Bishop.’</p> - -<p>In this reign, while the Manor of Hampstead was in the -hands of the newly-made Bishop of Westminster, we find -that a considerable part of the woods still covered the ground -in this neighbourhood, as well as in that of Hornsey, and -that game was still plentiful in them.</p> - -<p>Of this we have proof in the proclamation of the King for -the preservation of his sport in these places:<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘A Proclamacion yt noe p’son interrupt the King’s game -of Partridge or phesaunt.</p> - -<p>‘Rex majori et vice comitibus London. Vobis mandamus, -etc.</p> - -<p>‘Forasmuch as the King’s most Royall Maᵗⁱᵉ is much -desirous to have the games of hare, partridge, phesaunt, and -heron p’served in and about his honor at his palace of -Westm’ for his owne disport and pastime; that is to saye,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> -from his said palace of Westm’ to St. Gyles in the Fields, -and from thence to Islington to oʳ <i>Lady of the Oke</i>, to <i>Highgate</i>, -to <i>Hornsey Parke</i>, to <i>Hamsted Heath</i>, and from thence -to his said palace of Westm’ to be preserved and kept for -his owne disport, pleasure, and recreacion; his highness -therefore straightlie chargeth and commandeth, all and -singular, his subjects, of what estate, condicion, so’er they -be, that they, ne any of them, doe p’sume or attempt to -hunt, or hawke, or in any means to take or kill any of the -said games, within the precincts aforesaid, as they tender his -favour, and will estchue the ymprisonment of their bodies -and <i>further punishment at his Ma’ts will and pleasure</i>.</p> - -<p>‘Et hoc sub p’iculo incumbenti nullatenus omittat.</p> - -<p>‘Teste mæipso apud Westm’ vij. die Julij anno tricesimo -Septimo Henrici Octavi. (1546.)’</p> - -</div> - -<p>This mandate was issued just six months before the King’s -death, when his physical condition must have totally incapacitated -him from the sport from which he interdicted -others, and this in the face of repeated charters giving the -citizens of London a right of free chase in the forests of -Middlesex, Hertfordshire, the Chiltern country, and Kent as -far as the river Cray. This proclamation helps us in imagination -to a view of the then existing condition of the north-western -suburbs—fields from the back of Gray’s Inn right -away to Islington, a village of ‘cakes and cream’ in the -midst of meadows; the uplands of Hampstead, Highgate, -and Hornsey still covered with thick woods and coverts filled -with game, whilst between them and the city stretched the -open country, with here a wattled hut, and there a half-timbered -house; the clack of mills resonant beside the -willow-shaded Fleet, which had its rise at the foot of -Hampstead Hill, and went running on through Gospel Oak -Fields to Kentish Town and Pancras, and thence by Holborn -to its outlet in the Thames at Blackfriars, where a creek -rendered it navigable to Holborn Bridge.</p> - -<p>There stood St. Pancras, or ‘Pankeridge,’ as Ben Jonson<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> -calls it, the oldest church in London with the exception of -old Paul’s, ‘all alone, utterly forsaken, and weather-beaten,’ -while on the breezy high ground at Hampstead a windmill -or two gave animation to the scene.</p> - -<p>During the reign of Henry VIII., a predicted inundation -of the city drove the inhabitants to the hills, and Hampstead -Heath appeared covered with hundreds of little huts and -tents in which the credulous people sheltered themselves. -The prediction, of course, failed, and the prophets only -escaped the indignation of their dupes on finding their fears -disappointed by avowing a mistake of a hundred years in -their calculations.</p> - -<p>During the reigns of Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, -Hampstead Woods continued to flourish, coming down on -the east to the village of Cantleowes, or Kentish Town, -while on the west they spread by Belsize, and what is now -the Adelaide Road, to St. John’s Wood, where at the -Domesday the Abbess of Barking held wood and pasture of -the King for fifty swine.</p> - -<p>More recently St. John’s Wood belonged to the Knights -Templars. It was in this wood the unfortunate Babington -took refuge from the fury of Elizabeth till driven forth by -hunger.</p> - -<p>With this Queen’s successor, and his favourite, Buckingham, -Hampstead was a frequent hunting-ground, and to -this day the plateau on the west Heath, locally known as the -King’s Hill, commemorates the spot from which His Majesty -was wont to see the hounds throw off.</p> - -<p>In James’s reign and that of his son, Charles I., certain -‘fair edifices’ had arisen on the Heath and its vicinity for -the accommodation and convenience of the Court when -hunting and hawking in the neighbourhood. Of these old -houses none exist to add to the archæological interest of the -neighbourhood. It is impossible to imagine a finer foreground -for a hunting or hawking party than the Heath, the -natural beauty of the landscape lending itself most effectively -to such scenes.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span></p> - -<p>Who questions the locality of the wicked <i>bon-mot</i> of our -Merry Monarch, who could never resist the temptation of -saying a smart thing? When in the midst of a group of -beauties, courtiers, and Churchmen (who particularly -delighted in hawking), he observed of the church of Harrow-on-the-Hill -that it was ‘the only visible Church he knew -of.’</p> - -<p>Towards the closing years of Charles I.’s reign (1647), the -Great Hollow Elm at Hampstead (figured by Hollar in an -engraving preserved amongst the pamphlets in the King’s -Library in the British Museum) became an object of attraction -to visitors. Remarkable for its size and supposed age, -measuring 28 feet immediately above the ground in girth, -with widely-spreading branches, and of great height, a -sagacious speculator about the year 1647 (as appears from -some verses addressed to it by Robert Codrington, of -Magdalen College, Oxford, 1653) constructed a staircase of -forty-two steps within the hollow trunk, with sixteen -openings lighting it, which led up to an octagon turret fixed -amongst the branches of the tree 33 feet from the ground. -‘The seat above the steps six might sit upon, and round -about room for fourteen more.’ At this altitude spectators -enjoyed a most glorious view, or, rather, a succession of -them, and found themselves above every object in Middlesex -with the exception of the church spire of Harrow.</p> - -<p>From the open tableland on which it appears in the -engraving, the great tree probably stood on the summit of -the Heath, where the road now runs past Jack Straw’s -Castle. On the same broadside on which the engraving -appears are certain descriptive verses. This broadside -seems to have been given away to the visitors, and the -circumstance of its having been folded for putting in the -pocket, and so worn out, accounts for the few copies of it in -existence.</p> - -<p>‘The Great Hollow Elm at Hampstead’ (as the broad -sheet describes it) does not appear to have long survived -its singular treatment. No subsequent records that I have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> -met with mention it; but that it must have been the object -of many a summer’s day pilgrimage to the Heath is evident, -even in Puritan times, when Robert Codrington addressed -his verses to it. In them he mentions the</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent4">‘beauteous ladies that have been</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These twice three summers in its turret seen.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the same year (1647) a poetical stationer, commonly -known as Michael Spark, but who, in moments of aspiration, -fancifully called himself ‘Scintilla,’ tells us of a very curious -use to which this sylvan upper chamber was put.</p> - -<p>A foreigner, the fellow-countryman of Joannes a Commenius, -as he pedantically styles John Amos Comenius, the -Moravian grammarian and divine, had established a school -at Hampstead for a ‘limited number of young gentlemen,’ -the number being restricted to twelve, and these, Mr. Spark -tells us, he spared no pains in training:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘For he, on top of all (this tree) above the shade,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">His scholars, taught; where they such verses made</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As spread his honours, and do blaze the fame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of Hampstead School—I’ll trumpet up the same!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">It is he who lets us into the seeming secret of the birth of -the <i>Wells</i>, and sings of the</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘air, and hill, and <i>well</i>, and school,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">as if the reputation of each was publicly known and appreciated. -Codrington indirectly tells us that the elm was -attempted to be put to another use ‘by some of the new -religion, that would make a preachment beneath its shade.’</p> - -<p>In the reign of Charles II., when the Great Plague was -ravaging London and the Merry Monarch and his merry -Court had discreetly withdrawn from its neighbourhood, -Hampstead and the Heath had other experiences, for -hundreds of the wretched citizens who had fled from the -city to the suburbs, driven forth from the village with -scythes and pitchforks, lay down to die in the fields and -woods and ditches in the vicinity. This was the occasion of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> -the obloquy levelled at the Hampstead people by Taylor, the -Water-poet. And as a consequence, having almost wholly -escaped the visitations of 1603, Hampstead suffered considerably -in 1665, when the burials—which in the first year -of the plague numbered only seven, and in the next twenty-three—rose -to 214, more than seven times the ordinary -averages of the period.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> - -<p>Twelve months later, when the Great Fire swept out as -with the besom of destruction the germs of the plague, many -of the fugitives from London watched from the Heath the -destruction of their homes and property, the smoke of the -city ascending ‘like the smoke of a great furnace,’ a smoke -so dense and fearful that it ‘darkened the sun at noonday, -and if at any time the sun peeped through, it looked as red -as blood; through the long night there was no darkness -of night;’ and, to add to these horrors, on the dreadful -Wednesday night ‘the people of London, now of the fields,’ -heard the murmur that the French were coming, and though, -in the quaint language of the writer of the ‘City Remembrancer,’ -‘the women, naked and weak, did quake and -tremble, many of the citizens began to stir themselves like -lions or bears bereaved of their whelps, and “Arm! arm!” -resounded through the woods and suburbs.’</p> - -<p>These scenes, of which Hampstead Heath has been the -centre, have long since faded out of the traditions of its -inhabitants, like those of that still older night in 1588, when -the cresset upon Beacon Hill blazed the approach of the -Armada to its fellow on Hadley Church tower, and thence -from cresset to cresset to the farthest North—scenes full of -the tragic passions of human perplexity and terror.</p> - -<p>The General Elections for Middlesex appear to have -always taken place on Hampstead Heath. I read that at -one of these meetings of the Middlesex freemen on the top -of Hampstead Hill,<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> 1695, Admiral Lord Edward Russell<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> -made his appearance before the assembled voters, and was -returned without opposition.</p> - -<p>These meetings occasioned the assembling of great mobs -of rough persons and much lawlessness, which greatly facilitated -the business of cut-purses and footpads who habitually -haunted the Heath. But at the commencement of 1700, -after much trouble on the part of the influential inhabitants, -this nuisance was done away with, only, as it would appear, -to make space for another—for some time previous to 1732 -horse-races took place upon the upper Heath, and were -largely attended.<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> - -<p>The race-course appears to have been at the back of Jack -Straw’s Castle, where the surface of the Heath, so delved -and broken up and caverned by the sand and gravel diggers -in modern times, was then, it is said, level with North End -Hill.</p> - -<p>In July, 1736, a paragraph in the <i>Grub Street Journal</i> -states that while the horses were being run on the Hampstead -course, a gentleman, about sixty years of age, was -observed hanging almost double over a gate, his head nearly -touching the ground. His horse was grazing near him, and -there had been no foul play; his watch and money were -upon him. The dead man was a Mr. Hill, a teller in the -Excise Office.</p> - -<p>What an occasion would this incident have afforded for -the fiery declamation and denunciation of the great Nonconformist -preacher, George Whitfield, who three years afterwards -writes in his Diary that he took his station under a -tree near the horse-course at Hampstead! He was preaching -there by invitation, and his audience, he tells us, were ‘some -of the politer sort,’ which gave him occasion to speak to -their souls of our spiritual race, and he adds, ‘most were -attentive, but others mocked.’</p> - -<p>Johnson somewhat cynically said of him that ‘he had -known Whitfield at college before he became better than -other people’; but he also said that ‘he believed he sincerely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> -meant well, but had a mixture of politics and ostentation, -while Wesley thought only of religion.’</p> - -<p>The races had grown to be so great a nuisance, from the -crowds they drew together and the mischief that ensued, -that some time subsequent to 1748 they were put down by -the Court of Magistrates.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> - -<p>Except at election times, there had never been such -throngs of people or disorder on the Heath. The effect of -the races had been to drive away the more refined portion of -visitors to Hampstead, just at a time of year when the -season was at its high-tide, and the Heath and woods and -walks in their perfection.</p> - -<p>In the spring of 1750 the people of Hampstead witnessed -another instance of the spontaneity of panic-fear, which sent -numbers of people to the Heath and the high grounds of the -other northern suburbs to escape suffering the fate of the -Metropolis, which a mad trooper (‘next to the Bishop of -London’<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>) had predicted should be swallowed up by an -earthquake in the April of this year. The shock of one had -been felt on February 8, and again on March 8, and the -proverbial fatality of the third time led to the belief that a -final one would take place on April 8. When the three -months were nearly accomplished, at the end of which the -prophetic trooper had announced the destruction of London, -this ‘frantic terror,’ writes Horace Walpole, on April 2, ‘prevails -so much that within these three days seven hundred and -thirty coaches have been counted passing Hyde Park Corner.’ -Several women, he adds, ‘made themselves earthquake gowns -to sit out of doors all night.’ The day passed, however,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> -without disturbance, and, except that the unfortunate seer -was sent to Bedlam, nothing came of the prediction.</p> - -<p>That must have been a grand day on the Heath, mid-winter -as it was, when, roused by Bonaparte’s threatened -invasion of England (1803-4), the Hampstead Association—disbanded -about a year before—joined themselves into a -volunteer force, 700 strong, with the public-spirited ex-Lord -Mayor of London, Josiah Boydell, as their Colonel Commandant, -and Charles Holford, Esq., for their Major, and -took the oath of allegiance in the face of heaven and their -friends and neighbours on their own beloved Heath. They -then marched to the parish church of St. John’s, where Lady -Alvanley presented them with their colours.</p> - -<p>When peace was proclaimed, these were deposited in the -church, where they remained, a trophy of the patriotic spirit -that had animated the men of Hampstead. In later times, -when the wisdom of being always prepared for such defence -made itself felt throughout the length and breadth of the -land, the Episcopal Chapel in Well Walk was converted into -a drill-room for the volunteers who fell into rank in the -place of their forefathers. The old colours were now borne -from the church, and escorted with full military honours to -the drill-room,<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> where they remained till the building was -taken down, when with similar ceremony they were deposited -in the new drill-hall, Heath Street.</p> - -<p>One of the most pathetic incidents in connection with -Hampstead Heath is the remembrance of Charles Lamb and -his sister which Talfourd has left us, ‘mournfully crossing it -hand-in-hand, and going on sadly through the quiet fields to -the retreat at Finchley, where the poor sufferer sought shelter -from herself ... whence, after a time, she would return in -her right mind ... a gentle, amiable woman, beloved by all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span> -who knew her,’ but most of all by her brother, whose young -manhood was in a measure blighted by the tragedy of which -she who enacted it was wholly unconscious. He might be -said to have devoted himself to her, and in life they were -never parted.</p> - -<p>Few even of their contemporaries knew the particulars of -that household tragedy; the reporters of the inquest, with a -respectful pity rare in their craft, withheld the names; and -compassion was universally felt for the naturally inoffensive -and all-unconscious perpetrator of it, and for him, the dutiful -son and loving brother, whose affectionate and sensitive -nature suffered in silence the double horror and the double -grief. This is how the ‘Annual Register’ tells the melancholy -tale (September 23, 1796):</p> - -<p>‘On the afternoon of this day a coroner’s jury sat on the -body of a lady in the neighbourhood of Holborn, who died -in consequence of a wound from her daughter the preceding -day.... While they were preparing for dinner, the young -lady, in a fit of insanity, seized a case-knife from the table, -and in a menacing way pursued a little girl round the room. -On the eager cry of her infirm mother to forbear, she -renounced her object, and turned with loud shrieks upon her -parent. The little girl by her cries brought up the landlady, -but too late—the mother was lifeless in her chair, stabbed to -the heart, her daughter still wildly standing over her with -the knife, and the venerable old man, her father, weeping by -her side, himself bleeding from a blow on the forehead from -one of the forks she was throwing distractedly about.’</p> - -<p>A few days previously she had exhibited signs of lunacy, -from which she had previously suffered, and her brother—in -this lay the self-wounding sting for such a nature as Elia’s—had -endeavoured on the morning of the occurrence to see -Dr. Pitcairn, and had failed. ‘Had that gentleman,’ it is -suggested, ‘seen her, the catastrophe might have been -averted.’</p> - -<p>What a scene for the young clerk at the India House! -He was then only twenty-one, and, like his unhappy sister,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> -working against the tide to help the straitened means of -their parents. It was elicited at the inquest that no one -could be more affectionate to both father and mother than -the unconscious matricide, and that to the increased attentiveness -which the growing infirmities of the latter required, -added to the pressure of business, was to be ascribed the loss -of the daughter’s reason.</p> - -<p>Poor Lamb had himself once suffered from the same sad -malady. He has been censured for sometimes yielding to -drinking habits, but the memory of that one day in his life—the -very threshold, rather, as it may be called—might well -plead in merciful extenuation.</p> - -<p>At times throughout her life Mary Lamb was subject to -fits of mental aberration, the approach of which she was -conscious of, and on these occasions would request to be -taken to the abode at Finchley, where she found safety and -remedial treatment.</p> - -<p>One other event in modern times has caused widespread -and painful commotion in association with Hampstead -Heath, the suicide of John Sadleir, Esq., M.P. for Tipperary. -I well remember the excitement on the occasion, -and the rapidity with which the story was bruited about. -Early in the morning of Sunday, February 17, 1856, a man -was looking for a strayed donkey amongst the furze-bushes -on the south side of the old watercourse (now obliterated), -when he came upon the dead body of a well-dressed man. -A silver cream-ewer and a small bottle lay beside him, his -head resting near an old furze-clump, and his feet almost -touching the water. His hat had fallen off, and his lips -gave out the scent of prussic acid.</p> - -<p>There was one extraordinary fact in connection with the -case: the soles of the dress-boots on the feet of the corpse -were unsoiled, though the night had been stormy and the -neighbourhood of the watercourse damp at all times of the -year. It was evident he must have alighted from a vehicle -very near the spot, which was some distance down the bank, -at the back of Jack Straw’s Castle. I have not the report of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -the inquest to refer to, but the details of the event made a -deep impression on me, and the more so for the mystery -surrounding it. I think no cabman came forward or could -be found to give an account of a midnight fare to Hampstead -Heath, and it was midnight or after when his butler heard -him leave the house. The dress and general appearance -were identical with those of Mr. Sadleir, director of the -Tipperary Bank (which he had founded) and chairman of -several railways and banking and mining companies; and if -any doubt had existed, there was found on the corpse a slip -of paper, on which, in a hand as bold as his proceedings had -been, and infinitely clearer, was written, ‘John Sadleir, -Gloucester Square, Hyde Park.’ Many knew the handwriting, -and though some of the witnesses observed the -great alteration death had made in the countenance, Mr. -Wakeley, the coroner, lifted the eyelids of the dead man, -and, having known him personally, pronounced them the -eyes of John Sadleir. At first it was surmised that insanity -from a brain overworked had led to the fatal act, but it soon -became apparent that, to avoid the public scandal and -degradation consequent on his own bad acts, he had voluntarily -rushed out of life.</p> - -<p>‘By his scheming and forgeries, the issue of false balance-sheets, -the overissue of railway shares, the pledging of false -securities and obligations, he had deprived widows, single -women, army and navy officers on half-pay, and others -equally helpless and unwary, of all they possessed. The -victims of his iniquitous and gigantic frauds were to be -counted by thousands, from shareholders to the poorest -depositors, till at last, hemmed round by an inextricable -network of multitudinous crime, and seeing no means of -escape from the near crisis of discovery, he had stolen by a -perilous short-cut out of sight and hearing of the cries and -curses of those who had trusted him, to find oblivion in a -suicide’s grave.’<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> - -<p>There were many who firmly believed his apparent death<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> -a forgery also, and long afterwards reports were current that -he had been met with in America, whither his brother, the -manager of the Tipperary Bank, had absconded. It is -certain that a large sum of money which John Sadleir had -received only on the day previous to the discovery of the -dead body on Hampstead Heath was not forthcoming, nor -was its disappearance in any way accounted for.</p> - -<p>It appears singular why, having possessed himself of the -poison, and knowing its almost instantaneous effect, he -should have left his home, and gone out into the wild, dark -night and distant solitude of Hampstead Heath, to perpetrate -the despairing sin of self-murder. Perhaps the -wretched man was goaded by the scorpion-stings of conscience -to affinities closer to the condition of his mind than -the conventional and ill-gotten luxuries around him. The -cold damp earth, the sharp furze spines, the buffeting winds, -the all-aloneness—save for the ghosts of lost opportunities, -of great talents turned to infernal uses, of high respect and -honours thrown away—seemed more in sympathy with the -fierce frenzy, the unutterable horror, of his unmasked soul. -Assuredly, no more terrible proof could be required that -‘sooner or later sin is its own avenger,’ than the suicide of -John Sadleir.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE WAYS TO HAMPSTEAD.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>The oldest maps of London extant show two roads -to Hampstead; Aggas’s (time of Elizabeth) has -four. The most easterly of these roads ran out by -Gray’s Inn Lane, past old St. Pancras and Battle -Bridge, through Kentish Town and part of Holloway to -Highgate, touching Caen Wood, and so by Bishop’s Wood -and Wild Wood Corner to Hampstead. Later on a branch -of this same Gray’s Inn or Battle Bridge Road ran off by -St. Pancras a little to the west, into a country lane running -up from Tottenham Court Road, into what is now the -Hampstead Road, and so to Hampstead.<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> - -<p>Another road ran out by Tyburn, crossing the road to -Reading—the present Edgware Road—and going on by -Lisson Grove to Kilburn Abbey, passing West End and -Sutcup Hill, Hampstead, and thence on to Edgworth. But -the most interesting of these roads, and which is distinctly -traced in Aggas’s map, ran up from Charing Cross, through -St. Martin’s Lane to Broad St. Giles’s, crossing the ‘Waye -to Uxbridge’ (Oxford Street), and thence up Tottenham -Court Road, which shows how nearly the modern highway -follows the lines of the ancient one. It looks very like -the present road to Hampstead, except that it appears to -stop short at the top of Tottenham Court Road. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> -difference is in the road itself and its surroundings—running -as it did over a track, which, once made, was left to take -care of itself; dangerous with heaps of refuse and hollow -places that in winter were full of water, and at other times -absolute sloughs. Even in Charles II.’s time, when turnpike -roads were made by Act of Parliament, the travelling by -coach or waggon does not appear to have been much improved. -The highways were in places so narrow that a lady -traveller in 1764 tells us that, meeting another coach, her -conveyance was brought to a standstill till the road was -made sufficiently wide at that particular part to allow of the -carriages passing each other. In winter and in rainy seasons, -owing to the want of a proper knowledge of draining, it was -not an unknown grievance for the waters in low-lying places -to inundate the carriages; while at the close of such periods -travellers frequently found their wheels so deeply embedded -in the mud left in these hollows that they had to remain -there till additional horses could be had from the nearest -farmhouse or village to drag their vehicle out. The private -letters, diaries, and memoirs of those bygone years are full -of such adventures.</p> - -<p>It was not, indeed, till after the first decade of George III.’s -time that this state of things began to be seriously remedied, -and roads, in our present meaning of the term, laid through -the length and breadth of the land. Pretty deep in the -present century, except for a few cottages in the fields, there -were no habitations between the George Inn, Hampstead -Road, and the Load of Hay, on Haverstock Hill. In other -ways, the road continued to be pretty much the same as in -Colonel Esmond’s time, ‘hedgerows and fields and gardens’ -all the way up to Hampstead. About the time of the building -of Camden Town, people who loved pure country air -began to move further out, and toy villas and rustic residences -dotted the Hampstead Road, some of them remaining there -with their paled-in gardens and trellised porches and verandas, -oddly wedged in between builders’ yards and other commercial -premises, till long after I knew the neighbourhood.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span></p> - -<p>As recently as 1859 the road to Hampstead was a charming -one, especially if one drove there; for then you had the -advantage of seeing beyond and above the pedestrian. No -sooner did you cross the Canal Bridge than your pleasure in -the prospects began. Leaving Chalk Farm on the left, -where in some one or other of the effaced fields Tom Moore -and Jeffrey (afterwards Lord Jeffrey) met to fight their -intercepted duel, and Primrose or Barrow Hill, in a ditch on -the south side of which (1678) the body of the murdered Sir -Edmondbury Godfrey was found, ‘his sword thrust through -him, but no blood upon his clothes or about him, his shoes -clean, his money in his pocket, his rings upon his fingers, -but with his breast all bruises, and his neck broken’;<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> and -upon the summit of which, with sublimated vision, William -Blake, <i>pictor ignotus</i>, saw the spiritual sun, ‘not like a golden -disc the size of a guinea, but like an innumerable company -of the heavenly host, crying “Holy, holy, holy!”’</p> - -<p>Then Haverstock Hill, with the Load of Hay tavern, -looking in 1845 as rustic and simple as its name. It had -been famous for its tea-gardens, and an ancient footpath -from the Lower Heath, Hampstead, formerly crossed the -fields from Pond Street, and came out beside it on the main -road. Above the bank, rising from the highway on the left, -stood the cottage, ‘famous,’ as Carey in his ‘Book of the -Roads’ (1812) called it, as the residence of Sir Richard -Steele, the ‘solitude’ that for so many years reminded -readers of the literary Captain’s delightful essays, and -recalled in his company all the wits of Queen Anne’s time, -who, on their way to the summer meetings of the Kit-Cat -Club at the Upper Flask, Hampstead, were wont to beguile -him from unfinished copy, an easy task, since the gay -instincts of the man on these occasions would generally -override the severity of the philosopher, and prevent the -personal application of the moralities he so charmingly -discoursed about.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus7"> -<img src="images/illus7.jpg" width="700" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Hampstead from Primrose Hill.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span></p> - -<p>‘I am in a solitude,’ he wrote to Pope, June 1, 1712, ‘an -house between Hampstead and London, in which Sir Charles -Sedley died, breathing his last,’ he adds, ‘in this very room,’ -a circumstance that, in connection with his enforced rusticity, -and the circumstances that induced it, combined to waken -serious reflections; and writing on this occasion, as Pope -himself was said to write, ‘<i>with his reputation in his hand</i>,’ -Sir Richard somewhat ungenerously, when we consider the -close kinship of many of Sedley’s inclinations with his own, -improved the occasion at the dead man’s expense, wholly -ignoring the assurance of gossiping Anthony à Wood that -poor Sedley, after suffering much for his offences, took up and -grew serious, and subsequently became a leading man in the -House of Commons. If this be true, it says a good deal for -the recuperative moral force concentrated in Sir Charles’s -nature. Steele’s cottage stood so nearly opposite to the -little hostel, the Load of Hay, that its inhabitants, if so -minded, could have almost distinguished the features of the -gentlemen of the road who, towards sunset, occasionally -drew bridle beside the horse-block in front of the well-worn -steps leading into it, to refresh themselves with a tankard of -ripe ale, or some more potent stirrup-cup, before starting -across country to Brown’s Well, or Finchley Common, places -which continued till quite modern times to be words of fear -in the vocabulary of travellers.</p> - -<p>Pope’s contributions to the <i>Spectator</i> led in 1712 to -Steele’s making his acquaintance, which was followed by his -introducing the young poet to his courtly friend Addison. -One can fancy the fine presence and handsome countenance -of the distinguished essayist, his Sir Charles Grandison air, -and the stately suavity of his bow, which brings the side-locks -of his voluminous wig an arm’s length beyond the -shapely hand laid impressively on the breast of his deep-flapped -waistcoat, and the ill-dressed, crooked figure and -sallow face of the youthful poet. But remembering that -Pope at seventeen years of age had been admitted to the -company of the wits at Wills’s, it is probable that the stately -compliments of the great moralist, whose mission it was to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> -help reform the morals and manners of the day, did not so -much affect him as they might have done an older man less -conscious of his acknowledged power; and the nervous -flushing of the sallow cheek, the brightening of the large -dark eyes, and the slight quiver of the sensitive muscles of -the melancholy mouth, may be as much the result of infelt -pride as of modesty.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus8"> -<img src="images/illus8.jpg" width="400" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Sir Richard Steele.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>It was Addison who, on reading the first two cantos of -the ‘Rape of the Lock,’ pronounced it ‘a delicious little -thing’; ‘it was <i>merum sal</i>,’ he said, but when Pope resolved -to recast the whole poem, and asked Addison’s advice, and -the latter entreated him not to run the risk of spoiling it, -in doing so he affronted the morbidly jaundiced mind of the -poet, who, on the altered poem proving a success, called -Addison’s counsel insidious, and accused the amiable giver -of it of baseness.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span></p> - -<p>It is a pleasant recollection not only to have seen Steele’s -cottage, but to have stood with my friend, Eliza Meteyard, -in the room to the right where some of those witty, playful, -clever papers were composed, in which the follies and vices -of the times are mirrored with graphic power in the pages of -the now too rarely read <i>Spectator</i> and <i>Guardian</i>.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> - -<img src="images/letter.jpg" width="600" height="600" alt="" /> - -<p class="center">To<br /> -My Lov’d Tutour Dʳ. Ellis</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">With Secret impulse thus do Streams return</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To that Capacious Ocean whence they’re born:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Oh Would but Fortune come wᵗʰ. bounty fraught</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Proportion’d to yᵉ mind wᶜʰ. thou hast taught!.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Till then let these unpolish’d leaves impart</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Humble Offering of a Gratefull Heart.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="right">Richᵈ: Steele</p> - -</div> - -<p>There might have been an ampler number of them, perhaps, -but for the proximity of the Upper Flask and Bull and Bush -taverns, and the near neighbourhood of the Wells. But it -is still pleasant to fancy the lifting of the gate-latch, and to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> -see in imagination going up the garden-path, or issuing from -it, with Steele in the midst of them, Arbuthnot and Gay and -Pope, and it may be Swift, famous associates and friends, -whose almost centuries-old footsteps—for those who care to -look beneath the surface of the present—underlie the dust -upon the hillside, and give the road a charm beyond its -own.</p> - -<p>Their pungent repartees, their brilliant fancies and clever -witticisms, those mental coruscations of the moment, may -yet be floating airily in space, but the more solid portions of -their intellectual riches have become national endowments, -and their harvest result is with us yet.</p> - -<p>The commonplace row of mean shops called Steele’s -Terrace marks the place where Steele’s double-fronted -cottage stood, elevated some 15 feet above the roadway, -with a large strip of garden ground before it, but solitary -even when I was accustomed to see it, no other house -being close to it.</p> - -<p>Nichols, quoted by Park, alluding to Steele’s disappearance -from town to this ‘solitude’ at Hampstead, writes, -‘It is to be feared that there were too many pecuniary -reasons for this temporary retirement,’ a supposition generally -adopted by Sir Richard’s biographers. I venture to think -that another cause existed more pressing than the importunities -of creditors or the exigencies of straitened means. -Exactly one month after Steele’s letter to Pope, describing -his whereabouts, Swift, writing to Mrs. Dingley from the old -Court suburb, under the date of July 1, 1712, tells her -‘Steele was arrested the other day for making a lottery -directly against an Act of Parliament; he is now under -prosecution, but they think it will be dropped out of pity. -I believe he will very soon lose his employment, for he has -been mighty impertinent of late in his <i>Spectators</i>, and I will -never offer a word on his behalf.’<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> - -<p>Feeling himself disgraced, and desirous of keeping out of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -the way of his town acquaintances, seems a more cogent -reason for his seclusion than the fear of his creditors, -especially when we learn that the <i>Spectator</i>, instead of falling -off in popularity, was selling better than ever and at double -its original price; and that at the close of this summer he -had taken a house for his wife in Bloomsbury Square, which -does not look as if he was in want of funds.</p> - -<p>As for the irritable Dean, who had threatened to do nothing -for him, a little further on in his ‘Correspondence’ he is -telling the same lady of all he had done for the Whigs, and -adds that he had ‘kept Steele in his place.’<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> - -<p>Leaving Steele’s cottage, we pass England’s Lane on -the left—a lane famous for its blackberry hedges and the -pleasant fields in the neighbourhood of the late Mr. Bell -the publisher’s house; but all has changed, and the once -rural lane is now a path between brick walls and garden -fences. Farther on is Park Road, leading to the newly-made -Fleet Road and Gospel Oak Station; and on the -other side of the way, a little further on, Upper Park Road, -with fragrant nursery-grounds spreading over the same -distance on the right, reminiscent of the times when it was -all ‘flowers and gardens’ on that side of the way to Hampstead. -The road is still attractive with its handsome houses, -standing behind well-grown trees in well-kept gardens; but -formerly, on the ascent of Haverstock Hill, the outside -passenger by the old stage-coach on looking back found -himself repaid on a clear day by a brief prospect of the -great city, with ‘the dome of St. Paul’s in the air,’ and all<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span> -the surrounding spires, towers, and cupolas that ascend -above the city roofs.</p> - -<p>We leave Haverstock Terrace (now Belsize Grove), leading -to Belsize Gardens, on the left, and a little above it, to the -right, the sloping grass-fields—as yet unbuilt on, but marked -for speculation—and a pleasant view, between the poplars -shading the top of Haverstock Hill, of green Highgate, and -the smooth mound of Traitors’ Hill west, with Camden -Town crowding up to the new Cattle Market, and tiers of -houses covering what were once Copenhagen Fields, an -engraving of which, dated 1782, lies before me, and shows -these fields with only one habitation in them, Copenhagen -House, a tea-drinking place, the popularity of which extended -for a considerable time into the present century.</p> - -<p>The entrance to the garden is through the ribs of a whale -set up archwise, with an inscription across the top. Two -individuals are playing at bowls, whilst two others look on. -In the foreground are three gentlemen in cocked hats, long-skirted -coats, and their hair <i>en queue</i>, one of whom placidly -smokes a churchwarden; while at a little distance, watching -them, are two sinister-looking men, with thick bludgeons in -their hands, and the ugly head of a horse-pistol ominously -protruding from the pocket of one of them, suggestive of a -state of society to which again I shall presently refer.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, Belsize Avenue dips down on the left, and a -little further on the opposite side of the road Rosslyn House, -once the home of the clever but unscrupulous Lord Loughborough, -Earl of Rosslyn, who began life as ‘plain Mr. -Wedderburne, a Scotch lawyer,’ and lived to be Lord -Chancellor of England.</p> - -<p>But the Wedderburnes, though poor, were well descended, -and it is said that backstairs influence was not spared to -second his own unblushing efforts for position. Lord Campbell -tells us he was the first to deny the right of the poor, -‘which old usage and the piety of our forefathers had given -them, to glean in the cornfields after the harvest.’ He gave -judgment also that the law of burning women alive for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> -crime of coining should not be mitigated to hanging, and on -the occasion of the Gordon Riots showed himself merciless as -another Jeffreys in taking life, condemning the rioters to be -hanged by scores without reference to age or degree of -culpability.<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus9"> -<img src="images/illus9.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Rosslyn House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>He hanged mere children, for some of these unfortunates -were not more than fourteen years of age, of whom Selwyn, -who never missed an execution or a death at which he could -be present, noted in his ‘Diary’ that he ‘never saw boys cry -so much in his life.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span></p> - -<p>But to return to Rosslyn House and Lord Loughborough, -we read that in politics he was without honour, siding with -either party that happened to be in power, and whether -Whig or Tory it mattered not—his lordship was always on -the winning side. ‘None are all evil,’ but ‘neither wit, nor -talent, nor a splendid hospitality’ can redeem the meaner -and darker traits of Lord Loughborough’s character.<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> - -<p>Rosslyn House, formerly known as Shelford Lodge, had -anciently belonged to the Careys, who held it of the Church -of Westminster. It is stated in the ‘Northern Heights of -London’ that the celebrated Lord Chesterfield lived here -for some years, while he held the Manor of Belsize, of which -it is a part, and this author suggests that his ancestors might -have called the house after their estate, Shelford Manor, in -Nottinghamshire.<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> - -<p>In 1812 Rosslyn House was occupied by Mrs. Milligan, -widow of the projector of the West India Docks. It has -since been the residence of Admiral Disney, the Earl of -Galloway, Sir Francis Freeling (Secretary of the General -Post Office), and others, till it fell into the hands of a speculative -builder, who happened to fail before all the fine timber -was felled and the house wholly destroyed. The grand -avenue of chestnut-trees, which is said to be as old as Elizabeth’s -time, remained almost entire<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> (1855-56), and some -well-timbered fields appeared in the vicinity of the mansion. -But the park itself has been cut up into portions, each of -which belongs to a separate proprietor, and as many houses -are scattered over it.</p> - -<p>For four years, while the fine old house, the historical<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> -home of the unfortunate Sir Harry Vane, was being prepared -for them, Rosslyn House was used as the Home for Soldiers’ -Daughters.</p> - -<p>A little farther on a bit of sward crops out, reminiscent of -Hampstead Green, where Collins the painter once lived, and -on one side of which still stands the house formerly occupied -by Sir Rowland Hill,<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> the inaugurator of cheap postage, and -that of Sir Francis Palgrave, a well-known writer and -Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, 1838.</p> - -<p>The central space is now occupied by St. Stephen’s Church, -a structure nominally built by public subscription, but which, -I have been told, owed its completion to the munificence of -one family, old inhabitants of Hampstead, that of Prance. -They gave the clock, and subsequently the carillon.</p> - -<p>Some ancient elm-trees of magnificent size are left standing -near the church. At the east end of the building two paths -branch out of the main road, one leading to Pond Street and -South End Green, the other to the Home of the Sisters of -Providence and the congeries of sheds which, used as a -small-pox hospital, desecrated this charming neighbourhood -in 1870-72, and in 1886 were converted into a temporary -asylum for idiots. The ground they occupy appears to -be devoted to unseemly uses, a proposition having subsequently -been made to convert it to the purpose of a cemetery, -and this with the knowledge of the deteriorated value of -property in the locality, which the closing of the small-pox -hospital had not then readjusted.<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> - -<p>On the left lies Belsize Lane, and immediately past the -church to the right the road leading to Pond Street, with -Belsize Grove and Lyndhurst Road opposite.</p> - -<p>Amongst the many notable men associated with Hampstead, -Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, K.C.B., must not -be overlooked. ‘My earliest recollections,’ he writes, ‘are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -of Rosslyn Lodge, an old-fashioned two-storied house, in -the <i>then</i> quiet and charming suburban village of Hampstead.’ -Rosslyn Lodge stood in the grove opposite Pond Street, -facing some shady fields which led on towards the town, -about a quarter of a mile distant.</p> - -<p>At the top of the grove, which consisted of fine old Spanish -chestnut-trees, stood the residence of Lord Galloway (Rosslyn -House), and a path led up to the Conduit Fields. These -extracts from his ‘Life’ decide the whereabouts of Sir Arthur’s -boyhood’s home, which one writer, at least, has placed at -Frognal.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus10"> -<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="500" height="325" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fields near Pond Street, 1840.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>At this point Rosslyn Street opens straight ahead, -dominated by the ugly tower of Trinity Presbyterian -Church, and a little beyond Pond Street, on the same -side of the way, a new bit of road marked ‘Hampstead -Gardens’ affords another charming view of Highgate. To -the right Downshire Hill leads to the lower Heath and North -London railway-station, with Thurlow Road to the left, and -a little further on the same side of the way the lane leading<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span> -to the Conduit Fields and Shepherd’s Well, which till quite -modern times supplied Hampstead with water, employing a -body of local water-carriers, who made a living by vending -tall pails full to the householders at a penny a pail. The -last of these old water-carriers died an inmate of the workhouse -at New End about 1868.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus11"> -<img src="images/illus11.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Shepherd’s Well.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The road becomes steeper at the entrance of Rosslyn -Street, where one looks in vain for the old ‘Chicken House,’ -which Brewer describes ‘near the entrance of the village, an -ancient domestic dwelling of low proportions built of brick,’ -in all probability the home of the wood-reeve or keeper, and -not, as local tradition persisted in believing it, a royal hunting-lodge.<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> - -<p>In 1815 it was in a state of dilapidation, the front disfigured -by the presence of some miserable tenements, and -in 1866 was so built in, blocked up, and divided, that, with -the exception of the wide oaken staircase projecting into a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> -yard at the end of the narrow alley—about the sixth house -to the right in Rosslyn Street—no part of the original -structure remained. Up these stairs on the night of August 25, -1619, passed James I. and his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, -an event commemorated by two small portraits of -the monarch and his Master of the Hounds, preserved till -late in the eighteenth century in the window of an upper -room in the Chicken House, with another painting of the -infant Christ in the arms of Simeon. Under the former was -inscribed: ‘Icy dans cette chambre couche nostre Roy -Jacques premier de nom, le 25th Aoust 1619’—a legend -sufficient in itself to show that the incident was an unusual -one.</p> - -<p>Here Mr. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, whose -attachment to Hampstead is said to have ‘amounted to a -passion,’ was in the habit of taking up his summer quarters. -Towards the latter years of the eighteenth century it was a -favourite lodging-house for young gentlemen from the Inns -of Law, the Toupees, and other sprightly youths of fashion, -who affected Hampstead for the facilities the horse-course -afforded of exhibiting their talents as curricle and hackney-coach -drivers.</p> - -<p>Gale, the antiquary, also lodged here, and on one occasion -commissioned Signore Grisoni to make a drawing of the -picturesque old church, an entry of which is preserved in -the Trust Book.<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p> - -<p>In 1754 Gale returned to the Chicken House, where he -died. He was buried in the old churchyard. To the left of -Rosslyn Hill, a little removed from the road, at the commencement -of the bank, which shows the depth to which -the hill has been cut down, stands the large red-brick -mansion, occupying the site, and in part formed of, Vane -House, a staircase of which is preserved.<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> It is now the -Home for Soldiers’ Daughters, which was formally opened -for their habitation by the Royal Consort, Prince Albert, on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> -a summer’s day of 1860. A little beyond, on the same side -of the way, is Green Hill, where, on the site of the late -eminent publisher’s house (William Longman, Esq.<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a>), stands -the new Wesleyan Chapel, and, divided from it by Prince -Arthur’s Road, Stanfield House, which preserves in its name -that of the well-known marine painter, Clarkson Stanfield, -who for some years resided here, never tired of tending his -pretty garden, which has almost entirely disappeared. It is -now the Institute and Public Library.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus12"> -<img src="images/illus12.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Vane House, 1800.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>On the right are Rosslyn Hill Schools and Trinity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> -Presbyterian Church.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> It was formerly called Red Lion -Hill. The original site of the small secluded chapel, in which -Rochemont Barbauld officiated from 1785 to 1799, now -underlies in part the present Unitarian Chapel schoolroom.</p> - -<p>On this side of the way, immediately facing Green Hill, -stood Elizabeth House, an old mansion, so called, it is said, -from the legend of her princely Majesty on some occasion or -other having slept here. For a considerable part of the -present century it was occupied as a first-class ladies’ school. -Serjeant Ballantine’s sister and Constable’s daughters were -pupils. It is still standing, but in disguise, having been converted -into shops.</p> - -<p>On the same side of the way is Gayton Road, a new -thoroughfare, unfinished when I left the neighbourhood -(1864-65). It covers the greater part of the space formerly -occupied by the playground, gardens, and orchards of a once -celebrated school (the house—Norway House—still stands) -in the now narrow <i>cul de sac</i> called Burford Lane, after the -name of the present proprietor, an old-fashioned, many-windowed, -two-storied dwelling.</p> - -<p>Burford Lane is close to the town entrance to the Lower -Flask Walk, on the right-hand side of the High Street, and -close by the Bird in Hand, the coach-office where the -modern omnibus deposits its passengers, as the old stage-coach -did in the days of Richardson’s <i>Clarissa</i>.</p> - -<p>High Street and Heath Street are the great arteries of -Hampstead, out of which issue the crowded, confused ramifications -which make the study of its groves, mounts, -squares, streets, terraces, lanes, and courts a topographical -puzzle to the uninitiated.</p> - -<p>The ways leading to these intricacies all start from the -two principal streets, so that a stranger beginning at the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> -beginning soon learns to unravel the difficulties of the -locality for all purposes of business or pleasure. How -this complicated irregularity of position and outline came -about, which makes the old town unlike any other, and how, -from a hill village of five wattled huts, shut in by the great -Forest of Middlesex, it grew to be a place of fashionable -resort, and gradually enlarged to its present extent and -settled respectability, with its tens of thousands of inhabitants, -claiming municipal rights, will be set forth in the -following chapters.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE DESCENT OF THE MANOR.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>From the earliest times until after the Reformation -we find Hampstead an appanage of the Church. -At the dissolution of the Abbey and Convent of -Westminster, Henry VIII. granted the Manor of -Hampstead, combined with those of North Hall and Down -Barnes, in part support to the newly-made bishopric of -Westminster. In 1551, two years before the death of -Edward VI., they were surrendered to the Crown, and in -the same year granted to Sir Thomas Wroth as a mark of -the young King’s favour. This gentleman, who, ‘amongst -the divers sober and learned men of the King’s privy chamber, -by whose wise and learned discourse he was much profitted,’ -stood highest in his estimation, and in proof of it, with -boyish generosity, we find the King, who had knighted him, -making him rich presents from the royal wardrobe, and -bestowing on him, not only the Manor of Hampstead and -the others above-mentioned, but a plurality of manors in -several counties.</p> - -<p>On the death of Edward, and accession of Mary, Sir -Thomas fled to Strasburg, where he remained till the -succession of Elizabeth, when he returned to England, -where he was ‘received into the Queen’s favour, and employed -by her in the concerns of State.’</p> - -<p>In Hakluyt’s ‘Voyages,’ Park tells us, ‘there is an account -of a merchandising voyage to Barbary in the year 1552, set -forth by Sir Thomas Wroth and others.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p> - -<p>His name appears in the catalogue of Middlesex gentry,<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> -and ‘it is observable,’ says Fuller, ‘that of all in this -catalogue, he who went away for his conscience hath alone -his name remaining in the County.’ He retained a high -reputation to the last, and died at his Manor of Durants, in -Enfield, co. Middlesex, October 9, 1573.</p> - -<p>The Manor of Hampstead remained in this family till sold -by one John Wroth to Sir Baptist Hicks in 1620. This -Sir Baptist Hicks was a wealthy silk mercer of Cheapside. -He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard May, of London, -who outlived her husband, and at her death left £200 for the -purchase of land, the produce of which was to be appropriated -to apprenticing children and assisting the poor of -Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Sir Baptist Hicks was the son of Michael Hicks, silk -mercer in Cheapside, and the younger brother of Sir Michael -Hicks, secretary to Lord Treasurer Burleigh. He was -brought up to his father’s business, and had ‘great dealings -with the Court for his rich silks and commodities from Italy -and other foreign parts, by which he made a great estate. -Upon the coming in of King James he was sworn one of his -servants (anno 1603), and soon knighted.’<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> He is remarkable -for having been the first citizen who kept shop after -receiving knighthood, and for having built at his own -expense, in the midst of the street called St. John Street, -Clerkenwell, a building of brick and stone for the convenience -of the meetings of the justices of the county of -Middlesex, of whom he was one,<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> which had hitherto been -held ‘at a common inn called the Castle in St. John’s -Street, the resort of carriers and many other sorts of -people.’<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span></p> - -<p>‘On Wednesday, the 17th of Jany., 1612, the “Session -House” being then nearly finished, there assembled twenty-six -justices of the said county, being the first day of their -meeting there, where the founder feasted them all; and then, -after they had considered what name this structure should -bear, they all with one consent gave it the name of Hicks’s -Hall, in grateful memory of the builder, and he freely gave -the House to them and their successors for ever.’<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p> - -<p>But previous to this his wealth, the King’s favour, and the -honour bestowed upon him, and, above all, the contempt he -had shown for civic dignities—having paid the fine of £500 -to be discharged from the office of Alderman for Bread Street -Ward, which was permitted at the King’s express desire—appears -to have brought on him the ill-will of the Court of -Aldermen, who disputed his right to continue in business -after knighthood; and subsequently by standing on his -knighthood for precedency, a right which a fellow-citizen, -one Herrick, and his wife disputed, he involved himself in -another contest with them. It proved a tedious, troublesome, -and chargeable one, owing to the haughty deportment of both -Hicks and Herrick and of their imperious wives, ‘who, at -their own expense, maintained the suit against the Court of -Aldermen.’</p> - -<p>It was after these proceedings—perhaps as a sort of peace-offering—that -Hicks’s Hall was built. Sir Baptist Hicks was -one of the Commissioners appointed by the King (anno -1620) to inquire into the decay of St. Paul’s. He was -eventually created Lord Hicks and Viscount Campden, with -remainder, in default of male issue, to his son-in-law, Sir -Edward Noel, who had married the eldest of his two -daughters, Juliana, by whose descendant Baptist, third Earl -of Gainsborough, son of Sir Edward Noel (son-in-law and -successor to Lord Hicks, Viscount Campden), the Manor of -Hampstead was sold to Sir William Langhorne, Bart., 1707; -and from this time, says Park, the Manor of Hampstead<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -became closely connected in proprietorship with that of -Charlton, in Kent, which Sir William had likewise purchased, -and where he resided in the fine mansion built by -Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Henry, Prince of Wales.</p> - -<p>Park calls this gentleman an East India merchant, but I -find that a Sir William Langhorne, thirty-five years previous -to the purchase of Hampstead Manor, was Governor of -Madras.<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Sir William had for his first wife a daughter of -the Earl of Rutland, who died in 1700, and at nearly fourscore -married a second time ‘the daughter-in-law of his -friend, Dr. Warren, to whom he gave the Rectory of -Charlton, and who appears to have resided like a private -chaplain in his house. Seven years afterwards, at his death -(aged eighty-six years), he left Dr. Warren his sole executor, -guardian, and tutor to his nephew and residuary legatee, -William Langhorne Games, Esq., and trustee of the Manor -of Charlton. From this gentleman the estate passed to -Mrs. Margaret Maryon, widow, a distant relative of Sir -William (a fourteenth tenant in tail), from whom it descended -to her son, the Rev. John Maryon, with whom the -testamentary limitations ended. A new entail was created, -from which the present proprietor derives his title, as those -who succeed him are likely to do for many years.’<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> - -<p>By the will of the Rev. John Maryon, the Manors of -Hampstead and Charlton were limited to the testator’s -niece, sole executrix and residuary legatee, Margaret Marie -Weller, widow (1760), for life; with remainder to her only -child, Jane Weller, for life; with remainder to the heirs of -the said Jane Weller, who married General Sir Thomas -Spencer Wilson, Bart., who in his wife’s right became -possessed of the manor in or about 1780. Sir Thomas died -in 1798, and his wife, Dame Jane Wilson, was Lady of the -Manor until 1816, when her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, -Bart., under his father’s will became tenant for life of the -manor, with the advowson, and divers freehold messuages, -lands, and hereditaments at Hampstead.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span></p> - -<p>On his death he was succeeded by his brother, Sir John -Maryon Wilson, and he by his son, Sir Spencer Maryon -Wilson.</p> - -<p>Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon Wilson is the present -Lord of the Manor (1898).<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>CHURCH ROW AND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>The High Street, Hampstead, is a continuation of -Rosslyn Street, as Rosslyn Street is of the Hampstead -Road. In my earliest days the way to Church -Row and the church—which, being the oldest part -of the town, deserves the earliest notice—was through some -narrow passages to the left of High Street, called Church -Lane and Perrin’s Court, disagreeable purlieus now happily -altered.</p> - -<p>Church Row was then the private and superior part of the -old town of Hampstead, which, lying under the shadow of -the church, still preserves an air of old-fashioned gentility -and retirement.</p> - -<p>The houses of red brick, with a string-course of the same -material along their fronts, with narrow windows, dormers -in the roofs, and fan-lighted hall doors, exhibit a style of -domestic architecture common from James II.’s time to that -of the Georges.</p> - -<p>They remind one of the houses in Bush Lane, City, rebuilt -after the Great Fire. We gather the meaning of the word -‘row’ from the fact that the houses on the north side of the -way are much older than those on the left; these date no -further back than the rebuilding of the church in 1745.</p> - -<p>The door and gateway of No. 8, on the right, are clearly -of an early date, as is also the weather-boarded, bow-fronted -house on the same side of the way, and the double-gabled -house nearest the church.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span></p> - -<p>Several of these houses had originally very fine gardens, -with stables and coach-house in the rear, and were occupied -by rich City men, Riga, Turkey, and Spanish merchants, -some of whose names may still be found under the moss of -the churchyard stones and in the obituary columns of the -magazines of the day. Others of these houses were of less -pretension, as we find from Mr. Abraham’s ‘Book of Assessments,’ -some being rated at £50 and £60 per annum, and -others at £14, £15, and even less.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus13"> -<img src="images/illus13.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Church Row, Hampstead.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>But Church Row has had residents memorable for attributes -more enduring and higher than riches, and for their -sakes as long as Hampstead exists, and living minds delight -in recalling the scenes and associations connected with men -and women of genius, the place hallowed as the sometime<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -home of Mrs. Barbauld and her niece, Lucy Aikin, will always -be for English-speaking people endowed with a personal -interest.</p> - -<p>From 1785 to 1802, Mrs. Barbauld, whose writings achieved -a wide and distinguished popularity in the literature of the -last century, resided here in the house (in my time No. 8) on -the right-hand side of the way going from the town towards -the church, noticeable for a large wrought-iron gate.</p> - -<p>Her husband, Rochmount Barbauld, a native of Germany, -was the pastor of a small congregation of Dissenters, whose -place of meeting for worship was the Presbyterian chapel on -Red Lion Hill, now Rosslyn Hill.</p> - -<p>They were not rich, and from the time of their marriage, -in 1774, had assisted their income by receiving a few -pupils, a course they continued on coming to Hampstead, -Mrs. Barbauld herself receiving a class of little boys. It -appears to have been quite an aristocratic school, and the -education and training of the children a labour of love to -both the pastor and his wife.</p> - -<p>She, in her early home, had enjoyed those advantages that -have so often helped to strengthen and enlarge learned and -literary tastes in women, an almost masculine education, -and the society of highly-cultured and liberal-minded men. -She was the only daughter of Dr. Aikin, who himself, we -are told, was a man of sound scholarship, and the friend -of Drs. Priestley, Enfield, and Doddridge, the latter of -whom for some time resided in the family.<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus14"> -<img src="images/illus14.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Back View of Houses, Church Row.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span></p> - -<p>Her first poems were published the year before her -marriage, and were followed by her ‘Hymns in Prose,’ for -children, hymns that were themselves full of poetry—at -least, to the <i>perception of one child’s heart</i>—and were accepted -by hundreds of parents with gratitude and admiration. -Other works followed, and she assisted her brother, Dr. -John Aikin, in the delightful series of stories entitled -‘Evenings at Home.’ But the fruits of her training and -associations are best seen in her critical and graver writings, -which display ‘a strong, logical, and correctly-thinking -mind’<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>—nay, in some of them a breadth and liberality of -thought quite beyond the times in which she lived; and -it required in that day some courage to publish them. -Take, for instance, her ‘Observations on the Devotional -Taste,’ on ‘Sects and Establishments,’ a page of which I -append.<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> - -<p>At the present day some of her suggestions have become -opinions, and are openly preached; but her anticipatory -expression of them reads rather like inspiration than the -simple sequence of logical reasoning. Moreover, she was -living in times when for women to have opinions at all—or -at least to print them—was regarded as unfeminine, and -looked upon with disfavour. Mrs. Barbauld herself, in her -‘Life of Richardson,’ tells us how the accomplished and -clever Mrs. Delany found fault with a conversation in ‘Sir<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -Charles Grandison,’ in which the words ‘intellect’ and -‘ethics’ occur, as being too scholastic to be spoken by a -woman; and Dr. Johnson ‘did not greatly approve of -literature as a career for women,’ though he condoned it in -the case of little Fanny Burney and Miss Mulso, afterwards -well known as Mrs. Chapone, or, as she used to be styled in -my young days, <i>Madame Chapone</i>, without a course of whose -letters no young lady was supposed to have finished her -education. But Johnson affected, in Mrs. Barbauld’s case, -to underrate her talents. When, however, at the very height -of her literary reputation, he heard of her devoting herself to -the culture of the young minds entrusted to her own and her -husband’s care, she had, we are told, ‘his highest praise.’ -No one, according to Mrs. Piozzi, ‘was more struck with -this voluntary descent from possible splendour to painful -duty than the Doctor.’ But why ‘painful duty’? I imagine -that to Mrs. Barbauld the divine gift of teaching, as she, and -Pestalozzi, and Dr. Arnold, and a few others, have taught, -was as spontaneous and irrepressible as her writing poetry. -The first-fruits of her genius had been for children. The -publication of her ‘Early Lessons’ was an era in their first -steps to knowledge, and her contemporaries declared it -unrivalled amongst books for children. She had taught -when quite a girl in her father’s school, for the simple love -of teaching, and thus I do not believe that the step she took -was one regarded by her as a descent. She had made a -name that was destined to live, and the estimation in which -her writings were held lost nothing by her ceasing to write, -though the reputation of them enhanced that of the Hampstead -School. No doubt she regarded her acceptance of the -position from quite another point of view than did the learned -Doctor, who had essayed school-keeping as a means to an -end, and failed, while the lady entered upon it <i>con amore</i>, -and her method was altogether different from the scholastic -system then in vogue. She was the friend, companion, and -confidant of her pupils; she sympathized with all their -small troubles, shared their joys, and catered for their amusement.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> -Howitt, in his ‘Northern Heights of London,’ tells -how a lady calling on her found Mrs. Barbauld in the midst -of making paper plumes, ruffs, and collars, for the boys who -were about to play in private theatricals.</p> - -<p>No; I feel sure there was no feeling of descent in her -change of occupation, no sense of ‘painful duty’ in the -teaching that helped to mould the minds of boys like Thomas -Denman, afterwards Lord Denman, Lord Chief Justice of -England, and of William Gell, subsequently Sir William -Gell, the antiquary and topographer of Greece and Pompeii, -neither of whom in after-life forgot their indebtedness to her. -She had, as a writer, known the triumph of success. Her -poems, published in 1778, had passed through four editions -in the year. She had won the praise of Charles James Fox, -who particularly admired her songs; had been eulogized by -Garrick as ‘She who sang the sweetest lay’; and was regarded -by Wordsworth as the ‘first of literary women’; -while Crabb Robinson, who did not see her till she had -reached old age, was enthusiastic in his admiration of her -intellect, and charmed with her appearance even then.</p> - -<p>It is amusing, from a woman’s standpoint, to mark the -generous praise and admiration of these men, and compare -it with the stinted commendation and personality of the -‘sweet Queen’s’ ex-reader, and of Mrs. Chapone. Some -time after Miss Burney’s return to her father’s house, Mr. -and Mrs. Barbauld called upon her, whereupon she writes in -her journal that the latter is altered at this period, ‘but not -for the worse to me, since the first flight of her youth has -taken with it a great portion of an almost set smile, which -had an air of determined complacency and prepared acquiescence -that seemed to result from a <i>sweetness that never -risked being off guard</i>. I remember,’ she runs on, ‘Mrs. -Chapone saying to me, “She is a very good young woman, -as well as replete with talent, but why must one always -smile so? It makes my jaws ache to look at her;”’ and -then Miss Burney sums up her literary merit as ‘the -authoress of the most useful works, next to Mrs. Trimmer,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -that have been written for children, though this with the -world is probably her very secondary merit. Her many -pretty poems, and particularly songs, being generally -esteemed. But many more have written these as well. For -children’s books she began the new walk, which has since -been so well cultivated, to the great information as well as -the utility of parents.’</p> - -<p>She tells us that Mrs. Barbauld’s brother, Mr. Aikin, had -a very fine countenance, and describes Mr. Barbauld as -‘a very characteristic figure, but well bred and sensible.’ -Crabb Robinson is more clear in his delineation of him, and -says he had ‘a slim figure, a weazen face, and a shrill voice. -He talked a good deal, and was fond of dwelling on controversial -points of religion. He was by no means destitute of -ability.’ Amongst Mrs. Barbauld’s guests at Church Row in -1798 was Miss Mary Galton, afterwards Mrs. Schemelpennick, -one of the shining lights in that brilliant company that met -in Mrs. Montague’s drawing-rooms on the occasions of her -literary assemblies, which brought together all the wit and -talent of the town.</p> - -<p>Amongst these celebrities Mrs. Barbauld was a welcome -guest, and many of these gifted men and women visited her -in Church Row.</p> - -<p>She appears to have been as charming in person as she -was rich in intellect. A small portrait of her in the <i>European -Magazine</i> of March, 1786, suggests, from the sweetness of -expression and refinement of the features, the composed -beauty of countenance which Crabb Robinson describes -her as possessing at sixty-two years of age.</p> - -<p>In 1802 the Barbaulds removed from Hampstead. Through -the kindness of a friend, I have before me the copy of a -letter from Rochmount Barbauld to the celebrated Dr. Parr, -dated March 29, 1802, in which he says: ‘We are on the -point of leaving this charming spot, in order to remove -to Stoke Newington, thus exchanging the beauties of nature -for the pleasures of the heart and mind—for the advantage, -I mean, of living close to Dr. Aikin.’ This closes all questions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> -as to the time when the Barbaulds removed from -Hampstead, which one writer has asserted to have been in -1799. It was at Stoke Newington that Crabb Robinson -paid his first visit to them in 1805-6. We have seen his -personal description of Mr. Barbauld, but he added to it the -suggestive expression that at that time the afflictive disease -was lurking in him which in a few years broke out, and, as -is well known, caused a sad termination to his life. This -was the circumstance that made their removal to Stoke -Newington a necessity, in order that Mrs. Barbauld should -be near her brother for advice, assistance, and protection. -No wonder Mrs. Le Breton, in her recollections of her, calls -her life a brave and beautiful one. Of Mrs. Barbauld, -Crabb Robinson says: ‘She bore the remains of great<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> -personal beauty; she had a brilliant complexion, light hair, -blue eyes, a small elegant figure, and her manners were -agreeable, with something of the generation departed.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus15"> -<img src="images/illus15.jpg" width="400" height="475" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Mrs. Barbauld.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>When he next saw her she was quite aged, and her -husband had been dead many years; but she still kept the -calm sweetness of countenance that had charmed him on -the occasion of his first visit. One of her poems, written in -her declining days, is so characteristic of her quiet faith and -the serenity of her mind that we cannot forbear quoting it:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent2">‘Life, we’ve been long together,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">’Tis hard to part when friends are dear,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Perhaps ’twill cause a sigh, a tear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Then steal away, give little warning,</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Choose thine own time;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Say not “Good-night!” but in some brighter clime</div> - <div class="verse indent6">Bid me “Good-morning!”’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">And it was in some such mood that death found her in the -eighty-second year of her age.</p> - -<p>On leaving Church Row, the school—probably on account -of her husband’s malady—being given up, Mrs. Barbauld -immediately recommenced her literary labours, and compiled -a selection of essays from the <i>Spectator</i>, <i>Tatler</i>, and <i>Guardian</i>, -with an introductory one of her own. This work appeared -the year after her removal from Church Row, and was -followed by her ‘Life of Richardson,’ whose correspondence -she had edited. Her husband died in 1808, and the ‘widow -recorded her feelings in a poetical dirge to his memory,’ -a form of diverting feelings with which I have no sympathy, -especially as the ebullition appears to have been published! -I better understand her seeking relief in other literary occupation. -She wrote a poem in 1811 in which she more -naturally refers to her husband. She had also edited a -collection of the British novelists, published in 1810, with an -introductory essay of her own, and biographical and critical -notices.</p> - -<p>Placidity and cheerfulness continued with her to the last.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> -She died of gradual decay on March 9, 1825. Meanwhile -she had had the pleasure of witnessing the literary success of -her brother’s daughter, Miss Lucy Aikin,<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> who had written -various historical memoirs and a ‘Life of Joseph Addison,’ -which Macaulay criticised, and who, because ‘Miss Lucy -Aikin’s reputation—which she has so justly earned—stands -so high,’ thinks it right to remind her of her lapses, and of -‘the necessity in a future edition for every fact and date, -about which there can be the smallest doubt, to be verified.’ -Valuable and wise advice, the rigour of which he softened by -adding that ‘the immunities of sex were not the only immunities -Miss Aikin might rightfully plead ... several of her -works, and especially the very pleasing memoirs of the reign -of James I., having fully entitled her to the privileges enjoyed -by good writers.’ In June, 1822, this lady and her mother -took the house in Church Row which the Barbaulds had -occupied, and continued to reside there till 1830, when -Mrs. Aikin died. Upon the loss of her mother, Miss Aikin -removed to No. 18, on the opposite side of the way, where -she remained till 1844, when she came to London.</p> - -<p>Nearly twenty years later, when verging towards the end -of her life, she returned to Hampstead, and died at the -house of her relative by marriage, P. H. Le Breton, Esq., -John Street, January 24, 1864, while these notes of Hampstead -and its neighbourhood were being collected.</p> - -<p>At No. 25, not far from the house Miss Aikin had last -occupied in Church Row, and which did in my recollection—perhaps -does so still—possess a lovely view from the back-windows, -was the residence of two well-descended ladies, the -Misses Gillies; the one almost as well known as a writer of -charming stories for young people as her sister, Miss Margaret -Gillies, was as an artist. Her pictures were in the fifties, -and long after, familiar to the frequenters of the summer and -winter exhibitions of the Old Society of Painters in Water-Colours, -of which she had long been a member. In this -house I am reminded that the last twenty-eight years of her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> -long life had been passed. I remember her being there in -1859-60, and she may have lived there even at an earlier -date. She died July 20, 1887, verging on eighty-four years -of age. Previous to her tenancy Miss Meteyard had lived in -this house on her first going to Hampstead. It was then a -sort of private boarding-house especially affected by literary -people, and indirectly brought her acquainted with two or -three lady writers of a past period, of whose style, personal -and literary, she had some very amusing recollections.</p> - -<p>Subsequent to Miss Gillies’ death, I learn from Baines’ -‘Records of Hampstead’ that this house was tenanted for -some time by the novelist, Wilkie Collins, son of the painter. -The late well-known Mr. Ballantyne, the magistrate, also -resided in Church Row; and for a considerable period it was -the place of residence of Dr. Garth Wilkinson<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> and his wife. -He was the author of a curious and eloquently-written book, -which attracted some attention at the time of its appearance. -Here also, at a far-off period, and only as a lodger, I believe, -Park, the historian of Hampstead, is said to have lived.</p> - -<p>In quite recent times Mr. Le Breton, who had married a -grand-niece of Mrs. Barbauld’s, and to whom the inhabitants -of Hampstead are indebted for the preservation of the Judges’ -Walk, tenanted a house in Church Row, where he died.</p> - -<p>In 1895 Miss Harraden, the writer of that well-read story, -‘Ships that Pass in the Night,’ had her summer residence in -Church Row.</p> - -<p>It will be pleasant for future chronologists of Hampstead -to know that, amongst the many men of genius who have -made it their home, Mr. Austin Dobson, best known by his -charming <i>Vers de Société</i>, resided here. Beyond occasional -verse, he is too little heard of. It is to be regretted, for his -lyrics contain some real poetical gems.</p> - -<p>In my time this central, yet retired, part of Hampstead, -which is close to the busiest streets, and yet entirely secluded -from them, continued to be a favourite locality with artists -and other professional men. There were symptoms of social<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -decadence towards the end of the fifties in a ‘Home for -Servants,’ to which No. 28 was then converted; while two -or three other public institutions thrust themselves noticeably -forward, ‘as ’tis their nature to.’ Its old traditions of privacy -and dignified quiet—there was no public traffic through -Church Row; Miss Sullivan’s toll-gate stopped the way—was -to be sacrificed, and the character it had maintained -for so many years for staid gentility and retirement swept -away.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus16"> -<img src="images/illus16.jpg" width="400" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Austin Dobson.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>No. 9, next door to Mrs. Barbauld’s old home, had become, -before I left the neighbourhood, a Reformatory School for -Girls, established in 1861 by Miss Christian Nicoll, under -whose admirable superintendence it has done, and is doing, -good and useful work. The school is the only Government -one of the kind in Middlesex. The young inmates have all -been convicted of crime, and are undergoing various terms of -detention; but advantage is taken of this period to bring -them under the influence of religious teaching free from -sectarianism, to instruct them in reading, writing, and arithmetic, -and to train them for domestic service. Account has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> -to be rendered to the Home Secretary of the conduct and -progress of the girls for four years after they leave, and -the result is that from 70 to 80 per cent. are found to do -well.</p> - -<p>From Church Row you walk straight into the gateway of -the prettily-situated parish church of St. John, and in those -times the well-kept graveyard.</p> - -<p>Until 1745 the ancient chapel, originally dedicated to the -Virgin, and appropriated in 1461<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> to the Abbot and Convent -of Westminster, continued to be the only church at Hampstead. -It had been patched up and added to and rendered -picturesque by reason of age, irregularity of outline, and ruin, -and was in so dangerous a condition, to quote the preamble -of the petition to rebuild and enlarge, ‘that the inhabitants -could not attend Divine worship without apparent hazard to -their lives.’ Moreover, it is further stated ‘that Hampstead -being a place of great resort, especially in summer-time, the -said church, were it in a repairable condition, would not -be sufficient to accommodate one-half of the parishioners -and others who are desirous of coming to Divine service -there.’</p> - -<p>The old church was taken down in the spring of 1745, -and the present structure consecrated by Dr. Gilbert, Bishop -of Llandaff, October, 1747.<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> - -<p>During the two years it took in building, the Episcopal -Chapel in Well Walk was rented at £50 per annum (which -benefited the Wells Charity to that amount), and it was -used as the parish church, although it had not been -consecrated.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the monuments and mural tablets within the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> -demolished Chapel of St. Mary were necessarily displaced, -and have not, Mr. Howitt tells us, ‘found their way back -to the depositors they marked, and the memory of which -they were intended to perpetuate.’</p> - -<p>The design of the church was furnished by a resident -architect, Mr. Flitcroft,<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> ‘Burlington Harry,’ as he was -familiarly called from circumstances elsewhere referred to; -and the building entrusted to a resident builder, Mr. -Saunderson, who was not, it appears, able to follow the -original design of the church (the spire of which was very -handsome) for want of funds. A note in the trust book, -1744, relating to the building of the church, throws a strong -light on Mr. Saunderson’s dilemma, and the small importance -of architectural beauty, or even propriety, in the minds -of the trustees of that period.</p> - -<p>‘The tower, being placed at the eastern end of the -church, would be a considerable saving of expense.’ As a -result of this saving, the church appears the wrong side -before, with the tower and belfry at the east end, and the -chancel at the west. You pass the altar on entering, and -the font is at the further end. There is an altar-piece, -but no east window, and the whole is further darkened by -galleries north and south. Park says it is a neat but ill-designed -church, and we can only repeat what Park says.</p> - -<p>An engraving of the old church (said to be from an oil -painting by Grisoni) in Park’s ‘History of Hampstead’ -represents a picturesquely irregular rustic building, with low -walls, rather high-pitched roofs, sharply-pointed gables, and -a small open timber bell-tower. It has dormers in the roof, -a square mullioned window in one gable, a different sized -one in another, and other lights thrown in anywhere. A -transverse addition forms the whole into an irregular cruciform -structure.</p> - -<p>Trees crowd around it at the west end, as they do at the -present day, and in the graveyard are several recognisable -monuments, notably that above the burial-place of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> -Delamere family; of Daniel Bedingfield, Clerk of the Parliament, -1637; of —— Popple, Esq., Secretary of the Board -of Trade, 1722. A flat stone (recut since its discovery), -beside the second pathway to the left on entering, bears the -date of the Great Fire, 1666. There is also that of John -Harrison, the inventor of the chronometer, who died -March 24, 1776, after sixty years’ application to the improvement -of watches and clocks, and of whom Mrs. Montague, -writing to her brother, Mr. Robinson, from London, May 28, -1762, observes: ‘Mr. Harrison’s watch’ (the fourth, Dr. -Doran says), ‘and most perfect timekeeper for ascertaining -the longitude at sea’ (and for which he ultimately received -£2,400), ‘has succeeded beyond expectation. Navigation -will be improved by it, which all who have the spirit of -travelling shall rejoice at.’<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> - -<p>The clean-swept paths, the flowery garden-graves, the -close-mown turf, the shrubs and bowering trees, and the -varied, often elegant tombs amongst them, give Hampstead -churchyard an air of beautiful repose and quiet.<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Two -magnificent yew-trees with straight, tall, channelled trunks, -centuries old, spread their wide horizontal branches over -spaces ‘sacred to many sorrows.’ Beneath the first of -them, to the east, is the grave of Sir James Macintosh, -‘a man,’ says Mr. Howitt, ‘of grave, practical, useful, and -moderately reforming character and talents, rather than of -that broad and original stamp which marks the foremost -leaders of mankind.’</p> - -<p>If we take the first path to the left hand on entering the -graveyard, we pass on the side nearest the wall the tombstone -of Henry Cort, ironmaster, who greatly improved the -manufacture of British iron, and according to Mr. William<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> -Fairbairn, in his ‘History of Iron and its Manufacture,’ conferred -on his country during the last three or four generations -equivalent to six hundred millions sterling, and has given -employment to six hundred thousand of the working population, -but who himself was suffered to die of disappointment -and broken fortune in the sixtieth year of his age. Passing -on to the second cross on the right of this path, we find the -headstone which marks the simple grave of Lucy Aikin, who -lies at the feet of her friend and neighbour, Joanna Baillie, -whose railed-in altar-tomb has still a little footpath worn by -pilgrims’ feet on the grass beside it.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Oh, who shall lightly say that fame</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Is nothing but an empty name?</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When but for those, our <i>gifted</i> dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All ages past a blank would be,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sunk in oblivion’s murky bed.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">It is only fitting that she, who sang thus in her ‘Metrical -Legends of Exalted Character,’ should in her village grave -illustrate the sentiment of these lines.</p> - -<p>If we follow the east path to the end, and keep in the one -under the south-east wall, the second tomb is that of John -Constable, R.A. He rests beside his beloved partner, Maria -Elizabeth Bicknell, and one or more of their children. He -died in London, March 31, 1837.</p> - -<p>A little further on, under the same sheltering wall, lies a -flat stone inscribed, ‘Sacred to the Memory of Maria Honey, -whose mortal remains repose in the vault beneath. She died -in the year of our Lord 1843, in the 27th year of her age.’</p> - -<p>Some of our readers remember the brilliant, graceful -actress, and thus can feel the pathetic force of the brief -lines inscribed beneath:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Shall I remain forgotten in the dust,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When Fate, relenting, lets the flowers revive?’<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;" id="illus17"> -<img src="images/illus17.jpg" width="375" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Parish Church, Hampstead.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Within the church lies Incledon, the exquisite sweetness -of whose voice, and wonderful power of expression, drew -from the stately Sarah Siddons the graceful compliment -that in singing two lines he could produce as much -emotion as she could by the elaborate representation of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> -the highest passion. (This delighted him and did not hurt -herself.)</p> - -<p>A white marble tablet at the west end of the church -marks the resting-place of Dr. Askew, and at the east end -of the south gallery we find the handsome mural monument -to the memory of Lady Erskine, whose burial-place is in a -vault at the west end of the church. Other memorials of -persons of ‘mark and likelihood’ appear in the church and -churchyard, but we have only pointed the way to a few -of them.</p> - -<p>Since the foregoing pages were written, a very interesting -addition, which we owe to America, has been made to the -local memorials in St. John’s Church, in the delicately -sculptured but idealized bust of Keats, which we almost -touch on entering. It presents itself in profile, bracketed in -the vicinity of the Communion-table—a graceful offering to -the genius of the poet, and recognition of the undying -charm of his poetry, which is as deeply felt in the land of -Longfellow as at home. We are certainly not an enthusiastic -people, and seldom memorize our literary men or -women—never in any public way till a century or so of -years have given proof of the abidingness of their deserts. -The time has therefore not yet arrived for a public acknowledgment -of our national appreciation of the writer of -‘Endymion’ and ‘Hyperion’; but it will come, and I -should not wonder if this charming reminder on the part -of our Transatlantic kinsfolk should lead the sooner to the -honour of a niche for him in Poets’ Corner.</p> - -<p>In wandering through this, the only graveyard in Hampstead, -one notices the absence of those doggerel lines and -absurd inscriptions once so frequently seen in country -churchyards, and which were wont to introduce a sense -of the ridiculous into these solemn places. There is still -remaining an inscription on a tombstone in the churchyard -that for complacent egotism is ludicrously noticeable:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span></p> - -<p class="center">Here lie the Ashes of<br /> -<br /> -MR. JOHN HINDLEY,<br /> -<br /> -Of Stanhope Street, Mayfair, London;<br /> -Originally of King Street, Liverpool; who, under peculiar disadvantages,<br /> -Which to common minds would have been<br /> -A bar to any exertion,<br /> -Raised himself from all obscured situations<br /> -Of Birth and Fortune by his own Industry and frugality<br /> -To the enjoyment of a moderate competency.<br /> -He attained a peculiar excellence in penmanship and drawing<br /> -Without the Instruction of a Master,<br /> -And to eminence in Arithmetic, the useful and higher<br /> -Branches of the Mathematics,<br /> -By going to School only a year and eight months.<br /> -He died a Bachelor<br /> -On the 24th day of October, 1807,<br /> -In the 55th year of his age,<br /> -And without forgetting Relations, Friends, or acquaintances,<br /> -He bequeathed one-fifth of his Property<br /> -To Public Charities.<br /> -<br /> -Reader, the world is open to thee.<br /> -Go thou and do likewise!<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> - -<p>The author of ‘A Walking Tour in Normandy’ states -that in the church of Avranches there is a marble slab -erected by the Marquis de Belbœuf in 1844 to the memory -of his predecessor of that name, the late Bishop of Avranches, -who, it is stated, died, and was buried at Hampstead, in -England. Is anything known of the Bishop or his grave?</p> - -<p>On March 30, 1797, the remains of Lord Southampton -were conveyed in great funeral pomp from his late residence -in Stanhope Street for interment in the family vault at -Hampstead.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>FROGNAL AND WEST END.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Frognal claims to be considered the very heart of -Hampstead, the site of its first settlement, the -spot on which the ancient manor-house and the -humble little chapel to St. Mary primitively arose, -and around which gathered by degrees the wattle and dab -cottages that succeeded the ruder huts of the villani and -bordarii of the Conqueror’s time. The path through the -churchyard leads straight to the entrance of a narrow lane, -guarded in my time by a small toll-house and gate. This -lane is partly made by the wall enclosing the Mansion, an -old-fashioned, grave-looking, two-storied house, standing in -its own grounds, in which grew some remarkably fine yew-trees; -and between these grounds and the end of the new -burial-ground on the eastern side of St. John’s stands a small -Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, erected by a -French <i>émigré</i>—l’Abbé Morel—early in the present century.</p> - -<p>The family living at the Mansion between forty and fifty -years ago were of Irish extraction, and of the creed of their -country, circumstances that in those days (especially in small -places) subjected the persons so conditioned to a measure of -suspicion and unreasoning antagonism scarcely to be comprehended -in these more liberal times.</p> - -<p>Whether this was or was not the case with the Sullivan -family, I cannot say. Their society was not generally -courted, and outside their own special circle they made few -friends. They lived a quiet, retired life, and after her father’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> -death Miss Sullivan was most frequently heard of in connection -with the toll-gate, which appertained to her residence.</p> - -<p>I am informed that a toll of one penny for each cart or -carriage was exacted for the use of the gate and lane, but no -one had the privilege of <i>driving</i> through it without permission -of the lady of the Mansion; and as it was the straight and -short way to any part of Frognal, it became a constant -source of friction between the public and the owner. There -was something very arbitrary and vexatious in the way -Miss Sullivan resisted all requests and representations on -the part of her neighbours and the inhabitants generally.</p> - -<p>It was her right, and she resolved not to abate an iota of -her power; so the struggle became continuous till quite -recent times, when the parochial authorities resolved on -doing away with the gate, offering the owner a fair pecuniary -equivalent for the ground belonging to her; but whether she -came to terms I do not know. Her death probably facilitated -the matter, and when I last visited Hampstead (1895-96) I -found the little toll-house standing, but the gate that for so -many years had pertinaciously obstructed the thoroughfare -lay wide open, while an appearance of unresisted desolation -and neglect enshrouded the house and grounds, which I -heard were to be sold.<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> Since then many houses have been -built upon the grounds of the old Mansion.</p> - -<p>Frognal gives its name to several good houses in the -vicinity, as Frognal Hall, Frognal Lodge, Frognal House, -Frognal Grove, etc., and preserves (Park suggests) in its -own the diminutive of the title of the ancient manor-house, -the appellation of Hall being very early given to the mansion -of a manorial district. He imagines that Frognal may -probably come from Frogen Hall. How the hall originally -came by this designation, if it ever had it, he does not -tell us. By some it has been deemed merely a name of -derision—Froggenhal or Frogs’ Hall.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span></p> - -<p>Mr. Walter Rye, the well-known Norfolk antiquary, and -present proprietor of Frognal House, strongly supports -Park’s view of the origin of the name, of which there are -many examples in various parts of the country.</p> - -<p>Frognal is situated on the demesne land, which formerly -extended from Child’s Hill, north, to Belsize, south, the -site of the old church, or, rather, chapel, of St. Mary,<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> and -that of the ancient manor-house, clearly indicating the -portion of the manor first peopled.<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> - -<p>At Frognal Rise the ground is level with Mount Vernon, -but it gradually descends, till at the ruined house (no longer -standing) known in my time as Frognal Priory it is nearly -flat. Like every other part of Hampstead, Frognal has its -reminiscences. At the beginning of this century there was -still standing on the rise of the hill, where a high wall (said -to have been part of it) skirted a narrow lane leading up to -Mount Vernon, a remarkable old brick mansion, of the -origin or owners of which neither Lysons nor Park gives -any account. It is picturesque, with two high pointed gables, -mullioned windows, connected by a balustraded gallery, deep -bays and dormers on the roof. Park, in his ‘History of -Hampstead,’ gives an engraving of it, taken in 1814, from a -picture by William Alexander, painted in 1801. For some -cause or other, the fine old fabric had suffered neglect, and -some time prior to 1725 was let in apartments. It occupied -a beautiful situation, and here, amongst other lodgers, Colley -Cibber and his theatrical friends, Booth and Wilks, were -frequent visitors in summer.</p> - -<p>Subsequently the lease was purchased by the parochial -authorities of Hampstead, and the fine old house was converted -to the uses of the village poor-house. It seems to -have served this purpose till 1800, when it had become so -decayed and ruinous, and so prejudicial to the health and -comfort of the inmates, that the minister<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> and parishioners,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -with Josiah Boydell at their head,<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> petitioned Parliament -for leave to bring in a Bill to build, or provide, a new workhouse. -The Bill was granted the following May, and the -mansion belonging to Mrs. Leggett at New End being to be -sold, it was purchased, and there is lying before me the -printed specification of the alterations required to fit it for -its present occupation.</p> - -<p>From this period the old house at Frognal fell into desuetude -and decay—an interesting object to the antiquary and -the delight of artists, but daily becoming more dangerous -to the public, on which account it was taken down a few -years before Park published the first edition of his history -(1813). White, of Fleet Street, published an engraving of -it in 1814.</p> - -<p>The first house on the west side of the churchyard is -Frognal Hall, formerly in the occupation of a very remarkable -man, Mr. Isaac Ware, who, by his genius and self-education, -aided by Lord Burlington, raised himself from -the humble position of chimney-sweep to that of an eminent -architect. He was the author, Park tells us, of a correct -and valuable edition of Palladio’s ‘Architecture,’ which, self-taught, -he had translated from the Italian, and had also -engraved the plates after tracings taken from the original -work. He afterwards translated Lorenzo Sarigatti’s ‘Perspective,’ -and brought out an accurate edition of Palladio’s -first five books on the Five Orders, which was then -considered the standard of the English School, and was -himself the author of a ‘Complete Body of Architecture.’ -He was of His Majesty’s Board of Works. Truly a remarkable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> -man;<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> but there was a flaw somewhere, for, with all his -talent and success in his career, he died in distressed circumstances -at his house in Kensington Gravel Pits.</p> - -<p>Frognal Hall subsequently became the residence of the -Guyons, a French family of eminent merchants. ‘Stephen -Guyon, Esq.,’ so says the slab in the churchyard, ‘ob. -Dec. 5th, 1779, æt. 73; and Henry Guyon, Esq., ob. -May 15th, 1790.’ The house was sold on the death of -Stephen Guyon. Another member of the family continued -to reside at Hampstead till his death (May, 1806).<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> - -<p>After having had one or two other tenants, it was occupied -by Lord Alvanley, ‘Richard Pepper Ardennes, Esq., a -descendant of the ancient family of the Ardennes of Cheshire, -who successively held the high offices of Solicitor and Attorney -General, Chief Justice of Chester, Master of the Rolls, and -Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas, and was finally raised -to the peerage by the title of Lord Alvanley.’ He died at -Hampstead, March 19, 1804,<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> and was buried in the Rolls -Chapel,<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> now ruthlessly destroyed.</p> - -<p>Lady Alvanley continued to reside at Frognal Hall for -some years subsequently.</p> - -<p>Lord Alvanley was as remarkable for the smallness of his -stature as for the importance of the offices he had arrived at. -As a gentleman of the long robe, he made a frequent subject -for the caricaturists and the paragraph-writers of the -day. He appears to have been a kind man as well as a -clever lawyer, with a sense of humour that did not take -offence at being the cause of it in others.</p> - -<p>In 1813 Thomas Wilson, Esq., resided at Frognal Hall. -It was afterwards tenanted by a Mr. Cole, and subsequently -by Julius Talbot Airey, Esq. At present it is occupied as a -Roman Catholic boarding-school.</p> - -<p>On the opposite side of the lane is Frognal Lodge, the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span> -probable site of Alderman Boydell’s house, who some years -before his death had moved from North End to Frognal, -and is said to have been the near neighbour and friend of -Lord Alvanley, whom he outlived a few months. Abrahams -tells us that the house, gardens, grounds, lands, coach-house, -and stables belonging to this ‘grand encourager of art,’ as he -truly calls him, and which had lately been sold for £3,400, -had been rated at £70 per annum, but should have been -rated at £150. The discovery came too late to be rectified.</p> - -<p>The art-loving Alderman and famous print-seller, whose -house had supplied, not only the chief cities of Europe, but -those of the whole civilized world, with the highest productions -of the painter’s and engraver’s art, found himself -ruined by the long-continued war, which effectually closed -commercial intercourse with foreign countries, and caused -him such serious losses that he was compelled to petition -Parliament to be allowed to dispose of the large stock of -pictures and engravings on hand by lottery,<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> which took -place after his death (1804-5).</p> - -<p>For years he had cherished the idea of forming a gallery -of paintings of Shakespearian characters and scenes, that -should be at once an offering to the genius of his immortal -countryman and the crown of his own efforts to exculpate -art in England from the subordinate status it held in comparison -with that of other nations. To this end he had -engaged the most famous artists of his day—Sir Joshua -Reynolds, Romney, Fuseli, Northcote, Blake, and many -others (amongst them he himself was numbered)—and had -built a handsome gallery (afterwards the British Institution) -in Pall Mall for the reception and exhibition of their works -and the engravings taken from them.</p> - -<p>There is something very pathetic in the old man’s letter, -which his friend and fellow-Alderman, Sir J. William Andrews, -read in the House of Commons, pleading, after a life and -fortune expended in perfecting and accumulating these -treasures of art, to be allowed to dispose of them by lottery,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> -in order that at the close of a long and honourable life—he -was eighty-five years of age—he might be enabled to pay his -just debts.</p> - -<p>He ‘knows no other way by which it can be effected but by -a lottery, and if the Legislature will have the goodness to -grant a permission for that purpose, they will, at least, have -the assurance of the even tenor of a long life that it will be -fairly and honourably conducted.’</p> - -<p>The objects were his pictures, galleries, drawings, etc., -which, unconnected with the copper-plates and trade, ‘are -much more than sufficient, if properly disposed of, to pay all -he owes in the world.’ He hopes that every honest man at -any age will feel for his anxiety to discharge his debts, ‘but -at his advanced age it becomes doubly desirable.’</p> - -<p>As a citizen of London Joshua Boydell had received the -highest honours, having filled the office of High Sheriff, and -subsequently that of Lord Mayor. While resident at Hampstead -he had taken a leading part in all that concerned the -well-being of the inhabitants, and had given the prestige of -his name and the encouragement of his comradeship when -eighty-four years of age to the Hampstead Volunteers, of -which corps he was Colonel Commandant. He died on -November 12, 1804.<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> - -<p>At the date of Abrahams’ pamphlet (1811) there were -seventy-two houses within the boundaries of Frognal, a -hamlet of handsome residences, surrounded by wooded -groves and beautiful gardens of an extent begrudged by -builders in these modern days.</p> - -<p>One of these, remarkable for its quaint comeliness, is -Fenton House (early Georgian), situated at the very top of -the grove, an old red-brick mansion, with a high-pitched, -red-tiled roof, and key-patterned timber cornice, painted -white, running round it. The front, which recedes a little -in the centre, is ornamented with a pediment of the same -pattern, and the projecting ends have balustrades simulating -galleries upon them. A remarkable house, though, according -to modern notions, an inconvenient one.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus18"> -<img src="images/illus18.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fenton House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span></p> - -<p>In or about 1793 Fenton House was the residence of Philip -Robertson Fenton, Esq., formerly an eminent Riga merchant, -the son of Thomas Fenton and Elizabeth his wife, of Hunslet, -near Leeds. She was the daughter of Sir Charles Hogton, -of Hogton Tower, in Lancashire, where the slab above his -grave tells us her son ‘was born on the night of the 19th of -November, 1731, O.S.,’ she being on a visit to her brother. -Mr. Philip Fenton resided at Hampstead for fifteen years, -and died there in the seventy-second year of his age. Park, -though a contemporary during the latter years of his life, -gives us no personal particulars of this gentleman, but we -find in the list of subscribers to the ‘History of Hampstead’ -the name of C. R. Fenton, Esq., of the India House; and -in 1829, at a meeting of copyholders held at the Holly Bush -in the July of that year, to take measures to preserve the -Heath from further encroachments, a Mr. Fenton presided.</p> - -<p>It is therefore probable that some of the family continued -to reside at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>No doubt Fenton House<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> had had some other name -previous to the retired Riga merchant’s occupation of it. -Some time in the summer of 1746 Johnson (he was not yet -Doctor) had lodgings in Frognal. Park,<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> and subsequently -Brewer, who copied him, assure us that the house ‘so -dignified’ was the last in Frognal southward—then, in -1813-15, in the occupancy of Benjᵉ Charles Stephenson, -Esq., F.S.A., ‘where <i>the greater part, if not the whole</i>, of the -“Vanity of Human Wishes,” in imitation of the tenth satire -of Juvenal, was written.’<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span></p> - -<p>I cannot help thinking that the Doctor’s literary reputation, -rather than a review of his pecuniary circumstances at -this time, led to this assumption, and believe that a much -humbler dwelling sufficed for Mrs. Johnson’s summer -lodging than that which the well-known and well-to-do -architect would choose for his suburban residence; and I -ground my belief on the statement of Dr. Johnson himself, -who says: ‘I wrote the <i>first seventy lines</i> in the “Vanity of -Human Wishes” in that <i>small house</i> beyond the church, -Hampstead; the whole number were composed before I -threw a single couplet upon paper’—under pressure, probably, -of fair, frivolous, pretty Mrs. Johnson’s requirements, -real or imaginary, who, with her perpetual ailments and -perpetual opium, was always craving for country air—a -craving sometimes gratified at great inconvenience to her -husband. At the period in question he was so poor -that, in order to afford his wife a change of air, he was -obliged to dispense with a town lodging for himself; and -for want of means to pay the coach fare to Hampstead, the -roads to which were dangerous after dark, had nothing left -to him but to walk about till daylight, or, as in the old times -with Savage, to sleep on a bulk. Under the circumstances, -we have to judge whether the expression ‘that small house -beyond the church’ could apply to the ‘last house in -Frognal southward.’</p> - -<p>This reference to the Doctor is as eloquent as a volume in -exemplifying the exigeant selfishness of his wife’s character, -and the self-sacrificing kindness of his own, for with all his -roughness and ‘bear-like growl,’ as Northcote calls it, there -was a fine strain of compassionate tenderness in his nature. -I am afraid he found material for the ‘Vanity of Human -Wishes’ not far from home, for notwithstanding his generous -indulgence of his wife’s love of Hampstead air, ‘nice living -and unsuitable expense,’ Mrs. Desmoulins<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> tells us that she -did not ‘always treat him with becoming complacency.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span></p> - -<p>It was very vexatious, with her fastidious love of cleanliness, -which her husband has borne witness to, to see him -walking about in linen the complexion of which Sir John -Hawkins said <i>shamed her</i>, and it was not less vexatious, -perhaps, to have her personal wishes frustrated; for, having -hair as blond as a babe’s, we are told that she was always -endeavouring to dye it black, much to the great Khan of -Literature’s dissatisfaction. But with all her pitiful little -failings, when death had dulled the fair hair and stilled the -querulous lips for ever, her husband, we are told, sincerely -mourned her loss.<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> - -<p>It is said that at one time Dr. Akenside lived in Frognal, -but the place of his abode is not known. Apropos of this -unfortunate poet, a curious story is told in connection with -him, very disgraceful to the perpetrator of the fraud. A -literary man, known to Frederick, Prince of Wales, as a -poet and writer of varieties, when Dr. Akenside published -his ‘Pleasures of Imagination’ without his name, tacitly -concurred in the supposition that he was the writer of the -poem, and absolutely maintained himself, or was maintained, -in Dublin for some years on the reputation it gained him.<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus19"> -<img src="images/illus19.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Priory Lodge.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span></p> - -<p>I find the family of the Bocketts, who were living in this -neighbourhood in 1722, resided at Frognal in 1811. They -were connected with the famous Lord Erskine; the late -Mrs. Bockett, who died at Hampstead some twenty-five -years ago, was his niece.</p> - -<p>Turning to the right past the toll-gate, the road runs -between high walls, fringed with ivy, pendent grasses, and -long trails of purple toad-flax overtopped by trees to Frognal -Rise; past Frognal House,<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> now the home of Mr. Walter -Rye, and other modern mansions in handsome grounds, -whence the main road follows its course to Branch Hill, and -is continued to the West Heath Road. Branch Hill is the -site of Branch Hill Lodge, standing in ample grounds upon -an elevation that commands extensive and beautiful views. -Brewer describes it as a well-proportioned family residence, -though not of capacious dimensions. It has, however, -undergone many additions and alterations since Brewer’s -time.</p> - -<p>Branch Hill Lodge was partly built by Sir Thomas Clarke, -Master of the Rolls, on the site of an older mansion, parts of -which it included, but it had been so altered and enlarged -that only a very small portion of it remained in the house -which was standing when Lysons wrote. Sir Thomas bequeathed -it to his patron, the notorious Thomas Parker -(Lord Chancellor Macclesfield), ‘who was obliged to purchase -the copyhold part of the premises from the heirs -of Sir Thomas Clarke, in consequence of his having failed -to surrender it to the uses of his will.’ It was after Lord -Macclesfield’s enforced retirement from office that he came -to reside here. Twenty-five years previously he had been -impeached by the House of Commons for fraudulent practices, -for which he was condemned to pay a fine of £30,000, -with imprisonment till it was paid. The standard of morality -was not very high at this period, and though some person<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -amongst the crowd who had followed him on his way to the -Tower cried out that Staffordshire had produced three of -the greatest rascals in England—Jack Sheppard, Jonathan -Wild, and Tom Parker—the cry had ceased long before the -six weeks of his imprisonment ended; and time and more -recent rascality somewhat shaded his lordship’s association -in this triumvirate before he took up his abode at Branch -Hill Lodge, where he lived for several years.</p> - -<p>The house appears to have been particularly affected by -members of the law. It was tenanted by Mr. Thomas -Walker, Master in Chancery, and subsequently by Lord -Loughborough (afterwards Lord Rosslyn). In 1799 it was -purchased by Colonel Parker, a younger son of Lord -Macclesfield; and later on it became the residence of Mr. -Thomas Neave (eldest son of Sir Richard Neave, Bart.), who -was living here when Park wrote his history. This gentleman -amused himself by altering, adding to, and greatly -improving the house and grounds. He was fond of collecting -painted glass, and, besides some very fine Continental -specimens, obtained much of that which Bishop Butler -possessed; and the pieces from the old Chicken House were -said to have found a sanctuary at Branch Hill Lodge.<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> -The house has had other tenants since then, and whether -the painted glass has been removed or still adorns the -mansion, I know not.</p> - -<p>Considerably raised above the road, to the left, upon a -sort of wedge-shaped promontory of land pushing out into -the highway, between Branch Hill and Frognal House, one -is attracted by an ancient grove of lime-trees, at the end of -which is Montagu House, so called in honour of Mr. -Montagu, whose memory the people of Hampstead with -great reason revere.</p> - -<p>The house was formerly the home of Mr. Flitcroft, the -architect, who, finding the then beautiful avenue ready -grown, built a villa at the end of it. He died in 1769. His<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> -fortune was due to what proved to be a happy accident. -A man of great natural talent, but employed at Burlington -House as a journeyman carpenter, a fall from a scaffold and -a broken leg brought him to the notice of Lord Burlington,<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> -a born builder himself, a patron of art, and evidently also a -man of much humanity and warmth of heart. In some -drawings with which Flitcroft amused himself during his -recovery, his lordship discovered great cleverness, and interesting -himself in his advancement, got him placed on the -Board of Works, of which he eventually became Comptroller. -He was the architect of St. Giles’s Church, London, and -unfortunately for his fame, as we have elsewhere said, of -St. John’s Church, Hampstead. His St. Olave’s, Tooley -Street, is his most original work; St. Giles’s is but an -inferior copy of Wren.</p> - -<p>During his residence Montagu House had been known as -Frognal Grove, a name it retained during the residence of -Edward Montagu, Esq., Master in Chancery, who, some -time subsequent to 1769, tenanted it.<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> A man of sense and -refined feeling, a philanthropist and practical benefactor to -Hampstead, he was one of the leaders of a band of gentlemen -who had wakened up from the general apathy as to the -moral, social, and religious wants of their poorer neighbours, -and who (to quote Park), ‘setting their faces against the -drinking habits prevalent in mixed society, pledged themselves -to keep within the bounds of temperance, and to -introduce subjects, or topics of conversation, that should -tend to improve the understanding and the mind. Under -the ill-chosen name of <i>Philo-investiges</i>, the members of the -society held their meetings at the Flask Tavern, and from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> -the quarterly subscriptions, fines, etc., established a fund for -charitable purposes.’<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> - -<p>In 1787 the members, with Mr. Montagu at their head, -founded the Hampstead Sunday-School, a proof that the -intention of the society had been adhered to, and had borne -fruit after its kind, for in those days, when neither national<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> -nor other schools existed in villages for the children of the -poor, the value of Sunday-schools could scarcely be overrated. -Mr. Perceval also patronized this school. It is only -just to say that the absolute founder of the Sunday-school -was Mr. Thomas Mitchell, who kept a school at Hampstead -for twenty-two years on week-days, and was so real a philanthropist -that he continued the vocation on Sundays for the -benefit of poor children.</p> - -<p>To return to Mr. Montagu. This gentleman was the -trusted friend of Lord Mansfield, who placed in his hands -his resignation of the Lord Chief Justiceship. After Mr. -Montagu’s death, and in honour of him, Frognal Grove -was called Montagu House, a name it still retains.</p> - -<p>Stevens, the Shakespearian annotator, had a house in -Frognal before he purchased the premises of the Upper -Flask, which is now known as Upper Heath.</p> - -<p>Previous to 1811 Lord Walpole had a residence at -Frognal, which Mr. Thomas Kestevan afterwards bought -for £400, the price of a very humble abode in the present day. -At this time two of the four joint purchasers of the Belsize -estate, German Lavie and James Abel, Esqs., were living -in Frognal. Thomas Carr, Esq., had a residence here early in -the present century, where Crabb Robinson was a frequent -visitor. His house appears to have been the literary centre -of this part of Hampstead, and the pleasant diarist tells us of -meeting there on one occasion Sir Humphry Davy and his bride -(Mrs. Apreece), the poet Wordsworth, and Joanna Baillie,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span> -adding that ‘Sir Humphry and Lady D—— seem hardly -to have finished their honeymoon.’</p> - -<p>Frognal in the present day is by no means devoid of -literary associations. In the cosy home known as -Frognal End resides the well-known and well-regarded -Sir Walter Besant, whose unstained pen, powerful as the -lamp of Aladdin, has helped to raise a Palace of Delight in -the dreary heart of East London, and where the thick -‘darkness of ignorance’ prevailed has let in light and hope, -and the love of healthful and intelligent pleasures.</p> - -<p>When Baines was writing his ‘Records of Hampstead,’ -the late well-known artist and novelist, George du Maurier, -was living in New Grove House. He had been resident at -Hampstead for many years, and, like others of his brotherhood, -appears to have found the neighbourhood helpful to -his art. A well-known writer<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> tells us ‘that the Hampstead -scenery made in <i>Punch</i> his mountains and valleys, his backgrounds -and foregrounds ... the group of Scotch firs -suggested a deer forest ... and the distant dome of St. -Paul’s an always interesting perspective point.’<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> - -<p>For some time Sir Gilbert Scott, the architect, resided -in an adjacent house, afterwards occupied by Mr. Henry -Sharpe, after whose name Baines has added the suffix, ‘a -good man.’</p> - -<p>When I last visited Hampstead, the talented authoress of -the ever-popular ‘Schomberg-Cotta Family’ was living in -her pleasant home, Combe Edge, Branch Hill, where, in a -grove of evergreens, I listened to a blackbird whistling on -the third day of the New Year, 1896. Early in this year the -kind heart, the active brain, and busy hands of this wholesome -writer and benevolent woman ceased their work, to the -deep regret of many friends and the great loss of the patients -of the North London Hospital for Consumption, to whom she -had been a constant visitor and sympathetic friend.</p> - -<p>Her friends honoured her memory by endowing an additional<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span> -bed in the hospital. A tablet, upon which is inscribed, -‘The Elizabeth Rundle Charles Memorial bed,’ -was unveiled by the Princess Christian (whose sympathy -with all charitable work is well known) on December 18, -1896.</p> - -<p>The Frognal of to-day, though a charming neighbourhood, -with its air of affluence, ease, and ordered neatness, has lost -the more natural charms of fifty years ago. The old mystery -of high walls is still with us, but the free wildness of -grassy slopes and shady trees, with little neighbourly short-cuts -crossing one another, or unpremeditated footpaths -meandering about in aimless fashion, though to good purpose, -are there no longer. I like not the wide road bisecting -it, nor the lofty, many-windowed, scarlet-faced mansions -overlooking it. For me they have destroyed too much of -the tree-grouped greensward of my early days, and park-like -look of the old Frognal precinct, and the pretty, tree-shaded, -devious ways that led to unexpected places. I remember -wandering by one of these narrow footways with a few trees -hanging over one side of it, when suddenly I found myself -in front of a dilapidated lodge and other offices appertaining -to the sham Tudor mansion known as Frognal Priory.<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> At -that time—1869—it was a tottering ruin, supported by beams -of timber on one side to make it tenantable; and, as I soon -found, giving off, through neglected drainage, <i>mal odours</i> -enough to defy all but the curiosity of a press interviewer, -or of the London Sunday visitors, whose purses helped to -support the ancient, self-constituted custodian.</p> - -<p>Half a century earlier this house, with its simulated -Elizabethan appearance, must have been a really pictorial -object. The irregularly gabled front of ruddy bricks, its -oriel and mullioned windows, carved window-frames, quaint -waterspouts, and twisted chimneys, even in this stage of ruin -and combined with squalor, was eminently picturesque, and, -from an artist’s point of view, really effective. On this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> -account, and for the sake of some lovely views to be seen -from the upper windows at the back, a few youthful enthusiasts -of the profession, devoted to form and colour, -would lodge here for days together, despite the unsafe walls, -morbific air, and fearful effluvia from the ground-floor -premises.</p> - -<p>The history of this modern antique house—the building of -which many people living at Hampstead in the fifties could -remember—is too curious to be left out of our account of -Frognal. It was built by one Thompson,<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> better known to -his friends as ‘Memory Corner Thompson.’</p> - -<p>Originally a public-house broker and salesman, he is said -to have gained this distinctive appellation from a marvellous -feat of memory—nothing less than stating for a bet the name -and occupation of everyone who kept a corner shop in the -city of London. But as pawnbrokers, chemists, and publicans -generally monopolize these usually Janus-faced houses, the -difficulty may have been more apparent than real to one -whose business with the latter made him naturally notice the -shops emphasized by exemption from his professional occupation. -At any rate, he won the bet, and became known by -this prefix ever after.</p> - -<p>In the course of his business career as auctioneer and -broker, he had had many opportunities of collecting ancient -furniture and other antiquities, for which he appears to have -had a natural taste, and he resolved to build a characteristic -mansion to lodge them in. He obtained a lease of twenty -years, subject to a fine to the Lord of the Manor, and built -this house on the traditionary site of the ancient priory, where -Cardinal Wolsey is said to have occasionally lived.</p> - -<p>Exceedingly rich and ostentatious, Mr. Thompson took -pleasure in turning his house into an exhibition, without the -rules and order observed in public ones. Visitors were -admitted at all times, and a lady who was in the habit of -calling on his wife informed Miss Meteyard that no meal was -sacred from intrusion, nor were the feminine members of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> -family secure even when engaged with their toilets, but were -frequently obliged to rush out of the way while a company of -strangers inspected their bedrooms.</p> - -<p>The hall and largest room in the house were devoted to -the exhibition of medieval furniture, real or spurious. The -library, a charming little room, looked into the garden and -out away over what were then the Finchley meadows; the -light from the square mullioned window was softened with -painted glass; the shutters and doorways were to appearance -carved, and the panelled ceiling handsomely emblazoned with -coats-of-arms; the walls were surrounded with antique book-presses, -glazed and guarded with brass nettings, and filled -with rare and costly volumes beautifully bound. The whole -of this display was a deception. Mr. Memory Corner -Thompson had no personal interest in the coats-of-arms; -the carving was stucco; the volumes, the titles of which -must have awakened sharp longings in the breasts of -scholarly visitors—if any such did visit the Priory—were -mere shades of books, pasteboard integuments of them with -nothing real about them but the titles. The building itself -was of the same make-believe character both as to material -and workmanship. Plaster-of-Paris mouldings had been -made to do duty for carved stone wherever this was -characteristically required. The divisional walls were of -simple lath and plaster, and the exterior ones not much -more solid. They lasted, however, the proprietor’s time, -who, having no children living, left it, with part of his -large fortune, to his niece, who had married the notorious -Gregory, the proprietor of that disgraceful publication called -the <i>Satirist</i>, and who, it was known, made money by -threatening persons of ‘mark and likelihood’ with scandalous -libels, unless they would pay smartly to have them -suppressed. On one occasion, instead of finding a victim, -the miscreant ‘caught a Tartar,’ who prosecuted him, and -Gregory was properly sentenced to some months’ imprisonment -for his attempted extortion. At this juncture Mr. -Thompson died, and on Gregory’s coming out of prison<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> -he found himself, through his wife’s fortune, a rich man, -and set up a new rôle amongst the many he had attempted, -that of <i>gentleman</i>; but as his conception of the part induced -much extravagance and dissipation, it was very soon -played out, and ended in the loss of all his possessions.<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></p> - -<p>After his wife’s death, having neglected to pay the fine to -the Lord of the Manor, the latter recovered possession by -injunction. The antique furniture and articles of vertu, -pictures, etc., collected by Thompson, which he had not -disposed of, or that were not sold at his death, disappeared -during Gregory’s occupation. The very fixtures vanished, -chimney-mantels and fire-grates were removed, so that with -the exception of a few pieces of painted glass in the guest-chamber -over the library, and a few mouldering bits of real -carved oak in window fittings, or cornices, nothing remained -in proof of the antique taste of the original proprietor of -Frognal Priory.</p> - -<p>A gate, under the trees on the left as one approached the -very handsome porch, the only real thing about the building,<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> -led to a pleasant slope once gay with garden-beds and flowering -shrubs, where a fountain then choked up had once played, -and by which a weeping ash still lingered. The greensward, -rough and matted, was dotted about with groups of -trees, and there remained in part the raised terrace that had -divided this part of the grounds from the kitchen-garden, -into which a flight of steps led. Here the ruinous condition -of the house was more apparent than within it. Still a niched -saint looked calmly down from beneath the cross-surmounted -gable of a pseudo-chapel, while the ruined parapet, fissured -and broken, threatened soon to bury its share of the sham -edifice in a heap of dust.</p> - -<p>The late Sir Thomas Wilson desired to utilize the house -as an office, but for this purpose it required reparation, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -the fear of an heir to Thompson starting up prevented his -bestowing any outlay on it till it became too late. Some -time after Gregory’s exit Sir Thomas Wilson’s bailiff, to -prevent the house and its materials being carried away -piecemeal, installed a labourer and his wife as caretakers, -who remained in it over twenty years. The man died, -leaving certain instructions to the woman, who, old and -houseless but for its shelter, standing upon her supposed -right after twenty years’ possession, absolutely refused to -quit, and set at defiance all peaceable efforts to remove her; -and though the lessee of the ground (then being broken up -for brickfields) had managed to induct a tenant of his own, -the oldest inhabitant was resolute in remaining; the result -was intermural war. The old woman, remembering her -husband’s injunction, fully believed that the Priory had -lapsed to her in right of her twenty years’ free tenancy, and -she doubted the power of the Lord of the Manor to remove -her. It was not till some time after I had left the neighbourhood, -and only by taking legal proceedings, that this -too-tenacious inhabitant was expelled.</p> - -<p>In these bygone years, on leaving Frognal Priory, if you -took the first turning to the right, you found yourself at the -entrance to West End Lane, then a really rustic lane, with -high hedgerows and sheltering trees.<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>WEST END TO CHILD’S HILL AND THE WEST HEATH.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Although lying wide of Hampstead proper, West -End is an integral part of the parish of St. John, -and the western boundary of the original demesne -lands of the manor. It is accessible from the -Heath by two or three charming field-paths, and when in the -neighbourhood of Frognal Priory, at the period these lines -were written, the first turning to the left led straight to it. -In those days not even the blank walls and close-clipped -garden hedges at the entrance could deprive West End Lane -of the character of rusticity.</p> - -<p>The ground along which it undulated, the fine old trees -that overhung it in places, and the grassy slopes to the left, -with their old-fashioned hedgerows broken by elm and oak -trees, and brightened in spring and summer with whitethorn -and elder bloom, left us a glimpse, as it were, of the lovely -aspect of the fields, once stretching away to what were then -Kilburn meadows, but which now underlie a town.</p> - -<p>The first house to the right at the beginning of the lane -was the Ferns, noticeable as having been the residence of -the late Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a wealthy wine-merchant -of London, a man of ‘large mind, and liberal principles, and -a leader of them in others.’ ‘In common with, if not in so -prominent a degree as, Lord Brougham, Thomas Campbell, -and other men of high standing and influence, he took -an active part in the originating and founding of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -London University, and, if only on this account, deserves -the gratitude of his fellow-citizens.’<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> - -<p>Next to the Ferns was the so-called Manor House, the -residence for some years of the head of the well-known -publishing firm of Longman and Co.<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> A few yards -further, the road dipped down into a green hollow, with -meeting elm-boughs overhead, and there was a seat pleasantly -placed for the comfort and rest of wayfarers. Beside it a -gate and footpath led aslant over two grass fields hemmed -round by hedgerows and trees, the second of them having -two very aged oak-trees in it; one of them, hollow and gnarled, -but still sprouting forth a green head, stood one half within -and one half without the gate, which separated the fields -directly in the middle of the pathway which led round it. Of -these fields we find a pleasant memory in a letter of Miss -Meteyard’s, published by Mr. Stephens in his ‘Life of Sir -Edwin Landseer,’ whose father, in 1849-50, resided (as his -family have since continued to do) at St. John’s Wood. At -this period the Howitts were living in the avenue close by, -and being well acquainted, William Howitt and the elder -Landseer often met in their walks, or would go or return -together.</p> - -<p>‘One evening in passing along the Finchley Road towards -Child’s Hill, Mr. Landseer stayed at a gate of ancient look, -and said to his friend, “These two fields were Edwin’s first -studios. Many a time have I lifted him over this very -stile. I then lived in Foley Street, and nearly all the way -between Marylebone and Hampstead was open fields. It -was a favourite walk with my boys, and one day when I had -accompanied them, Edwin stopped by this stile to admire -some sheep and cows which were quietly grazing. At his -request I lifted him over, and finding a scrap of paper and a -pencil in my pocket, I made him sketch a cow. He was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> -very young indeed then, not more than six or seven years -old. After this we came on several occasions, and as he -grew older, this was one of his favourite spots for sketching. -He would start off alone, or with John or Charles, and -remain till I fetched him in the afternoon.... Sometimes -he would sketch in one field, sometimes in the other ... but -generally in the one beyond the old oak we see there, as -it was more pleasant and sunny.”’<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> This was the upper -field, nearest West End Lane, which some of my readers -will remember. Nor will it lessen their interest in this once -pleasant locality, that it was while walking in these fields -that William Howitt, whose name is a household word in -English family literature, told the story to Miss Meteyard, -who was never wearied of expatiating on the woodland -beauty of this neighbourhood.</p> - -<p>Within her own recollection it was famous for the number -and beauty of its oak-trees—‘a region of them,’ she called it—and -West End Lane was then a deep-hedged, tree-shaded -alley all the way to Fortune Green.</p> - -<p>In the May of 1815 (it should be 1816) we find Haydon, -the disappointed, sad-lived artist, ‘sauntering,’ as he tells us, -‘to West End Lane, and so to Hampstead, with great -delight.’ And no wonder, for besides the spring-dressed -beauty of Nature around him, he had for his companion -that lover and evangelist of it, Wordsworth, and they were -bound for the Vale of Health, and Leigh Hunt’s cottage, -where Cumberland joined them, and afterwards walked with -Haydon on the Heath. This excerpt from the artist’s diary -closes the mouths of the sceptics who doubt that Wordsworth -visited the ‘pink of Poets,’ as his critics sarcastically called -the author of ‘Rimini,’ in his humble retreat at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Park, to whom I am so much indebted, tells us that the -demesne land, occupying from four to five hundred acres of -the richest land in the parish, lay scattered along the western<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span> -side of the hill from Child’s Hill, north, to Belsize, south, -and that the name of manor was in his time appropriated to -that portion of them situated south of West End Lane. He -also says that the old manor-house, which some of the then -living inhabitants of Hampstead remembered, was a low, -ordinary building in the farmhouse style, but with a very -capacious hall.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus20"> -<img src="images/illus20.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Vale of Health, Lower Heath, 1840.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The old manor-house had stood on the north side of the -lane, in Park’s time the site of a modern house, on what was -called the Manor Farm, occupied by General Sir Samuel -Bentham, who, ‘tired of war’s alarms,’ had settled down to -a peaceful life in a lovely neighbourhood, and took pleasure -in pointing out to his visitors an old pollard oak in his -grounds, which he believed was the identical oak which -had given its name to the manor-farm—Hall Oak Farm. -This name, Park tells us, was cut upon a stone built in as -the keystone of the arched doorway of a large old barn.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -‘The late lessee of the manor-farm (Mr. Thomas Pool) -made great alterations in the disposition of the homestall. -He pulled down the old house, and built a substantial residence -upon the spot. At this house the manor courts were -held till Pool removed to a smaller house on the other side -of the road, and the courts were removed with him.’</p> - -<p>But the house built on the site of the old manor-house, -known in Park’s time as Hall Oak Farm, has now—1899—the -name of Manor Lodge. ‘The title of Manor House was -in 1813 appropriated to the adjoining house, then the residence -of Thomas Norton Longman, Esq.,<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> which was without -doubt a part of the original homestead, and in which the -manor courts have occasionally been kept.’<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> - -<p>But in spite of the respectability of its antiquity and -inhabitants, West End was not without its drawbacks. The -Cock and Hoop upon the edge of the green (it is there still, -1896) was by no means an overnice hostel in the matter of -customers. It lay on the road to Finchley Common, and -‘first come, first served,’ liberally read, seems to have been -the motto of successive landlords. It had the reputation of -being a rendezvous of highwaymen and robbers. An annual -fair, which had grown up no one knew how, having no legal -sanction by charter or otherwise, must also have been, from -the number of tramps and roughs, and other disreputable -and dangerous characters it brought together, a real grievance -to the respectable inhabitants. Ostensibly it was an innocent -fair enough, dealing chiefly in toys and gingerbread, -with the usual accompaniment of travelling shows and -theatres, attractions which brought together a concourse of -people, and as naturally a number of thieves and pickpockets. -Yet, being regarded as a pleasure fair, and taking place in -mid-summer, it appears to have been frequented during daylight<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> -by respectable persons, and when evening came by -decent tradespeople, and others of a class who have made -great progress in social refinement since then. A newspaper -cutting subsequent to July 28, 1819, informs us, under -the head of Bow Street, that in consequence of the outrageous -and daring scenes of disorder, robberies, wounding -and ill-treating of a number of persons at the West End -Fair near Hampstead on Monday evening, and during the -night, an additional number of constables from this office, as -well as officers from Hatton Garden, and a number of the -inhabitants of Hampstead as special constables, attended -the fair on Tuesday, to detect and apprehend the various -gangs who attacked defenceless individuals, if possible more -brutally than on Monday night. They pushed the people -down, and not only robbed them of their watches and -money, but actually tore off and possessed themselves of -their clothes. One woman had her earrings torn from her -ears. A number of desperate characters were taken up on -this occasion, several of whom were committed, and others -summarily dealt with as rogues and vagabonds. Long years -after this date (for West End Fair was not suppressed), -attendance at it appears to have been ‘a desperate pleasure.’ -Apart from the perils of the fair itself, as soon as night fell -the lanes and footpaths about Hampstead—the Kilburn -meadows, the hedgerows in Pancras Vale, even the highways -themselves—were infested with footpads and robbers, so -that in the memory of an eye-witness living in 1849 it was -customary for the decent part of the company to wait till -the drummer went round the fair to recall the soldiers -present to their quarters, and then to fall in with them for -safety’s sake, and thus escorted march back to town.</p> - -<p>Now if silence and dulness be signs of propriety, few -places can be better behaved than West End Green, or -what is left of it; even the cheerful clangour of the blacksmith’s -forge, which used to stand at the further end of -it, where many a traveller’s tire has been mended, and many -a loose shoe replaced for gentlemen of the road in their<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> -wake, has passed away, and though the Cock and Hoop -stands where it did, that, too, is changed, and has taken to -new ways, and ‘lives cleanly.’<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> Only the conservative old -houses still set their faces against class confusion, and aim at -retirement behind tall walls and taller trees. But rank upon -rank of modern minor houses is rapidly approaching from -the south, while New West End, on the other side of the -highway, threatens to absorb the fields still stretching between -the Finchley Road and Kidderpoor Hall—a mansion -which is said to occupy one of the healthiest situations in -Middlesex, and was at one time recommended for a royal -nursery.<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> A short distance along the main-road brings us to -Platt’s Lane, leading to Child’s Hill. Almost opposite to -this a path takes from the Finchley Road by Fortune Green -Lane back to West End.</p> - -<p>Another and shorter way to Child’s Hill is by the footpath -at New West End, which, crossing diagonally a hillside -field, takes through two others, in the last of which in -line, but at a distance from each other, are three trees—an -elm, lime, and horse-chestnut—remarkable in summer time -for their richness of foliage and fine shape. At the end of -this field (to the left of which is a pretty house of modest -dimensions, and on the right in a hollow a barn) there is an -opening into Platt’s Lane, which takes its name from a -former owner of Child’s Hill House, Thomas Platt, Esq., -which house subsequent to 1811, when he resided at Upper -Terrace, he altered and enlarged. Brewer gives an engraving -of it in his ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ 1813, and -describes it as an unostentatious brick building, with a -cottage roof, and though it has been raised a story by its -recent proprietor, Joseph Hoare, Esq.,<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> it is perfectly recognisable -in the engraving. The ground to the east of Platt’s -Lane preserves the pastoral character it must have had -two centuries ago, and which induced the trustees of the -Campden Charity to invest their trust in the purchase of -‘fourteen acres of meadow land at Child’s Hill for the -benefit of the poor at Hampstead.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus21"> -<img src="images/illus21.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Leg of Mutton Pond.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> - -<p>At the top of Platt’s Lane, where the road is crossed by -Child’s Hill Lane, is a bit of waste, an unclaimed angle, -where the turf grows green or sunburnt with the seasons, -and which in bygone years was seldom without the ‘burnt -spot’ which marks the camping-place of gipsies. Now -the trees are scant about it, and the gipsies rarely seen, -though till 1825-30 Hampstead Heath was seldom without -some stragglers of the tawny tribe. Walking on, we pass -the back of the premises of Child’s Hill House,<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> which, -standing some 300 feet above the level of the Thames, -commands charming and extensive views, and is surrounded -by several acres of pleasure-ground and gardens. A short -distance further on we enter the West Heath Road, and -can either follow it to its junction with the Broad Walk, or -cross the sandy margin of the Heath in any direction we -please. There is a way by the bottom of Leg of Mutton -Pond, or, if we prefer it, we can strike into a path higher up -than the boggy ground which occupies a wide space on -either side of the watercourse running into it. From the -higher ground the views are delightful, and there are seats -scattered here and there in the most eligible places for -enjoying them. Upon the brow of the Heath, North -End Hill as it is called, some of the houses in the -North End Road are seen now to be facing us. There -lies Cedar Lawn and the wooded grounds of Hill House, -fraternally looking towards Child’s Hill; in 1856 the residence -of another member of the Hoare family; and pushing -out a recently-erected wall many feet beyond its original -enclosure is Heath Lodge, of which there is a story to tell.</p> - -<p>This house was built by a Mrs. Lessingham, an actress of -no very good repute, on a piece of gorse-covered waste<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> -about 1775. Having wit as well as beauty, she appears to -have done pretty much as she liked, for having a mind to -a villa at Hampstead, no obstacle appears to have been -thrown in the way of a grant of land to build on, either by -the Lord of the Manor or his agent, although she was not -a copyholder of the manor, upon which the copyholders, -headed by one Master Folkard, asserted their common -rights, and destroyed the building as fast as it was raised. -In order to obviate the illegality of the transaction, Mrs. -Lessingham<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> purchased an insignificant cottage, and so -became a copyholder; and being supported by Mr. Justice -Addington, she braved the lawsuit (by means of which the -Hampstead people hoped to exorcise the witch) and won it. -The accounts of the riots at Hampstead between the builder’s -men and the copyholders, or the mob who represented -them, afforded the newspapers a subject for some time, -and engaged the satirical pen of George Steevens, who sided -with the Helen of the local war. She, clever as impudent, -turned her opponents and their efforts into ridicule, and -published an account (metrical) of the transaction and of the -actors in it, which is not to be bought at the present day. -She was sufficiently popular as an actress to figure on -articles of pottery of the period, and I have met with her -effigy at Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinsons’ rooms, in the -character of Ophelia, on one of Sadler of Liverpool’s printed -tiles. Mrs. Lessingham appears to have held quiet possession -of her Hampstead villa for the brief remainder of her -life, dying there in 1783; she was interred in the village -churchyard, where her son subsequently erected an altar-tomb -to her memory.<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> - -<p>At present Heath Lodge is the residence of D. Powell, Esq.,<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> -since whose occupation a pretty bosky bit of waste between<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> -his premises and those of Hill House has been enclosed, and -a meagre footpath substituted.</p> - -<p>In 1750 the hamlet of West End contained about forty -houses. Abrahams, in his ‘Book of Assessments’ (1811), -has unfortunately included it with Frognal, and by thus -confusing the localities has deprived us of the exact information -his pamphlet would otherwise have supplied.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus22"> -<img src="images/illus22.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>West End House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>West End Lane is now absorbed into West Hampstead. -There were several good houses on both sides of the way; -they were mostly hidden within high walls, and set in park-like -grounds that gave them a wealthy and exclusive air -like those in Frognal. At one time (1799) Josiah Boydell -had a house here, from which he subsequently removed to -Frognal. New West End House, the residence of Mr. John -Miles, of Stationers’ Hall Court, from 1813 to December, -1856, had at the first date no house nearer than Old West -End House (the Beckfords) between it and the Edgware -Road. It is said that the rumbling of the cannon on the -field of Waterloo was heard in Mr. Miles’s garden. Mr. -Miles died in 1856, and for seventy-six years afterwards his -widow continued to reside at West End House, where she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> -died on April 18, 1889, in her ninety-ninth year.<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> The -house and 13 acres of land were purchased by Colonel -Frazer for £32,500. His death occurred a very short time -afterwards, and in 1895 it was suggested to purchase the -estate for a public park and recreation-ground for West -Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Old West End House must have been a place of considerable -importance. In 1811 it was to be sold; it was -then Miss Beckford’s, the after Duchess of Hamilton. -The house, with gardens, pleasure-grounds, and offices, -occupied an area of 21 acres.</p> - -<p>From 1796 to 1802 this house was in the occupation of -Mrs. Walpole, widow of the Hon. Richard Walpole. It -was subsequently tenanted by various families.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HEATH STREET TO THE UPPER FLASK AND SPANIARDS.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Heath Street<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> is long and straggling, with -nothing remarkable in it but the florid-looking -new fire-brigade office at its entrance on the -left, in a line with what is called the Mount,<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> -one of the several little hills on which Hampstead is -built, and which has been cut through to form the roadway -and street beneath it. Some good private houses -and gardens crest the Mount, and some fine old elm-trees, -for the growth of which Hampstead has always been -remarkable, remain on the same side of the way. A little -distance along Heath Street on the left is Grove Passage, -and nearly opposite a lane leading to the rather depressed -neighbourhood of New End, in which the workhouse is -situated. Just beyond Grove Passage lie Silver Street and -Golden Square, with nothing in their present appearance, -except irony, to suggest the etymology of the names. -Further on to the right is Elm Row, leading past Christ -Church to Cannon Road and Squire’s Mount.</p> - -<p>Continuing its uphill way a little farther, Heath Street -terminates upon the edge of the Heath. The high wall -extending some distance along the east side of the street -incloses the garden and pleasure-grounds of what was once<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> -the Upper Flask Tavern, but is now a private residence so -grave and respectable in appearance that no one would -suspect the rather rackety reputation of its youth. A line -of fine old elm-trees with bulged and warted trunks, interspersed -with younger trees, stands in formal row at the side -of the house looking to the Heath.</p> - -<p>In the first period of Hampstead’s popularity as a spa, -the Upper Flask was famous for its fine gardens—‘a sort of -<i>petit</i> Vauxhall’—on gala nights, for the noble views from its -upper windows, its good ales, fine wines, and cosy suppers, -a little less severely simple than Sir Roger de Coverley’s. -Especially was it famous as the summer meeting-place of -the celebrated Kit-Cat Club,<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> a fact eloquent as to the -excellence of its cellar and the skill of its <i>chef</i>. The club -was first held at the Trumpet, at the west side of Shire -Lane, St. Clement Danes, and subsequently at the Tavern -in King Street, Westminster, near to which lived Christopher -Kat, cook and confectioner, who supplied the members -with pastry so excellent that, according to Bowyer, they -complimented him by giving his name to the club. A wit -has preserved in one of the many epigrams it gave rise to -another origin for the name, and tells us it arose from the -liberal yet somewhat selfish chivalry of the members, who, -to add to the number of their toasts, were wont to include -all the beauties, and were not fastidious as to the matter of -age:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Whence deathless Kit-Cat took its name</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Few critics can unriddle;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Some say from pastrycook it came,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And some from Cat-and-Fiddle.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘From no trim beau its name it boasts,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Gray statesman, or green wits,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But from its pell-mell pack of toasts,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Of old Cats and young Kits!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>We know that the club was Whig in politics, and had -for its object ‘the Protestant succession of the House of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span> -Hanover.’ It was also eminently literary, counting amongst -the thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen of whom it consisted -some of the finest scholars, wits, and poets of the day, -so that from its commencement in 1700<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> (some writers say -1688) to its close in 1720 it was a power politically and -intellectually in the land. Its secretary, Jacob Tonson—‘genial -Jacob,’ Pope calls him<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a>—one of a family of remarkable -printers and publishers, survived the dissolution of the -club sixteen years, dying March 24, 1736, at Ledbury in -Herefordshire. Kneller painted the portraits of the members, -which at the breaking up of the club were given to the -secretary, who left them to his great-nephew.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus23"> -<img src="images/illus23.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Swift.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In 1833 they were in the possession of William Baker, -Esq., of Crayfordbury.<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></p> - -<p>Amongst the company to the Upper Flask came Dr. -Garth,<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> Addison, Swift, Steele, Parnell, Sir Richard Blackmore,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> -Sir Godfrey Kneller, Dr. Arbuthnot, and others whose -names are not connected with my subject.</p> - -<p>But the friendship of the associates did not end with good-fellowship. -Few things redound more to the credit of this -famous club than the firmness of its members’ regard for -one another, which often showed itself very practically, as -in Addison’s frequent assistance of Steele, till wearied by his -recklessness and folly, and in Swift’s help to him at a critical -moment, which we have already glanced at.</p> - -<p>For the sake of these celebrities the Upper Flask had -been famous long before Richardson made the persecuted -Clarissa alight there from the Hampstead coach. -The mulberry-tree, now held together by iron bands,<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> in -what was once the garden of the tavern, may have shaded -in those far-off summers the brows of Isaac Bickerstaffe, -Obadiah Greenhat, and others of the witty confederates -banded against the vices and frivolities of the times. Their -charming essays remain with us in the too-little-looked-at -pages of the <i>Spectator</i>, <i>Guardian</i>, and <i>Tatler</i>. A few years -later we should have found Colley Cibber, playwright and -actor, seated beneath it, discussing stage business with his -theatrical allies, Wilkes and Booth, over tankards of brown -ale or a bowl of punch; or it may be the great Dr. Johnson -himself, in his ‘bushy, grayish wig, brown clothes, black -worsted stockings, and plain shirt’ (a solecism in the days -of lace ruffles and embroidery). Goldsmith, too, may have -sat there, having strolled through the pleasant fields from -his cottage lodging ‘near a place called Kilburn Priory,’ with -the MS. of his ‘Animated Nature.’ And Richardson must -have been familiar with the place of his heroine’s attempted -seclusion.</p> - -<p>Samuel Stanton, vintner, was the proprietor of the Upper -Flask, or Upper Bowling-green House, as it was called in -1707. He left it to his nephew and namesake, a man of -considerable wealth and standing, it would appear, whose -sister was married to the Earl of Warwick, and who bequeathed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span> -this house in 1750 to his niece, Lady Charlotte -Rich, their daughter. In all probability it continued to be -let as an inn for a considerable time after this date. A -writer in the <i>Universal Museum</i>, 1764, says that, going to -Hampstead to observe an eclipse of the sun, he noticed near -the Upper Flask a stone fixed, stating that this spot was as -high as the cupola of St. Paul’s. The stone has long since -disappeared, but this note proves the existence of the tavern -till within five years of the date when it came to be the -property of George Steevens, the indefatigable annotator of -Shakespeare, twenty of whose plays he published from the -original text, and with the aid of Johnson brought out a -complete edition of them in 1773. The fourth edition of -his plays of Shakespeare, with notes, was undertaken and -finished wholly by himself in the short space of eighteen -months. To facilitate the printing of it, and prevent any -delay for want of copy, proofs, etc., he was in the habit of -starting with the patrol from Hampstead every morning -between four and five o’clock, without reference to season -or weather, taking with him the copy written overnight.<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Him still from Hampstead journeying with his book</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Aurora oft for Cephalus mistook,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What time he brushed the dew with hasty pace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To meet the printer’s dev’let face to face.’<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">In his time the house was simply paled in, and had a fair -lawn before it, surrounded by picturesque trees and shrubs. -A man of fine taste, but of a violent and uncertain disposition, -George Steevens lived in retirement at Hampstead -for nearly thirty years (twenty-one of them in this house), -‘excluding all local acquaintance.’ He is said to have -expended £2,000 in improving and beautifying the house -and grounds. He died here in 1800, aged sixty-two, and -was buried in the chapel at Poplar, in which parish he was -born, being the son of a sea-captain in the service of the -East India Company, subsequently a director. A monument<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> -by Flaxman and an epitaph by Hayley distinguish his -tomb.<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> - -<p>In 1812, when John Carey published the fifth edition of -his ‘New Itinerary, or Book of the Roads,’ this house was in -the possession of Thomas Sheppard, Esq., M.P. for Frome,<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> -who retained it till 1845, when it passed into other hands. -At this present writing it is the property of Mrs. Lister. -Immediately opposite is the green mound and ornamental -shrubbery of the New Reservoir, and at the end of the wall, -continued from the house, and enclosing the once busy -stable-yard and offices of the Upper Flask, a path runs into -the Holford Road, by Heathfield House, and so to the East -Heath.</p> - -<p>On the opposite side of the road is the Whitestone Pond, -and here the visitor finds himself</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘High on bleak Hampstead’s swarthy moor,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">as Macaulay has it, a line all very well for poetical purposes, -but by no means characteristic of Hampstead Heath, with -its pure, etherized air, full of brightness on the least pretence -of sunshine, and though bleak enough at this eminence -with the wind at N.N.E., even balmy then in some one or -other of its many walks and sheltered valleys. It is true -that Gilchrist in his ‘Life of Blake’ speaks of the depth -and monotony of the tints prevailing in the woods and fields -about Hampstead. But Collins and Constable, Linnell, -Leslie, and Landseer, and a host of later artists, have not -found them so. To them the Heath, with its broken -ground, varied herbage, and picturesque trees or groups of -them, its splendid cloudscapes, its changeful lights and -shadows, has proved an art school full of infinite variety and -inexhaustible beauty. Here Collins came for his old trees, -his undulating banks, ‘full of flowering grasses, and dark dock<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span> -leaves,’ and the light and shade and reflections that delight -us in his pictures. Here, too, he met his ‘Harvest -Showers’ and ‘Blackberry-Gatherers,’ and just across the -Heath, where we are going, is the scene of his ‘Taking out -a Thorn’ (this picture is in the possession of Her Majesty). -And Constable, he who never saw an ugly thing in his life, -‘for light and shade and perspective will make it beautiful,’<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> -he, too, found by every hedge and in every lane treasures of -form and tint, which Nature scatters broadcast, and therefore, -to use his own words, ‘nobody thinks it worth while to -pick them up’—we suppose because the miracle is too -common to be generally noticed. Here he also studied the -skies, and effects of light, shade and colour, the dews, the -breeze, the storm, and made many a pictorial transcript -from the vantage-ground of the Heath, now bright with -sunshine, but more often under the aspect of drifting -showers, for he seems to have loved the rain-laden, cloudy -skies, and to have revelled in depicting them. Fuseli, when -going to call on the artist, would cry out, ‘Give me an -umbrella; I am going to see Constable’s pictures!’<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> - -<p>It was delightful to Constable, as it was to Collins, to -point out the beauty of the scene (than which there are few -more lovely spots in England), and to do, as it were, the -honours of the Heath to friends and visitors less intimate -with it than himself—to surprise them with new effects, -and hear the praise of his ‘sweet Hampstead,’ repeated at -every fresh point of view. Such sympathetic appreciation -doubled his own pleasure in the prospects. We can imagine -him and the brothers Chalon, who in the delicious weather -of the summer of 1834-35 spent six weeks at Hampstead, -standing here,<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> near the Flagstaff, from whence on a clear<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> -day one may see the towers of Windsor, on the one hand, -and across the Thames to Shooter’s Hill and Hanging -Woods on the other; while to the south-west rises the -spire-crowned hill of Harrow, with all the broad lands lying -between. Blake, too, though he could not relish the brisk -air of the Upper Heath, must in his visits to Linnell’s have -met with visions on its summit. It may have been here -that he saw</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘The moon like a flower</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In heaven’s high bower</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With silent delight</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Sit and smile on the night.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Who knows? And Varley, with his portfolio of mingled -horoscopes and drawings, must have added many a rapid -sketch to these latter from this fair neighbourhood.<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus24"> -<img src="images/illus24.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Jack Straw’s Castle.</i></p> -</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus25"> -<img src="images/illus25.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Flagstaff.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>At this point the well-known tavern, Jack Straw’s Castle, -claims the distinction of occupying the highest of the -London levels, standing, as I have elsewhere said, 400 feet -(local historians say 443 feet) above the level of the Thames. -The tavern, according to a fast-fading tradition, has its -name from a robber who assumed it, and who lived on this<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> -spot, where, of course, he commanded a good look-out on all -footpaths leading to or crossing the Heath. A cave on the -premises is said to have been the depository of his spoils. -In all probability it had been the site of a rude fort or -mound, thrown up as a defence either against or by Jack -Straw’s and Wat Tyler’s rebel army.<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> At present Jack -Straw’s Castle is best known as a pleasant resort of summer -visitors to the Heath, and of late years as the scene of the -Christmas Court Leets, one of the rare occasions when the -red-crossed flag of St. George, the Lord of the Manor’s flag, -waves from the adjacent flagstaff. From this spot two roads -fork off, that to the left leading to North End, the other to -the Spaniards, an inn standing at the entrance of the Heath -on the road to Highgate, on the site of an ancient toll-gate -which formerly divided the Bishop of London’s park from<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> -Hampstead Heath. It was primitively known as the Gate-house -or Park Gate-house, and has its present name from -its first landlord, a Spaniard, who converted the lodge into a -house of entertainment. So the story runs, but how it grew -to a plural is not explained. It is quite outside the precincts -of Hampstead, being really in Finchley parish, but is -too closely connected with the Heath to be left out in a -description of it.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus26"> -<img src="images/illus26.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Spaniards’ Garden.</i></p> -<p class="caption">(From a print by Chastelaine.)</p> -</div> - -<p>The Spaniards was, perhaps is still, famous for its curiously -laid-out garden, in which designs in coloured pebbles -appear to have anticipated floral tapestry beds; and also for -the fine views from the mound in it, from which the most -salient objects in six counties could be seen. It was to the -Spaniards, if I remember aright, that Oliver Goldsmith was -wont to take his ‘Jolly Pigeon friends’ for what he called ‘a -shoemaker’s holiday’ on the Heath; and it was to the -Spaniards Tea-gardens that Mrs. Bardell and her friends -betook themselves on that eventful summer afternoon when -Dodson and Fogg took the widow in execution ‘on cognovit<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> -and costs.’<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> The memory of Charles Dickens, like that of -the author of the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’ is thus indelibly -associated with the Spaniards.<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> - -<p>A visit to this tavern was not always so unadventurous a -proceeding as at present, for a notice in the <i>Grub Street -Journal</i> of October, 1736, informs us that on the previous -Sunday evening, between seven and eight, when Mr. Thomas -Lane, a farrier of Hampstead, was coming home from the -Spaniards, upon the Heath, near the house called Mother -Huffs<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> three men in mean apparel jumped out of the bushes, -and laying hold of him, robbed him of forty-five shillings. -They afterwards stripped him, tied him neck and heels, and -made him fast to a tree, in which condition he lay more than -an hour, till a woman coming by, he cried out, and she released -him. A warning to farriers and others to avoid tippling at -the Spaniards till eight o’clock on Sunday evenings.</p> - -<p>It was to the astuteness of the landlord of the Spaniards -that Lord Mansfield owed the saving of his house at Caen -Wood from the fury of the mob in the Gordon Riots, who, -after sacking and setting fire to the Earl’s town-house in -Bloomsbury Square, started for Caen Wood with the intention -of destroying that also. The course of the rioters lay -through Gray’s Inn Lane to Hampstead. The afternoon -was exceedingly sultry, and the men and boys composing -the mob, heated and weary from their previous exertions -and the march out, rejoiced at the sight of the well-known -inn, and longed for its foaming tankards of ripe ale. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> -landlord, who knew of their intentions, affected rabble -sympathies, and encouraged them to refresh themselves. -While they did so, he secretly gave information to Lord -Mansfield’s steward, who supplied additional barrels of ale -from the Caen Wood cellars, and in the meantime sent off a -messenger for the military. They fortunately were already -on their way out, and quickly surrounded the house, made -the ringleaders prisoners, and as many of their wretched -followers as they could well secure.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus27"> -<img src="images/illus27.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Erskine House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>It is said Lord Mansfield never forgot his indebtedness to -his publican neighbour. And now—for this talk of the inn -has lured us straight to it—we must turn back if we mean to -keep within the precincts of Hampstead. The house—the -end one of three at the east corner of the Heath as we -enter it from the Spaniards—with a deep portico projecting -to the road, was once the residence of the famous Lord -Erskine, ‘an inconsiderable-looking home for the great Lord -Chancellor, but in which, with his domestic tastes and love<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> -of Nature, he probably spent some of the happiest years of -his life.’ Originally neither house nor garden appears to -have been of much importance, but both were capable of -improvement, and Lord Erskine delighted in improving -them. The ground comprised several acres lying in natural -undulations, and lent itself to ornamental planting; while -the eye was not confined to the enclosure, but ‘ranged over -views diversified and beautiful.’ The garden in his day, be -it remembered, lay on the opposite side of the road, and was -connected with the house by a subway, but this has long -since been taken by Lord Mansfield. Erskine himself is said -to have planted the famous holly-hedge. Here, with his old -gardener, his lordship worked by way of refreshment after -his professional toils, and at last the place became noted for -the number and beauty of the trees and shrubs about it, -and took the name of the Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, -which it retained till his lordship’s death, since when it is -properly distinguished as Erskine House.</p> - -<p>For the story of Lord Erskine’s life—a grand one, though -with the last pages of it a little blurred—I must refer my -readers to Campbell’s ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’ It -is not often that the army proves the vestibule to the Bar, -but the training was of use there, and we read that the effect -of his eloquence was not a little heightened by the dignity of -his fine person and stately bearing. Crabb Robinson tells -us he could never forget the figure and voice of Erskine. -There was a charm in his voice, he says, ‘a fascination in -his eye.’ His eloquence was at once powerful and persuasive. -We only remember it was used on the side of truth -and right. He was best known in connection with Hampstead -as a humane and amiable man, with a great love of -gardening and flowers.</p> - -<p>Apropos of this, there is a story told of an anxious client -calling on him in Serjeants’ Inn, and finding the table of -his consulting-room occupied by thirty or forty small vials, -in each of which was a slip of geranium, and when the great -man came in, instead of talking of the case, he began to tell<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> -him of the many kinds of geraniums there were.<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> He made -no secret that he attached little or no importance to consultations, -but chose rather to rely upon himself.</p> - -<p>There is an anecdote told of him which, though it appeared -in all the magazines of the period subsequent to his death, -and is repeated in Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights,’ as it relates -to the Heath, may very well appear here. That good angel -to animal existence, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, had not -yet appeared, nor was there a Society for the Prevention of -Cruelty to Animals, though to Lord Erskine belongs the -honour of having first proposed the measure in Parliament -which Martin of Galway succeeded in carrying,<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> and which -resulted in the founding of the society. Crossing the Heath, -he saw one of the donkey-drivers beating a poor brute with -more than ordinary cruelty, and hurried up to expostulate -with the man, who rudely answered him ‘that he had a -right to do what he liked with his own.’ ‘Very well,’ said -Erskine, ‘so have I. This stick is my own;’ and he lost no -time in practically illustrating the force of the unfortunate -argument by giving the fellow a sound thrashing.</p> - -<p>When Hardy, Horne Tooke, and others, were, through -his manly pleading, acquitted of high treason, his name -became a household word in England. Tokens, two of -which are before me, were struck commemorative of the -event, with the portraits and names of the accused gentlemen -on the obverse, and the words ‘Tried for high treason, -1794’; and on the reverse, ‘Acquitted by his jury and counsels, -Hon. Thos. Erskine and W. Gibbs, Esq.’</p> - -<p>The words ‘Trial by Jury’ were painted by way of motto -on one of the windows of Erskine House.</p> - -<p>It is well known that differences in their political feelings -and opinions had alienated him from Burke, whom he much -admired; but it is pleasant to learn that before the death of -the latter their differences were adjusted, and Burke visited -him at Hampstead. ‘He came to see me,’ says Lord<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span> -Erskine, ‘before he died. I then lived at Hampstead Hill. -“Come, Erskine,” said he, holding out his hand, “let us -forget all. I shall soon quit this stage, and wish to die in -peace with everybody, especially you.” I reciprocated the -sentiment, and we took a turn round the grounds. Suddenly -he stopped; an extensive prospect broke upon him.... -He stood wrapped in thought, gazing on the sky as the sun -was setting. “Ah, Erskine,” he said, pointing towards it, -“you cannot spoil <i>that</i>, because you cannot reach it. It -would otherwise go. Yes; the firmament itself you and -your reformers would tear down.”’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus28"> -<img src="images/illus28.jpg" width="500" height="525" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Lord Erskine.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>This is Mr. Rush’s account, but the Right Hon. T. -Erskine says: ‘Mr. Rush has quite spoiled Mr. Burke’s -sarcasm upon being conducted by my father to his garden -through a tunnel under the road that divided the house from -the shrubbery. All the beauty of Ken Wood, Lord Mansfield’s, -and the distant prospect burst upon him. “Oh,” -said Burke, “this is just the place for a reformer. All the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> -beauties are beyond your reach; you cannot destroy -them.”’</p> - -<p>Miss Seward was much struck with Erskine’s fine face -and elegant figure, his bonhomie and exuberant fun; but his -egotism was wearisome, and, unfortunately, it grew upon -him with years. Fanny Burney’s account of him runs -pretty much on the same lines, but he was not, when she -met him, so brilliant in conversation as he had been.</p> - -<p>In 1805 he had lost his wife, to whom he was tenderly -attached, and who had literally shared with him the ‘burden -and heat of the day,’ as true and loving in comparative -poverty as in affluence. She died in London, but is buried in -Hampstead Church, where a fine monument by the younger -Bacon, of which Park gives an engraving, perpetuates her -memory as the ‘most faithful and affectionate of women.’</p> - -<p>About 1821-23 Lord Erskine removed from his house at -Hampstead, where he had resided from 1788, and on doing -so transferred the copyhold to Lord Mansfield.</p> - -<p>He subsequently resided in Arabella Row, Pimlico, and -tarnished, it is said, the lustre of his declining years by a -second marriage. ‘When, how, or with whom,’ Lord -Campbell had not heard upon authority. It is also said that -his bright spirits deserted him, and that, like S. T. Coleridge, -he had recourse to opium. Sheridan charitably suggested</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘When men like Erskine go astray,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Their stars are more in fault than they.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The house next the Evergreens, Heath End House, -was in 1811 in the possession of Edward Coxe, Esq., -the author of various poems, many of them referring to -the Heath;<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> and the large square one opposite the -beautiful grove of pine-trees (which Constable painted, -and which were raised from seeds of the stone-pine -brought from Ravenna,<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> and planted by that ancient<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span> -Sylvanus of the Heath, Mr. Turner, a retired tobacconist of -Thames Street) originally belonged to him, but at the date -above mentioned was the residence of Charles Bosanquet, -Esq. It stands on an eminence, and is said to command -beautiful and extensive views. These houses have had -various tenants since then, but not one who has conferred -such lasting benefits on the Heath as Mr. Turner, who -appears to have devoted his retired leisure to beautifying it. -The groups of ash and elm and horse-chestnut trees, now -railed in (thanks to the Board of Works) for their better -preservation, are of his planting. He also made the road, -the Sandy Road, as it is called, from this point to North End. -Hereabouts is the scene of that charming bit of nature, to -which we have already referred, ‘Taking out a Thorn,’ which -had for its point of view, the late Mr. Charles Collins tells -us, the clump of fir-trees near the Spaniards, looking towards -North End. ‘There, upon the bank, sits the old furze-cutter,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> -extracting a thorn from the finger of a chubby urchin, who -rubs his eye dolefully during the operation with the corner of -his pin-before.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus29"> -<img src="images/illus29.jpg" width="500" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>North Heath.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>If, following the tree-shaded winding way, we make a little -détour to the right, we shall see, lying in the bottom, half in -shade, by reason of new sheds and a great square, vane-crested -barn (the natural outcome of thrifty labour, and -better times for farmers than of late), the little Morland-like -farmhouse to which they belong. When the trees about it -are in leaf, its high-pitched, red-tiled roof, white weather-boarded -front, and small windows, set in a garden in which -rue and southernwood still flourish, the whole inclosed with -palings and defended by a gate on the latch, makes a pretty -picture. A few ash-trees, the remains of a grove of them, -fringe the path to it past the new barn, and the view in front -is closed by a little gravelly hill, on the summit of which -seats are placed, and charming views are to be had for the -climbing. This is Collins’ Farm, now called Tooly’s Farm, -a dwelling that, for all its seeming humility, has been the -temporary abode of many men of genius.<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> - -<p>This was for successive summers the ‘<i>sunshine holiday</i>’ home -of the elder Linnell and his family, who perhaps never worked -harder himself than when here, and who, being here, drew -around him a little company of his brother artists and men of -letters—amongst them Blake, Varley, Flaxman, and Morland.</p> - -<p>Nearer to our own times Dickens had lodgings here, and -wrote, it is said, several chapters of ‘Bleak House’ in this -retirement. Lover is also said to have made it his summer -quarters on one occasion. Other artists than the elder -Linnell have found its simple comfort and quiet, in addition -to its close proximity to the lovely Heath and its surroundings, -excellent reasons for preferring Collins’ Farm to more<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> -pretentious lodgings in the neighbourhood. It is easy to -return from this point to the broad holly hedge opposite -Lord Erskine’s house. At the end of it is the site (until -quite recently) of the most interesting relic that Hampstead -retained of what may be called its classic days—the Nine -Elms, whose boughs had shaded the favourite resting-place -of Pope and Murray (the after owner of Ken Wood, Lord -Chief Justice Mansfield). Poetically they were dedicated to -the Muses,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Who chose them for their favourite shrine:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The trees were elms, their number nine.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">So sang Edward Coxe, the poet of the Heath, and friend -and neighbour of Erskine, who, because they impeded his -view, had had a mind to have them cut down, but spared -them for the sake of their associations. ‘So late as the -spring of 1872 these trees were standing. In April or May -of that year the writer of a letter to the Board of Works, -which appeared in the <i>Hampstead Express</i>, called their attention -to a bit of unappropriated land near the Nine Elms on -the Spaniards Road, and suggested that, as the Board had -got possession of Judges’ Walk, the Wildwood Avenue, the -triangular piece of ground at the end of Holford Road, and -the piece of ground where the band used to play, the Vestry -should endeavour to get hold of this also.’ But soon after -it was stated that the ground had been granted to Lord -Mansfield, and the first thing that had been done was to cut -down these trees, with which the name of his famous kinsman -had been so charmingly connected.</p> - -<p>In my time the elms guarded the old seat, scarred with -forgotten names and the initials of the unknown, around -which they stood, ‘green sentinels,’ whispering in every -breeze to those who knew the story of their youth gentle -reminiscences of the men for whose sake the inhabitants of -Hampstead and the conservators of the Heath would have -given, we believe, ten times their value as timber to have -had them retained.<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span></p> - -<p>The small bit of land on which they grew having been -granted to Lord Mansfield, it is natural to suppose that, for -the sake of their associations, he would have spared the trees -had he known how sacred they were in the literary annals of -Hampstead.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus30"> -<img src="images/illus30.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fanny Burney.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Whereabouts, I wonder, was that villa situated on Hampstead -Hill (Lord Erskine used to speak of his home as being -on Hampstead Hill) where in June, 1792, Fanny Burney -and her father paid a three days’ visit to the beautiful -Mrs. Crewe?—a villa, ‘small, but commodious,’ with a -garden, and so near the Heath that the company strolled -out upon it for a walk after dinner? No one can answer -our question, and Miss Burney has left us no clue. Mrs. -Crewe, to whose name the word ‘beautiful’ appears to have -been an ordinary prefix, was one of the great leaders of -society in the latter part of the eighteenth century. She -was the daughter of Mr. Fulke Greville, Ambassador from -the Court of Britain to that of Bavaria. She married in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span> -1774-75<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> John Crewe, Esq., of Crewe Hall, Leicestershire, -and accepted her husband’s politics, those of the Whigs. -As clever as she was lovely, her salons were sought by men -of all parties, and she numbered Burke and Fox among her -stanchest friends. Especially was she the idol of her -husband’s club, Brooks’s,<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> whose favourite toast was ‘Buff -and Blue, and Mrs. Crewe!’ The colours alluded to were -those of the club, whose uniform, audaciously borrowed from -that worn by the American rebels who fought in Washington’s -army, consisted of a blue coat and buff waistcoat. The -personal feeling which permeated politics in those days -appears to have been felt as passionately by the women as -the men, and ladies, Whig and Tory, not only wore their -patches on opposite sides of their faces, but adopted the -colours of their party in their dress. I have before me an -odd volume of the <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>, where, under the head -of ‘Fashion,’ I find it stated that ‘Ladies attached to Mr. -Fox’s party are distinguished by a uniform of blue and -straw colour: the gown blue, the petticoat straw colour; -the hats blue, lined with straw colour, and trimmed with a -fox’s brush, feathers, or wreaths of laurel, having the leaves -inscribed in gold letters, “Fox, Liberty, Freedom and Constitution!” -with coloured silk shoes to match the dress, with -white heels.’ Imagine driving down the Regent Street of -to-day in a hat thus decorated!</p> - -<p>In the March of 1775 Mrs. Crewe gave an elegant -masquerade, remarkable for the first appearance of plumes -in the hair and head-dresses of the ladies, a French fashion<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> -newly come up, and which, judging from the number of -quizzical verses it gave rise to in the pages of the <i>Universal</i> -and other magazines of the day, was not at first more -popular with the gentlemen than with the mob.<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> One -writer suggested that the ladies had made a party to rob the -museum,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘And to feather their nests well, and make their heads clever,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had crossed Leicester Square, and plundered poor Lever.’<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Upon the same page is a song called ‘The Feathers,’ also -referring to Mrs. Crewe’s masquerade, while a third writer -sings:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Here beauty displays her high plumes to our view,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here all her bright feathers are shown;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Though none of them wave on the tresses of <i>Crewe</i>,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">She yet to each heart gives the <i>ton</i>.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The personal beauty, wit and cleverness of this accomplished -woman appear to have distinguished her to the end. -Sixteen years had passed between this event and Miss -Burney’s visit to her at Hampstead, and this is how the -author of ‘Evelina’ describes her: ‘We were received by -Mrs. Crewe with much kindness. The room was rather -dark, and she had a veil to her bonnet half down, and with -this aid she looked still in a full blaze of beauty. She is certainly -in my eye the most complete beauty of any woman I -ever saw.’ Later on she had better opportunities of noticing -her fair hostess, and her verdict is still, ‘I know not even -now any female’ (horrid word!) ‘in her first youth who -could bear the comparison. Her bloom perfectly natural, -and the form of her face so exquisitely perfect’ that the eyes -of the observant Fanny never met it without fresh admiration.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> -‘She is certainly in my eyes,’ she repeats, ‘the most -perfect beauty of a woman I ever saw: she <i>uglifies</i> everything -near her.’ No wonder we find the gallants of the day, -amongst others Fox, writing adulatory verses to her. This -unity of opinion as to the many graces of this lovely -woman suggests a character as perfect as her face, and we -do not wonder that men of such a diversity of personal -qualities and political opinions should be attracted by her -as Burke and his brother, who were dining with her on the -occasion referred to, and Lords Loughborough and Erskine, -who joined them in their walk afterwards. Fox’s poem is -too long to quote, but the first verse will show the spirit -of it:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Where the loveliest expression to features is joined,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">By Nature’s most delicate pencil designed;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where blushes unbidden, and smiles without art,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where in manner enchanting no blemish we trace,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But the soul keeps the promise we had from the face!’<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>And this reminds me of the complex character of the soft-hearted -but rugged-looking writer of them, the great Whig -Minister, whom the Opposition party represented as a -desperate and dangerous demagogue, and compared to -another Cromwell. Yet Burke, his great opponent and -adversary, spoke of him as ‘a man made to be loved,’ the -‘most brilliant and accomplished of debaters the world ever -saw.’ And Gibbon declared that no human being was more -free from any taint of malignity, vanity, or falsehood. It is -no wonder that women were enthusiastic in their admiration -of him, and though one clever Frenchwoman designated him -a ‘fagot des épines,’ Madame Récamier, paraphrasing Shakespeare, -wrote of him that he had ‘a tear for pity, and a -hand open as day for melting charity.’ ‘What a man is -Fox!’ exclaimed Horace Walpole. ‘After his exhausting -speech on Hastings’ trial, he was seen handing ladies into<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> -their coaches with all the gaiety and prattle of an idle -gallant.’</p> - -<p>He felt strongly on the subject of the slave trade, and -opposed it,<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> as well as the war with America. His good -nature and affability made him very popular. I should not -wonder, if gout permitted it, to learn that he made one of -the visitors to Hampstead during Mrs. Crewe’s residence -there. What a charming figure, by the way, must this -lady have made in the walks, where we should have met -the Hon. Miss Murrays (when not in attendance on their -venerable uncle, Lord Mansfield) and Mrs. Montague, the -recognised leader of literary society, and clever little Fanny -Burney herself!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HOLLY-BUSH AND WINDMILL HILLS.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Leaving Heath Street upon the right (at the end -of High Street), and Mount Vernon on the left, -the ascent of Holly-bush Hill, in the years I am -writing of, led through into an open space with a -bit of the waste running in upon it, with three tree-sheltered -and old-fashioned red-brick houses on the very brow of -Windmill Hill. One of these, the centre one of the three—Bolton -House—was for many years the home of Joanna -Baillie and her sister Agnes, where Lady Davy often visited -them to the very last.</p> - -<p>Windmill Hill and Holly-bush Hill are in such close -proximity that the names become almost convertible, and -were not unfrequently used one for the other. Thus, the -author of the ‘Northern Heights of London’ placed the -home of Romney the painter on Windmill Hill, and suggested -that it was the house standing in a garden at the -back of Bolton House. But Park, who was resident at -Hampstead, and published the first edition of his history in -1813, only eleven years after the death of Romney, distinctly -states that ‘the present very elegant Assembly Room’ at -the Holly-bush Tavern, with card and supper rooms adjoining, -are ‘<i>partly</i> formed out of the house built by Romney -the painter.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus31"> -<img src="images/illus31.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Bolton House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span></p> - -<p>Other writers describe the Assembly Room as having -made part of the artist’s gallery. When, for the purpose of -this chapter, I personally visited the place to make inquiries -on the spot, I was informed that, until recently, the Assembly -Room and other public rooms adjoining it had been totally -separate from the Holly-bush Tavern, making in point of fact -part of another house, with which, except by going through -the kitchen and garden of the inn, there was no communication. -But all this had been altered, to the great convenience -of persons attending the balls, concerts, lectures, etc.; and the -lofty spacious rooms, further enlarged and decorated, were by -these changes attached to, and entered from, the tavern.</p> - -<p>More than forty years have passed since the above paragraphs -were written, and all the functions, which then made -the Holly-bush and the old Assembly Room of importance, -are now removed to the Conservatoire, Haverstock Hill. I -learn from Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead,’ the Assembly -Room, etc., is to this day held on a totally different agreement -from the inn.</p> - -<p>The life of Romney, as told by his biographers, is a -melancholy one. In order to devote himself wholly to art -and the acquisition of fame and fortune, he had sacrificed -all domestic happiness, and condemned a young and loving -wife to years of wasting and protracted solitude. When at -last weary of the town and society, or, as his biographer -puts it, ‘filled with that desire of the unsatisfied soul for a -peace that the world cannot give,’ he had abandoned, after -twenty years’ residence, his fine house in Cavendish Square, -and had thrown away more than £2,000 on the building of -a coveted retirement at Hampstead, a structure in which -‘the painting-room and gallery had been nobly planned, but -all domestic conveniences overlooked.’ Here, with his -friend and panegyrist, the poet Hayley—who, by the way, -writes of his abode as his ‘singular house at Hampstead’—we -find him projecting new subjects for his easel, and reproducing -in characters as varied as her fortune the fascinating -Lady Hamilton. Now she appears as Nature,<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> as the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span> -enchantress Circe, as a Magdalen with tear-stained eyes, a -wood-nymph, the musically-inspired virgin St. Cecilia, or a -vine-crowned Bacchante, as she smiles on us from the walls -of the National Gallery.<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> - -<p>It was during Romney’s residence at Hampstead that -Boydell resolved on publishing his ‘Shakespeare Gallery,’ -and enlisted, among other artists, Romney’s talent for his -enterprise.</p> - -<p>‘Before you paint Shakespeare,’ observed Lord Thurlow, -to whom the painter mentioned his commission, ‘I advise -you to read him.’ A very pertinent suggestion, even if a -little obvious.</p> - -<p>In his fine painting-room during its first novelty Romney -continued to receive visitors of high rank, and amongst -other lovely personages the beautiful Mrs. Bosanquet and -her children, as they stepped into the studio from their walk -or drive, fresh as the Heath itself that they had crossed; the -artist’s weary heart turning the while to his waiting wife, -who through long years had endured, as Milton expresses it, -‘that greatest injury to the gentle spirit—the suffering of -not being beloved, and yet retained.’</p> - -<p>But now, when he had reached the desired position -where, ‘without reference to gain or patronage, he was -free to work out his most ambitious conceptions of art, his -strength failed him, his hands shook,’ and after two years’ -struggle in his mansion on the hill at Hampstead, where -Hayley at this period found him ‘solitary and dejected,’ -the mistaken man returned in the summer of 1799 to his -faithful wife, whom he had only visited twice in thirty -years, to learn, Howitt thinks, from her gentle, unreproaching -tenderness how much he had lost by leaving her.</p> - -<p>It is a melancholy story, this, of man’s ambitious vanity, -losing the zest of life for a vapour of laudation from the -mouths of men, but a notice of Holly-bush Hill would be -incomplete without it. He lingered, rather than lived, till<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span> -1802, and died November 15 of that year, reaching to nearly -sixty-eight years of age, helpless as an infant. His Hampstead -house and its contents were sold, but being ‘wholly -without domestic accommodation, and the gallery and -painting-room out of all proportion for family requirements,’ -the use which Park assigns to it was no doubt the only -practical one to which it could be appropriated.</p> - -<p>Prejudices, like old traditions, die hard at Hampstead, -and I found in 1898 that some very odd ideas of Romney’s -residence still obtained there. He was said to have lived for -a few years at No. 5, The Mount, and had at the back of his -garden, on Holly-bush Hill, an art-gallery or studio, a -weather-boarded building of large size. It was said that the -existing buildings (also weather-boarded) were the same, but -my informant tells me that he was enabled to prove that -this was only partially the case.</p> - -<p>Besides Hayley’s account of the artist’s mansion on the -Hampstead hill, we have Allan Cunningham’s memoir of -Romney at hand, in which he tells us that no sooner had -the idea of an ampler gallery in a quieter scene than Cavendish -Square possessed Romney, than he forthwith purchased -the ground, lined out the site, and began to draw his plans; -and in 1797 he writes: ‘The strange new studio and -dwelling-house which he (Romney) had planned and raised -at Hampstead had an influence on his studies, his temper, -and his health. He had expended a year, and a sum of -£2,733, on an odd and whimsical structure in which there -was nothing like domestic arrangements. There was a -wooden arcade for a riding-house in the garden, and a very -extensive picture and statue gallery.’ The former, I have no -doubt, was the weather-boarded building of large size which -subsequently represented to popular imagination the picture-gallery -of the great painter.</p> - -<p>On the sale of this house (probably in 1803, when -Romney’s pictures were sold at Hampstead), it was found, -as we have said, useless as a residence, and required rebuilding -to fit it for the purpose of an Assembly House, which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span> -alteration did not take place till 1807, when the premises -appear to have been purchased for this speculation by -certain gentlemen of Hampstead, who formed themselves -into a company, one of whom was the father of the present -Mr. George Holford, who possesses documents relating to -this building of the above date.<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> - -<p>The builder of the Assembly Room was a Mr. Greening. -The fact is, I believe, accepted, that it stands where Romney’s -house stood, and that some portion of his gallery remains. -The whole set of apartments are now used for the Constitutional -Club.<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> - -<p>Romney is not the only memorable painter associated -with the Holly-bush Assembly Room. In later years we -find the Nature-loving, tender-hearted Constable, whose -‘fine presence and genial manners’ were long remembered at -Hampstead and its vicinity, giving a series of lectures here -on the ‘Origin of Landscape Painting,’ and illustrating his -theme by reference to local objects.</p> - -<p>Lovers of Hampstead Heath well know the Fir-tree -Avenue, or, rather, the wreck of it remaining, of which, then -in its prime, he made a drawing, on seeing which Blake -exclaimed: ‘Why, this is not drawing, but inspiration!’ -From his lecture we learn that in his time there had stood -at the entrance of the village a tall and elegant ash-tree, the -likeness of which he had taken and exhibited to his audience, -while he pleasantly told its story:</p> - -<p>‘Many of my friends may remember this young lady<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> at -the entrance of the village; her fate was distressing, for it is -scarcely too much to say that she died of a broken heart. I -made this drawing when she was in full health and beauty.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span> -On passing some time after I saw, to my grief, that a -wretched board had been nailed to her side, on which was -written in large letters, “All vagrants and beggars will be -dealt with according to law.” The tree seemed to have felt -the disgrace, for even then some of the top branches had -withered. Two long spikes had been driven far into her side; -in another year one half had become paralyzed, and not long -after the other shared the same face.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus32"> -<img src="images/illus32.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Holly-bush Hill, 1840.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>On the occasion of Constable’s second lecture at the same -place we catch a glimpse of Leslie walking across the West -End fields to hear it. It was a summer’s evening, and Leslie -pauses now and again to watch the splendid combinations -of the glorious clouds, and their radiant effect in and upon -the landscape—effects which Constable had noticed also, -and called attention to in his lecture.</p> - -<p>All the then scientific, intellectual, and social life of -Hampstead had its headquarters at the Assembly Room on -Holly-bush Hill till after the fifties. Here, as I have said,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span> -the public balls and concerts, lectures and conversaziones, -took place, and all the social problems and local movements -that affected the well-being of the town and its inhabitants -were discussed here.</p> - -<p>Here, too, were held those memorable meetings which -had for their object the frustration of the scheme so subtly -and surreptitiously devised, to wrest the Heath and its -privileges from the copyholders and the general public; and -here were resolved on various occasions those prandial and -pyrotechnic displays of loyalty that from time to time have -borne witness to the strength of this sentiment amongst the -inhabitants of Hampstead. Nor is the Holly-bush Tavern, -of which the Assembly Room was in 1855 an integral part, -without its own interesting associations. It does not look -much like a scene of political intrigue, yet on this account, -possibly, it was the rendezvous of Carr (Earl of Rochester), -Dering and Goring, who during the wars of the King and -Parliament met at this house to devise the rising in Kent, -Essex, and Hertfordshire. The cosy parlour saw other -company in Charles II.’s time, when the wicked ‘dramatists -of the Restoration’ were wont ‘to set the table in a -roar’ with wit, the sparkle of which, like the phosphorescent -glitter of corruption, has vanished at the presence of the -healthy light.</p> - -<p>Good wine is said to need no bush, but the acceptability -of that at the Holly-bush to men who frequented Powlet’s -and ‘knew a hawk from a hernshaw,’ where honest port -and good claret were in question, had given a prestige to the -wayside inn, not lost even when these lines were first written, -especially in the estimation of literary men. One must put -a mask on (as the women did who listened to his plays) to -penetrate the pleasant parlour during the symposia, at which -the handsome, but vicious and immoral Wycherley presided. -No such compromise in modesty is needed when Goldsmith -turns host, and entertains at no small cost (for the little inn -had always a reputation for its cuisine), Garrick, Sir Joshua, -Boswell, and the Great Leviathan of learning, Dr. Johnson.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span> -I forget the occasion on which the dinner at the Holly-bush -came off. I have no doubt it commemorated some rare -event that had put money in the pocket of our improvident -author—the profits of ‘The Good-Natured Man,’ perhaps.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus33"> -<img src="images/illus33.jpg" width="500" height="525" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Sir Joshua Reynolds.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>We all know how warmly and truly Johnson regarded -Goldsmith, and yet he was capable of wounding him to the -quick by his cruel pleasantries. On one occasion—let us -hope it was not this—when Goldy, a little jealous of the -success of Beattie’s ‘Essay on Truth,’ exclaimed, ‘Here’s a -stir about a fellow that has written one book, and I have -written many’—‘Ah, doctor, doctor,’ observed the terrible -man, ‘there go two-and-forty sixpences to one guinea.’ But -time has justified poor Goldy, and the ‘Deserted Village’ is -still read, and the delightful ‘Vicar of Wakefield’; Moses -and the rest of the Primrose family live on, perennial as their -name; while Beattie, except by bookmen, is almost wholly -forgotten.<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span></p> - -<p>Telford, Leigh Hunt, and Lamb, showed the same faith in -the capital cellar and culinary skill to be found at the Holly-bush -Tavern. Modern men of their craft have been of the -same opinion, and the inn continued till recent times to be a -favourite with literary men and artists. The Holly-bush -had also the honour (perhaps has it still) of being the headquarters -of the Masonic Lodge of St. John; but otherwise -its prestige has departed. The Assembly-Room, if it exists, -is now the meeting-place of political and other local clubs, and -its exterior and surroundings are so altered as to be scarcely -recognisable to one who first saw it half a century ago.</p> - -<p>To return to the sister eminence, Windmill Hill, so called -from having been the site of one of the two windmills that -anciently added to the picturesque charms of Hampstead, -the mound on which it stood was, when I first knew this -delightful spot, plainly discernible in the artificially rising -ground on which Netley Cottage stands. In Elizabeth’s -time another windmill stood in a field near the church, -which Gerard distinguished as the habitat of the white -butterfly orchis.</p> - -<p>But it is not from its antiquity, old as it is, that Windmill -Hill derives its interest, but from the fact of its having been -the place of residence for many years of a woman of genius, -whose celebrity, so to speak, still clings to it; for apart -from Joanna Baillie’s connection with it, there is little to be -said of Windmill Hill.<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span></p> - -<p>There is a pleasant notice in one of Mrs. Barbauld’s letters -from Hampstead of two shy, Nature-loving girls, whom she -was constantly encountering in her walks, and who were -never so happy as when gathering wild-flowers in the woods -and hedgerows, or in seeing the ‘gold-thorn’ blazing on the -Heath, or in roaming about the old gravel-pits and water-courses. -They were the daughters of her near neighbour, -Mrs. Dorothea Baillie, widow of the Rev. James Baillie, D.D., -Professor of Divinity at Glasgow, and sisters of the distinguished -Dr. Matthew Baillie. But the youngest of these -girls was then twenty-two years of age.</p> - -<p>Later on (in 1800) Mrs. Barbauld writes to a friend: ‘I -have received great pleasure lately from the representation -of “De Montfort,” a tragedy, which you probably read a year -and a half ago in a volume entitled “A Series of Plays on -the Passions.” I admired it then, but little dreamed I was -indebted for my entertainment to a young lady whom I -visited, and who came to Mr. Barbauld’s meetings all the -while with as innocent a face as if she had never written a -line.’ The play, she adds, is admirably played by Mrs. Siddons -and Kemble, and is finely written, with great purity of sentiment -and beauty of diction, strength, and originality of -character, but it is open to criticism.<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p> - -<p>Six years later the young poetess (the prologue to whose -tragedy had been written by the Hon. Francis North, and -the epilogue by the Duchess of Devonshire) had become -famous, and her home on Windmill Hill an object of -pilgrimage to men of the highest intellectual reputation.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span> -Hither came Sir Walter Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, -Rogers, and, as time moved on, succeeding representative -men and women, to pay their tribute of respect and admiration -to the successful poetess.</p> - -<p>No longer shy, but simple and unaffected, and full of -genuine kindness, she appears to have had the faculty of -attaching those whom she attracted—notably Wordsworth -and Sir Walter Scott, whose appreciation of her as a poetess -led to life-long personal friendship.</p> - -<p>It is noteworthy that on the first occasion of the great -novelist, whom a clever critical correspondent of mine calls -the ‘greatest second-rate man the world ever saw,’ coming -to London in the summer of 1806, the year in which Miss -Baillie’s mother died, one of his earliest visits was to his -gifted fellow-countrywoman—for the little manse, near Bothwell -Brig, in the valley of the Clyde, where her father was -minister, was Joanna Baillie’s birthplace—a visit that led to -many others on both sides, and a friendship, as I have said, -that lasted through life. She tells us that at her first meeting -with him she was disappointed, so different was he in appearance -from the ideal bard of the ‘Lay,’ which her own poetical -mind had imagined. She had pictured an ‘ideal elegance -and refinement of feature in the poet,’ ‘but found comfort in -looking at the benevolence and shrewdness in the rough-hewn, -homely face of her great compatriot; and in the -thought that were she in a crowd, and at a loss what to do, -she should have fixed upon that face among a thousand, as -the sure index of a brave kind nature that would, and could, -help her in her strait.’ Yet before they had talked long, -she saw in the expressive play of his countenance far more, -even of elegance and refinement, than she had missed in its -mere lines. Henceforth she and her brother, Dr. Matthew -Baillie, were amongst the most honoured friends of Sir -Walter. The acquaintance on both sides ripened into the -most affectionate regard.</p> - -<p>Amongst Joanna Baillie’s correspondence, Sir Walter’s -letters are about the most interesting. One of them has for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span> -the purposes of these pages a twofold interest, not only as -showing his admiration of the poetess, but as illustrating the -evil reputation of the neighbourhood of Hampstead, and the -dangers to which foot-passengers were liable, even at that -time. The letter is dated 1811, and was written on the -appearance of a new volume of Joanna Baillie’s ‘Plays on -the Passions,’ one of them being the passion of Fear, in which -appear the lines set to music by Bishop, with which we are -all familiar, ‘The Chough and Crow.’</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘Fear, the most dramatic passion you have hitherto touched, because -capable of being drawn to the most extreme paroxysm on the stage. In -Ozra you have all the gradations from timidity excited by strong and -irritable imagination to the extremity which altogether unhinges the -understanding. The most dreadful fright I ever had in my life (being -neither constitutionally timid nor in the way of being exposed to real -danger) was in returning from Hampstead the day which I spent so -pleasantly with you. Although the evening was nearly closed, I foolishly -chose to take the short-cut through the fields, and in the enclosure where -the path leads by a thick and high hedge with several gaps. In it, however, -did I meet with one of your thoroughpaced London ruffians—at -least, judging from the squalid and jail-bird appearance and blackguard -expression of countenance. Like the man who met the Devil, I had -nothing to say to him, if he had nothing to say to me; but I could not -help looking back to watch the movements of such a suspicious figure, -and, to my great uneasiness, saw him creep through the hedge on my -left hand. I instantly went to the first gap to watch his motions, and -saw him stooping, as I thought, either to pick up a bundle or to speak to -someone lying in the ditch. Immediately after he came cowering back, -up the opposite side of the hedge, as returning to me under cover of it. I -saw no weapon he had except a stick, but, as I moved on to gain the -stile which was to let me into the free field, with the idea of a wretch -springing upon me from the cover at every step I took, I assure you I -would not wish the worst enemy I ever had to undergo such a feeling as -I had for about five minutes. My fancy made him of that description -which usually combines murder with plunder; and though I was armed -with a stout stick, and a very formidable knife, which when open becomes -a sort of <i>shene-dhu</i>, or dagger, I confess my sensations, though those of -a man resolved not to die like a sheep, were vilely short of heroism. So -much so that, when I jumped over the stile, a sliver of the wood ran a -third of an inch between my nail and the flesh without my feeling the -pain, or being sensible that such a thing had occurred. However, I saw -my man no more, and it is astonishing how my spirits rose when I got<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span> -into the open field; and when I reached the top of the little mount, and -all the bells of London’ (it was probably on a Sunday evening) ‘began to -jingle at once, I thought I had never heard anything so delightful in my -life, so rapid are the alternations of our feelings.’<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> - -</div> - -<p>Writing twelve months later, Crabb Robinson relates -how, on a morning of May, 1812, meeting Wordsworth in -the Oxford Road (now Oxford Street), and getting into the -fields, he walked thence with him to Hampstead, where they -met Joanna Baillie, whom he thus describes:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘She is small in figure, and her gait is mean and shuffling, but her -manners are those of a well-bred woman. She has none of <i>the unpleasant -airs too common to literary ladies</i>. Her conversation is sensible. She -possesses apparently considerable information, is prompt without being -forward, and has a fixed judgment of her own, without any disposition to -force it upon others. Wordsworth said of her, with warmth: “If I had -to present anyone to a foreigner as a model English gentlewoman, it -would be Joanna Baillie.”’</p> - -</div> - -<p>Later writers eulogize her quiet, unobtrusive life in the -beloved companionship of her sister, and the enjoyment of -the yet unspoiled beauty of Nature which surrounded them. -A few steps from their house took them to the Heath, with -its glorious sun-risings and sun-settings, its cloud and landscapes, -its groups and groves of trees, its ferny hollows, and -hillocks, purple or golden in their seasons, with the bells of -the common heath, or the glittering peach-scented blossoms -of the furze. Twenty-nine years after Crabb Robinson’s -meeting with her, in the course of a chatty London letter of -Lord Jeffreys to Mrs. Innes, he tells her how after breakfasting -with Miss Rogers in Regent’s Park, where they had -the poet Murray, the hero of the Pawnees, the Milmans, -Sir Charles and Lady Bell, etc. (a most lovely morning, by -the way), they drove to Hampstead and saw Joanna Baillie, -then in her seventy-fifth year.</p> - -<p>It was on the occasion of a visit to her some time before -this that Mary Howitt, with her little son Charlton, I believe, -had the pleasure of meeting Sir Walter Scott, whose admiration<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span> -of the fair curls and bright looks of the boy was ever -afterwards associated with her remembrance of the kind-hearted -author of the Waverley novels.<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus34"> -<img src="images/illus34.jpg" width="400" height="525" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Joanna Baillie.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>To the last Joanna Baillie continued to keep a little court -for literary callers, and received in her simple, old-fashioned -home the homage of the great in rank and intellect. In -1851, at the ripe age of eighty-eight (she was born in -1763), the little churchyard through which she had so -often passed received the remains of this lovable and gifted -woman.<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> - -<p>Her sister, Miss Agnes Baillie, continued to reside at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span> -Bolton House, in which she had a number of the windows -darkened, so that it came to be called by the children of -the Heath ‘the house with the black windows.’ She was -becoming very old, and, though sane upon many subjects, -had little innocent illusions of going to heaven in the ark, -the appearance of which she looked for from day to day. It -came at last on April 27, 1861, when she died, aged one -hundred years and seven months. Some time before this -event a controversy had been going on in a literary paper -which questioned the fact of ‘lives of a hundred and upwards,’ -whereupon a gentleman wrote to the editor of the -<i>Athenæeum</i> as follows:<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> - -<p>‘<i>January 7, 1860.</i>—Permit me to forward a copy of the -certificate of birth of a lady in her hundredth year, living at -Hampstead, viz., the sister of the well-known authoress -Joanna Baillie, and of the deceased Dr. Baillie,’ etc.</p> - -<p>The document was lately obtained by Dr. Baillie’s son, -Mr. W. H. Baillie, of Upper Harley Street, and is as follows:</p> - -<p>‘Copy of an entry in a separate register of the Presbytery -of Hamilton under the head of “Sholto.” That Mr. James -Baillie has a daughter named Agnes, born 24 September, -1760. Attested and signed at Hamilton the 25 day of -November, 1760, in the presence of the Presbytery. Signed -(James Baillie); John Kirk, Clerk; Patrick Maxwell, -Moderator.’</p> - -<p>‘This venerable lady,’ it is added, ‘is still, notwithstanding -the recent severe weather, in the enjoyment of her usual -health.’</p> - -<p>Seven months later she had, as we have seen, joined her -sister in the peaceful churchyard; but lives of a hundred -years and more have been by no means rare at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>In 1895 my attention was directed to a newspaper paragraph, -containing a description of the Baillies’ residence at -Hampstead, and also to some notes which had appeared -from time to time in the <i>Bookman</i>, descriptive of remarkable -houses in the locality.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span></p> - -<p>The newspaper correspondent’s account of the date of the -Baillies’ residence at Hampstead is certainly incorrect. He -tells us that the Baillies came to London in 1791, where they -lived with their brother, Dr. Matthew Baillie, at 16, Great -Windmill Street, Piccadilly. In 1802, shortly after the -appearance of ‘Plays of the Passions,’ vol. ii., they went -with their mother to live at Red Lion Hill, Hampstead, and -on her death they removed to Bolton House. The first -appearance of ‘De Montfort’ was, as I have shown, in April, -1800, at which time the Barbaulds were living in Church -Row, from whence Mrs. Barbauld writes of the Baillies as -her near neighbours, which they would not have been had -they been living at Red Lion (now Rosslyn) Hill, with the -whole length of Hampstead town between them.</p> - -<p>The Barbaulds left the neighbourhood for Stoke Newington -in 1802, the year this gentleman gives as that of the Baillies’ -removal to Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Still stranger is the chronology of the writer in the <i>Bookman</i> -(1895), who gives the year of their mother’s death (1806) -as the date of the Baillies’ removal to Hampstead.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>NORTH END.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>When Leigh Hunt wrote of Hampstead that it -‘was a village revelling in varieties,’ he summarised -in a sentence its chief characteristic -and charm.</p> - -<p>Behind the High Street, to the right, there lies a labyrinth -of lanes, passages, courts, roads, groves, and squares. The -map of the place shows its complications, and the irresponsibility -of the builders. Houses seem to have been run up -without design or order; a so-called road ends in a cul-de-sac, -a square is represented by a malformed triangle, the groves -are without trees. Good old houses assert themselves on -high places, and mean ones crowd the ways leading up to -them. All shows the extemporary mode of building locally -prevalent at the time, in which no fixed plan appears; it is -the old copyhold mode of temporary convenience consolidated -into brick. But variety meets you everywhere. -Nature herself aids it in the formation of the ground—the -mounts and interposing undulations. Trees are seen -here and there, and bits of primitive waste appear in quite -unexpected places.</p> - -<p>Queer old houses nestle in trellis-work and creepers, -interned within high garden walls, and a little compact -settlement of them tops the Mount, the altitude of which -shows that of the highway to the Heath when Oliver Goldsmith, -his heart still true to the memory of ‘Sweet Lissoy,’ -climbed it on summer Sunday mornings, and wrote afterwards<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span> -of the view from Hampstead Hill that ‘Nature never -exhibited a more beautiful prospect.’ This was in 1756-57, -and the road was not cut through till 1763; so that from its -summit, as was said by some old author of Highgate Hill, -one trod upon the top of St. Paul’s. And it may be that -the solitudes of the upper Heath, with its hawthorn-thickets, -its broken ground and gravelly hollows, or the stillness of -the rustic lanes in its vicinity, may have proved as propitious -to his Muse as they did in later times to those of Keats and -Shelley. At all events, to breathe the air upon its heights -must have made him who was brimful of the love of Nature -feel as the gods felt when respiring that of Olympus—sublimely -indifferent to mundane matters. Then the garrulous, -flighty talker grew serene: he ‘communed with his -own heart, and was still.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus35"> -<img src="images/illus35.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Goldsmith.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Here, possibly, some portions of the ‘Traveller’ may have -been thought out, that poem which modified for Miss<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span> -Reynolds the ugliness of the sallow, melancholy-looking -man with heavy, protuberant forehead, and grim frown -between the brows, the result of thought which not even -his friends gave him credit for, but whose ‘ill-natured eyes,’ -as he himself calls them, grew tender with compassion at -the sight of want and sorrow.<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> - -<p>It was another thing when, ceasing to be a mere Grub -Street hack, he moved to Wine Office Court, and gave -suppers, and came hither for a ‘shoemaker’s holiday,’ as -he expressed it, with his ‘Jolly Pigeon’ friends. But at the -period I am now writing of, Goldsmith was correcting the -press for Mr. Samuel Richardson, the literary bookseller of -Salisbury Court, whose epistolary novels, as we know, had -taken the town by storm, and who himself frequently figured -in the shady Hampstead Well walk, as also at Tunbridge -Wells, where Loggan, the dwarf,<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> had included him amongst -others of our Hampstead celebrities who frequented that -pleasant sanatorium: Old Colley Cibber, Mr. and Mrs. -Johnson, Garrick, and Mrs. Fraisi, the singer, whose fine, -expansive person and expensive dress made an important -appearance in the walks.</p> - -<p>Then the trees, or groups of them, the ponds, the little -dells, the piquant ‘come and see what I can show you’ -eminences! The old, solid, red or brown brick mansions; -that speak of ‘successful commercial enterprise, and its -sequel of splendid wealth.’</p> - -<p>And, better still, in the shadow of an old lane, an early -Georgian house of ruddy brick, unfaded by centuries of -storm and sunshine, with a white gallery running round it -like a ruff, and a lovely oriel looking to the sunsets.<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> Then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> -the avenues that have some way got adrift from the homes -they once led to, and are left stranded on the Heath, and -the sweet, tree-shaded lanes; but these are, alas! for the most -part lost to us, like the woods, the site of a once-great gathering -of them, that had a history before the Conquest, though -the history is lost to us, like the concluding chapters of Livy.</p> - -<p>The oldest inhabitant of Hampstead will tell you that he -does not know the whole of it, and a workman once informed -the writer that he had daily crossed the Heath to his employment -for many years, but he believed that he had scarcely -ever found his way across it or back by precisely the same -path. Undoubtedly, Hampstead has the merit of infinite -variety, and the charm of compelling those who know it to -desire a return to it with great longing. Even the -separate districts into which it is now nominally divided -have a distinctive character of their own, and West End -is no more like Frognal than South End is like North -End or Church Row.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus36"> -<img src="images/illus36.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>North End from the Heath.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>North End is easily accessible from any part of the Heath,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span> -but if one happens to come out on the Spaniards Road, it is -worth while pausing to admire the pleasing effect of the -slender spire of Christ Church, showing almost everywhere -above the trees that appear massed about it on Squire’s -Mount, and everywhere harmonizing with the view. We -have the east Heath to the right, with the Vale of Health -lying in a green hollow below the Broad Walk, which -divides the upper from the lower Heath; and passing the -destroyed site of the ‘Nine Elms’ in a dell on the same side -of the way, the roof of a grange-like dwelling, noticeable in -my time for a bell or clock turret on the stable buildings, -peeping through the surrounding foliage. If I remember -aright, Mrs. Hodgson then lived there. Bordering the road -for some distance we have, or had, the holly-hedge, said to -have been wholly the work of Lord Erskine.</p> - -<p>Turning back at the Spaniards, we can either take the -Sandy Road, as it is locally called, which shows like a -terrace path between the pines upon the side of the hill; or, -going on past Heath House and Jack Straw’s Castle, make -a landmark of one of the Heath-keeper’s red-brick lodges, -and steer a course at an angle that will bring us out close -to Wildwood Avenue, and pretty low down on the North -End Road.</p> - -<p>By the first route we pass some charmingly-situated -houses on the upper ridge of the Heath, looking towards -the south-west, and with their back-fronts, if I may so call -them, to the road. Closed in by high walls, the passers-by -see nothing of the beauty of the grounds by which they are -surrounded, so that by making a slant across the Heath we -lose nothing of interest or beauty. Our path brings us out -nearly opposite the gates of Cedar Lawn, and not far from -Hill House, or The Hill, as it was more generally called, the -beautiful home till quite recently of Francis Hoare, Esq. -The place was celebrated for its lovely grounds and gardens. -In 1895 Mr. Francis Hoare removed to a house in Kensington, -and Hill House, that for the best part of a century had -been the home of one or other of the Hoare family, now -nearly rebuilt, is the residence of Mr. Fisher. It was probably -built in George I.’s reign, but had been several times -altered and added to. In 1811 Abrahams mentions the -house ‘with new buildings,’ and it had no doubt suffered -since from modern improvements.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus37"> -<img src="images/illus37.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Fenton House, 1780.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span></p> - -<p>The Hill, like the older home of the family at the -Heath, had been distinguished as a centre of intellectual -life, of active religious thought, and practical philanthropy. -Here Wilberforce and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton discussed -their scheme for the suppression of that long-existing blot -upon the Christianity and civilization of England, the dreadful -slave-trade, and the ever-to-be-honoured Elizabeth Fry -found abundant sympathy in her labour of love for the -hitherto uncared-for female criminals in Newgate and other -prisons. A letter from Lucy Aikin to her niece, November, -no date of day or year, but probably in 1826, gives a glimpse -of a social evening at Hill House:</p> - -<p>‘Yesterday I dined at the S. Hoares’; enjoyed it much. -There was no great party, but all were kind and friendly, -and we talked of the days of our youth. Mr. Crabbe came -in the evening, and we made him tell us of Johnson, whom -he had met with Burke at the house of the Reynolds. Then -we spoke of modern poets, Burns and Montgomery.’</p> - -<p>She calls Mrs. Inchbald a charming writer, and says that -Miss Edgeworth has just come to town. In October, 1826, -she writes that Hampstead is almost a desert, ‘the Earls -away, Mrs. Greaves away, the Misses Baillie not expected -till to-morrow.’<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a></p> - -<p>In Augustus Hare’s ‘Memorials of the Gurneys of -Earlham,’ we get another peep of society at Hill House -in 1830, in a letter of J. G. Gurney, who there first met -Dr. Chalmers:</p> - -<p>‘I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Chalmers at Hill -House, Hampstead. We walked in the garden ... at -dinner an interesting party. Sumner, Bishop of Chester,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span> -Dr. Lushington, Buxton (Sir Fowell), and my sister, Elizabeth -Fry.<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> In the evening Joanna Baillie joined our party. -Next morning my brother Samuel Hoare took Dr. Chalmers -and me to Wilberforce’s at Highwood, beyond Hendon (Mill -Hill). Our morning passed delightfully; a stream of conversation -flowed between ourselves and the ever-lively Wilberforce. -I have seldom observed a more amazing contrast than -between Chalmers and Wilberforce. Chalmers is stout and -erect; Wilberforce minute and singularly twisted. Chalmers, -both in body and mind, moves with a deliberate step; Wilberforce -flies about with astonishing activity, while his mind -flits from object to object with astonishing versatility. -Chalmers is like a good-tempered lion; Wilberforce like a -bee, and, except when fairly asleep, is never latent.’</p> - -<p>These extracts afford an interesting glance at persons and -associations connected with the Hoare family and Hill -House. Earlier in the century we might have met Hannah -More, Young of the ‘Night Thoughts,’ Mrs. Barbauld, and -subsequently the banker-poet, Rogers, Coleridge and many -more of the fraternity of letters.</p> - -<p>To the right of Hill House lay a little bit of wooded -ground, part of the original Wildwood Grove,<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> through -which a path running diagonally from the road led into one -of the avenues for which Hampstead is remarkable, avenues -that, like Coleridge’s discourses, to those who could not -understand them, ‘start from no premises, and arrive at no -definite conclusion,’ though houses have occasionally been -adapted to them, like Flitcroft’s Villa, at the end of the fine -grove of lime-trees between Branch Hill and Frognal. Wildwood -Avenue, as it is called, consists of a row of horse-chestnut-trees -on one side, and a stately file of limes on the -other. These, with their widely-spreading branches, through -which the breeze sends restless lights and shadows, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span> -contrast with the stronger forms and picturesquely-slanting -trunks of the horse-chestnuts, which in some instances have -taken a half-spiral direction in their efforts to strengthen -themselves against the storms of many winters, have been -a joy to successive generations of artists and unnumbered -lovers of Nature.</p> - -<p>Wildwood Avenue passes the entrance to North End -House,<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> to which I am informed it originally led, and the -trees go off by twos and threes upon a little triangular bit of -greensward opposite to what used to be, perhaps is still, -Wildwood Cottage, a plain, white, weather-boarded house, -with red-tiled roof, a rustic rose-covered porch, and with a -triplet of limes before it. Of this house there is something -more to be said further on.</p> - -<p>In coming down the avenue we pass on the right hand a -paddock belonging to Mr. Gurney Hoare, where in bygone -years stood a walnut-tree,<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> to the fruit of which by immemorial -custom all the copyholders of Hampstead had a -right, a privilege, I am told, that the boys used to take good -care should not lapse for want of being annually maintained.</p> - -<p>Returning to the road at the end of the wall enclosing -the grounds of Hill House, we come out upon a bit of the -Heath, with a straggling group of dark-stemmed, storm-stricken -fir-trees at its farthest end, near the wall of Heath -Lodge, locally known as the Eleven Sisters. Beneath the -footpath on the edge of the Heath the main road is continued -along a deep cutting past the back-front of North -End House, now called Wildwood, a name to which, Mr. -Howitt thinks, it had the original right. This cutting, said -to be some centuries old, runs parallel with the gardens and -grounds of North End House,<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> a name under which the -place retains reminiscences of the saddest chapter in the life -of England’s great statesman, Pitt, Earl of Chatham, which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span> -it would have been well for the interest of Hampstead to -have retained. The house stands on a descending tongue -of ground, running down, as we have said, between the old -avenue and the North End Road, and is embowered in -finely-grown trees. The garden runs up the ascent, and has -an old, octagonal summer house of three stories at the upper -end of it, which can be seen from the footpath on the Heath. -This is still in a fair state of preservation.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus38"> -<img src="images/illus38.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Firs.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The house—as old as the early Georgian period—has been -altered and raised a story since it was held, probably on -lease, by Lord North. It was during his tenancy that his -famous brother-in-law, Lord Chatham, when suffering from -the agonies of gout, and sometimes, it has been suspected, -when only making them a pretext to escape from political -vexations and perplexities, was wont to resort thither, sometimes -coming all the way from Richmond to find a night’s -rest at North End. Lord Mahon, in his ‘History of -England,’ gives copies of letters written by the great -Minister from this retreat. From one of these we find he -was at North End, Hampstead, on Saturday, August 23, -1766, immediately after he became Prime Minister; whilst -his last visit here, according to the author of the ‘Northern<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span> -Heights of London,’ took place some time after March, 1778 -(that would be very shortly before his death, which occurred -May 11 of that year).</p> - -<p>I hope I am not quoting someone else in applying to him -that line, ‘Great wits are sure to madness near allied,’<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> but -his conduct and eccentricities at times came very near it. -He had such a dread of neighbours that he bought up all -the houses near his own to ensure his having none. His -terror of loud noises and of strangers was excessive, and if -in his solitary walks he saw another person on the path -approaching him, he would run round corners or down side-paths -to avoid a meeting. Even when driving for exercise -on the Heath, the blinds of the carriage were close drawn, -so that no one might see him.</p> - -<p>It cannot be said that in age his looks were in his favour. -He was dark, even to swarthiness, with a large hooked nose, -and eyes with which ‘he glared at his antagonists, and a -scowl with which he overawed them.’</p> - -<p>Walpole says he had a black beard which, when suffering -with gout, he would leave unshaven for days. But a modern -writer, while leaving his portrait intact, transfuses it with -genius, and says that ‘with his eagle aspect, and eyes that -would blaze a cannon, he commanded the little things that -listened to his voice as might an Emperor his legionaries.’ -‘I should not mind what he says,’ exclaimed Lord Holland -to his wife; ‘but his eyes!’</p> - -<p>There is no doubt that either from physical suffering or -mental anxiety he was at times the victim of great prostration -and nervous irritability. It may be that at these periods -the seclusion and quiet of North End House, with the -wooded beauty and fine air of the neighbourhood, may have -proved to him in effect what fine music was to the mind of -Emerson, at once assuasive and refreshing.</p> - -<p>It is probable, too, that these seasons of retirement, in -which he withdrew himself even from his family, shutting -himself up in a small room, which, with the oriel window<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span> -belonging to it, was for many years <i>properly left unaltered</i>, -enabled him to abstract himself from everything but the -political problems of the day, and to map out in his masterful -mind the means of coping with difficulties, if not of -subjugating them wholly. Mr. Howitt gives the following -description of the ‘closet, or room,’ in which Lord -Chatham voluntarily imprisoned himself, at which times -not even the servant who waited on him was permitted to -see him:<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> - -<p>‘The opening in the wall from the staircase to the room -still remains through which the unhappy man received his -meals, or anything else conveyed to him. It is an opening -of perhaps 18 inches square, having a door on each side of -the wall; the door within had a padlock, which still hangs -upon it. When anything was conveyed to him, a knock -was made on the outer door, and the articles placed in the -recess. When the outer door again closed, the invalid -opened the inner door, took what was there, again closed -the door, and locked it.’<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> - -<p>In all this great man’s afflictive trials it must have comforted -him to remember that in the hour of the unfortunate -Admiral Byng’s extremity, when women of rank were urging -a royal Princess, nothing loath, to be, as they expressed it, -‘for his execution,’ he (Lord Chatham) had been on the -side of justice, and had used his utmost influence with the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span> -King to procure the Admiral’s pardon, a plea for mercy that -must have softened by reflection his own death-bed.<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> - -<p>Right opposite the upper end of the garden of North End -House, and no doubt close to the highroad in former days, -stands an ancient solitary tree, known as the Gibbet Elm, -one of two trees between which stood the gallows on which, -in the May of 1673, one Jackson, a notorious highwayman, -was hung in chains for the murder of Henry Miller on, or -near, the spot. There for years from season to season -mouldered the skeleton of the murderer, swinging wildly -out before the scourging winter winds, with the rusty chain-links -creaking, as it were, a ghastly requiem, or in high -summer perhaps a nesting-place for birds, such instances of -bird-building between the ribs or in the skulls of felons being -not uncommon in those days, when gibbets were more -plentiful by the waysides than hand-posts. After long years -of purgatorial nights and days, Nature would receive into -her bosom the time-bleached bones, to make the grass grow -greener about the base of the old tree, whose companion was -blown down some fifty years ago.</p> - -<p>The elm, when I last saw it in 1863-64, was still sound,<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> -and, though beaten about and storm-broken, stretched forth -its branches a goodly distance, its root</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Like snakes in wild festoon,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In ramous wrestlings interlaced,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A forest Laocoön.’<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span></p> - -<p>The upright of the gibbet, by one of those curious freaks -common to ancient landlords, who early learnt the attractiveness -of morbid curiosities, and knew with Trinculo that -‘those who will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar will -lay out ten to see a dead Indian,’ was converted into a part -of the kitchen mantelpiece at Jack Straw’s Castle, serving -thenceforth as a fertile subject for the ale-consuming and -company-constraining gossip of times not so long past, when -few cared to cross the Heath alone after nightfall—times of -which Hicks’s Hall and the Newgate Calendar keep record -still.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus39"> -<img src="images/illus39.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Old Cottages, North End.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Passing Heath Lodge, we leave the footpath for the -main road, and find ourselves at North End. In Elizabeth’s -time this was literally wildwood and waste. Here, -as at Belsize, Gerard found what he calls the white butterfly -orchis, ‘near unto a small cottage in the way as you go -from London to Hendon, a village thereby, in the field -next the pound, or pinnefold without.’</p> - -<p>North End, so called from its situation at the northern<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span> -extremity of the Heath, consists of a cluster of middle-class -houses, cottages, and pleasant gardens. It does not seem, -says Park, to be a place of any antiquity. No doubt the -Wildwood, as the fragment of the old forest was quaintly -called, formerly overran the site of the present hamlet, and -lingered here after the clearance of the woods from other -portions of the district.</p> - -<p>We find it marked in the map of Middlesex in Gibson’s -edition of Camden’s ‘Britannia’ (1695) as Wildwood Corner. -It had been so called in Elizabeth’s time, and the tradition -survives in the names of certain messuages, as Wildwood, -Wildwood House, Wildwood Lodge, etc.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus40"> -<img src="images/illus40.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Bull and Bush, Hampstead.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In all probability, the weather-boarded cottages opposite -Wildwood Lodge, and the cosy little inn, the Bull and -Bush, are about the oldest habitations in North End. The -latter flourished when Addison wrote, and it is said that it -shared his favour, and that of his friends, in common with -the Upper Flask. In its yew-tree arbour he may have<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span> -enjoyed himself after the simple fashion of Sir Roger de -Coverley, and drunk ripe ale, and smoked his churchwarden -on summer afternoons. It has its arbour and garden still—a -carefully-kept one—which makes a pretty feature of the -unpretentious but comfortable house.</p> - -<p>In later times, Gainsborough, Garrick and Foote, Sir -Joshua Reynolds (at rare seasons), Cibber, Booth, Hogarth, -and Laurence Sterne are said to have been amongst its -summer visitors. The room—an upper one—in which their -feasts, to which the company brought ‘attic salt,’ were held -looks out upon a smooth-clipped lawn with flowery borders, -and commands the little eminence overlooking Wildwood, -where Blake would first appear to the vigilant eyes of the -eldest Linnell’s little daughter on Saturday afternoons, who -sat watching for the anticipated appearance of her favourite. -Upon the green lawn is the yew-bush or bower to which the -inn owes half its name, a whimsey to which rustic landlords -in the eighteenth century appear to have been much addicted. -Being furnished with a table and seats, it afforded a quiet -retirement or smoking-box.<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> - -<p>Hither, in the Addison days, came the companionable -Dr. George Sewell, with some or other of his many friends, -friends who, at his death in 1726, neglected even the -common duties of humanity, and permitted this accomplished -gentleman and scholar to pass unhonoured to an -almost pauper grave, unfollowed but by one attendant, and -with the mean obsequies of one ‘whom nobody owns.’ He -was a bachelor, and kept no house, but boarded at Hampstead, -and we are told ‘he was so much esteemed, and so -frequently invited to the tables of the neighbouring gentry, -that he had seldom occasion to dine at home.’ He contributed -many papers to the supplemental volumes of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span> -<i>Tatler</i> and <i>Spectator</i>, wrote the tragedy of ‘Sir Walter -Raleigh,’ and other works, and various poems. His writings -impress one with the feeling that he was not only a clever -and versatile writer, but a good and amiable man. No -memorial was raised above his grave, but a boundary-tree—a -holly—in the hedge of the churchyard for some time -marked the place of his interment. This has long since -been removed.</p> - -<p>Coming down the years, we find that literary people, -either as residents or visitors, more and more affected -Hampstead and the Heath. No matter of surprise to us -who have tasted the exhilaration of its fresh breeziness and -summer beauty, and witnessed the cold splendour of its -wintry landscapes, with a sky such as Danby delighted to -paint reddening the west, and making wider the fields of -snow stretching around; the still woods wrapped in rime, -each tree crystallized, as it were; the tall groups of elm, -ash, and pine trees with each reticulated branch and spray -standing out with photographic accuracy against the clear -atmosphere, whose sharpness stings the pedestrian and -warms.</p> - -<p>It was under such conditions that Lovell Edgeworth saw -the Heath when he visited his philosophical but eccentric -friend Day, the author of ‘Sandford and Merton,’ who had -‘lodged his newly-married wife in “inconvenient lodgings” -at Hampstead.’ Edgeworth found him walking on the Heath -with her, though the snow covered the ground. But then -the lady was sensibly attired in a frieze cloak and thick -shoes. She surprised the visitor, who had been led to -imagine her an exceedingly delicate person, by an appearance -of rude health. But this is beside North End.</p> - -<p>About the year 1748 Dr. Akenside, divided between the -love of poetry and duty to his profession, endeavoured, with -the assistance of his friend the Hon. Jeremiah Dyson, who -had purchased a house for him in this neighbourhood, to -establish himself as a physician at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>We have somewhere read that the house which Akenside<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span> -occupied was really at Golder’s Hill.<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> The two statements -are not irreconcilable, as in the directory of this year -Golder’s Hill is included in North End. Horace Walpole, -writing in 1750, says of him: ‘Here is another of those -tame geniuses, a Mr. Akenside, who writes odes. In one -he has lately published he says, “Light the tapers ... -urge the fire!” Had not you rather make gods jostle in the -dark than light the candles, for fear they should break their -heads?’</p> - -<p>But in criticising the poet’s ‘Pleasures of Imagination,’ he -allows that at its first appearance it attracted much notice, -from the elegance of its language and the warm colouring -of the descriptions. Akenside appears to have been a proud, -cold, uncomfortable man, with an overweening opinion of -his abilities, a dictatorial habit, a morbid sensitiveness on -the score of his connections, and a susceptibility of offence, -which seldom left him long without one. He seems to have -passed a rather disagreeable time at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>In vain his weak but generous friend and patron introduced -him at the clubs and balls, the assemblies and the -Long-room; he failed to make himself popular with the men, -and was ‘too indifferent to feminine nature to ingratiate -himself with their wives and daughters.’ So that, with all -his mental accomplishments, his handsome person, and the -genius which Southey says distinguished his face, he made -no friends, but, on the contrary, many enemies.</p> - -<p>When the secret of his family connections, and his dependence -on Mr. Dyson, who generously allowed him £300 a -year, oozed out, society at Hampstead, composed for the -most part of opulent City men—which means successful men, -too prone to despise the want of success in others—made -no secret of its contempt for Akenside’s pretensions to -superiority, and the end was that in less than three years -all hopes of his succeeding as a physician at Hampstead had -to be given up. Mr. Dyson then took a small house for him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span> -in Bloomsbury Square, and continued his allowance till his -death in 1770, in the forty-ninth year of his age.</p> - -<p>A pleasant reminiscence of North End is that for some -years it continued to be the chosen home of William Collins, -the artist, who, from his boyhood, as his talented son has -told us in his delightful memoir of him, had loved Hampstead, -and spent many a summer day there, ‘watching the -bird-catchers with their decoys and nets, the hedger with his -high tanned gloves and bill-hook, cows going afield, hay-makers, -and rosy rustic children.’</p> - -<p>As he grew up, his love of Hampstead grew with him, -and we catch glimpses of the young art student, sketching -in the delightful fields and bosky lanes, occasionally -laying down his pencil to refresh himself, as it were, with -the quaintly-written devotional hymns of George Herbert, -which he carried with him. In 1822-23 he married -Miss Giddies, and in the summer of the same year took a -cottage at Hampstead, and ‘in tranquillity and the companionship -of his young wife studied Nature unremittingly.’</p> - -<p>Hampstead Heath, which lay close to his door, became -the scene and source of his best pictures.</p> - -<p>‘Here he found his footsore trampers; the patched or -picturesquely ragged beggars; the brutish or audacious -boys; the itinerant rat-catcher, with the <i>dirt-shine</i> on his -leather breeches, and his ferrets and cage of rats.’ Like -Linnell, Leslie, and Constable in those days, and Gainsborough -in previous ones, he was never tired of the sweet -beauty of his surroundings, or of exhibiting them to his -friends. He was for ever discovering fresh points of view -and new effects, and Hampstead proved to him, as to all -other lovers and students of Nature, inexhaustible.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus41"> -<img src="images/illus41.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Cottages, North End.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span></p> - -<p>In 1829 his fame and fortune had both outgrown what -Wilkie called his ‘beautiful cottage at North End,’ and he -was intending to build himself a house upon the Heath; but -there were difficulties in the way of the purchase of the -ground, which caused him eventually to give up the idea of -building, and content himself with renting a larger house -near the Heath. In the end he returned to London, where -the latter years of his life were spent. It was at North End, -according to the author of the ‘Northern Heights,’ that his -three talented sons were born, and here Wilkie—his great -friend—and many other artists, and men of note visited him.</p> - -<p>Shortly before 1813, Mr. Abraham Robarts, senior partner -in the banking house of Robarts, Curtis and Co., resided at -North End, in the house previously occupied by —— Dingley, -Esq., about 1777, a gentleman memorable for the part he -took in the introduction of sawing-mills into this country, -which the mob resented and destroyed.</p> - -<p>When Park wrote his History, the same house (but he -does not describe its situation) was in the possession of John -Vivian, Esq., solicitor to the Excise. In all probability it -was the square brick house at the end of the avenue, which -the inhabitants of North End regard as the house which -Dr. Akenside resided in—the house with the newly-laid-out -garden running up on one side under the umbrageous shade -of the trees that once sheltered a lovely glade, locally known -as the Lovers’ Bank or Lover’s Walk, and which, through -oversight or forgetfulness on the part of those entrusted with -the preservation of the Heath, was left out in the purchase -of it, and was granted to the present owner. In this house -at one period resided Sir Fowell Buxton, the friend and -fellow-labourer with Clarkson and Wilberforce, in their -noble efforts for the emancipation of the negro, which led to -the abolition of slaves in our colonies, and began that crusade -which we are still waging on their behalf. At that period -his sister-in-law, Mrs. Charles Buxton, was living at Wildwood, -in Mrs. Earle’s house, the white house facing the -avenue. It is right that the homes of eminent men and -women should be remembered, and amongst such homes at -North End, Wildwood Cottage is one of the most interesting. -Here for some time lived Dinah Mulock, the late -Mrs. Craik, author of ‘John Halifax,’ and other standard -works of fiction; and here subsequently resided, from 1864 -to 1871, Eliza Meteyard, the painstaking author of the ‘Life<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> -of Wedgwood the Potter,’ a work containing much valuable -information on the subject of this beautiful manufacture, the -interest in which her labour undoubtedly contributed to -revive and enlarge. Here she expended years of studious -research in the prosecution of her task, in recognition of -which Mr. Gladstone—himself a lover and collector of the -charming ware—granted her a Government pension of £100 -per annum, which, however, she only lived to enjoy one year. -She may be said to have lost her life for the sake of her -strong interest in the study of this beautiful fabric. Having -accepted a pressing invitation from members of the Liverpool -Society of Arts to be present at a conversazione and -exhibition of Wedgwood ware, she travelled back to town -in very inclement weather, and took a chill, which brought -on (being neglected) pulmonary complications, ending in -her death, which took place in 1879, she dying in the arms -of her old friend, the writer of these few lines. Popularly -she was better known as the ‘Silver Pen’ of Douglas -Jerrold’s and other magazines, in which she strongly advocated -the higher education of the people.</p> - -<p>For some time Coventry Patmore, the author of ‘The -Angel in the House,’ and other charming poems, resided at -North End, and here he lost his loving and beloved wife -(1862).</p> - -<p>We pass the gray, unprepossessing-looking cottage to the -east of the large house on the right of Golder’s Hill, known -as the Manor House, and said to occupy the site of the -ancient North Hall Manor, included with that of Hampstead, -and granted by Edward VI. to his favourite, Sir Thomas -Wroth, Knight. Shortly before Belsize Gardens were closed, -an attempt was made to popularize a medicinal well at -North End, and render it fashionable as a Spa and pleasure-place; -and though it is said by contemporaries that Belsize -Gardens exceeded in immorality and dissipation any place -of the kind in modern times, an advertisement in the <i>Daily -Post</i> of the opening of the New North End Hall Wells, after -promising a profusion of amusement, etc., coolly adds that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span> -‘great care will be taken to keep up the same decorum in -everything as at Belsize.’</p> - -<p>In 1811 the Lords Granville were living at North End, -and Sir Francis Willes for some time occupied North End -House. In 1806 Lady Wilson, proprietress of the manor, -brought an action against him for cutting turf on the Heath, -‘then covered with grass, and fit for cattle,’ which action -put an end to this practice, which every copyholder believed -he had a right to, and which was pronounced to be inconsistent -with the rights of common pasture.</p> - -<p>Golder’s Hill, the seat of Sir Spencer Wells, occupies a -large piece of ground, skirted on the side nearest the Heath -by the new ride.<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> - -<p>To the left of the North End Road are several good houses -with enclosed grounds and gardens. The road follows the -bend of what was probably a morass in ancient times, but -is fertile meadow-land now; and we are told that within -memory rushes grew, quaint rural things! at the very point -where the North End Road cuts the Finchley Road, and the -way was fringed by some magnificent old trees, which have -been cut down, with the advantage of throwing open an -extensive view of Hendon Fields.<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> - -<p>Hence the North End Road runs on to its terminus at the -hand-post on Golder’s Green.</p> - -<p>The <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>, in 1816, announced the death at -North End, Hampstead, at an advanced age, of Elizabeth -Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, in January, 1816 (no -other date); whether resident or a visitor was not stated.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>FINCHLEY ROAD, CHILD’S HILL, AND NEW END.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>At the hand-post on Golder’s Green—a bit of the -original waste in 1859—Hampstead parish ends -in this direction. Here Finchley Road, running -north and south, divides the road to Hendon from -North End Road.</p> - -<p>The name of Hendon reminds me that John Taylor, the -‘Water Poet,’ in his curious poetical production ‘The Fearful -Summer; or, London’s Calamitie, the Countrie’s Discourtesie, -and both their Miserie,’ while including the -inhabitants of Hampstead with the other country people -around London as ‘beastly, barbarous, cruel countrie cannibals,’ -excepts those of Hendon, who did what they could -for the plague-stricken Londoners.</p> - -<p>With Finchley parish Hampstead has no other connection -than that it borders it; but having taken the Finchley -Road, it is scarcely fair to leave this once too-famous neighbourhood -without a word. The Common had for many -years been a terror to travellers, and in 1790-1, when Landmanor -wrote his ‘Recollections and Adventures,’ its reputation -had not improved. It was still the haunt of footpads -and highwaymen, as, indeed, was Hampstead Heath also.</p> - -<p>Half a dozen years after the above date, Lord Strathmore, -then residing at Hampstead, was attacked by two men when -driving over Finchley Common, who rode up to the carriage -intending robbery, but his lordship, with the aid of his -servants, turned the tables on them, shot one, and made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span> -the other prisoner—an evil day for these ‘gentlemen of the -road.’ Yet, in spite of such incidents, some hardy householders -were bold enough to purchase property and build -houses in the neighbourhood; and Mrs. Barbauld tells us -that at one time (about 1754), when Richardson was looking -about for a country retirement, as became a fortunate bookseller -who was his own novelist, he bethought him of the -pretty district of Finchley.</p> - -<p>While thinking of doing this, his friend Mr. Dunscombe -wrote to him that the place would ‘affect his nerves,’ for -that all the crimes in the Decalogue were of daily occurrence -there, and finished by saying: ‘If you are planted so near the -scene of action as to be constantly hearing of highwaymen -and viewing of gibbets, in vain will Lady B. [Braidshaigh] -send you her sylphs and fairies, in vain will Miss M. [Miss -Mulso] terrify with dreams and visions.’<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p> - -<p>The author of the ‘New and Complete British Traveller’ -prosaically confirms this account: ‘A large tract of ground -called Finchley Common has long been remarkable as a -particular spot for the commission of robberies, and it has -been usual to erect gibbets on it, where some of the most -notorious malefactors have been hung in chains.’</p> - -<p>So, though the village on the west side of the Common -had some good houses on it, Richardson’s inclination -for a Tusculum at Finchley was probably not very strong, -or his friend’s badinage, from the proportion of truth -it contained, proved convincing, for we find him settling -down in the placid respectability of Parson’s Green, and the -enjoyment of that delightful summer-house at the end of the -garden, with room enough in it for the literary young ladies -who buzzed about him like bees about a bed of borage, with -their mild suggestions and criticism, all commendatory, and -praises altogether saccharine, till we believe in the truth of -Johnson’s remarks to Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Madame -Piozzi: ‘You think I like flattery, and so I do, but a little -too much disgusts me. That fellow Richardson, on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span> -contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the -stream of reputation without longing to taste the froth from -every stroke of the oar.’ An anecdote which Finchley is not -concerned in, though apropos to our talk of Richardson.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus42"> -<img src="images/illus42.jpg" width="400" height="525" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Madame Piozzi.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>If we take the Finchley Road back, we can make our way -by Cricklewood to Child’s Hill Lane, and so back to the -West Heath. There were in 1859 two or three good houses -to the left of the road, with large, newly-enclosed grounds, -but a few years later this portion of the Finchley Road was -the least interesting and the most vitiated place on the skirts -of Hampstead. The melancholy attempt to raise good -houses on either side appeared to have been blighted by the -unwholesome airs arising from the ill-drained and already-crowded -suburb of Child’s Hill lying in the bottom to the -right. Here various businesses the reverse of sanitary were -carried on, the vile smells from which in hot weather, even -at a considerable distance, made the inhaling of them<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span> -dangerous, and occasioned a sort of local fever, from which -it was said the neighbourhood was seldom free.</p> - -<p>It was a relief, when leaving the sight of coal-yards covering -what had been delightful meadows only a few years ago, -and the useful, but certainly unpicturesque, railway-station -to the right, to turn the corner by a semi-rural hostel at -Cricklewood, and a row of village shops, and, mounting the -slope, to enter what was quite recently a deep-hedged -country lane, into which, according to the exploded theory -of my antiquarian friend, the old Roman road over Hampstead -Heath struck down by way of Cricklewood to Hendon. -We pass the Hermitage, the temporary summer home of -many well-known artists, and two or three cottages. The -road, in places still fringed with trees, suggesting the shady -way it must have been in olden time, ends at the spot that -Platt’s Lane brought us to, within a short distance of West -Heath.</p> - -<p>Had we desired a longer walk on the Finchley Road, we -might have found our way back through a field-gate a little -to the east of Platt’s Lane, and of the path I have already -described, leading to a gate opening into Oak Hill Fields at -New West End, a region of rich grass fields, the quality of -which recommended the purchase of 14 acres of meadow-land -at Child’s Hill to the trustees of the Campden Charity, -with which they joined the bequest of an unnamed but -eccentric gentlewoman who left the parish £40 for the purpose -of distributing among the inhabitants of Hampstead, -<i>rich and poor</i>, halfpenny loaves (cross-buns, probably) on the -morning of Good Friday annually.</p> - -<p>If we follow the path, we find ourselves in the midst of a -scene of pastoral beauty still unspoiled. Cattle, such as -Sidney Cooper loves to paint, sleek and dappled, were, when -I last saw it, placidly cropping mouthfuls of juicy grasses, or -lying about on the slope of the upland field, lazily chewing -the cud. In the hedgerows oak-trees, some of them hollow -with age, and others young and verdant, appeared scattered -over the face of the hill, which takes its name from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span> -numbers of them once growing there. It was a walk for -summer mornings and summer evenings—peaceful, sequestered, -lovely—a walk that many a poet had trodden, -and one in which many an artist besides Landseer had found -inspiration and charming subjects. The hedgerows still -sheltered their indigenous wild-flowers; hawthorn and elder, -wild rose and woodbine, beautified the hedges in their several -seasons, and though it felt and looked far away from the -town, a very short walk to the gate or stile led to the main -road, and past Oak Hill House, and Oak Hill Lodge, to the -junction of Frognal Rise with Branch Hill.</p> - -<p>We may either follow the latter road to the West Heath, -or strike into the road past Lower Terrace, and come out -between the enclosure of the Hampstead Waterworks and -the walls of Mrs. Johnstone’s premises, at the angle of -which, railed in, stands a fine old elm,<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> memorable as -Irving’s Elm, under the shade of which some of the old -inhabitants of Hampstead may remember to have seen the -preacher of the ‘unknown tongue’ take his stand, and with -vehement language and gesture address a crowd half curious, -half eager to listen to his passionate pleadings or fierce -denunciations.<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> - -<p>It is curious that Edward Irving, like Whitfield, was -remarkable for a fearful squint. The <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, -with a cruelty not unusual in its criticisms, attacked his -appearance, actions, tones, gesticulation, and pronunciation, -and stated that he thundered forth a growling falsetto, and -‘draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple -of his argument.’ It describes his violent contortions of -countenance, and winds up by asserting that there had never -been such a tossing of brawny arms, and such a lowering of -bushy eyebrows performed ‘to so little purpose.’ But the -critic adds that, ‘were he to dispense with his absurd, fitful,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span> -inappropriate vehemence, and eternal straining after singularity -in the most minute points, he might become a rational -and respectable minister of the Gospel.’</p> - -<p>Turning back a few yards to Branch Hill, a road runs off -at an angle with the main road past Lower Terrace, at No. 2 -of which Constable, with his ‘placid companion’ and their -little ones, had lodgings in 1821, and takes us out by the -reservoir of the Hampstead Waterworks upon the Heath.</p> - -<p>By making a little détour to the left, in front of Upper -Terrace, and taking advantage of an opening between the -houses, we find ourselves in the Judges’ Walk, or <i>Prospect -Terrace</i>, as at one time modern Hampstead was inclined to -call it, forgetting the archæological interest attached to the -old name, and find ourselves face to face with a surprise of -prospective beauty—a view so wide in extent, so rich in -woodland scenery, rolling on over the Hertfordshire hills to -the right, and all between a wide expanse of fertile country, -that in all England there is scarcely a finer woodland and -pastoral view. The trees and houses to the left shut out the -sight of Harrow, and the glittering waters of the Kingsbury -reservoir are no longer seen; but looking to the right, the -view is charming, and to witness a sunset from this eminence -is worth, on a fine summer’s day, a pilgrimage to Hampstead.</p> - -<p>The Judges’ Walk was so called, it is said, because during -the year of the Great Plague the judges removed their Courts -from Westminster, and, returning to the normal practice of -their prototypes in Saxon and Norman times, held their <i>Seats -of Justice</i> ‘under the green tree’s shade.’ Court Tree, in the -Isle of Sheppey, has its name from this antique custom, and -the laws are thus annually promulgated on the Tynwald Hill -in the Isle of Man.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus43"> -<img src="images/illus43.jpg" width="500" height="700" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Harrow and Welsh Harp, from Hampstead Heath.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span></p> - -<p>Now that we are so near the Whitestone Pond, and the -half square of houses opposite, let us cross over, and, passing -at the side of the last of these, walk to the end of the tree-shaded -alley, the view from which is one of the many scenic -surprises of the Heath. There lies—or has it, with many -other charms, been swept away?—the still pond, its surface -scarcely ruffled by the movements of the swans, the green -Heath on this side dipping down to its margin, and beyond -the wooded heights of Highgate and the church. It is a -picture that requires no composing; it is perfect in its -natural picturesqueness.</p> - -<p>A path under the garden wall of a house to the left brings -us out at the Holford Road, between high walls, skirted by -well-grown trees, past Heathfield House to the left, and -other enclosed premises to the right, with Christ Church -facing us, fringed by some grand old trees (part of a grove), -leading by Cannon Place to Squire’s Mount. To the left of -the church is a space half surrounded by houses, in one of -which the well-known popular Nonconformist minister and -eloquent preacher and writer, the Rev. Newman Hall, resided. -To the east of the church are the school buildings appertaining -to it, and Christ Church Road, which runs down to the -Willow Walk and East Heath.</p> - -<p>Leaving the church, which stands slightly raised above -the roadway, on the right hand, we pass a row of good but -dully-situated houses, known as Cannon Place, which extends -from Christ Church to Squire’s Mount, and takes its name -from the old cannon which stand as kerb-posts, muzzles -downwards, in front of the courtyard of Cannon Hall, at the -north-east corner of Squire’s Mount. Unfortunately, the -history of the cannon is lost, and so also is that of the man -who originally placed them there. Modern Hampstead is -inclined to believe it the work of Sir J. C. Melville, but the -older inhabitants, whose ‘fathers have told them,’ assert -that the cannon were there long before this gentleman -resided at Hampstead. There are, besides these peacefully-utilized -pieces, two other very curious small bronze pieces of -ordnance of beautiful workmanship and great age (said to -have been taken from the Dutch), one bearing the date 1640, -the other inscribed 1646. These find a place in the very -beautiful grounds in which the house stands, an old red-bricked, -two-storied mansion of early eighteenth-century -design. The views from it—especially to the south—are<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span> -said to be very extensive. It possesses a garden an acre in -extent, and the ornamental grounds descend from 400 feet -to the level of the Thames.</p> - -<p>At the end of Cannon Place is Squire’s Mount, with some -good houses cresting it, and a row of cottages running in a -straight line towards the East Heath, with the Vale of -Health (not assertive in offensive ugliness, as at present) -modestly nestling right opposite, the Broad Walk crossing -the Heath above it. At Squire’s Mount, in the house -(one of those with some fine old trees sheltering them on the -north-east) distinguished by a magnificent horse-chestnut in -front of it, resided the octogenarian artist, Mrs. Harrison, -a fine-looking, genial old lady, whose charming transcripts -of spring flowers, wild blossoms, bird-nests, and bits of -hedgerow beauty, were well known to visitors at the Old -Painters in Water Colours’ Exhibitions. So late as the -spring of 1864-65 she had copied primroses from nature.</p> - -<p>At the back of Squire’s Mount Cottages are a group of -small houses, known as Heath Cottages, looking out on a -delightful view, but one which is said to be threatened with -extinction. It takes in the red viaduct and wooded neighbourhood -of Caenwood Farm, with Highgate; but when -these lines were written, a brickfield smouldered on one side, -and the ground it covered will, it is said, be shortly in the -hands of the builders.</p> - -<p>If, instead of walking across the Heath, we desire to -return to the town, we must turn back to Cannon Place, at -the western end of Squire’s Mount Cottages, and, crossing -the road at the bottom to the right, keep down a short lane, -at the end of which is Well Walk. Keep straight past the -Burgh, and Wetherall House, and, still bearing to the right, -above the new districts of Gayton and Gardener’s Roads—the -latter probably so called in memory of the allotments, -formerly the garden, playground, and orchard of a rather -celebrated school—keep on down Flask Walk to the High -Street. Or return by Christ Church Road, here leading -east and west; or by way of New End to Heath Street.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span> -And this reminds me that New End requires some -notice.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus44"> -<img src="images/illus44.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Squire’s Mount, about 1840.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>It marked, no doubt, as its name implies, a new epoch in -the growth of Hampstead, and an attempt at making a -straight street, which the genius of the place appears to -have resented, the outline of New End representing that of -an ill-proportioned funnel, with its mouth to the east, and its -narrow termination in Heath Street, where, on both sides of -the way (for the place was sadly in request by tramps journeying -to London), used to be posted up ‘To New End and the -Workhouse.’ Park does not mention the neighbourhood, -except to notice the purchase by the parish of Mrs. Leggatt’s -mansion for the new workhouse. Yet in 1811 there were -fifty rateable tenements, besides some untenanted, in the -district; eight of them rated at £25 per annum, one at -£60—the residence of a Mr. Richard Otley—were probably -private residences.</p> - -<p>These houses rose on the rim of the bowl in which<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span> -Mrs. Leggatt’s handsome red-brick mansion (as we see it -to-day the façade remains unaltered) was set down, a reason, -no doubt, for disposing of it, and which was objected to on -the part of some of the people in authority as likely to prove -detrimental to the health of its future inmates. From the -schedule before me of the old materials, it is possible to -rehabilitate the mansion, the body of which forms the centre -of the present workhouse, and relieves, with brilliant ruddiness, -the added ugly gray buildings overlooking it. It had a -ventilator and turret on the roof; there were bows to the -parlour, dining, and drawing rooms looking to the east, a -probably uninterrupted view originally.</p> - -<p>These rooms had handsomely stuccoed ceilings, cornices, -and mouldings, and marble chimney-pieces, carved, no doubt, -after the lovely fashion of their day, with an old Roman -triumph, or a procession of Ceres, or a vine-crowned Bacchus -and Bacchantes. The great stairs, with mahogany hand-rail -and banisters, sprang up from the ground-floor in the -centre of the building to the two-pair story; and these, and -all the marble chimney-pieces, except those left in the -Master’s room, and the room over it, were to be taken at a -valuation by the contractors, unless available in the work. -All the offices were at the west side, or back, of the house; -there was a clinker-paved stable, a laundry, and greenhouse, -and what are called stewing-stoves in the kitchen—in short, -all the appointments of a well-arranged establishment, the -finishing touch to which is suggested in the enriched -chimney caps.</p> - -<p>Since then the character of the whole district seems to -have fallen, and New End is chiefly occupied by humble -shops and cheap lodging-houses. The square, an imperfect -triangle, still asserts itself superior to the dingy, sordid -neighbourhood, about which the less said the better.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE VALE OF HEALTH.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>From Hampstead Heath Station a branch of the -East Heath Road leads direct to this popular and -well-known part of the Lower Heath, while innumerable -pathlets traced by the feet of visitors -impatient to reach the goal of their pilgrimage all trend in -the same direction.</p> - -<p>The present name of the Vale dates back to the period -of the wells fashion, a period when sheltered places were -believed to be more conducive to health than more open -ones, especially for invalids.</p> - -<p>When the fame of Dr. Gibbon’s ‘Fountain of Health’ -brought many visitors to Hampstead, quite a crop of small -dwellings rose in this vicinity to meet the needs of a class of -invalids unable, or indisposed, to put up at the taverns, or the -‘Wells Dwelling-house,’ or in the then fashionable lodging-houses -in Pond Street and the Lower Flask Walk.</p> - -<p>Upon the decline of the wells in public estimation, and -the consequent falling-off in the number of visitors, many -of these easily-run-up habitations (mostly weather-boarded -cottages) disappeared. But of the few that survived till -quite modern times, some of them, as we shall see, have had -remarkable tenants.</p> - -<p>The little cluster of cottages upon the margin of the pool -in the bottom of the Vale constituted the headquarters of -the craft which made the greater part of the population of -Hampstead in Tudor times—the laundresses, who washed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span> -the linen of the Court and gentry and of the chief City merchants -and citizens, abundance of water, dry breezy air, -and unlimited bleaching and drying ground, making a very -paradise for the suddy sisterhood.</p> - -<p>These privileges were possessed by their successors for -many years after I first knew Hampstead, who made it -appear in the early half of each week as if the grassy spaces -between the turf-grown gravel ‘hills and holes,’ as children -called them, and all the level growing beds of whortleberry, -and coverts of furze, belonged to them.</p> - -<p>It was not unpleasing to an idle observer to watch the -bringing up from the Vale of the great bucking-baskets of -fresh-washed linen by the youngest and strongest of the -<i>lavandières</i>, to give them their prettiest appellation, fresh-cheeked, -full-chested, large-armed lassies, with elf-locks -blowing about their faces, who soon made a wide part of -the Heath appear as if an army were about to picnic there.</p> - -<p>As time went on, the proprietors of these cottages (marked -on the map of the Ordnance Survey as ‘Grottoes and -arbours’) developed the sensible idea of providing in a -humble way for the refreshment of the many summer-afternoon -visitors to the lovely village, and preserved in my time -the tradition of the tea and bun houses with which Hampstead -had formerly been too abundantly provided. A humble -guild, with no better properties than deal tables and benches, -coarse white or coloured ware, of which there used to be -great piles, and clean tablecloths for the first comers. The -knives, when required, were bone-handled, and blunt; and -the spoons—well, sensitive persons used to wash them in -the slop-basin, and dry them surreptitiously on the edge of -the tablecloth. It was not exactly Frascati’s,<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> but it was a -pleasant picture in its way of homely, hearty enjoyment, and -the crowning joy of many a girl and boy’s afternoon holiday -on Hampstead Heath.</p> - -<p>One of them, rather an old boy now, has told me that, -after an independent <i>excursus</i> in Bishop’s Wood, a general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span> -exploration of the Heath, a game of hide-and-seek with his -sisters among the gravel-pits, and a donkey-ride from the -Whitestone Pond to the Spaniards and back again, or from -the same starting-point round the West Heath to Jack -Straw’s Castle and the Whitestone Pond, few things could -be more pleasantly suggestive than the fuming chimneys in -the hollow of the Vale of Health, and the near sight of the -several tables with big family teapots, flanked by heaped-up -plates of serviceable slices of bread-and-butter (delicious after -the ‘crug’ of Christ’s School), and new-laid eggs, and water-cresses -from the spring, which made the general menu of -these al-fresco entertainments.</p> - -<p>It was not unusual on summer evenings to see the whole -space in front of these cottages thronged with respectably-dressed -family and other parties taking tea in the open, and -enlivening the placid scene with social gaiety.</p> - -<p>It was with the hope of alluring a portion of this company, -and the expected crowds which the opening of the North -London Railway promised, that the East Heath Tavern -intruded its gaunt ugliness upon this peaceful spot, a speculation -that ultimately failed.</p> - -<p>As the only place on Hampstead Heath outside the -taverns where in the forties and fifties a cup of tea could be -had, or hungry folk find refreshment for their children or -themselves, the Vale of Health was well known and appreciated. -But its higher claims to be regarded and sought out -and visited, I think, as a rule, the general inhabitants of the -town of Hampstead had forgotten or ignored.</p> - -<p>Neither William Howitt, Baines, nor a writer in the <i>Bookman</i>—who -in 1893, 1894, and 1895 contributed some notices -of Hampstead to that publication—appears to have known -anything decided of the whereabouts of Leigh Hunt’s -cottage, otherwise than that it was situated in the Vale of -Health. The desire on all sides appears to have been to -furnish the poet with a more important habitation than he -himself tells us he occupied.</p> - -<p>In or about 1855-56, it was believed that Vale Lodge, then<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span> -the hospitable home of the talented writers of ‘The Wife’s -Secret’<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> and ‘Ingomar,’ was the veritable house in which -the poet had resided, and in one of the rooms of which Keats -had composed the first verses of ‘Endymion.’</p> - -<p>There is lying before me a note from a lady since closely -connected with Hampstead, in which she writes:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘M. asks me to say that she finds Leigh Hunt and Douglas -Jerrold both lived in Mr. Lovell’s present house in the Vale -of Health.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>In a series of sketchy, ill-considered papers—the very -memory of which makes my ears tingle—I helped to give -currency to this belief, but subsequently, on reading the -letters of Leigh Hunt, and the literary recollections of his -friend, Charles Cowden Clarke, I found, both from description -and allusion, that Vale Lodge could not possibly be the -‘little packing-case, by courtesy called a house,’ which Leigh -Hunt himself describes as his home at Hampstead, where he -had gone for the sake of his ‘health, and his old walks in the -fields.’</p> - -<p>It seemed a case for the ‘oldest inhabitant,’ and I was -fortunately referred to Mr. Paxon, of High Street, rate -collector, etc., as his father had been before him. An old -and ailing man, but intelligent, courteous, and communicative, -he at once gave me the information I sought for, and -was at pains to point out the white, weather-boarded -cottage where, when a lad, as his father’s clerk, he had -often delivered the rate-papers to Mr. or Mrs. Hunt, whom -he well remembered, and their children also.</p> - -<p>Even then the cottages—a row of four, if I remember -aright—their prospect bounded by the margin of what is -now the Spaniards Road, with a space of unspoiled sward -before them, coming down to the garden rails, had an -air of mild gentility, the effect, probably, of their retired -situation, and the cared-for little garden plots before them,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span> -not much bigger than an old sea-captain’s bandanna handkerchief, -and quite as flowery. Some resident had named -the one Leigh Hunt had tenanted Rose Cottage. It had -then a little green trellised veranda smothered in roses and -scented clematis above the French window that opened on -the garden.</p> - -<p>My informant told me that Lord Byron had at one time -lodged in another of these cottages, and had written with -a diamond on a pane of one of the windows two lines -which afterwards appeared in ‘Childe Harold.’ The pane -existed in his time, but had either been broken, or cut -out and removed. This was before Leigh Hunt’s residence -there.</p> - -<p>When, in 1895, after a prolonged absence from Hampstead, -I again visited it for the purpose of reviving my -impressions of certain localities, I naturally desired to revisit -Leigh Hunt’s cottage; but time and the alterations in the -neighbourhood had confused my recollection of the way to -it, and upon inquiring, I am obliged to confess there is -some truth in the accusations of certain American magazine -writers, that the people generally are not well up in the -traditions of their neighbourhood, nor greatly interested in -the homes of the poets, painters, and other celebrities, the -memory of whose fame has enriched it.</p> - -<p>My quest was met by a frank ignorance: neither the -cottage nor its memorable occupant had been heard of by -the ordinary dwellers in the neighbourhood.</p> - -<p>Wandering on, I was fortunate enough to recognise the -high-hedged orchard-garden that had belonged to Vale -Lodge, and I had no farther difficulty in finding my way to -the whereabouts of Leigh Hunt’s cottage. Now, instead of -the open space before it and its fellows, the approach is -strangely narrowed and closed in, but on the top of the -garden-gate of the <i>last of the row</i> of what were four white -weather-boarded cottages in my time (of which only two -remain, the place of the others being filled by two tall, -narrow brick houses), the Town Council, or Board of Works,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span> -or some other local authority, had had inserted a brass -plate, some two inches wide and five or six in length, -inscribed ‘Hunt’s Cottage.’ After this, let no American -or other traveller say that we do not commensurately keep -alive the memory of our men of genius! For one mistaken -moment I felt grateful; the next I had realized that this -was not the cottage I had been assured on such excellent -authority was the one lived in by Leigh Hunt, though next -door to it. But what does it signify? Fame is far-reaching, -and the space covered by the row so small that the -memory of the one little home includes the whole, and -clothes these few cottages on the south-west side of the Vale -of Health with undying interest.</p> - -<p>Then I remembered how Leigh Hunt had written: -‘Strada Smollett is delightful. By-and-by there will be -such streets all over the world. People will know not only -the name of a street, but the reason for it.’</p> - -<p>Soon I found myself wondering if such an important body -as the Town Council or the Board of Works could really be -answerable for the sparse bit of brass, and the obscure -‘Hunt’s Cottage’ graven on it, which might mean any man’s -cottage of the name of Hunt. There are quite a number in -the London Directory, whereas there is only one <i>Leigh Hunt</i>, -the author of ‘Rimini’ and ‘The Old Court Suburb,’ etc. -Why, if intended to honour the poet, had they deprived -him of the Christian name that distinguished him, and has a -place in every reader’s memory?</p> - -<p>I will not despair of seeing this rectified and expanded, so -that all who pass by may see the ‘writing on the wall,’ and -know that for some few years of his long life the ‘Pink of -Poets,’ as his adverse critics sarcastically called him, resided -in one of these cottages, where he wrote the greater part of, -and finished, the story of ‘Rimini.’</p> - -<p>In 1812, Leigh Hunt, writing from 37, Portland Street, -Oxford Road, to Mr. Henry Brougham, tells him that he -‘longs to get into his Hampstead retreat, out of the -stir and smoke of London.’ And a little later he informs<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span> -the same correspondent that he is about to move to a -cottage at West End, Hampstead, ‘a really <i>bonâ-fide</i> -cottage, with humble ceilings and unsophisticated staircase; -but there is green about it, and a garden with -laurels.’</p> - -<p>I mention this because I think it is to this circumstance -he alludes when he writes in his Autobiography that ‘early -in the spring of 1816 he went to reside <i>again</i> in Hampstead.’ -His friend Charles Cowden Clarke tells us that soon after -his release from Horsemonger Lane Gaol<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> Leigh Hunt -‘occupied a pretty little cottage in the Vale of Health.’ And -Leigh Hunt himself, in a letter to a friend in 1821, observes, -‘I came to get well in our little packing-case here, dignified -with the name of house.’</p> - -<p>Again, in later years, in answer to a letter from his friend -Mr. Dalby, he says: ‘I defy you to have <i>lived in a smaller -cottage than I have done</i>. Yet it has held Shelley and Keats -and half a dozen friends in it at once; and they have made -worlds of their own within the rooms. Keats’ “Sleep and -Poetry” is a description of a parlour that was mine, no -larger than an old mansion’s closet.’</p> - -<p>Cowden Clarke tells us that when Keats slept there a bed -was improvised for him on a couch in Leigh Hunt’s library, -a room at the back, rather larger, if I remember, than the -parlour.<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> Keats himself writes of it in the poem Leigh -Hunt alludes to:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘For I am brimful of the friendliness</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That in a little cottage I have found!’<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span></p> - -<p class="noindent">Whilst Shelley, writing from Italy, tells how Mrs. Williams’ -singing of ‘Dorme l’amour’ transports him back to the little -parlour at Hampstead. ‘I can see the piano, the prints, the -casts, and hear Mary’s [Mrs. Hunt] “Ah! ah! ah!”’ Whenever -Leigh Hunt or his friends refer to the Vale of Health -cottage, the smallness of the place is, as it were, insisted on, -and accentuated by the diminutive ‘little.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus45"> -<img src="images/illus45.jpg" width="400" height="425" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Shelley.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>With such evidence as this as to the size and position of -the poet’s habitation, it appears a work of superfluity to seek -after the site of a dwelling that has never existed except in -the generous imagination of those who think talent receives -honour from exterior surroundings to which it never made -pretence. Leigh Hunt in his pretty little Vale of Health -cottage (which, by the way, appears to have been as largely -receptive as the kindly heart of its proprietor) was as interesting, -as regarded, and as much sought by his friends—and -what a cluster of bright names they make!—as if he had -inhabited a mansion. The same refined taste that had given<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span> -grace to his prison room reigned here, and we may depend -the roses were not wanting in the little garden-plot that had -given living, as well as pictured, beauty to those gloomy -walls.<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus46"> -<img src="images/illus46.jpg" width="400" height="575" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>W. Hazlitt.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Here the magnetism of its master, whose personality was -even more fascinating than his writings,<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> drew around him a -society of the most intellectual and clever men of the day—Hazlitt -and Haydon, Telford, Ollier, Charles Cowden -Clarke, Charles Lamb, Shelley, the brothers Horace and -James Smith, Keats, and many others. Leigh Hunt himself -was not only a brilliant talker, but an accomplished musician; -he sang and played delightfully, and amongst his friends and -frequent guests were the Novellos, a family to which England<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span> -is much indebted for the growth and appreciation of -good music. No wonder, therefore, that Keats should sing:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent8">‘Scarce can I scribble on, for lovely airs</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are fluttering round the room, like doves in pairs.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Grave Mary Shelley found the recurrence of the host’s -fugues, and the masses, madrigals, and part-songs of his -musical allies at times too much for her, and she wearied of -them, but not of her delightful host.</p> - -<p>Of all his friends, Shelley, Charles Lamb, and Keats appear -to have kept him closest company. From the first he was -soon parted; but genial, ‘gentle Elia,’ and the sensitive yet -strong-souled Keats, were his sympathetic friends and -frequent companions.</p> - -<p>There is no doubt, with all his originality and independence -of thought and character, Keats was greatly -influenced by Leigh Hunt. Keats’ young enthusiasm and -gratitude for Hunt’s encouragement and sympathy made -him greatly overrate his mental powers. Both were -saturated with the natural beauty of their surroundings—the -woods, the fields, and what Bacon would call ‘the winsome -air and amenities of the spot.’</p> - -<p>Even Shelley owed some of his inspirations to the sweet -influences of Hampstead; and we find him loitering in the -fields, or leaning, notebook in hand, upon the old gray gate -that admitted (notwithstanding the notice to trespassers) to -the green glooms of Caen Wood, or one of those other -gates, leading up to the charming walk to Highgate, with -Caen Wood on one side, and the linked ponds on the other. -I pleasure myself in thinking that it may have been in the -blue, clear, ambient sky above the Heath that he heard the -skylark singing:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent10">‘Like a poet hidden</div> - <div class="verse indent12">In the light of thought,</div> - <div class="verse indent10">Singing hymns unbidden</div> - <div class="verse indent12">Till the world is wrought</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To sympathy with hopes and fears it heedeth not!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span></p> - -<p>Sometimes he might be seen pensively sauntering in Millfield -Lane,<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> between Caen Wood and Highgate, an ideal -lane in those days, secluded between great wayside elms and -other trees, ‘Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,’ -curving in its course, and farther sheltered by high hedges, -not looking as if begrudged the ground they occupied, but -buttressed by wide, grassy banks, bright with wild-flowers, -fragrant with rose and woodbine in their season, and -clustered generously with primroses in spring.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus47"> -<img src="images/illus47.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Highgate Ponds and Sheep.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Hither came Collins, and Leslie, and Constable, as Gainsborough -had done before them, for their foregrounds of soft -mosses, that underline the sward in late autumn as down -does the breasts of birds; and the big bronze dock-leaves, -and vari-coloured toadstools, and the painted cups of scarlet<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span> -peziza<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> that bloom, as it were, on bits of sere wood and dead -branches. A lane so lovely that it charmed the ordinary -wayfarer, and inspired poets and artists; so that when, some -years ago, a correspondent of the <i>Athenæum</i> drew attention -to the fact that official vandalism was destroying its natural -loveliness, cutting down some of the fine old trees, and -lopping others of the umbrageous branches that had shaded -the heads of Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, ‘Elia,’ and Leigh -Hunt, as well as those of many of our best known and loved -artists, a feeling of general indignation was aroused, and -much local influence exerted to stop the farther destruction -of a spot so full of interest and association, but with what -effect I am ignorant.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus48"> -<img src="images/illus48.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Coleridge.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>To this picturesque old lane, and other lovely bits of -Hampstead and its neighbourhood, the triad of poets whose -centre was Leigh Hunt’s cottage are indebted for many a -rustic image, many an exquisite description of pastoral and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span> -woodland scenery. The picturesque old trees, the aerial -suggestions, the near cornfields and country lanes, the -rippling or moss-muffled rills that then channelled the grassy -slopes, and trickled down to the Fleet ditch at Kentish -Town, were mentally preserved, to reappear in verse that -gives them immortality.</p> - -<p>From a boy, Leigh Hunt, whose father at one time lived -in Hampstead Square, had been familiar with the beautiful -suburb, and for some months before the publication of -‘Rimini’ had been daily wandering about the precincts of -Caen Wood, and the grassy land</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘From which the trees as from a carpet rise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In knolls, and clumps, with rich varieties,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">just as they did on South Hill half a century ago.</p> - -<p>There, too, he found his ‘plashy pools with rushes,’ and it -may be—for Hampstead Heath has seen many such morns of -May:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Last of the spring, yet fresh with all its green,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For a warm eve, and gentle rain at night,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Have left a sparkling welcome for the light.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And there’s a crystal clearness all about;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The leaves are sharp, the distant hills look out,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A balmy briskness comes upon the breeze,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The smoke goes dancing from the cottage trees;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And, when you listen, you may hear the coil</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Of bubbling springs about the grassy soil.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It may be that the inception of these felicitously-descriptive -lines was due to local influence, for, though written of -Italy, they are as true a transcript of many an early summer’s -morn at Hampstead (where Crabb Robinson tells us the -pleasure of waking and looking out of window from his friend -Hammond’s house<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> was worth walking from London overnight -to enjoy) as of a waking village landscape in the -neighbourhood of Ravenna.</p> - -<p>It is otherwise in winter, with snow on the ground, and a -fierce wind blowing, for the wind, Leigh Hunt tells us, ‘loses -nothing of its fierceness on Hampstead Heath.’ It was on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span> -such a bitter winter night that Shelley, in either going to or -leaving the little cot in the Vale of Health, found a woman -lying insensible on the snow on the top of the hill, and, -knocking at the first door he came to, asked to have her -taken in and cared for—or, at least, that she might be placed -in an outhouse out of the inclement night. Being refused, -he made an application at the second house, with the same -result. Indignant at this seeming want of charity and the -uselessness of his intercession, he took her up, and carried -her down the frozen path to his friend’s cottage, the expansiveness -of which he well knew when an act of compassion -was in question. Nor was it ill bestowed. The woman, -who was on her way to Hendon, ‘had been all day attending -a criminal court, at which a charge had been made against -her son, and, though he had been acquitted, the suspense -and agitation, added to fatigue, had affected her so seriously -as to produce fits; from which the doctor who was called in -asserted she could not have recovered but for the timely care -and shelter bestowed upon her.’</p> - -<p>Cowden Clarke gives us a glimpse of Shelley on the Heath -under other conditions—‘scampering and bounding over the -gorse bushes late at night, now close upon us, and now -shouting from the height like a wild schoolboy.’ It was on -his return to town, after one of his overnight visits to the -‘Hampstead bard,’ that Shelley, accompanied by the latter, -astonished the only other inside passenger of the Hampstead -coach—a stiffly-silent old gentlewoman, who, in spite of -various attempts to draw her into conversation, determinedly -maintained a severe reticence—by suddenly exclaiming:</p> - -<p>‘For God’s sake, Hunt,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Let’s talk of graves, and worms, and epitaphs,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Make dust our paper, and, with rainy eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Let’s choose executors, and talk of wills’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">—a choice of subjects that seemed to scare the lady, and make -her look as if she believed herself in the near neighbourhood -of one Bedlamite at least.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span></p> - -<p>It was Leigh Hunt who introduced Keats to ‘the old -man eloquent’—S. T. Coleridge—whom they met when -walking in the fields between Highgate and Hampstead—the -upland fields that offered such fair views in those days to -the lovers of them. They walked with him two miles, at the -end of which Keats tells us that, though the sage had -broached a hundred subjects, all he knew was that he had -heard his voice as he came towards them, and heard it as he -moved away—and all the interim, if he might so express it; -but apparently the discourse had no sequence or conclusion, -except that utterance of the mild, then somewhat fatuous-looking -old man; that it was just as well he did not comprehend, -who, after shaking hands with Keats, turned to Leigh -Hunt, who lingered in bidding the author of ‘Christabel’ -and ‘The Ancient Mariner’ farewell, and whispered to him -that he felt death in the touch of the young poet’s -hand.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Cowden Clarke tells us that Charles C. Clarke introduced -Keats, his old friend and schoolmate, to Leigh Hunt -in his Vale of Health cottage. But this is a mistake; Hunt -himself, in his Autobiography, distinctly says: ‘<i>It was not at -Hampstead that I first saw Keats</i>; it was in York Buildings, in -the New Road’ (now Euston Road), ‘No. 8, where I wrote -part of the “Indicator,” and he resided with me in Mortimer -Terrace, Kentish Town, No. 13, where I concluded it.’</p> - -<p>Leigh Hunt’s tenancy of his little Vale of Health cottage -was but a short one; he went there, as we have seen, in -1816, and early in 1819 we find him writing to C. C. -Clarke:</p> - -<p>‘As we must certainly move, we have made up our minds -to move to Kentish Town, which is a sort of compromise -between London and our beloved Hampstead. The London -end touches so nearly Camden Town, which is so near -London, that Marianne will not be afraid of my returning -from the theatres at night, and the country is extremely quiet -and rural, running to the woods, and the shops between -Hampstead and Highgate.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span></p> - -<p>Accordingly, on February 15, 1819, he writes from Mortimer -Terrace:</p> - -<p>‘Hampstead is now in my eye—hill, trees, church, and all -the slope of Caen Wood, to my right, and Primrose and -Haverstock Hills, with Steele’s cottage, to my left.’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus49"> -<img src="images/illus49.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Charles Lamb.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>One looks regretfully back to the breaking up of the little -literary home in the Vale of Health—the roof under which -Hunt tells us that he had introduced Shelley to the young -poet Keats; that had welcomed the handsome, brown-faced -Charles Lamb, and his always-to-be-pitied sister Mary; -where the genial C. Cowden Clarke came and went as -he listed, bursting in like a mingling of breeze and sunshine, -full of freshness and warmth; and Keats, keenly -sensitive and self-contained, who, loving his old schoolmaster’s -son, to whom he owed deep obligations—the -‘first to teach him all the sweets of song’—yet thought the -laughter-loving Clarke, in spite of his poetical taste, ‘coarse.’ -One would fain have kept them a little longer dwellers in -‘sweet Hampstead.’</p> - -<p>First Shelley sails away for Dante’s land, whither Hunt -and Keats were eventually to follow him—the first to join -Lord Byron in a literary enterprise that did not answer its<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span> -noble projector’s expectations,’<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> and Keats in the companionship -and care of his devoted friend, the young and promising -artist Severn, with the vain hope of lengthening the thinning -thread of life that bound him to earth. Throughout these -years of failing health and mental trial Keats was suffering -the sordid cares of insufficient means—cares that to an -independent, upright spirit such as his, must have been an -ever-present source of uneasiness and depression. The -critics’ half-hearted verdict on ‘Endymion,’ when, as in the -case of some of his reviewers, it was not cruel, must have -deeply wounded the sensitive nature of the poet, who had -yet the manliness to hide his wounds, and the faith in himself -to fall back on the consolation of his own conviction of -the vitality of his work. It stirs one with a feeling of indignation, -remembering the depreciation of the poem in the -poet’s lifetime, to read that at a sale of autographs in the -September of the year 1897 the original manuscript of John -Keats’ ‘Endymion’ sold for £695.</p> - -<p>It has been told me by one who knew Leigh Hunt long -subsequent to his return from Italy, that no one who came -within the charm of his kindly nature and delightful fancy -could refrain from loving him. He was full of friendliness -and human sympathy, and ready to render kindness to all -who needed it, virtues that made men overlook other short-comings -in his character—his vanity and want of a proper -feeling of self-dependence: he was too apt to throw himself -and his difficulties upon his friends. Mrs. Barbauld could -see no beauty in his ‘Rimini’; it is, according to her -ideas, ‘most fantastic’; she was without the power of feeling -the natural simplicity and picturesqueness of Hunt; -to her he was an author, who, ‘in exaggeration of all the -slovenliness of the new school, has thought proper to come<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span> -into public with his neckcloth untied and his stockings about -his heels.’ She could not comprehend his originality, or the -half-antiquated but expressive phraseology that gave such -piquancy to his prose writings, and has made his Essays, as -a recent writer has observed, worthy to have a place on the -same shelf with those of ‘Elia.’</p> - -<p>Long after Leigh Hunt had vacated the little cottage in -the Vale of Health another charming reminiscence attaches -to the locality.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus50"> -<img src="images/illus50.jpg" width="400" height="525" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Leigh Hunt.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Lord Dufferin, in his delightful memoir of his lovely and -talented mother, Helen, Lady Dufferin (then Mrs. Blackwood), -the writer of many sweet lyrics, tells us that she -tenanted one of those <i>toy</i> cottages in the Vale of Health,<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> -Hampstead, where she sought health, and found it—so much -so that the next summer she took a larger cottage in the -same neighbourhood, probably Pavilion Cottage, a rather<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span> -odd association, which Mr. Baines mentions as having been -her ladyship’s abode at one time. He does not name her -having lived in one of the smaller cottages previously.</p> - -<p>Some time between 1855-60 the Lovells removed from -their house in Mornington Crescent, where they had been -the near neighbours of George Cruikshank, the Westland -Marstons, Mrs. Oliphant, and many other literary and -artistic friends, to Vale Lodge, in the Vale of Health, which, -as I have elsewhere said, they fully believed to have been the -Hampstead home of Leigh Hunt—a representation that, -perhaps, the agent, or some other interested person, found -useful in letting the house. Though of very modest proportions, -it by no means tallied with Leigh Hunt’s description -of his ‘little packing-case,’ nor did the parlours (there were -more than one) resemble an old mansion’s closets, which the -single one in the toy cottage did very closely. Mr. Lovell’s -residence here was not a very long one, and the family -subsequently removed to Lyndhurst Road.</p> - -<p>Since I first knew this part of Hampstead it has grown -into quite a large and noisy suburb of the town, and the -secluded and rustic character of the Vale has wholly changed. -Rows and terraces of fifth-rate houses cover the grassy -slopes and gravelly mounds, then crested with furze-bushes -and occasional beds of heath, and the turf that, in spite of -the thousands of feet that at Easter and Whitsuntide trod it -nearly bare, continued to renew itself.</p> - -<p>There was not much left for the botanist on the East -Heath, but plenty of space and freshness, and the wild -simplicity of natural heathland, for the twice yearly throngs -of visitors from the dull courts and stifling alleys of London.</p> - -<p>Now two large hideous buildings, utterly out of character -with the locality, dominate the houses—the one a German -club-house, the other used for refreshment-rooms, which -have partly put an end to the simple, out-of-doors accommodation -of the cottage folk.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus51"> -<img src="images/illus51.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Vale of Health.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span></p> - -<p>This part of the Vale is further vulgarized by what appears -to be a stationary steam merry-go-round, swings, etc., -additions to the ‘’Appy ’Ampstead’ of ’Arry and ’Arriet, but -an eyesore to those who imagine the freshness of leafy trees -and greensward would be more real enjoyment to town-worn -folk than the conventionalities of a country fair, or a gas-lighted -corner off the High Street, Battersea.</p> - -<p>Yet, as long as Hampstead survives, and that infelt law of -attraction in human hearts to visit the homes of men and -women whose thoughts have touched the spirits and enriched -the minds of tens of thousands of their fellow-creatures, so -long will Hampstead have its pilgrims, and Leigh Hunt’s -lowly cottage be sought for.</p> - -<p>I can hardly get away from it, with its memories, not only -of the poet-essayist, but of his affinities. The best writers, -and other men ‘of mark and likelihood,’ in the first decades -of our swiftly-waning century, were its guests, and shared -those frugal <i>symposia</i> that Cowden Clarke has told us of, -severely simple, at which not the viands, but the company, -made the feast. And then, on summer evenings, the strolling -on to the Heath, of which the cottage was but the vestibule, -with Clarke and Shelley, or Lamb and Keats, watching -the glorious sunsets from the western heights, and lingering -on till twilight deepened and the stars came out. Or waiting -at high-tides, till the white moonlight of the summer -night enwrapped the woods, and Heath, and shining ponds, -and made the whole scene one of ethereal beauty, the -charms of which, and of their own converse, belated them, -until the early thrush and blackbird serenaded the dawn, -and the friends said ‘Good-night’ and ‘Good-morning’ in -the same breath.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>CAEN WOOD.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Caen Wood (or Ken Wood, as Lord Mansfield -always spelt it), lying between the villages of Hampstead -and Highgate, belongs to neither, but is -situated in the parish of St. Pancras, which adjoins -Hampstead Heath at the upper corner of Lord Mansfield’s -demesne. Part of Caen Wood comes out upon the Heath, -from which it has been emparked, and the whole is so nearly -connected by neighbourhood and association with the local -history of Hampstead, that in writing of the one it is impossible -to ignore the other.</p> - -<p>Ken Wood, a name which Loudon believed preserved the -British one of Kerns, or oak-woods, with which its site was -anciently covered, is thought by Lysons to be derived from -that of some remote possessor, a family of the name of -Kentewoode having in bygone times held land in this neighbourhood -and in Kentish Town.</p> - -<p>Mr. Lloyd quite recently, in a lecture entitled ‘Caen Wood -and its Associations,’ gives it as his opinion that the name -comes from the French Caen; and he says that in all -probability the Conqueror gave the property to a relation of -his own, who, having lands at Caen in Normandy, naturally -called his new estate after that town. I give this suggestion, -which is very probable, for what it is worth.</p> - -<p>In the time of Charles II., I learn from Somers’ Tracts, -Ken Wood was not the name of a part only, but of the -whole remaining portion of the great woods belonging to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span> -See of London, part of the old Forest of Middlesex, of which -Park, with reason, imagines Ken Wood to be a remnant.<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a> -It is situated in the Manor of Cantleowes, in the north-east -corner of the parish of St. Pancras, and ‘is a portion of one -of its four great manorial properties, viz., Cantleowes, -Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Somerstown, Ruggemere, Marylebone, -and Tottenhall, Tottenham Court Road.’<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p> - -<p>Leaving the names of its more ancient proprietors to the -dead past, in 1640-42 Sir James Harrington resided at Ken -Wood. He was an active Commonwealth man, and fled -beyond seas at the Restoration, having narrowly escaped -arrest. Subsequently we find Mr. John Bill, the younger, -whose father, John Bill, Esq., one of the King’s printers,<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a> -had been sequestered for delinquency by the Long Parliament, -writing to Sir Harry Vane for his advice touching the -purchase of the property, which he (Sir Harry), then—1658—resident -in his fine house on Hampstead Hill, knew all -about. He reports that the ‘estate of Ken Wood appears -to him to require handling well; the home demesne is particularly -good, and capable of much improvement, but <i>that -little castle of ruinous brick and stone</i> could only be used for -materials to build another house. There are nearly thirty -acres of waste, as ponds, moate, etc., and a deal of trees to -be cut down, and many serious expenses to be considered.’ -He adds that it is not worth by £100 the price asked for it, -and advises his friend not to purchase—advice which appears -to have met with the usual fate of counsel that runs counter -to the inclination of the client, for two years afterwards -(1660) Mr. John Bill the younger purchased the estate. It -then consisted of 280 acres of land, well covered with timber, -and the house is described as a ‘capital messuage of brick,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span> -wood, and plaster.’ That ‘little castle of ruinous brick and -stone’ on the demesne must have been a mere excrescence, -a relic of more antique times. There were, besides, eight -cottages, a farmhouse, windmill, and fishponds.<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> The -windmill occupied the summit of what is now known as -Parliament Hill, where, says my authority, ‘the trench -formed by the removal of its foundation is still to be -traced.’<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a></p> - -<p>It was, no doubt, the Manor Mill, a source of much profit -to the Lord, ‘the tenants being compelled to grind their -corn there, at his own price.’ Having ‘found a place that -he could live in with comfort,’ as he expresses it, Mr. John -Bill married Diana, daughter of Mildmay, Earl of Westmoreland, -and widow of John Pelham, Esq., of Brokesly, -Lincolnshire, whose name the lady preferred and retained. -The St. Pancras register for 1661 records the baptism of -Diana, daughter of John Bill and Lady Pelham, at Caen -Wood, an event that inspired James Howell, the author of -‘Poems on Several Choice and Various Subjects: Lond. -1663,’ to write one</p> - -<p class="center">‘Of Mrs. <span class="smcap">Diana Bill</span>,<br /> -Born and Baptized lately in Cane Wood,<br /> -Hard by Highgate.’</p> - -<p>The title is sufficiently curious, and so are the lines that -follow, for which I refer my readers to Lysons, or Park.</p> - -<p>I am reminded that Pepys in his Diary records that he -and Lady Bill (a well-bred but crooked woman) stood -sponsors for a friend’s child. Meanwhile Mr. Bill has been -busy with his estate, and has surrounded twenty-five acres -of it with a brick wall. In 1661 occurred the strange outbreak<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> -of the Fifth Monarchy men, who, being driven out<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span> -from St. John’s and Hornsey Woods, took refuge in Cane -Wood (as it was then written). Here flew their banner, -with its wild motto, ‘The King Jesus, with their heads on -the gate!’—that gate, as someone writes, that from reign to -reign ‘resembled a butchery with the heads and quarters of -men.’</p> - -<p>Here Venner, preacher and cooper, with his scanty handful -of followers, for three days in mid-winter, when Mr. Pepys’ -pew was gay with rosemary and bays, kept their woody -stronghold, and prayed and starved, till Raresby, ‘who -wanted a little action,’ rode out with a band of soldiers and -surrounded them. Even then Venner, who fought desperately, -would not suffer himself to be taken till he was badly wounded, -and most of his party cut down or prisoners. In 1673, much -to his wife’s (Lady Pelham) satisfaction, we may be sure, the -name of John Bill, Esq., appears in the list of Middlesex -gentry, an honour he survived for seven years, dying at Caen -Wood in 1680. He was buried in Hampstead Church. -Their only daughter—and, I believe, their only child, for in -his will he desired that the estate might be sold at the death -of his wife—had in the meantime married Captain Francis -D’Arcy Savage, and died, his widow, May 23, 1726. She -‘lies buried,’ Park tells us, ‘against the north wall in Barnes -churchyard.’</p> - -<p>Nine years after the death of Mr. Bill, the estate of Caen -Wood was the residence of a Mr. Withers; and some time -prior to 1698 Mr. William Bridges, Surveyor-General of the -Ordnance, resided here.</p> - -<p>When Mackey wrote his ‘Tour through England’ (1720), -Ken Wood had become the property of one Dale, an upholsterer, -who is said to have bought it out of the ‘Bubbles.’<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> -His hold upon it appears to have been quite as fleeting, for -he very soon mortgaged it to Lord Hay for £1,575. Fifteen -years later we find his lordship bringing an action<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> to foreclose, -on the plea that he can neither get principal nor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span> -interest from him, and that a second mortgage had been -made to William, Lord Forbes, and the mortgagee had -suffered the house to go to ruin, had felled a quantity of -timber, and committed great waste. The end was that, after -being allowed six months to pay £1,907 7s. 6d. (October 24, -1724), the miserable upholsterer found himself absolutely -foreclosed of all equity of redemption of the mortgaged -property, and shortly after, February, 1725, the same order -was made against Lord Forbes, the second mortgagee. ‘This -is interesting,’ says Mr. Lloyd, ‘as showing the value of the -property 167 years ago. It is set out as a messuage, pleasure-grounds, -orchards, kitchen-garden, paddock, and woodlands, -with four ponds, covering 22 acres, together with £5 per -annum parcel of £15 a year secured upon lease granted to -the Governors of the Waterworks. Yet, all this only -brought as much as would cover the first mortgage, under -£2,000—little more than £100 per acre; and yet within the -last three years (1892) some 200 acres of the adjoining bare -land has been sold by Lord Mansfield for public purposes at -£1,000 per acre! and the vendor was so completely master -of the situation as to compel the erection of a fence by the -public of something approaching the value of the fee simple -of the estate when it was sold by order of the Court in 1724; -and doubtless it would have sold for more if cut up for -building purposes.’</p> - -<p>In the same year that Lord Hay recovered the estate the -famous Duke of Argyle purchased it; and at his death he -left it to his nephew, Lord Bute.</p> - -<p>Horace Walpole, his old schoolfellow, describes him as a -man of taste, who he thinks ‘meant well.’ He was said to be -the favourite of the Dowager Princess of Wales (mother of -George III.), who, according to the above authority, forced -the King to employ him. He proved a weak and incompetent -Minister, who, in his desire to fuse all parties, offended -all. He married the only daughter of the celebrated Lady -Mary Wortley Montagu, the sometime friend and correspondent -of Horace Walpole and Pope, and, Court<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span> -scandal apart, proved passably amiable in his domestic -relations.<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a></p> - -<p>Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in her letters to her -daughter, tells her that she well remembers Caen Wood (she -spells it Kane Wood<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a>) House, and cannot wish her a more -agreeable place. But in those days the house was comparatively -insignificant, and the gardens and grounds not nearly -so extensive or so well laid out as at present. Neither was -it so secluded or self-contained. The road to Highgate at -this time came close up to the principal entrance.</p> - -<p>A wood called Turner’s Wood adjoined it, which -became in 1737 the site of the very original and favourite -place of amusement, New Georgia—a tea-drinking house, -and pleasure-grounds, with waterworks, and various ingenious -contrivances laid out, invented, and executed by -a sexagenarian, who appears to have had considerable -mechanical skill, and some humour in his application of it. -The cottage, on which an inscription set forth that he, Robert -Caxton, had built it with his own hands,<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> contained several -rooms, in one of which a chair sank on a person sitting in it, -while another contained a pillory, into which, when a gentleman -put his head, he could only be extricated by a lady -kissing him—a grace which the free manners of the times -allowed on the part of maids or matrons without the fear of -scandal or the police-courts. We learn from contemporary -writings that this contrivance became exceedingly popular, -and the <i>Connoisseur</i><a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> informs us ‘that it made a favourite<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span> -Sunday recreation of the citizens to put their necks into the -pillory at New Georgia.’<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a></p> - -<p>But the close neighbourhood of this popular place of resort -could scarcely have added to the charms of Ken Wood or the -peace of its noble proprietor, and accordingly, some time -subsequent to 1755, ‘for a cause that did him honour’ (the -payment of his debts), Lord Bute sold Ken Wood to the -then Attorney-General, the erewhile Mr. Murray of the -Chicken House.</p> - -<p>Turner’s Wood, with the humorous cottage, garden, ponds, -labyrinths, etc., became absorbed in the grounds of that -domain.<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> - -<p>Notwithstanding the sneers of Malone, it is impossible, in -tracing the career of Mr. Murray, not to agree with Boswell’s -opinion of him, that he was ‘no mere lawyer.’ The life-long -friend and companion of some of the greatest wits and -writers of his time (and there were giants in those days) -must have had more in him than <i>good company</i> to have -deserved, and retained, their friendship, or to have felt -sympathy in their society. There is more poetry in human -nature than finds expression in verse; the courage, faith, -and self-reliance—precious but easily packed possessions—that -sat as lightly in the breast of the poor but well-born -boy as he himself upon the rough Scotch pony on -which he made his two months’ journey to the Metropolis, -like the younger son in a fairy tale, with three good gifts -for his portion, have in themselves the elements of poetry. -He seems through life to have retained these gifts, and -to have owed to a strong will, brave heart, and noble -ambition, the achievement of eminence that has won him -a historical name, independent of his father’s, and has<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span> -made that of Mansfield little less memorable than that of -Murray.</p> - -<p>Roscoe tells us that his success was the legitimate and -logical result of the means he sedulously employed to secure -it. Remembering his want of wealth, the well-known predilections -of his house for that of the Stuarts, and his consequent -want of influence with those in power, it is pretty -evident that in the early part of his professional life he had -no honours thrust upon him that he had not hardly and -justly earned. Ten years before the purchase of Ken Wood, -in the ever historically memorable 1745, we find Mr. Murray, -then Solicitor-General, called before the Privy Council and -put to his purgation touching his suspected Jacobite tendencies, -being accused (though a Westminster boy at the -time) of having drunk the Pretender’s health upon his knees; -and also that on the trial of the Scotch rebels, instead of -applying to them the latter epithet, he had referred to them -as ‘unfortunate gentlemen.’ Yet in the next year, when the -heads of the Lords Lovat, Kilmarnock, and Balmerino had -fallen on Tower Hill, the astute Scotch lawyer maintained -his legal and social status; but when, eight years later, he -was made Attorney-General (1754), it is said that he was so -afraid of the accusation he had been called to answer before -the Privy Council being brought against him in the House -of Commons that he offered his Sovereign, George II., to -resign his place, saying that ‘the person who served His -Majesty in that high office should not be suspected of treason.’ -‘Sir,’ replied the King, ‘were I able to replace you with as -able a man as yourself, I might perhaps permit you to give -up your place.’</p> - -<p>A year afterwards he became Chief Justice of the King’s -Bench (1755), and entered the House as Baron Mansfield.</p> - -<p>Recollecting his passionate admiration of the neighbourhood -of Ken Wood (I call it so because he did), his purchase -of it reads like the crowning chapter of a romance. It -was Lord Mansfield who first declared that the air of England -was too pure for a slave to breathe, and that every man<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span> -who inspires it is free!—a decision pronounced in favour of -a runaway negro, James Somerset.<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a></p> - -<p>He decided against the barbarous custom of wrecking -then, and till comparatively modern times, prevalent upon -our coasts. He also favoured freedom of religious opinion, -gave literary copyright to authors, and is said <i>to have been the -founder of the commercial law of this country</i>. But his liberality -only extended to a certain limit. He took the part of the -Crown against the North Americans’ righteous resistance -to taxation<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> without representation; and he would have -restricted the liberty of the press. He had not sufficient -magnanimity to forego monopoly of his highly-paid offices, -for it was said of him that ‘next to the King he regarded the -coinage,’ and had a keen appetite for emoluments.<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> - -<p>About the years 1767-68 he had become so thoroughly -unpopular, that not only were the public prints filled with -abuse of him, but the very potters emphasized this feeling by -making him figure disagreeably on articles of pottery and -porcelain. At a recent sale of ceramic ware, I remember -to have met with a curious example on a Chelsea porcelain -punch-bowl, which was painted with portraits of John -Wilkes in a shield surmounted by the British lion, with -Lords Camden and Temple as supporters, inscribed ‘Wilkes -and Liberty!’ with the motto underneath, ‘Always ready in -a good cause,’ and a pendent portrait of Lord Mansfield, -surmounted by a serpent, with George III. and the devil as -supporters, and underneath a motto, ‘Justice en pettee!’</p> - -<p>But the silver-tongued Murray bore all this, and much -more, with apparent equanimity, and exhibited even to his -political enemies a heroic moderation. To his honour, he -assisted in reversing the sentence of outlawry against Wilkes, -who had returned from abroad in 1767, and had been chosen -to represent Middlesex. On that occasion we find from his -speech that he was suffering from a similar persecution to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span> -that complained of by the late Lord Chief Justice during a -famous trial<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a>: ‘Numerous crowds attending in and about the -hall;’ ‘audacious addresses, dictating to us from those they -call the people the judgments to be given;’ ‘reasons of -policy being urged from danger to the kingdom by commotions -and general confusion.’ ‘I pass over,’ said his lordship, -‘many anonymous letters I have received.... The -threats go farther than the abuse; personal violence is -denounced. I do not believe it. It is not the genius of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span> -worst men of this country in the worst times. But I have -set my mind at rest. The last end that can happen to any -man never comes too soon if he falls in support of the law -and liberty of his country ... for liberty is synonymous -with law!’</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus52"> -<img src="images/illus52.jpg" width="500" height="625" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Lord W. Mansfield.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In the ‘Historical Chronicle’ of the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, -under the date of January 1, 1773, it is recorded: ‘This day -the Right Hon. Lord Mansfield entertained at his house at -Caen Wood, near Hampstead, about four hundred people, -and gave each a half-crown and a quartern loaf after -dinner.’</p> - -<p>Years of scarcity were but too common in the last century, -and this might have been one. Under any circumstances -such seasonable hospitality was calculated to make the donor -popular with the masses, yet seven years later, in the course -of the Gordon Riots, when, under pretence of religious zeal, -the mob resented his lordship’s supposed favour of Catholicism,<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a> -we find Horace Walpole writing to the Countess of -Ossory, June 7, 1780, that Lord Mansfield’s house in Bloomsbury -was in ashes, and that George Selwyn had just told him -that 5,000 men were marching on Kane Wood. ‘It is true,’ -he adds, ‘and that 1,000 of the Guards are gone after them.’ -Then, by way of postscript: ‘Kane Wood is saved! It will -probably be a black night. I am decking myself with blue -ribbands like a May-day garland.’</p> - -<p>But Horace Walpole was not alone in adopting blue -ribands on that occasion. Every wayfarer donned the -same colour, and every house had a blue flag or favour hung -out. The very Jews inscribed on their dwellings, ‘This -house true Protestant’; and chalk was in great request,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span> -affording as it did an easy washable way of asserting ‘No -Popery!’ The father of Grimaldi chalked up, ‘No Religion!’</p> - -<p>We already know the result of the raid on Ken Wood, and -the enterprise of the quick-witted landlord of the Spaniards.<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> - -<p>Literature still deplores the loss of his lordship’s fine -library, his splendid collection of law books and autograph -letters, but most of all his private notes and papers, which it -is said had been accumulating for fifty years.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus53"> -<img src="images/illus53.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The Spaniards.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>All his contemporaries bear witness to the calmness and -dignity with which he bore this irreparable loss,<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> nor (for all -that is said of his love of money) would he accept of any -pecuniary compensation for it. His hard, inflexible animosity -to his noble opponent, Lord Chatham, whose death ‘he -witnessed without compassion, whose funeral he refused to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span> -attend, and when the House moved for a pension to be -granted to the widow and her children had kept silence, -voting neither one way nor the other,’<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a> was the great moral -blot on Lord Mansfield’s character. But on this occasion of -keen mental pain and bitter personal disappointment—far -beyond his great monetary loss—he exhibited no vindictiveness -against the perpetrators of it, and himself directed the -acquittal of Lord George Gordon.</p> - -<p>One wonders if he came face to face in the hour of his -calamity with the memory of his own past want of mercy, -and recognised in fire and the devastation of his best-prized -treasures the form of a protean Nemesis.</p> - -<p>Not long after this event Mrs. Boscawen, writing to her -friend Mrs. Delany, tells her that she has called at Ken -Wood; that Lord Mansfield appears to bear his trial with -great equanimity, but that Lady Mansfield is looking -very ill.</p> - -<p>It was a happy thing for the Chief Justice that, like his -neighbour and friend Erskine (notwithstanding all their -occasional professional antagonism), he too found pleasure -in simple things, especially in the improvement of his -grounds; and though not so ardent and practical an arborist -as Lord Erskine, several of the trees in the demesne are -of his plantings—especially the cedars of Lebanon, which -make so interesting an appearance in the grounds opposite -the house. There are three of them, planted at the angles -of an equilateral triangle, and, unlike most cedars of Lebanon, -they grow from 50 to 60 feet high without branches. The -trunk of the largest measures in girth, just above the -ground, 24 feet.<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a></p> - -<p>Another source of relief from mental corrosion was his -fondness for the society of young persons, and it is pleasant -to learn from a letter in the correspondence of Mrs. Delany<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span> -that twelve months after the Gordon Riots he had recovered, -if, indeed, he had ever lost, his accustomed serenity.</p> - -<p>This lady, then in her eighty-first year, was visiting Mrs. -Boscawen (widow of the Admiral) at Glanville, Colney -Hatch, and she writes to her niece under the date of July 23, -1781:</p> - -<p>‘Last Friday Lady Mansfield and Miss Murray (grand-niece -to the Lord Chief Justice) came here from Kenwood, -and invited Mrs. Boscawen and all her guests to dine there -yesterday, which we did. A most agreeable day it proved, -Lord Mansfield in charming spirits; and after dinner he -invited me to walk round his garden and through his wood; -and by the time we came back to tea it was eight o’clock. -We had walked two miles at least, and though I felt a little -tired, the pleasure of the place and his conversation made me -not sensible of it till I came home.’</p> - -<p>This walk was most probably the serpentine path which is -mentioned by Brewer, nearly two miles in extent, and which -conducted round the most interesting part of the grounds, -and through the large and venerable woods. In this perambulation -some charming views occur, revealing landscapes -wholly unconnected with the demesne, but which add greatly -to its apparent extent and picturesqueness. Looking at an -engraving of Caen Wood House, taken after its restoration -and enlargement by Robert Adam, and subsequently Saunders, -soon after it came into the possession of the then Attorney-General, -it looks a fitting home for learned leisure, or the -refreshment of one weary of the toil of public life. Handsome -without magnificence, lapped amongst bowery woods, -with charming views, fine gardens, water, and beautifully -laid-out grounds. We read that within the house the -arrangements were more imposing than the exterior would -suggest, the rooms being large, lofty, and well proportioned.<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span> -Amongst the pictures were several portraits of celebrated -men, notably two by Pope (who took lessons of Jarvis, -the face-painter), the famous head of Betterton, the actor, -and the portrait of the poet himself. After the burning -of his lordship’s house in Bloomsbury Grove, hundreds of -persons called at Caen Wood to inquire if Pope’s portrait -had been saved.<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a> Lord Mansfield lived to be eighty-six -years of age, and voluntarily resigned in 1788 (not a day, it -was said, before it was imperatively necessary for him to do -so) the Lord Chief Justiceship of the Court of King’s Bench, -which he had held for thirty-two years.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus54"> -<img src="images/illus54.jpg" width="500" height="325" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Caen Wood House.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>When Fanny Burney, on the occasion of her visit to Mrs. -Crewe at Hampstead, was taken by that lady to see, amongst -other places of interest, Caen Wood, she tells us Lord Mansfield -had not been out of his room for four years, though he -continued to see his intimate friends.</p> - -<p>His last years, she is careful to note, were brightened by -the assiduous attentions and tender care of his nieces, the -Hon. Miss Murrays. He died March, 1793.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span></p> - -<p>Lord Mansfield was noted for the charming quality of his -voice—an immense force in oratory, helping as it does to -sway the feelings of the audience. Pope is said to have had -this charm in so remarkable a degree that in his childhood -he was called ‘the little nightingale,’ a term more applicable -to vocalization than to speaking, and, like Pope, Murray had -studied elocution.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus55"> -<img src="images/illus55.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Hogarth.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>He is said to have had a greed for money-getting, and -never to have given an opinion gratis or unprofessionally. -There is a story told of a lady who, wishing to have the -authority of his ideas upon the subject of the French Revolution, -inquired how he thought it would end, and was answered -that, ‘as the event was without precedent, so the end was -without prognostic,’ a sentence that could not have greatly -added to her enlightenment.</p> - -<p>It was through Lord Mansfield’s suggestion that the -Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn are in possession of -Hogarth’s picture of ‘Paul before Felix.’ A legacy of £200<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span> -had been left to the Inn, and as the best way of spending -it his lordship recommended the Benchers to employ -Hogarth to paint them the picture, which hangs, or did -hang, in the Benchers’ old hall.</p> - -<p>It is pleasant to record of Lord Mansfield that, at a time -when the criminal law of England was Draconic in its indiscriminating -severity, he, as a rule, leaned to the side of -mercy. It was Lord Mansfield who directed a jury to find -a stolen trinket less in value than ten shillings in order that -the thief might escape capital punishment, to which the -jeweller who prosecuted demurred, asserting that the fashion -of the thing had cost him twice the money. ‘Gentlemen,’ -replied the judge, with grave solemnity, ‘we ourselves stand -in need of mercy; let us not hang a man for the fashion’s -sake!’</p> - -<p>His kinsman and successor, the second Earl of Mansfield, -spent much of his time at Hampstead, of which he was also -a warm admirer; and when, in the autumn of 1829, it -became necessary for the freeholders and copyholders to -consider what measures should be taken for the preservation -of their own privileges, and the prevention of further encroachments -on the Heath, by breaking up and destroying -the herbage, for the digging and selling of sand, etc., and -also to oppose the further progress of what was called Sir -Thomas Maryon Wilson’s Estate Bill, which had actually -arrived at its last stage in the House of Lords without their -knowledge,<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> and, consequently, without a voice being raised -against it, Lord Mansfield wrote to the committee promising -to support the opposition, and subscribing £50 towards the -necessary expenses.</p> - -<p>Six years later, in the summer of 1835, Caen Wood -received the honour of a royal visit, in the gaiety and gratulation -of which event Hampstead naturally shared. Their -Majesties William IV. and his amiable Queen, Adelaide, on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span> -whom kindness sat more easily than state, had announced -their intention of being present at a garden-party to be given -by the Earl and Countess of Mansfield, and forthwith the -loyalty of the village, whose church bells had not rung out -on such an occasion since the passing by of Queen Mary, -wife of William III., in the summer of the year of her -death—1694—was put upon its mettle how best to demonstrate -itself. Eventually the exultation and excitement of -the inhabitants, guided by the good taste of the gentlemen -(there were a hundred of them) who had formed themselves -into a committee of management, took the pretty form of -dressing the houses on the line of route from Rosslyn Hill to -the top of Heath Street with green boughs, flowers, and -variegated lamps. At the entrance of the Heath, just short -of the White Stone Pond, the decorations culminated in a -triumphal arch, not quite as large as Temple Bar, but far -more ornamental. It spanned the road, and was draped -with the royal standard and St. George’s banner, and many -other flags, the bright colours of which, mingled with garlands -and festoons of flowers and greenery, lent themselves -well to picturesque effect.<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> - -<p>On either side were enclosed recesses for the ladies -privileged by rank or courtesy to represent the élite of the -neighbourhood; and here their Majesties’ carriage was to -pause while Colonel Bosanquet, chairman of the committee, -read a loyal address. The rejoicings were to end with a -pyrotechnic display upon the Heath and the illumination of -the village.</p> - -<p>The day was radiant, as days will sometimes be even in -England in the solstitial season, and Caen Wood, with its -fifty acres of flower-garden and pleasure-grounds, its leafy -woods and park, and sheet of water, broken by groups of -trees, and crossed by an artificial bridge at a distance, looked -its very best, especially from the terrace along the south<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span> -front of the mansion, on which a state sofa had been prepared -for their Majesties. On this occasion the whole suite -of apartments on the ground-floor had been thrown open to -the company, the principal dining-room being reserved for -the royal party.</p> - -<p>If we look back to the <i>Court Journal</i> of that day, we shall -find that the six carriages, in the last of which, drawn by -four white horses, were the King and Queen, entered the -village of Hampstead a little after 4 p.m. The parochial -authorities had met them at the boundary of the parish; -charity children were drawn up in ranks and had saluted -them; and the spectators all along the line of road from -Tottenham Court Road to Chalk Farm had made the air -resonant with hearty cheers, which were caught up and -continued all the way to Caen Wood.</p> - -<p>A royal salute notified their Majesties’ arrival at Hampstead. -A moment after hurrying avant-couriers appear on -the edge of the Heath. The band of the 1st Life Guards -struck up the National Hymn, the tiers of elegantly-dressed -women rose on either side of the triumphal arch, at the -entrance of which the royal carriage stopped, the steps were -let down, and Colonel Bosanquet and a deputation of the -committee approached. The Colonel, bowing profoundly, -laid a white-gloved hand on the carriage door, and, apologizing -for arresting their Majesties’ progress, read the -address of the loyal inhabitants of Hampstead. Whereupon -the King answered that he received with pleasure on the -part of himself and the Queen the loyal expressions of the -inhabitants of all classes of the parish and ‘beautiful village -of Hampstead.’ Let that phrase be remembered as an -unpremeditated pearl of praise from the lips of Majesty, -in sight of the loveliness of views expanding on both sides of -him, an echo intensified, as it were, of Constable’s ‘sweet -Hampstead.’</p> - -<p>Thence to Caen Wood, as we have said, the route was a -popular ovation, the way lined with spectators and carriages -that were filled with them. At Mansfield House—so we find<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span> -it called at this date, their Majesties were received at the -north entrance by Lord and Lady Mansfield, the Ladies -Murray, and Lord Stormont, then a boy of seven years of -age; while a brilliant company (700 in number) gathered -in the grounds, where tents and marquees shone white -upon the lawns. Small boats, decked with flags, floated on -the water or glided to and fro, giving colour and animation -to its surface. The woods echoed to the notes of the -Styrian Hunters<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a> and the Coldstream band; and subsequent -to the banquet, when the twilight deepened into dusk, and -the lake, boats and bridge appeared outlined with coloured -lights, and many of the trees entwined with them, the whole -resembled fairyland. Their Majesties remained till past ten -o’clock, and departed amidst the same enthusiastic crowds -of loyal people and the same manifestations of popular -regard, every house in the ‘beautiful village’ along the line -of road vying with its neighbour in illuminated devices, -ciphers, etc.</p> - -<p>At Caen Wood the ‘pleasures of the place,’ the dance -music of Weippert’s band, the delicious strains of the Coldstreams, -and various other devices of delight, kept the -company enthralled till</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Some stars the tranquil brow of heaven still crowned;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The birds upon the trees sang one by one.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Dark night had flown, bright day was not yet come.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This was the first and last semi-state visit of royalty to -Hampstead. The drive along the Broad Walk and by Caen -Wood and Fitzroy Farm is said to have been a favourite one -with Queen Victoria in her early days, on which a strict -privacy was observed. But on philanthropical occasions, -when the Divine gift of charity is supposed to be largely -moved by the honour of presenting purses to royal receivers -of them, kind-hearted Princes and Princesses have never been -wanting; and once, on the occasion of a benevolent and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span> -unforgotten function by those who witnessed it, the opening -of Vane House as an asylum for soldiers’ daughters, the -Prince Consort himself inaugurated it, and was right loyally -received.</p> - -<p>But of late years neither the ‘beautiful village’ of Hampstead -nor the sylvan beauty of Caen Wood had power to lure -the third Lord Mansfield, who was High Constable of Scone, -from his Northern palace for more than three months in the -year. In the absence of the proprietor, this charming -demesne—one of the brightest jewels, as it were, in the -coronet of his ancestral honours—has been left to solitude -and comparative neglect.</p> - -<p>The late Lord Mansfield died at his Castle of Scone, -August 2, 1898. He was born February 20, 1806. Caen -Wood House is now in the hands of his grandson, Lord -Stormont having died during his father’s lifetime.</p> - -<p>In 1825 the peaceful shades of Caen Wood were the scene -of a sad domestic tragedy, for here, in a wood near the -house, Colonel James Hamilton Stanhope, who was on a -visit to his father-in-law, the second Lord Mansfield, committed -suicide. The unhappy gentleman had long been -suffering from mental depression, the result of an unhealed -gunshot wound he had received at the siege of San Sebastian.</p> - -<p>It is pleasant to hear that the present owner of the beautiful -demesne is likely to reside there more frequently than -his predecessor.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE GEOLOGY OF THE HEATH.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>The appearance of the Upper Heath, as that portion -of it beyond Jack Straw’s Castle to the north-west -is called, shows that the purchase of it for the sake -of its preservation was not a day too soon, while as -far as preserving the primitive beauty of the Heath, it was -years too late.</p> - -<p>The surface, originally flush with the paddock near the -North End Hill, has been delved by sand and gravel diggers -into a series of pits and hollows, with corresponding mounds -and hillocks. At one period (1811), owing to the multiplicity -of building operations going on, upwards of twenty loads a -day passed through Hampstead, besides the quantity taken -away by other roads.</p> - -<p>Looking at the ravaged Heath as it appeared in 1872, it -would seem as if this wholesale devastation had been going -on ever since, without reference to anything but the market -value of the deep layer of gravelly sand which geologists tell -us overlays the Heath in places to the depth of 80 feet. -No doubt the barren appearance of the surface east of the -Spaniard Road and in the vicinity of the Vale of Health -may be attributed to the removal of this gravelly substratum -till the clay was reached, which formed the vari-coloured -hillocks that used to make quite a feature of this portion -of the landscape. Subsequently, as we have seen, the -highest part of the Heath was treated as one huge gravel-pit, -the purchasers of which dug out their loads any and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span> -every where, encroaching within my memory on the Fir-tree -Avenue, in front of the historic houses at Park Gate, as this -entrance to the Heath continues to be called; and, not -content with delving it in the open, the purchasers were -permitted to ruthlessly dig out the sand from under and -between the roots of the fine old trees, undermining many -of them, and leaving them a prey to the first tempest.</p> - -<p>In this way nearly all the trees on this part of the Heath -have suffered; and to this cause may be attributed the fragmentary -condition of the Stone Pine Avenue, and the curious -exposition at one time of the efforts of some of the remaining -ones to support themselves by sending pile-like roots into the -ground on the side on which they are most exposed to tempests. -Fortunately for their existence, the Board of Works -have taken steps to preserve their weird beauty to the Heath, -and protect the groups of elm and ash and other trees, which -so long as the season of leafage and blossom remains to them -will literally keep green the memory of that lover of Nature, -the planter of the majority of them, Mr. Turner, of Thames -Street.</p> - -<p>Naturalists and geologists may still find here abundant -materials for their studies,<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> and the geology of Hampstead -Heath would in capable hands prove a most interesting -chapter in its history. But the writer is not a geologist, so -must be content to summarise what others have said, or -written, of it.</p> - -<p>Time was when a sea a hundred fathoms deep rolled over -the present site of London and the lands around it.<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> Evidence -of its having been above Hampstead Hill is found in the -deposits it left on the summit of it.</p> - -<p>On the highest part of the Heath there lies a horizontal -bed of light-coloured ferruginous sand, mostly coarse and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span> -gritty; but an admixture of fine sand and thin bands of loam -occurs in places, which, like the sand, is destitute of fossils.</p> - -<p>In the lowest part of the deposit it becomes more clayey, -and passes gradually to sandy clay, and eventually to the -stiff blue clay called London Clay. Many well-preserved -fossils are found in the sandy clay, which proves that the -deposit was formed 50 fathoms below the sea-level; while -the fossils of the London Clay indicate a much deeper sea.<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a></p> - -<p>The lowest portion of the sandy clay is known by the -appearance of swampy ground, and by the oozing out of the -springs, as in Well Walk, in Conduit Fields, and at North -End. It is the property of clay to hold up water, and the -lower part of the sand, through which it percolates, lying -horizontally on the clay, and becoming very full, the water -comes out at the edges of the hill, especially at the places -indicated. The sandy clay leading down to the London -Clay is about 50 feet thick, and from that at Child’s Hill -beautiful marine shells, quite perfect, showing that they had -neither been rolled nor drifted, were found at a depth of -30 feet in an excavation for drainage in the Finchley Road -(Child’s Hill, 1872). Below this comes the stiff London -Clay, about 350 feet thick.</p> - -<p>The chalk at Hampstead Hill is another proof of its submarine -formation. This is many feet thick, and is pure -carbonate of lime, composed of minute sea-shells, and must -have taken an immense period of time to form. There have -been found in it hard portions of animals similar to those -which now dwell in the sea. So many evidences exist -around the British Islands of change of levels, both by -elevation and depression, that there is no improbability in -supposing that Hampstead Hill has through past ages been -gradually raised from below the level of the sea, and at times -has been again depressed, which change geologists believe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span> -to have taken place more than once, the hill not taking its -present form till after several upheavals.</p> - -<p>The changes of temperature must have been as vast as the -geological ones. Tropical animals—large elephants, rhinoceroses, -hippopotami, etc.—are said by Professor Owen to -have inhabited the neighbourhood of Hampstead; and -though no evidence remains here of the glacial period, icebergs -floated at Finchley, and left their deposits in the -shallows of the sea that covered it, and doubtless at that -period Hampstead was covered with thick ice. The fossil -nautilus, sharks’ teeth, and the plates and spines of echini,<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> -have frequently been found, the latter in gravel-pits upon -the Heath. Modern geologists have stated that the sand -at the top of the Heath is only a small patch, very irregular -in shape, and that there was another patch on the top -of Highgate; and it is suggested that perhaps these were -formerly connected, but that the depression of the ground at -Caen Wood may have swept the sand from them. Park, on -the other hand, observes ‘that vast quantities of sand exist -at Hampstead, the Heath being covered with it at an average -to the depth of 10 feet, though in some places it is more -than 25 feet in depth, notwithstanding the length of time it -has been supplying the Metropolis and intermediate villages.’ -Could both be thinking of the same stratum?</p> - -<p>That the Heath is covered with sandy gravel (in fact, the -Heath is confined to the sand) is sufficiently apparent to the -ungeological eye, especially in this rugged and denuded -portion of it. It has been a vexed question with the artists -and the conservators of the Heath whether to fill up these -irregularities of the surface or leave them to Nature’s healing. -Already, taking advantage of the past year or two’s rest from -aggression, she has covered the scarred places with her green -mantle, and crowding fronds of common brake have taken -to grow on the graves of its old habitat. Great spaces -amongst the gravel-pits have been brilliant with the glittering<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span> -flowers of the common broom, and where the unquenched -springs still drain themselves into pools and shallows, stocks -of willow-wood have in some instances been driven, which -have taken root and put forth branches, and in a few more -seasons will be vigorous trees.</p> - -<p>Our hope is that the present conservators of the Heath, to -whom great praise is due for the visible improvement in its -appearance, will be patient with this seemingly most hopeless -portion of it, and leave the rest to the great Mother’s -care. In time the rugged superficies will round and soften, -and the hollows be converted into bosky dells, tangles of -woodbine, wild-rose, and arching brambles. We have -already seen indications of the return of <i>Erica cinerea</i> and -<i>E. tetralix</i>, once common on the Heath, and the tufted stems -and silvery lilac flowers of the indigenous heather.</p> - -<p>If loving hands a little after harvest-time would bring an -alms of hips and haws and mountain-ash berries and drop -them carelessly about the turf, the birds would scatter them, -and help to bring back beauty to the Heath, that wild beauty -that is Nature’s own, and, though quite unpremeditated, is -ever in agreement with its surroundings.</p> - -<p class="smaller">For the geological part of this chapter I am indebted to notes taken of -a lecture on ‘Hampstead Hill in Past Ages,’ delivered by C. Evans, Esq., -F.G.S., in Rosslyn Hill Schoolroom, March, 1872.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE PONDS AND WATER-WORKS.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>In the chain of ponds which make so charming a feature -between Highgate and Caen Wood, or in some of -them at least, we have, according to the brothers -Storer,<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> all that remains visible of the river Fleet, -which originally formed them. The others are as old as the -time of Henry VIII., and owe their existence to the necessities -of the citizens of London for a better water-supply. -The ancient springs, which previous to 1544 abundantly -supplied the city, had about that time ‘diminished and -abated to the great discomodity of the inhabitants, and the -threatened decay of the said Citie, if a speedy remedy was -not provided.’ We learn that Sir William Boyer, Knight -(subsequently Mayor of London), called ‘unto him dyvers -grave and expert persons,’ who, by ‘diligent search and -exploracion found dyvers great and plentiful springes at -Hamstede Heath, and other places within five miles of -London, very meet, proper, and convenient, to be brought -and conveyed to the same.’ Upon which an Act was passed -to empower the said Mayor and Commonalty to lay pipes, -dig pits, and erect conduits in the grounds of all persons -whatsoever, making satisfaction to the proprietors of the soil. -Special provision being made for the protection of the springs -‘at the foot of the hyll of the sayde Heath, called Hamstede -Heath, now closed in with brick for the comodity and necessary -use of the inhabitants of the towne of Hamstede.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span></p> - -<p>These works were carried on in 1589-90 by Sir John Hart, -and about the same time the course of the ancient river -Fleet, which rose on the south slope of Hampstead Hill, and -fell into the Thames at Blackfriars, being much choked and -decayed, it was undertaken that by draining divers springs -about Hampstead Heath into one head and course (for which -£666 17s. 4d. were collected by order of the Common -Council), and connecting the rivulets with Turnmill Brook, -or the river of Wells<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> and the Old Bourne, which rose in a -clear stream near Holborn Bar, that both the city should -be served of fresh water in all places of want, and also that -by such a follower (as men call it) the channel of this brook -should be scoured into the river. But by continual encroachment -on its banks, and casting of refuse into the stream, after -much money had been spent to little purpose, the Fleet -became more ‘choaken’ than before. Subsequently the -springs were leased out by the City of London (1692), and -the Hampstead Water Company was formed, whose office, -Maitland tells us, was in his time in Denmark Street, -St. Giles’s, to which belonged two main pipes of 7-inch -bore, which brought water from the ponds at Highgate and -Hampstead.</p> - -<p>In a terrier of the Manor of Hampstead, taken about the -end of the seventeenth century, to which Park had access, -he found among the copyholds ‘the Upper Pond on the -Heath, stated to contain three roods thirty perches. The -Lower Pond on ditto, one acre one rood thirty-four perches.’ -In Park’s time the Hampstead Water Company still supplied -some parts of the neighbourhood of Tottenham Court.</p> - -<p>As a result of this speculation, it may not be uninteresting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span> -to subjoin the following paragraph, which appeared in the -<i>Times</i> of August 4, 1859:</p> - -<p>‘Yesterday at the Auction Mart, Mr. Marsh offered to -public sale twenty-five shares in the property of this -company (the Hampstead Water-Works), which was formed -in 1692, having for its object to raise a capital for the supply -of water from springs within the parishes of St. Pancras, -Hampstead and Hornsey, the right to which had become -vested in the promoters under the lease from the City of -London, the lease being renewed from time to time. By an -arrangement recently effected with the New River Company, -the renewed lease and the property have been transferred to -the New River Company for the consideration of an annuity -of £3,500, payable in perpetuity by the New River Company, -being at the rate of £5 16s. 6d. per share on the 600 shares -of the company.’</p> - -<p>The shares sold at from £100 to £110 per share. In 1870, -when the preservation of the Heath was almost accomplished, -Mr. Le Breton stated at a vestry meeting that he had been -‘to the New River Company to make out the history of -these ponds, and he had heard what we have just recited, -that they had formerly belonged to the Hampstead Water-Works, -whose rights were bought by the New River Company. -So far as they could learn, the land was still vested -in the Lord of the Manor. The company had a right to -the easement of the water, but not in the land. It was said -there was a lease of the ponds for 999 years; the secretary -of the New River Company seemed to think they only had -a right to the water, and Sir John Wilson was very anxious -that the ponds should remain as ornaments to the Heath’—a -desire in which every lover of the picturesque must -join him.</p> - -<p>Hughson has fallen into the error of regarding Turnmill -Brook, or the River of Wells, as one and the same with the -Fleet, simply because, as already stated, it was ultimately -included in its outlet; but a little examination and research -would have shown him that at the time of the making of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span> -Domesday Book, the Fleete, the Tybourne, and the Brent, -were the principal streams which carried the waters from the -northern heights through the Great Forest to the Thames; -and that Turnmill Brook, or the River of Wells, was, as he -himself observes in another place, formed ‘by the influx of -many springs in the neighbourhood,’ and not a substantive -and self-supplied stream as the Fleet was. This year, he -observes (1503), the ancient River of Wells (afterwards -called Fleet Ditch) was cleared, and made navigable for craft -as far as Holborn Bridge. Maitland also calls it ‘Fleet -Dyke, now Fleet Ditch, the remains of the ancient River of -Wells.’ It is all plain enough if we admit the Fleet to have -lost its identity in that of the River of Wells, or Turnmill -Brook, at an early stage of its set-out from Hampstead Hill.</p> - -<p>But unless we take the word ‘Fleete’ in its general Saxon -sense as a flood, or mere watercourse, how can we separate -the idea of an important stream from one that presumably -gave a name to so many objects and places?</p> - -<p>It was always a troublesome stream, going wrong immediately -after it got to Holborn, as early as 1307.</p> - -<p>‘The first mention I find of this watercourse by the name -of Fleet,’ says Maitland, quoting Stowe, ‘is in a complaint -made to a Parliament held at Carlisle by Henry, Earl of -Lincoln (in the above year), setting forth that the watercourse -under Fleet Bridge, formerly frequented by many -ships, was then, by encroachments and other obstructions, -rendered unnavigable.’ And very curiously (recollecting -what he has written above of the Fleet Ditch) he goes on -to observe that this complaint, through great inattention, -is quoted by Stowe to prove that the Fleet was then denominated -the River of Wells, whereas from a charter -granted by the Conqueror to the Collegiate Church of -St. Martin le Grand, and also quoted by Stowe, he had -shown the direct contrary in these words:</p> - -<p>‘I do give and grant to the same Church all the land and -the moor without the postern which is called Cripplegate, on -either part of the postern, that is to say, from the North<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span> -corner of the wall <i>as the River of Wells</i> there near runneth, -departeth the same moor from the wall, unto the running -water (Wall-brook) which entereth the City.’</p> - -<p>Moreover, the most westerly of the springs which fed the -River of Wells appears to have been St. Clement’s Well, -Clerkenwell, and Skinner’s Well; the others were much -more to the east. But in describing the Liberty of St. -Sepulchre, Maitland tells us that the street vulgarly called -Turnbull Street was anciently called Turnmill Street, from -the mills thereon erected by the Knights of St. John, which -were wrought <i>by a stream of water from Hampstead and Highgate</i>, -which, being apparently dried up, had given occasion -to some to represent the same as lost, whereas, had they -taken trouble to inquire, they would have found that the said -stream was brought to the suburbs of London in two large -wooden pipes of 7 inches bore each, the original contrivance -of Sir John Hart, probably.</p> - -<p>The modern local opinion is that the Fleet had its rise -about the middle of the Flask Walk, whence it ran downhill, -at the back of the cottages and houses in Willow Walk,<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> to -South End Green, where there used to be a pond; thence by -what is now Fleet Road, through Kentish Town, to Bagnigge -Wells Road,<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> the present King’s Cross Road; and so on by -Farringdon Street to the Thames, debouching somewhere -about Blackfriars Bridge.</p> - -<p>Undoubtedly it rose in the clay on the slope of Hampstead -Hill, and, long before the Norman took <i>seizin</i> of our shore, -is mentioned in Edgar’s forged charters to the monks at Westminster -of land at Paddington, of which it made the eastern -boundary, that on the south being the Thames, on the north<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span> -the Roman Road, and on the west the Tybourne. In maps -of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, one -stream—the Fleet—is seen descending from the south side -of Hampstead Hill.</p> - -<p>It is said to have been navigable as far as King’s Cross in -Edward I.’s time. When the brothers Storer published -their ‘History of Clerkenwell,’ in 1828, they tell us that -from a point in their parochial boundary the banks of the -Fleet River were seen to jut out in little wild crags, and -break into miniature precipices, as it meandered originally -between green slopes at the foot of the uplands, clothed -with umbrageous trees.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus56"> -<img src="images/illus56.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Charles Mathews’ House, Highgate.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In Crosby’s ‘Notes’ mention is made of the varying and -interesting windings of the Fleet River in its course from -Hampstead to the Thames. Even in his ‘Additional Notes’ -(1845) he speaks of the silver Fleet meandering through and -irrigating those charming meadows which reach on either -side of Kentish Town to the sister hills of Hampstead and -Highgate.</p> - -<p>It was only a little later than this date that I first knew -these meadows, and the dried channel of the winding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span> -stream he speaks of, the course of which might be traced -by the decaying alders and old willows that fringed it through -Gospel Oak fields, at the end of which it had subsided in a -ditch.</p> - -<p>It had remained navigable as far as Holborn Bridge till -Henry VII.’s time, from which period the less we say of its -city life the better. It had been dredged and scoured to no -purpose, but after the Great Fire, much of the débris being -thrown into it, it became, in Charles II.’s reign, an abomination. -In Anne’s time, Gay gives us a sufficiently disagreeable -description of the desecrated river, and Pope, in the ‘Dunciad,’ -asserts it</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘The king of dykes, than whom no sluice of mud</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With deeper sable blots the silver flood.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It was the Creek that in modern times was called Fleet -Ditch. It had its entrance immediately below Bridewell, -Blackfriars being to the east of it, and reached as far as -Holborn Bridge, at the foot of Holborn Hill. Here it received -the little river Fleet, Turnmill Brook, and the rivulet -known as the Old Bourne. The latter rose at Holborn Bars -(removed<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> not many years ago), and gave its name to -Holborn. It lost itself, as has been said, in the Fleet at -Holborn Bridge.</p> - -<p>In 1737 Fleet Ditch was covered over, and the space -gained was occupied by Fleet Market. Nearly a hundred -years later (1829) this was removed, and Farringdon Street -now occupies its site.</p> - -<p>Upon the right, going towards Holborn, stood the Fleet -prison for debtors, founded in the first year of Richard I. I -remember its removal in 1845, and, long before I ever saw -it, hearing my mother tell of the sad feelings with which she -had often passed it in her youth, by reason of the melancholy -implorations of certain of the prisoners, wretched-looking -beings, who let down bags from the windows, and cried to -the passers-by: ‘Please remember the poor debtors!’ One<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span> -penny loaf per day was the gaol allowance, and those who -had not friends to supply them with food to supplement this -dole literally starved to death.</p> - -<p>This was the scene of the Fleet marriages. Pennant tells -how in his youth he had often been tempted by the question -‘Sir, will you please to walk in and be married?’ and he -tells us that a painted sign of a male and female, hands -conjoined, with the inscription ‘Marriages performed here,’ -was hung on the walls of the building. A dirty fellow -invited you in, and the parson, a squalid, profligate figure, -‘clad in a tattered plaid nightgown, with a fiery face,’ stood -just within, ‘ready to couple you for a dram of gin or roll -of tobacco.’ This state of things was not put an end to -till 1753.</p> - -<p>But the Fleet prison has a history of its own, and lies -outside the Hampstead story of the river.</p> - -<p>To return to the water-supply. The ponds in the valley -between the sister hills, as Thomson calls the acclivities of -Hampstead and Highgate, have often proved dangerous to -children and others, from the sudden shelving of their banks.</p> - -<p>Suicides, too, lured by the lonely quiet of these silent -pools, have sometimes sought oblivion in them; but, as -a rule, anglers and naturalists are their more persistent -visitors, and they may generally be trusted. One specially -dangerous is that at the back of the tavern in the Vale of -Health, on which the swans make so pleasing an appearance, -and children are likely to approach too near the margin in -their eagerness to feed them.</p> - -<p>The town of Hampstead, till quite recent times, was -supplied from the well in Shepherd’s Fields, where a conduit -had existed in very early times, the water of which is said to -have been remarkably sweet and soft.</p> - -<p>This well was mentioned in the last Act relating to the -conduits in the time of Henry VIII.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE WELL WALK—THE EARLY PERIOD.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Every period has produced some specific or other -for ‘the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir -to,’ and during the latter part of the eighteenth -century, and the early years of the present, mineral -waters were the fashionable panacea.</p> - -<p>From traditional times the curative properties of the spring -in Well Walk had been known to the inhabitants of Hampstead -and the neighbourhood. It oozed out of the green -hillside to the east of the village into a self-made pool, whose -surface was covered with a rust-coloured film that disclosed -its ferruginous nature. But something more than a mere -local reputation must have suggested to the Hon. Susannah -Noel the gift of the ‘medicinal spring, together with six acres -of heathland lying about and encompassing it,’ for the sole -use and benefit of the poor of Hampstead for ever. The -indenture by which this gift is made on her own part and -that of her infant son, Baptist, Earl of Gainsborough, is -dated December, 1698, and is the foundation of what is -known as the Wells Charity.</p> - -<p>For some time after the date of this indenture, the project -seems to have remained in abeyance, but in the <i>Postman</i> of -April 16 and 20, 1700, an advertisement appears, stating -that the Hampstead chalybeate waters are ‘so highly -approved by the most eminent physicians, that they are -by direction of the trustees of the Wells aforesaid, for the convenience -of those who yearly drink them in London, carefully<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span> -bottled up in flasks, and sent to Mr. Phelps, Apothecary, at -the Eagle and Child in Fleet Street every morning at the -rate of 3d. per flask, and if any persons desire to have them -brought to their houses, they will be conveyed to them upon -leaving a note at Mr. Phelps’, aforesaid, at 1d. a flask -more.’ Here we have the origin of the names given to the -two taverns of Upper and Lower Flask, and of the Walk in -the vicinity of the latter. It is further stated that ‘the true -waters are nowhere else to be procured, unless they are sent -for to the Wells, Hampstead.’</p> - -<p>An advertisement in the same newspaper (August 27 and -29 of this year) sets forth that:</p> - -<p>‘By order of the Trustees of Hampstead Mineral Waters, -These are to certify that the Widow Keys is discharged from -the Wells, and carries no more of the said waters, the -Trustees now only employing Mr. Adams, a potter at -Holborn Bars, to deliver out the said mineral waters. If -any other person pretends to bring Hampstead waters, they -(the purchasers) are desired to try them, so that they be not -cheated. Also, the Trustees will let the said waters, with -six acres of land, by lease or yearly rent. Such as desire to -treat about the same, may meet the Trustees at Craddock’s -Coffee-house, Hampstead, every Saturday from 10 to -12 o’clock in the morning untill the 29th of September next.’</p> - -<p>This same month and year, in the Court Rolls of Hampstead, -it is ordered that ‘the Spring by the purging Well be -forthwith brought into the town of Hampstead, at the parish -charge, and yt ye money and profit arising thereout be -applied to the easing of the poors’ rates hereafter to be -made.’</p> - -<p>In the early part of 1701, we find the advertisement of -the letting of the Wells, and the land attached to them, -reappearing in the <i>Postman</i>, with the effect of attracting a -lessee; for soon after we read of the Wells dwelling-house -and tavern, the latter with a very fair bowling-green attached, -without which no gentleman of the period would have been -pleasurably provided for. Subsequently, tea and coffee<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span> -rooms and a dancing-room were added, and the new -watering-place is announced as ready to receive company.</p> - -<p>May was the pleasant month in which the water-drinking -season primitively began, though later on, from June till -Michaelmas, was considered the best time for taking them. An -old advertisement of the opening of the season reads as follows:</p> - -<p>‘These are to acquaint all persons that have occasion to -drink Hampstead waters that the Wells will be opened on -Monday next, being the 11th of May, with very good music -for dancing, and will continue every Monday during the -season for water-drinking, and there is complete accommodation -for water-drinkers of both sexes with accomodation of a -very good bowling-green, and very good stabling and coach-house.’<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a></p> - -<p>There is a vagueness in the phrasing of this notice that -leaves a doubt whether it is the Wells or the music that will -continue every Monday, but from other sources we learn -that ‘very good music for dancing went on all day long -every Monday during the season.’</p> - -<p>Dr. Gibbons, who resided at Hampstead, was the first -physician who encouraged the drinking of the waters, setting -a practical example himself, and continuing in it till his death -(1725). Others of his profession supported the opinion of -their excellence, and the sale of them in London, as well as -their local use, seems to have largely increased in consequence. -Instead of one or two agents, the advertisements -set forth that, being approved by the most eminent physicians, -the said mineral water continues to be brought fresh from -Hampstead Wells every day to Mr. Adams, Glass-seller, near -Holborn Bars; to Mr. Cresset’s at the Sugar-loaf at Charing -Cross; to Nando’s Coffee-house,<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> near Temple Bar; to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span> -Sam’s Coffee-house, near Ludgate; to the Salmon in Stock’s -Market; and by Mr. Pratt to the Greyhound in King Street, -Bloomsbury; to Howe’s Coffee-house in Cheapside by the -Half-moon Tavern, and to the Black Posts, Fleet Street.</p> - -<p>At this time there was no lack of small but pleasant -lodgings to be had in South End, and on the Lower and -Upper Heath, weather-boarded structures for the most part -of the cottage species, some of which survived till our own -time in the Vale of Health and about Squire’s Mount; one -of the ancient customs of the Manor of Hampstead being -that the tenants of their own free will might ‘let, sell, take -down, or remove any of their tenements without any fine or -forfeiture to or for the same to the lord,’ a custom that greatly -facilitated the raising of inexpensive removable dwellings.</p> - -<p>A few of the houses in Well Walk in the early part of the -century were probably of this description, and, I suspect, of -an earlier date than the flat-faced, narrow-windowed brick -edifices with fan-lighted hall doors that faced the Walk in -the fifties. Instead of that decorous straight line, I imagine -irregularity in the appearance, as well as in the positions, -of the original structures, which followed no fixed plan, but -were added to as wanted.<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a></p> - -<p>Neither do I imagine that the tenements which arose -between the date of the advertisement of the letting of the -Wells, and that which announces their opening in the -summer of the same year (1701) could have been of very -solid construction. There was no time for the work that -English builders in those days put into the building of brick -houses, and everything shows that the preparation for the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span> -convenience of visitors to the spa must have been of a -hurried, and for the most part of a temporary, nature.</p> - -<p>Very soon we read of bun-houses and raffling-shops, which -appear to have been set up over against the Long Room, -from which some years later Steele crossed over to watch -the cheating play in one of them. In deference to the -religious wants of the visitors, we find the proprietor of the -Wells building a chapel at his own expense, of which I shall -have more to say farther on.</p> - -<p>Happily, the most interesting, from its associations, of the -Wells buildings, the Long Room, still exists in Weatherall -Place, a long, low, white structure when I first knew it, of -timber, brick and mortar. It has been used as a private -residence for quite a hundred years, and a late proprietor, -Mr. Routh, has wholly metamorphosed its appearance by -having it cased with red brick.</p> - -<p>Sion Chapel, which afterwards became notorious in the -history of Hampstead, was a much-needed and, for some -time, decently conducted place of worship, at which one or -other of the many ejected Nonconformist ministers of the -time officiated, for even then the ancient chapel of St. Mary -(now St. John’s) was almost ruinous, and inadequate to the -yearly increasing number of parishioners, and so could afford -little, if any, accommodation for strangers.</p> - -<p>From 1701 to 1712-13, that happy period when, as Dr. -Gibbons tells us, the Wells were frequented by ‘as much -and as good company as go yearly to Tunbridge Wells, in -Kent,’ the searcher of old newspapers will find concerts of -vocal and instrumental music, as well as other entertainments, -to have been constantly advertised to take place in -the Long Room. The prices of admission to the concerts -were one shilling in the morning, and (except on extraordinary -occasions) sixpence in the evening, when, ‘for the -convenience of gentlemen returning to town,’ the concerts -commenced at five o’clock. The early hour is suggestive -of the then state of the roads in the suburbs of London. At -this period a stage-coach started for Hampstead every<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span> -morning, from the Greyhound in Holborn, and another -from the Chequers, returning at night,<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> besides a carrier -daily; but in all probability the coachmen preferred driving -home by daylight, not only on account of the roughness -of the roads, but to avoid running the risk of being stopped -by highwaymen on their track, or at the meeting of the ways -at the half-way house, the Old Mother Red-Cap, a place -noted for waylaying the coaches, probably from the facility -of escape which the divergence of three separate roads -afforded.</p> - -<p>It happened, fortunately for the fashionable visitors to the -Wells, that the summer meetings of the Kit-Cat Club, which -had been instituted a few years before (though some say -after their opening) coincided with the period of drinking -the Hampstead waters, and as people walked after dinner -in those days, some one or other of the witty brotherhood -would often saunter down from the bosky covert of the -gardens of the Upper Flask, or across the Heath from the -Bull and Bush, at Wildwood Corner (as Camden calls North -End) to greet their friends in the Long Room or in the -walks, or look in, as Steele was wont to do (with an eye -to copy and the correction of morals), at the cheating play -in the raffling-shops, the proprietors of which appear to -have been knaves of the worst order. Steele took great -pleasure in exposing them. It is to such a passing inquisition -that the subscribers to the <i>Tatler</i> in the summer -of 1709 owed the witty paper that describes one of these -rogues as ‘a person deep in the practice of the law, who, -under the name of his maid Sisly, had set up this easier -way of conveyancing and alienating estates from one family -to another.’</p> - -<p>Some years later, the <i>Spectator</i> informs us—probably by -the same hand—that ‘a Count figures amongst this fraternity, -who is humorously described as “the errantist Count of all -the Courts of England,” and who, believing the fair diversion-table -at Hampstead to be all foul play, has vouchsafed to set<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span> -up another himself, in imitation of it.’ The company, under -these circumstances, became, we may be sure, considerably -mixed; adventurers of both sexes found their way to the -upland village, and the idle and profligate, as well as the -invalid and ennuyé, mingled with personages of rank and -fashion at the Wells.</p> - -<p>Card-playing went on all day in the Long Room, and -dancing pretty well all night. But, then, card-playing was -the general amusement of all classes in that day. At Hampstead -it became a passion, especially with women, ‘who, -possessed by excitement and avarice, and in the hope of -winning seven guineas for one by giving the enamelled ball -a graceful twirl to induce it to fall upon four cards nominated -for luck’s sake, out of two-and-thirty, staked and lost money, -diamonds, beauty, and reputation at the fair diversion,’ as -our essayist calls it, all which had been translated from the -neighbourhood of Bloomsbury and Red Lion Square to the -Wells and raffling-shops of Hampstead.</p> - -<p>It is not until 1710 that I find in the <i>Postboy</i> (April 18) -the following advertisement:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘As there are many weddings at Sion Chapel, Hampstead, five shillings -only are required for all the church fees of any couple that are married -there, provided they bring with them a license, or certificate, according -to the Act of Parliament. Two sermons are continued to be preached -in the said chapel every Sunday, and the place will be given to any clergyman -that is willing to accept of it, if he is approved of.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>In <i>Read’s Weekly Journal</i>, September 8, 1716, we come -upon this:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘Sion Chapel at Hampstead, being a private and pleasure place, many -persons of the best fashion have lately been married there. Now, as a -minister is obliged to attend, “This is to give notice that all persons -upon bringing a license, and who shall keep their wedding dinner in the -gardens, only five shillings will be demanded of them for all fees.”’</p> - -</div> - -<p>Park adds that, from these advertisements, Sion Chapel -would seem to have been the prototype of the Fleet and -Mayfair marriages, but this is incorrect. Fleet marriages<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span> -took place as early as 1704. The honour of primitive suggestion -belongs rather to Gretna Green.<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p> - -<p>Amongst other popular attractions of Hampstead, though -hardly to the taste of the more refined visitors, was a pleasure -fair. In the <i>Spectator</i> for July 29, 1712 (No. 443, original -edition), a notice appears that Hampstead Fair will be held -upon the Flask Walk on Friday, August 1, and will hold four -days. As fairs were annual occurrences, we must conclude -that for four days yearly the rural quiet and beauty of Hampstead -were delivered over to ‘rude mirth and tipsy revelry,’ -much as it is in these days at the holidays of Easter and -Whitsuntide.<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a></p> - -<p>A triangular bit of waste ground, open in my time at the -upper part of Flask Road, was pointed out to me by an -archæological friend as the place where <i>anciently</i> that earliest -institution of social life, the village pound, and subsequently -the stocks and cage, stood, as the after-site of the fair. The -fair (continued for more than thirty years after this date)—a -fair for the sale of gingerbread, toys, sweetmeats, chap-books, -wares such as Autolycus the rogue sold, or affected to sell, -the maids. But a pleasure-fair by no means precluded the -presence of unpleasant company, and here, as at other fairs, to -intoxication, rioting, and uproar, robberies were superadded.</p> - -<p>The fair, not being a chartered one, but simply permissive -by license of the Lord or Lady of the Manor, or the Middlesex -magistrates, had frequently been written about and -complained of; but the nuisance was suffered to go on till, -at length (as late as 1746), it became so great a drawback -to the comfort of the respectable inhabitants and visitors, -that it was forbidden by the authorities at Hicks’s Hall, -a prohibition that did not prevent an impudent attempt, two -years subsequently, to revive it, on the part of one Thomas -Keate, probably the landlord of the Lower Flask Tavern, -who made his purgation in a London newspaper as follows:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span></p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p class="right">‘<span class="smcap">The Flask</span>, <span class="smcap">Hampstead</span>,</p> - -<p class="right">‘<i>August 2, 1748</i>.</p> - -<p>‘Whereas I published an advertisement on Saturday last, -declaring a sale of goods and toys to be held at Hampstead, -which advertisement was addressed to persons usually frequenting -Hampstead Fair, and occasioned great numbers of -loose and disorderly people to resort to Hampstead, under -the notion that the Fair suppressed two years since as illegal, -would be revived, and held in the Flask Walk ... I take -this publick opportunity to declare that I am extremely -sorry, that I should ignorantly be engaged to act in opposition -to the Magistrates of the County, in any endeavour to -revive a Fair deemed illegal by authority; and I hope this -public acknowledgment of my error will satisfy their worships, -and declaring that I will desist from any such attempt for -the future.</p> - -<p class="right">‘<span class="smcap">Thomas Keate.</span>’</p> - -</div> - -<p>This epistle, as far as I have discovered, is final with -regard to the fair in Flask Walk, though sadly out of chronological -order here. Happily for the lovers of historic -Hampstead, the site of the ancient Pump-house in Well -Walk has been discovered, while that of the modern one is -preserved by an inscription on a part of the house now -occupying its place. But the situation of Sion Chapel, of -which we completely lose count after the early advertisements -I have transcribed, is not known.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, the easy access to the Wells from London—a -walk of only four or five miles being but an ordinary -recreation to persons unaccustomed, as a rule, to any other -mode of locomotion—made it impossible to maintain the -exclusiveness dear to the dignity of the Ladies Betty, Moll, -or Susan, who stepped so stately,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Alack! the little heels won’t let them haste!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">under the <i>then</i> young limes shading the Well Walk. This -ease of access bounced into their midst the City madams<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span> -and pert, Fleet Street seamstresses, that furnished the fun of -Baker’s comedy, a force stronger in the end than the <i>Bon -ton</i>, who, after a decade of endurance, forsook the <i>Fons -Sanitatis</i> of Hampstead, and its high-priest, Dr. Gibbons.</p> - -<p>But intermediately the proprietor of the Wells had been -doing a thriving business in illicit marriages and frequent -wedding-dinners; and Hampstead had won for itself a quite -unenviable notoriety. Play often ran so high at the gaming-tables -that the Justices at the Quarter Sessions at Hicks’s -Hall recommended the great room at Hampstead to the -particular attention of the petty constables and head-boroughs -of the parish, to prevent all unlawful gaming, riots, etc. As -for the rest, Baker’s comedy, to which I have alluded -(and which is still extant) offers a very graphic description. -Park has quoted at considerable length from it, but Park is -not often read out of the reading-room of the British Museum, -or the Public Library at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Smart, in the said comedy, discussing philosophically -the social peculiarities of the Long Room, observes that -assemblies so near town give us examples of all degrees. -‘We have Court ladies, all air and no dress; City belles, -overdressed and no air; and country dames with broad -brown faces like a Stepney bun; besides an endless number -of Fleet Street seamstresses, that dance minuets in their -furbeloe scarfs, and whose clothes hang as loose on them -as their reputations.’</p> - -<p>Arabella (another character in the same play) observes: -‘Well, this Hampstead is a charming place; to dance all -night at the Wells, and be treated at Mother Huffs’;<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> to -have presents made one at the raffling-shops,’ etc. Occasional -visitors to the Wells on assembly nights might reasonably<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span> -desire to dance the day-dawn in for safety’s sake; and -the extension of the hours at the Long Room might possibly -have originated in the perils of getting home from it. The -roads, hazardous even by day, were doubly so after dark, -especially in the neighbourhood of towns. The Hampstead -coach had quite recently been stopped and robbed (1713), -although a portion of the Hampstead road was just then -unpleasantly occupied by the body of a murderer hanging in -chains,<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> an object-lesson our forefathers were fond of exhibiting -with deterrent intention, and with about as much practical -result as from the suspension of criminal crows in a harvest-field.</p> - -<p>But to return to the Wells. Let us be thankful for the -old newspapers and magazines, that in feeble type and -quaintly-worded paragraphs and advertisements have yet -preserved for us faithful transcripts of the ways and fashions -of the times, so that with a file of old <i>Postboys</i>, <i>Mists</i>, and -<i>Read’s Weekly Journal</i>, and the <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>, but little -imagination is required to revivify the company in Well -Walk (that focus of fashion whilst fashion clung to it), to -reclothe them in the costumes they wore, and busy them -again in all their old occupations and amusements.</p> - -<p>We can see in fancy the large, cumbrous, top-heavy coach -toiling up the steep hill, tacking like a ship against a head-wind, -until it landed its passengers at the coach office, the -Bird-in-Hand,<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> or, higher up, at the Upper Flask. Say that -it is the afternoon of a summer’s day in 1713-14. Amongst a -crowd of other passengers, a lady in a little flutter of expectation, -her head-dress a lace or muslin hood, with turnover (a -species of fichu) ... and ruffles to match, steps out on the -points of her high-heeled shoes, letting her hoop expand -with a grace totally unknown to the modern wearers of -crinoline.<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span></p> - -<p>Be sure she has in her netted or embroidered hand-bag a -little of the famous ‘Bavarian red liquor,’ which gave such -a ‘delightful blushing colour to the cheeks pale or white,’ -and which is not ‘to be discovered as other than the natural -colour by the most fine sight.’ Nor is she without a bottle -of Hungary, or citron water, for being a fine lady she must -have nerves.</p> - -<p>To-morrow what a stir she will create on the Well Walk -in her voluminous brocade or Italian silk gown, shining with -gold or silver flowers, and cut in the latest fashion!</p> - -<p>There is no dearth of matters to be discussed by the -general company. The Lottery and the South Sea Scheme -are flourishing, and afford interesting topics for all grades of -society; then there is the opera and the theatres, and the -last duel, and, apart from the ladies, the recent doings at -Hendon and Hockley-in-the-Hole.</p> - -<p>Should Arbuthnot, or Swift, or Steele, happen to be -amongst the crowd of visitors, Pope, who has already made -a name in literature, and, like his friend Mr. Murray, been -early admitted to the fellowship of the wits at Button’s and -the Scriblerus Club, is not likely to find their criticisms on -his recently-published verses wholly favourable, though regarded -as giving great promise, which the ‘little fellow,’ as -Johnson subsequently called him, is bound to make good.</p> - -<p>Quite in opposition to Dr. Gibbons’ advice, the ladies, -one and all, file into the tea-room, where the best Bohea at -eighteen shillings a pound is dispensed in diminutive Nankin -china cups without handles, to hold and drink out of which -gracefully is in itself a fine art. Pope describes</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘How her red lips affected zephyrs blow</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To cool Bohea, and inflame the beau;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">While one white finger and a thumb conspire</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To lift the cup, and make the world admire.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Or they stroll off to ransack the raffling-shops for gloves, -fans, etc., while the gentlemen smoke, play at bowls, or -adjourn to cards. In the Long Room the musicians play, and -those who like may dance, or rehearse their steps and figures<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span> -for the evening exhibition of them. Some wander away to -the green skirts of Caen Wood, or seek the deep-hedged -lanes, where the elm boughs meet overhead. While others -are content to find their pleasure on the Heath, with its -ever-varied, ever-lovely views, or choose the pleasant shade of -its leafy groves, that both diversify the scene and break -the force of the winds that blow upon it. Others, again, -ride or drive to some of the many pretty places, or the -seats of friends in the vicinity, Highgate, and Hornsey, -and Colney Hatch being in much favour with the gentry -as sites for country-houses. Then at the orthodox hour for -the promenade, what a flutter of fans, and tapping of fine -snuff-boxes, and lifting of laced or feathered hats, as the -company bow, and curtsey, and smile, and ogle, as they -pass and repass in the walks, the ladies resplendent in -‘stained silks,’ damasks, and flowered satins, that from the -perfection of their texture would, in the parlance of old folks -describing them, have literally stood alone. Nor was the -dress of the gentlemen less superb. Their quaintly-cut, -wide-skirted coats, with great cuffs bound with gold or -silver lace, and deep flapped waistcoats richly embroidered, -were often of the most costly materials, accompanied with -flowing cravats—or falls, as they were called—and hanging -ruffles of Mechlin or other lace. Then there were the -shoes—the beaux wore them—with red heels and silver or -brilliant buckles; and, again, the sword-hilt, band, and -knot, allowed of a variety of dainty devices, the sword-hilt -being sometimes of plain steel or silver only, but sometimes -gilt and jewelled.</p> - -<p>No record remains to us of the great ladies who gave -the encouragement of their presence to the fashion of the -Hampstead Wells in those early years; but we know that -Addison, and Garth, and Steele, and Arbuthnot, Sir -Godfrey Kneller, Swift, and all the Kit-Cats, were of the -company. And their presence there has made the Heath -and Well Walk classic ground for all who love the eighteenth -century. It was a time of lordly bows, deep curtseys, stately<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span> -manners, and coarse speech, and the day of depraved morality -and affected sentiment. Women in want of an expletive had -hardly given up the use of oaths; Her Grace of Marlborough -habitually retained them; and men felt but little restriction -in the presence of women. Indecent equivoke and <i>double -entendre</i> were thought witty even in good society, and -judging from Swift’s correspondence with Lady Betty -Germain and Miss Arbuthnot, there was a freedom of -speech between the sexes that astonishes one. Modesty -must have been relegated to the fan, for evidently it was -not on guard in the ear any longer.</p> - -<p>Away from the temptations, engagements, and frivolities -of town life, as housewives and mothers (to give them their -due), these ladies took an active part in domestic affairs, -and taught their children, harshly enough sometimes, the -lesson of dutifulness and obedience—a lesson too much -neglected in modern education. But for a woman to exhibit -a love of learning or a predilection for its pursuit was to -incur the suspicion and contempt of her own sex, and the -derision of the other. Ordinarily women read, in the language -of the day, ‘to kill time,’ and this amusement was chiefly -supplied to them by the playwrights or the novels of Fielding -or Mrs. Aphra Behn, works of fiction that taught their readers -a new use for the squabs of the settee or sofa whenever a -visitor was announced.</p> - -<p>The mission of the essayists who produced the <i>Spectator</i> -and <i>Guardian</i> was to purify the manners of the times, to -awaken an interest in literature for its own sake, and to show -through the amusing medium of narrative and anecdote the -meanness and wickedness of much that was going on unconcealed, -and yet unnoticed, around them.</p> - -<p>It is said that the publication of these works exercised a -perceptible influence on society, and produced a permanent -improvement in morals, no mean mission, nor contemptible -result, if they ever effected it.</p> - -<p>Few country ladies, unless privileged persons who desired -to keep up their relations with the Court, came to London<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span> -in those days, except on urgent occasion. The great trouble -and expense the journey involved, the execrable condition of -the roads, and terror of the highwaymen who infested them, -were reasons quite sufficient to account for the home-staying, -which has often been put to their account as a virtue, and -flaunted in the face of their travel-loving great-great-great-grand-daughters. -The principal event in the lives of many -country ladies was the summer visit to one of the fashionable -spas—Bath or Harrogate, Tunbridge or Hampstead Wells—where -they met old friends and renewed acquaintances, -picked up the threads of unfinished family histories, saw -dress ‘as worn in the politest circles,’ compared notes with -one another, and acquired the newest information of the -world that lay outside their own, so that on their home-going -they became exemplars and oracles on all social and -society matters to those of their acquaintance who had not -had the felicity of visiting the spa.</p> - -<p>But to return to Hampstead. The light-hearted indifference -to what was going on around them enabled the fashionable -visitors to endure the scandal of the runaway marriages -at Sion Chapel, the hurly-burly of the four days’ fair, and -the company brought together by these doings; but at last -the cheating play at the raffling-shops, and the morals of -Hampstead, became so notorious ‘that persons of character -were almost ashamed to be seen there, even with their own -relations,’ and the most reckless of the rank and file of -fashion found it necessary to turn their backs upon it. Yet, -before it reached this last depth of moral degradation, -Hampstead Wells must have exhibited a brilliant epitome -of Bath and Tunbridge. Of course, the behaviour of the company -at the Assembly and Long Room was not lost sight of -by the wits and satirists of the day. The ballad-singers -preserved the follies of the Wells in wicked verse; the playwrights—at -least one of them, as we have seen—dramatized -them; and I should not wonder if Baker’s holding of the -‘mirror up to Nature,’ or the modish pretence of Nature -that so often passes for it, had something to do with the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span> -waking up of thoughtful people, and the falling-off of fashion -from the place.</p> - -<p>A few people of the upper class, who had learned to love -sweet Hampstead for its own sake, continued, from season -to season, to return here for change of air, so that the better -kind of lodging-houses in Pond Street and elsewhere were -not wholly deserted. Neither were the Wells, of which we -have a rather deterrent proof in the following advertisement -from the <i>Daily Courant</i> of June 18, 1718:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘<span class="smcap">Hampstead.</span>—Whereas it has been reported that a robbery has been -committed this season upon the road to Hampstead Mineral Well, this is -to inform ladies and gentlemen that for the future at half-past ten in the -evening, every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday (being public days), -there will be a sufficient guard, <i>well armed</i>, sent by the inhabitants of the -said Wells, to attend the company thence to London.’<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> - -</div> - -<p>Evidently the citizens and their wives, and others of the -inhabitants of London, did not forsake the allurements of -the Long Room and the Walks. Neither did the City -seamstresses in their vamped-up fine clothes, nor the -City fop,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Who put on belt and sword at Temple Bar.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>The early termination to the evening’s entertainment, in -contrast with the all-night dancing Arabella had enjoyed at -the Wells, is noticeable in the above advertisement, but is -by no means attributable to the improved morals of the -place. It appears to have sunk year by year.</p> - -<p>The cheating at the gambling-tables led to fighting and -riots. Footpads lurked in the fields and hedges, and highwaymen -infested the roads, making them more than ordinarily -perilous for foot-passengers, and adding greatly to the duties -of the magistrates at Hicks’s Hall (the annals of which would, -I imagine, throw considerable light upon the story of the -Hampstead Wells at this intermediate period).</p> - -<p>Ten years after the decline of their fashion, many of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span> -buildings in the Well Walk disappeared, but the tavern, then -known as the Whitestone Inn,<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a> the Assembly-room and -pump-room (under the same roof), and the Long Room, -with the tea and coffee rooms adjoining it, remained. -Dr. Gibbons still lived, and still retained his faith, as did -Dr. Arbuthnot also, in the valuable curative quality of the -water, and the invigorating air of Hampstead, which, when -occasion required, he not only recommended to his friends, -but sought himself. In this way it is that we find Gay here -in the summer of 1722, whose friends had ‘brought him,’ as he -says, ‘to Hampstead at a time when his life was despaired -of,’ after the failure of the South Sea Scheme, in which his -slender fortune was invested. Here, in Well Walk, we can -imagine him seated, with Pope and Arbuthnot by him, owing -his recovery almost as much to the tenderness of the author -as to the skill of the doctor.</p> - -<p>It was during Gay’s stay at Hampstead that he wrote his -tragedy of ‘The Captive,’ which he was requested to read to -the Princess of Wales at Leicester House. On that occasion, -when the hour came, and he saw the Princess and her ladies -in expectation, advancing ‘with reverence too great for -any other attention, and pre-resolved to impress Her Royal -Highness as favourably towards the poet as the poem, he -quite lost sight of a footstool in the way, and, stumbling over -it, fell against a large screen, which he overset, and thus -made his obeisance in a style that threw the ladies into no -small disorder, and himself into such a state that but for the -good-nature of his royal auditor must have told severely -against the effect of the tragedy,’<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> which was brought out -at Drury Lane, and played on the third night by particular -desire of the Princess of Wales.<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> Think of the good-natured<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span> -merriment with which Arbuthnot, ‘who was seldom serious -but when attacking some great enormity,’ received the -account of his fat friend’s sudden projection into the royal -circle; how Swift must have chuckled over the comicality, -Pope and the rest of the witty brotherhood joining in a -loud laugh that none would enjoy more heartily than the -genial-tempered subject of it.</p> - -<p>In 1723 I find Mrs. Pendarves writing to Swift that ‘the -beautiful Irish girl, Miss Kelly’ (the <i>Syren</i> of this lady’s letters -to her sister) ‘is at Hampstead, quite alone, and she deserves -it. She is in a very expensive way, with her sickness, her -servants, and her horses, high passions, low spirits, and a -tyrannous father.’</p> - -<p>Not a very pleasing picture of the wilful Irish beauty who -paid Hampstead the compliment to prefer it to more fashionable -places. Yet the fair widow had previously written of -Miss Kelly as ‘very harmless, and not at all <i>coquet</i>; she -brings in all the news that flies about, and now and then -adds a little of her own.’</p> - -<p>This is the lady about whom Lady Betty Germain eight -years later writes to Swift, observing:</p> - -<p>‘Miss Kelly was a very pretty girl when she went from -hence, and the beaux show their good taste by liking her. -I hear her father is now kind to her, but if she is not -mightily altered, she would give up some of her airs and -equipage to live in England.’</p> - -<p>In a letter of a later date, to the Dean, Lady Betty says:</p> - -<p>‘Surely your Irish air is very bad for darts, if Miss Kelly’s -are blunted already. Make her cross father let her come -here, and we won’t use her so in England.’</p> - -<p>Once more, May 1, 1733, Lady Betty, still writing to -Swift, says:</p> - -<p>‘I am extremely Miss Kelly’s humble servant, but I will -never believe she is more valued for her beauty and good -qualities in Ireland than she was in England.’</p> - -<p>Then comes a bit of ill news concerning the Hibernian -beauty:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span></p> - -<p>‘I am heartily sorry for your new friend, Mrs. Kelly, who -writes in a desponding way to Mrs. Chambers (Lady Betty -Germain’s niece) about her health, and talks of going to -Spa. This is a melancholy subject, and I hate to be vexed, -so I will say no more of it.’</p> - -<p>But she does say some more about it in a letter to the -Dean from Knowle (or, as she spells it, Knole), July 9, 1733:</p> - -<p>‘I hear poor Mrs. Kelly is not near so well as she says; -and a gentleman that came from Bristol says she looks -dreadfully, and fears that it is all over with her, and that no -mortal could know her. So ends youth and beauty!’</p> - -<p>And so exit the beautiful Miss Kelly, of whom I find no -further traces at Hampstead or elsewhere. Her story, I -think, may easily be traced in these few epistolary extracts: -‘That she belonged to the beau monde is evident, or she -would not have been received into that “old courtiers’” set,’ -as Mrs. Pendarves calls Lady Betty, whose name visitors to -Knowle will be familiar with.<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE WELL WALK—THE SECOND PERIOD.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>Although it could not be said that the Wells -were ever actually closed till subsequent to 1809, -the visits of the head-borough and a <i>posse</i> of constables -at unexpected hours had so disarranged -the system of play in Well Walk that before 1725 the -gaming-tables, and with them the raffling-shops, had disappeared.</p> - -<p>Defoe, in an early edition of his ‘Tour of Great Britain,’ -tells us, in describing the Hampstead Wells, that <i>besides the -Long Room</i>, where the gentry meet to amuse themselves and -play at cards publicly, on Monday evenings, there is an -Assembly-room for dancing 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, -elegantly decorated. Every gentleman who subscribes a -guinea has a ticket for himself and two ladies; to non-subscribers -the fee for admission is two and sixpence. -Another authority adds that most of the resident gentlemen -are subscribers.<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> - -<p>In these days of incandescent gas and electric light, one -shudders at the thought of this handsome sixty-feet-long -assembly-room illuminated by chandeliers filled with -pyramids of candles, with others in plated or pewter -sconces at set distances on the walls.</p> - -<p>At Almack’s, long afterwards, where only the best wax-lights<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span> -were tolerated, complaints of the destruction to the -ladies’ dresses, and gentlemen’s also, from the dropping of -the melted wax upon them, were frequent. I have no doubt -the same lamentation was heard at Hampstead, where the -method of lighting could scarcely have been as perfect. But -if the illumination inside be thought inadequate, what is -to be said as to the state of things outside? It was a happy -circumstance when a full moon fell due upon an assembly -night, and was accordingly set forth in the advertisement. -Otherwise a row of lanterns, suspended from tree to tree -above the Well Walk, lighted the visitors to the rooms, -though these, towards the end of the century, were superseded -by ill-smelling and uncertain oil-lamps.</p> - -<p>Under these circumstances, leaving the rooms was perilous. -Groups of flambeaux in the hands of waiting serving-men -and link-boys threw a lurid glow through the foul-smelling -smoke that clouded them, and under cover of which cut-purses -and pickpockets, amongst them, perhaps, the notorious -Jenny Diver herself,<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> were enabled to mix with the company -leaving the doors, and relieve them of laced handkerchiefs, -fans, purses, snuff-boxes, and jewellery, without detection. -Not unfrequently the throng was swelled by a mob of roughs -(as we now call them), who, getting up a quarrel for the -express purpose of creating confusion, could so cover the -retreat of the thieves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span></p> - -<p>This state of things was often recurring in Well Walk, -and continued down to quite the end of the eighteenth -century. Cradock, quoted by Lord Campbell in his ‘Lives -of the Lord Chancellors,’ tells his readers that one evening -the Misses Thurlow (there were three of them),<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> being at -the Hampstead Assembly, were on returning in some danger -from a riot at the door, from which they were rescued by a -young officer who happened to be present, and who handed -them in safety to their coach. The incident reads like the -opening of a Della Cruscan romance; but, alas! the Lord -High Chancellor Thurlow had outlived romance, though he -made a point of calling the next morning on the young -gentleman, whom he found at breakfast, and satisfied his -sense of obligation to him by offering to partake of it, which -he did.</p> - -<p>How or when the notorious Sion Chapel was disposed of -we learn nothing.<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> Park is silent on the subject. I think -it not impossible that on the falling off of visitors to the -Wells, and the probable discontinuance of marriages at the -chapel, the latter being private property, the owner may -have turned it wholly to secular uses, and have converted it -into the fine Assembly Room, with the hope of adding a new -attraction to the place for the general public.</p> - -<p>If so, he appears to have wholly failed in his speculation, -for, owing to the questionable company who found admittance -to it, the resident gentry withdrew their patronage, and -held their assemblies in the long room of the Upper Flask. -This movement must have destroyed at one stroke the -prestige and prosperity of the beautiful Assembly Room, -the assured support of which rested with the resident -subscribers.</p> - -<p>But if Park ignores the fate of the degraded Sion Chapel, -he is almost as reticent with regard to the New Episcopal -Chapel in Well Walk. He makes a mistake of eight years<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span> -in the date of its opening. The bell, and the altar plate, the -first given by Mr. Rous and Mr. Wood (a name long known -in connection with Hampstead), the latter by the old -physician, Dr. Gibbons, were severally inscribed, ‘New -Chapel, Hampstead, 1725,’ and ‘Nova Capella de Hampstead, -1725.’ Park did not know of this till the editor or -a contributor to the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i> challenged the -correctness of the date he had given (1733) for the opening -of the new chapel.</p> - -<p>In 1725 Dr. Gibbons died, leaving, as a testimony of his -concern for them, £100 to the poor of Hampstead. Six -years later I find in the obituary of the <i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i>, -under the date of September 26, 1731, ‘At Hampstead, Mr. -Rous, who built a chapel there.’ Park states that the New -Chapel in Well Walk was <i>universally</i> understood to have -been the Assembly room of the Wells Tavern,’ but he admits -that Mr. Rous having built a chapel, and the expressions -‘Nova Capella’ on the altar plate, and ‘New Chapel’ on -the bell, seem rather to contradict the traditionary account -that it was originally a ballroom; but he observes with the -tenacity of an unconvinced man, ‘I have met with no positive -evidence on this subject.’</p> - -<p>During the lapsed quarter of a century between the -opening of the Wells and the opening of the New Chapel in -Well Walk, great additions and alterations had taken place -in the village. The beauty of the situation and the well-known -healthiness of the air induced many of the wealthy -merchants of London to purchase or build mansions on and -about the Heath, and their example was followed by some -of the well-to-do people of a lower grade, who began to run -up (every man being his own architect) edifices that in their -fantastic reality vied with the imaginary structure of Joseph -Wilks, of Thames Street, Esq., who, in the event of his -ticket in the lottery winning, resolved to fit up a snug little -box at Hampstead in the Chinese taste for his retirement -on Sundays.<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span></p> - -<p>I find from a guide-book of 1724 that at that time -Hampstead had risen from a little country village almost to -a city. In October, 1734, Dr. Arbuthnot, who was ill at -Hampstead, says when writing to Swift: ‘I am going out -of this troublesome world, and you, amongst the rest of my -friends, shall have my last prayers and good wishes.’ He -had gone there so reduced by a dropsy and asthma that he -could ‘neither sleep, breathe, eat, or move,’ and, contrary to -his expectation, had recovered his strength to a considerable -degree, and was able to ride, sleep, and eat with appetite. -He tells his friend that he expects upon his return to London -and the coming of winter that the symptoms of his disease -will return with them, for that ‘no man at his age could -hope to recover.’</p> - -<p>His experiment had been, not with a view to life, but <i>ease</i>. -‘I am at present,’ he says, ‘in the case of a man that was -almost in harbour, and then blown back to sea; who has a -reasonable hope of going to a good place, and an absolute -certainty of leaving a very bad one;’ and then he corrects -himself, having experienced many comforts in this world in -the affections of his family and the kindness of friends, and -gives a touching peep at his domestic relations in three or -four lines:</p> - -<p>‘My family give you their love and service. The great -loss I sustained in one of them gave me my first shock, and -the trouble I have with the rest to bring them to a good -temper to bear the loss of a father who loves them, and -whom they love, is really a most sensible affliction to -me.’<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p> - -<p>Shortly after the date of this letter, Pope, writing to one -of the Miss Blounts, tells her that he had seen Dr. Arbuthnot, -who was very cheerful:</p> - -<p>‘I spent a whole day with him at Hampstead. He was -in the Long Room half the morning, and has parties at cards -every night. Mrs. Lepell and Mrs. Saggione and her sons -and two daughters are all with him.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span></p> - -<p>In the March following Dr. Arbuthnot died, as he believed -he should on his return to London.</p> - -<p>‘Poor Arbuthnot, who grieved to see the wickedness of -mankind, and was particularly esteemed by his own countrymen,<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> -is dead, to the great regret of everyone who had the -pleasure of knowing him intimately.’</p> - -<p>Of him Swift wrote to Pope, referring to his humanity -and benevolence, ‘Oh that the world had but a dozen -Arbuthnots in it! I would burn my travels’ (‘Gulliver’); -and when a lady asked the satirical Dean for the Doctor’s -character, he summed it up in a sentence, ‘He has more -wit than we all have, and his humanity is equal to -his wit.’</p> - -<p>The presence of such an invalid at the Wells is a proof -that faith in the potency of the regimen observed there, and -in the health-giving air of the Heath, was by no means -withdrawn from them. Indeed, we read that at this date and -during the previous season, more company had been seen in -the walks than had visited the village for years—a fact not -lost upon Dr. Soames, the friend of, and possibly the successor -to, Dr. Gibbons, whose treatise afforded him the literary -material and groundwork for his pamphlet on the ‘Hampstead -Mineral Wells, with Directions how to Drink the -Waters’—an essay calculated to impress his patients, and -even the general public, with the sanitary combinations of -the rural resort. It was published in 1734, and is not -without interest. He repeats the description of the older -writer and physician, that Hampstead ‘is situated somewhat -romantic, but every way pleasant, on several little hills, on -high ground of different soils.’</p> - -<p>‘That here persons may draw in a pure and balmy air, -with the heavens clear and serene, at that season of the year -that the great and populous City of London is covered with -fogs and smoke. And what adds,’ observes the doctor, -‘to the blessings of the place is the salubrious water of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span> -Hampstead, which may be justly called the Fountain of -Health.’</p> - -<p>He describes the chalybeate as breaking out from the -declivity of the hill, to the east of the town, near the chapel -and bowling-green, and tells us that it was conveyed -through a pipe to a marble perforated bowl or reservoir -adjoining the chapel. Dr. Soames, as his predecessor had -done, notices the views from the Heath, its soils, and the -number of aromatic plants growing on it, and adds that the -Apothecaries’ Company seldom miss coming to Hampstead -every spring to have their botanizing feast.<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> ‘As for walks -and shady groves,’ he continues, ‘we have our share, and -those are very delightful.’ But his praises of the spring -which trickled till within the last few years into its basin on -the left-hand side of the walk on entering it from the Heath, -and his regimen for the water-drinkers, are the most amusing -part of his treatise. He assures his readers that ‘the -chalybeate, though as strong, if not stronger, than that of -Tunbridge Wells of the iron mineral, is not at all unpleasant; -that if well corked and sealed down, and kept in -a cellar for one or two years, when you have drawn the cork -it will be most ready to fly, and when poured into a glass, -will sparkle and knit up like a glass of champagne or -Herefordshire cider.’</p> - -<p>He recommends the drinking of this water in cases of -defective digestion, in preference to the drinking of drams -(a thing too common in his day), which he hopes ‘may not -spread its contagion beyond his own sex.’ At the same time -he greatly hopes that the inordinate drinking of <i>thea</i> may be -retrenched, which, if continued in, will infallibly ‘cause the -next generation to be more like pigmies than men and -women.’<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> The best time to take the waters is from June<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span> -to Michaelmas; the time of day an hour after sunrise (no -wonder music began in the Long Room at 6 a.m.). He -allows his patients balm, or sage tea, with a little orange-peel -in it for breakfast; or chocolate, milk, porridge, or -mutton-broth, with bread-and-butter. An hour after -taking the water, coffee may be used—the less the better—but -as for the green or bohea <i>thea</i>, that ‘ought to be -banished.’</p> - -<p>Smoking appears to have been allowed, for Dr. Soames -observes that those who take tobacco ‘may do so with all -safety’; only he politely suggests, ‘let them not offend the -company, especially the ladies, who cannot well relish that -smoke with their waters.’ He recommends his patients a -ride of four or five miles one hour after drinking them, or, -where there is an objection to riding, to divert themselves -with the amusements of the place. These, as we have -said, had considerably contracted since the days when the -members of the Kit-Cat Club had mingled with the visitors -in the walks, and exchanged smart repartees together, as -was the fashion of the day, when the last bon-mot at -Button’s was set against the newest scandal at the -Wells.</p> - -<p>Dr. Soames’ regimen, it will be seen, consisted in early -hours, temperance, pure air, invigorating exercise, and whatever -tended to maintain a cheerful temper; these made the -curative charm of the Hampstead waters, and for a time -restored the reputation of the Wells.</p> - -<p>It is rather amusing to find the curate in league with the -doctor, and setting himself forth as an example of the efficacy -of the waters. ‘Could my pen convey to others the idea I -have of them,’ exclaims this enthusiastic partisan, ‘and the -advantages we should have in using them, we should see the -walks crowded as heretofore, twenty or thirty years ago. -And it is some pleasure,’ he adds complacently, ‘to be -informed that this summer they have not been without a -pretty number of visitors.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus57"> -<img src="images/illus57.jpg" width="500" height="325" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Old Cottages, North End</i></p> -</div> - -<p>If we add the amount of satisfaction felt by Mr. Watts, -Curate and Lecturer of Hampstead, to that of the inhabitants -whose tenements were at the disposal of the said visitors, we -get the idea that Hampstead must have smiled all over this -season with a satisfaction it had not known in many preceding -ones. All the little green-fenced white cottages in -the neighbourhood of South End and the Vale of Health -(reminiscent in its very name of the Gibbons and Soames -period), as well as those on the upper slope of the East -Heath and Squire’s Mount (to which a then leafy lane ran -up from the Wells), had had a fresh coat of spotless paint -put on. The mistresses of them were nodding and smiling -to one another at their doors, and asking if they were ‘all -let,’ or ‘quite full,’ or some question or other, indicative of a -personal and neighbourly interest, which left it without -doubt that they themselves had not another room to spare; -while the select houses in Pond Street, and Lower Flask -Walk, with their better accommodation and superior landladies, -received such an access of purification and polish,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span> -that the flashing of the fanlights over the hall doors, and -the shining of brass knobs and knockers, and the superlatively -white, neatly-festooned blinds to every window, -were in themselves so many letters of recommendation writ -large.</p> - -<p>Lodgings were to be had in the High Street, where little -else was to be had, the few shops in it, with their half-hatch -doors, open shop-boards, and hanging shutters, showing only -the most simple necessaries of village life—always excepting -the so-called general shop, with its heterogeneous stock of -dry-goods, drapery, and drugs. Every household in those -days baked its own bread, and an itinerant butcher visited -the village weekly.<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> But the farms and cottages around -supplied the freshest butter, eggs, milk, cream and poultry, -with the common kinds of vegetables and fruit; for the rest, -there was the London carrier, who led his horse by easy -stages up the hill, bringing provisions, as requisitioned from -day to day, for the visitors.</p> - -<p>At the opening of the season, the farmhouse productions -rose to famine price; the laundresses who lived in a congeries -of cottages, at the bottom of the Vale of Health, -with their backs to the east wind and the pool—for the -pond as we see it now was not made till 1777, previous to -which date it was a mere pool fed by a spring that trickled -from the bank that margined it—immediately raised their -prices. The parson bethought him of charity sermons, -and the doctors of increased fees; and thus the whole -social system of the village found itself comforted, and -enriched, by a restored faith in the medicinal springs. In -fact, to again quote Baker, ‘everything became as dear as -a freeholder’s vote, and as great an imposition as a Dutch -reckoning.’</p> - -<p>But the Hampstead of these later days was an altered -place from what it had been when Baker’s comedy was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span> -written. It had been made to see the error of its ways, and -as the greatest sinners are said to become the greatest saints, -so the peccant village appears to have recoiled to the opposite -degree from its former self, even to the verge of decorous -(some said dismal) dulness, and had fallen into neglect, as -Dr. Soames very oddly phrases it, ‘through the knavery of -some, the folly of others, and the exceeding great zeal for -the glory of God and the good of the poor.’</p> - -<p>The raffling-shops shut up, Mother Huff’s no longer heard -of, the tea-gardens deserted for the most part by all but the -common people, ‘who on Sundays, always mindful of the -commandment which enjoins them to do no work on that -day, took occasion to eat buns at Chelsea, drink beer at -St. Pancras, of being sworn on the Horns at Highgate,<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> and -of drinking tea at Hampstead or <i>Little</i> Hornsey,’<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> which was -in the centre of the present Finsbury Park.</p> - -<p>New Georgia was as yet unheard of, but, if I remember aright, -the bowling-green had not disappeared. The tavern is doing -a brisk business; the Long Room is full of fine company, -and the walks between the elms and limes in blossom, bright -with colour, and gay with mirth, which, more robust than in -these artificial times, laughed out merrily and was not -ashamed.</p> - -<p>Cards, I am obliged to say, were as much in request as -ever, but the cheats at them were not professionals; and -though Dr. Soames distinctly set his face against the ‘violent -exercise of country dances,’ the fortnightly meetings in the -Long Room were not thinned thereby. Concerts were of -frequent occurrence, and the following ditty,<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> originally -printed on a broad-sheet, and which afterwards appeared -in the <i>Musical Entertainer</i>, and was set to music by Mr. Abel<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span> -Whichello, under the title of ‘The beauties of Hampstead,’ -was, in all probability, first sung at the Wells:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Summer heat the town invades,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All repair to cooling shades;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">How inviting, how delighting,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are the flowery hills and vales!</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Here, where lovely Hampstead stands,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the neighbouring vale commands,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">What surprising prospects rising,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All around adorn the lands.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Here ever-woody mounts arise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">There verdant lawns delight the eyes,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Where Thames wanders—in meanders—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lofty domes approach the skies.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Here are grottos, purling streams,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Shades defying Titan’s beams;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Rosy bowers, fragrant flowers,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lovers’ wishes, poets’ themes.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Of the crystal, bubbling well,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Life and strength the currents swell;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Health and pleasure, heavenly treasure.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Smiling, here united dwell.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Here, nymphs and swains, indulge your hearts,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Share the joys the scene imparts;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Here be strangers to all dangers</div> - <div class="verse indent0">All but those of Cupid’s darts!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It is not impossible that a local speculator may have -bribed the muse of one or other of the ever-ready Grub -Street poets to compose these verses, which read very like -a lyrical advertisement of the place; while the broad-sheet -form in which they first appeared was the usual one in which -such poetical puffs were presented.</p> - -<p>Nothing can be more Arcadian than the conceits and -images in this effusion; no one reading it at this time of -day would imagine danger lurking in the shape of footpads<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span> -in St. Pancras Vale, where Smollett makes one of his heroes -walk with a drawn sword by the side of his mistress’s coach -on her way to town from the Flask Walk. It was better to -fall into the hands of the redoubted Turpin himself than into -those of these cruel and rapacious robbers.<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> He, on the -other hand, affected a certain bonhomie in his proceedings, -and loved best to disembarrass his victims of their property -without unnecessary violence. His wit appears to have been -heavier than his hand.</p> - -<p>‘You will soon be caught!’ cried out an angry but non-combative -gentleman, one of two in a chaise, whom, besides -others, he had robbed on a certain Sunday on the road -between Hampstead and Highgate.</p> - -<p>‘So I have thought myself,’ returned Dick, ‘but believe -I am in no danger from you!’</p> - -<p>During the years that had passed between the first opening -of the Wells and this temporary resuscitation of their popularity, -death had broken up that knot of brilliant wits and -writers whose presence there has made Hampstead classical. -Addison and Steele, Arbuthnot and Gay, were, in one sense, -simply names, but names so intimately interwrought with -the literature of their age and country as to be for ever -inseparable from it.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Those sovereigns of the Muse’s skill</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Are the true patterns of good writing still!’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Swift, parted by the Irish Sea from his old associates, still -lived, Dean of St. Patrick’s; and only Pope, pale and sickly, -represents the bright band of literary brothers who had -found many suggestive themes, in the Well Walk and its -vicinity, for the exercise of their genial humour or piquant -censorship. Jarvis, the friend of the poet, writing about this -period to Dean Swift, observes: ‘Pope is off and on, here<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span> -and there, everywhere, <i>à son ordinaire</i>, therefore as well as -we can hope for a carcase so crazy.’ Jarvis was the well-known -‘face-painter,’ contemporary with Sir Godfrey Kneller, -and who had given lessons to Pope in portrait-painting.<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> - -<p>The latter continued to visit Hampstead for Murray’s -sake, whose love for the charming place ‘amounted almost -to a passion,’ and who sought it on every opportunity.</p> - -<p>One of the persons most constantly seen in the Long -Room and the walks, at this period, was the newly-made -Poet Laureate (Colley Cibber), a man of vast intelligence, -though a little too full of self-importance, and perhaps -egotism. His ‘Birthday Odes’ were the delight of the wits -and the amusement of the critics, who pounced down upon -them in the <i>Grub Street Journal</i>, and other publications, -and literally tore them line from line. Colley was himself -insensible to satire, though he could wield it very successfully -against others. He always remained perfectly satisfied -with his own performances as playwright, manager, and -poet. So devoid was he of any sense of the absurdity of his -odes, that he was in the habit of carrying them about with -him, and reading them to those of his acquaintances who -would listen, all the while unconscious that the little ill-dressed -man, with the pain-drawn, sallow face and large, -dark, luminous eyes, who was never without a knot of the -best people in the company, <i>la crême des beaux esprits</i>, about -him, was passing round an epigram of his own, the reading -of which occasioned hilarious laughter.</p> - -<p>The lines ran as follows:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘In merry old England it once was a rule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The King had his poet, and also his fool;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But now we’re so frugal, I’d have you to know it,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That Cibber can serve both for fool and for poet.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span></p> - -<p>Let us take Swift against Pope:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Sir, I admit your general rule,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That every poet is a fool.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>No doubt Colley Cibber, who at seventy years of age aped -the airs of a man of fashion, made himself as ridiculous on -the walks at Hampstead as he subsequently did on the -Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, where Richardson describes -him making love to the handsome Miss Chudleigh (the -pseudo Duchess of Kingston<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a>), and growing green with -jealousy when she bestowed a smile on anyone but himself. -His appointment to the Laureateship, and the Birthday and -other odes in which he exhibited his poetical fitness for the -honour of the wreath, occasioned Lady Betty Germain to -remark, in one of her clever letters to Dean Swift, that if it -was the Queen, and not the Duke of Grafton,<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> that picked -out such a Laureate, she deserved his poetry in her praise.</p> - -<p>In May we find Mrs. Donnellan,<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> sister to the Bishop of -Killala, and a friend of Swift’s and Mrs. Delany’s,<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> writing -to the latter that she is waiting in Dublin to cross to England -‘when the wind served.’ This lady, who appears to have -frequently renewed her visits to Hampstead, was received in -the best society, and especially sought that of distinguished<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span> -literary people. She was the Philomela of the Widow Pendarves’ -correspondence with her sister—an affectation that -suggests that, like so many of her charming country-women, -she had the gift of a melodious voice added to that exquisite -Gaelic endowment of taste and feeling in the use of it. -Richardson, who after the appearance of ‘Pamela’ had -become famous, and was fêted and run after, especially by -women who affected literature, was a friend of hers. She -appears to have preferred Hampstead, not only for the sake -of the Wells, but from her innate love for the natural beauty -of the place.</p> - -<p>In 1748, the year ‘Clarissa’ took the reading world by -storm, Richardson succeeded in persuading her that the air -of the north-west suburb was too sharp for her, and so lured -her for a time to North End, Fulham. But though getting -into years, the lady appears to have had a will of her own, -and in the summer of this year returned to her favourite -place of abode and the shelter of Pond Street.</p> - -<p>Richardson, writing to Mrs. Delany, informs her of her -friend’s removal, and adds: ‘I did myself the honour to -dine with her there (Pond Street) yesterday. The weather -was not propitious ... she complained.... I chid her -for her removal. But upon my word, madam, I do think it -is not so very much amiss sometimes that control ... but -no more on this subject.... I will only add that she -rejoices in her prospects variegated with hill and dale. They -are certainly very fine.’ To this epistle, the style of which -is very like that of his epistolary novels, Mrs. Delany, whose -‘deportment was all elegance, and speech all sweetness,’ as -Burke expressed it, a born courtier at heart, replies that she -has written to Mrs. Donnellan, ‘condemning her, though -she was loath, for going to that <i>ugly Hampstead</i>, which -she had never loved since Clarissa had such persecutions -there.’</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, Mrs. Donnellan continued to enjoy the air of -Hampstead from time to time for ten years longer. Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span> -Barbauld, in her ‘Life of Richardson,’ tells us that a friend -of hers at Hampstead could remember her ‘a venerable old -lady with very sharp, black eyes.’</p> - -<p>She was an intimate friend of the famous Mrs. Montague, -the acknowledged patron of the literary and artistic celebrities -of the time, the entrée to whose drawing-rooms bestowed a -sort of diploma on the favoured recipient, which, by the way, -was never extended to the literary bookseller. Mrs. Donnellan -died of what Mrs. Montague calls ‘a cold and fever,’ the precursor, -probably, of our modern influenza, as universal a -plague in 1772 as the latter in 1893-94.</p> - -<p>Though for a brief period after the publication of Dr. -Soames’ treatise the presence of an increased number of -visitors gladdened his heart, it soon became apparent that -no persuasive pamphlet, no poetical puff, could restore it. -The favour of people of fashion had passed away from it.</p> - -<p>The walk without the raffling-shops and gaming-tables, -and the ballroom without the freedom of the all-night -dancing, had no charms for any others than the real lovers -of the delightful suburb for its own sake. It came to be -considered as a sort of natural sanatorium, a pleasant rustic -summer resort and resting-place; and as the fame of the -waters fell away, except in the grateful remembrance of those -who had imagined themselves benefited by them, the reputation -of its pure, health-giving air and the natural beauty -of its situation and surroundings became more obvious to -persons who, like Mrs. Donnellan, Mr. Murray, and others, -were permeated with an ever-growing love of them.</p> - -<p>It was no doubt the dearth of entertainment for the visitors -that suggested to the inventive imagination of the sexagenarian -Robert Causton the idea of opening the tea-drinking house, -with pleasure-gardens, waterworks, and various ingenious -contrivances (to which I have elsewhere referred) in a part -of Turner’s Wood, the wood where the lilies-of-the-valley, -once indigenous on Hampstead Heath, lingered latest.</p> - -<p>It was opened in 1737, and became so popular with Londoners<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span> -and the general public, that it remained open twenty -years afterwards, so that the enterprise must have amply -repaid the originator.</p> - -<p>From this it would seem that not only Mother Huff’s, but -others of these apparently innocent places for refreshment -and recreation (so-called tea and bun houses), with their fair -bowling-greens, and garden bowers, for summer evenings’, and -Sunday afternoons’ rest and pleasure, were included in the -general blight which the drastic measures of the magistrates -at Hicks’s Hall had inflicted on Well Walk and its neighbourhood. -We recognise the reason for this measure when we -learn that many of their proprietors had succeeded, through -a direct infringement of the law, in obtaining licenses for the -sale of wine and punch, and in this way tea-houses had -become sources of dissipation and vice.</p> - -<p>In 1744, Pope, whose life had been one long illness, finally -disappeared from the Well Walk, where with Murray and so -many other wits and celebrities he had shared with the -lighter crowd in the fashions and follies of the place—the -last but one of that bright galaxy of literary stars in which -it had been his privilege to shine and mingle. He died, -to the regret of many admirers and the sincere sorrow of -his friends. With all his faults—and they were flagrant—there -must have been something lovable and sympathetic -in his nature, to have won and kept the life-long friendship -of men with minds and dispositions so differently -constituted as Dr. Arbuthnot’s, Dean Swift’s, John Gay’s, -and Mr. Murray’s.</p> - -<p>His love for his mother and Gay was almost feminine in its -steadfastness and tenderness, and I fancy we may discover -something noble in his self-restraint when tending the latter -from time to time during his illness at Hampstead, for, -though suffering himself from the same circumstances, he -never seems to have alluded to his own share of loss in the -South Sea Bubble.</p> - -<p>How affectionately each of the three ‘Yahoos’—Jonathan<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span> -Swift, John Gay, and Pope—alludes to the time they spent -together at Twickenham, and how much of real pathos he, -the most artificial of poets, crushed, as it were, into the two -last lines of his intended epitaph on Gay!—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘For all thy blameless life the sole return,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">My verse, and Queensberry’s tears above thy urn.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Everyone knew of the misunderstanding between him and -Addison from the commencement of his career; yet in -expressing his regret for the essayist’s death, he observed -there was in Addison’s conversation ‘more charm than he -had heard in any other man’s.’ High praise from a supposed -adversary, but praise that was assuredly due to him.</p> - -<p>In the <i>Penny London Advertiser</i>, under the date of -June 13-15, 1744, and the heading ‘Home News,’ it is -stated that ‘Last week the body of Mr. Pope was privately -interred at Twickenham, when twelve men and twelve -women were entirely new cloathed, and attended his corpse -to the grave, pursuant to his will.’<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> No reference is made -to his genius, no word is said of his works; nor does it -appear that any personal friends attended his funeral. I -have said that, owing to his deformity and other causes, his -life had been pronounced one long disease. I wonder if his -more robustly-constituted critics took this fact into consideration -when sitting in judgment on the bitterness, irritability, -and other sins of omission and commission of the man -of whom the friends around his death-bed observed ‘that his -humanity survived his understanding,’ and whom Gay had -said ‘he loved as his own soul.’ Think of fifty-six years’ -habitation of a misshapen, dwarfed, feeble body, in which -he could never have known freedom from physical depression, -and say how many of us under the same conditions might -not have dentated sharpest incisors rather than wisdom-teeth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span></p> - -<p>In 1748 Richardson, after eight years’ abstinence from -novel-writing, produced his crowning work, ‘Clarissa Harlowe,’ -a book that occasioned intenser excitement and more -eager expectation than any work of fiction that had preceded -it. To understand this, one has only to take a course of -eighteenth-century belles-lettres, as exhibited in the romances -of the magazines, and so-called memoirs, and narratives of -the day.</p> - -<p>In these no attempt is made to depict human nature -naturally, or to endue the characters represented with the -ordinary language, idiosyncrasies, temper, or feelings of -living beings. Richardson’s style was formal and spiritless, -and the epistolary form in which he developed his long-drawn -stories absolutely wearisome; but he painted men -and women, and made them speak. Their joys and sorrows, -trials and temptations, were true to Nature, as were their -weaknesses and vices; and this living force in his delineations—the -human passion and the human pathos, that -make many of his descriptions throb with life—touched the -hearts of his readers, unaccustomed to such graphic treatment, -with spontaneous sympathy, and set all England -weeping over the imaginary wrongs and sorrows of <i>Miss -Clarisse</i>, which Mr. Lang tells us the Young Pretender, with -a reward of £30,000 for his apprehension hanging over his -head, requested a lady of his acquaintance to secure for him. -Not only matrons and maidens, but men also, persisted -through the seven or eight volumes with unflagging interest, -and any amount of lachrymatory effusion, amongst them a -Bishop, who cheerfully averred that he had ‘shed buckets -full of tears over its pages.’<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a> No wonder if the author -(whom Horace Walpole and others regarded as a ‘conceited -prig’) did feel a little lifted up in self-estimation, especially -when Johnson sententiously observed to him that in writing -his story of ‘Clarissa Harlowe’ he ‘had enlarged the knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span> -of human nature, and taught the passions to move at -the command of virtue.’</p> - -<p>There is no doubt that Richardson’s writings initiated the -English novel, which henceforth became the favourite form -with writers of fiction. It will be remembered by those who -have read ‘Clarissa Harlowe,’ a reprint of which, edited by -Dallas, was brought out some years ago, that the heroine, in -her innocence, takes shelter at the Upper Flask Tavern, and -subsequently finds lodgings in Flask Road. Mrs. Barbauld -tells us of her own knowledge of a Frenchman who paid -a visit to Hampstead for the ‘sole purpose of finding the -house in Flask Walk where Clarissa had lodged, and was -surprised at the ignorance or indifference of the inhabitants -on the subject,’ just as if Clarissa had been a living -being.</p> - -<p>Her story indelibly associates the author with Hampstead, -where, indeed, the smooth-faced, precise, placid-looking little -man might often be seen in retired corners of the pump-house -or Long Room, or sidling behind the trees in the -walks, or propped upon his stick, his favourite attitude, -‘one hand in his bosom, and the other supporting his chin.’ -The year in which ‘Clarissa’ appeared was that in which -Johnson, in spite of his poverty, had taken lodgings for the -exacting Tetty in that ‘little house beyond the church,’ and -was hard at work upon the ‘Vanity of Human Wishes,’ -possibly to provide the means of paying for them. In this -year—the ‘Clarissa’ year—the inhabitants of Hampstead -being ‘very desirous to prevent any robberies or felonies -being committed in the said parish,’ had joined with those -of Hackney, Clapham, and probably other outlying suburbs, -and subscribed amongst themselves to a common fund, which -enabled them to offer a reward of ‘ten pounds to any person -or persons who shall apprehend or take any highwayman -or footpad, who shall commit any robbery within the said -parish.’<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span></p> - -<p>Similar announcements, differing in no way but in the -name of the place, appeared almost simultaneously in the -columns of the <i>Daily Advertiser</i> in the month of June, 1748.</p> - -<p>As early as 1736 the gentlemen of Hackney, then a -beautiful subrural village, much affected by rich City men -and merchants, had agreed to have ‘a good and substantial -watch to patrol the footway between London and Hackney, -from six at night till ten, all armed with halberts’; and -years previously the turnpike men had provided themselves -with long speaking-trumpets, that upon the first notice of a -robbery they might alarm the distant villages, and enable -the inhabitants to pursue the robbers. It was this state of -social terror that roused the householders from time to time -to band themselves together, and, armed with blunderbusses -and cutlasses, to patrol the roads in the neighbourhood of -their homes for mutual protection. Evidently a lawless -time, with only one remedy, the gibbet, which an appearance -before Sir John de Veil, or other Bow Street justice, -was almost certain to be the prelude to.</p> - -<p>The laws of England were draconic, the quality of mercy -unknown. All gradations of crime were condemned together, -and convicts came out by cart-fulls to Tyburn, where the -cruel, stealthy, midnight murderer, and the pitiful thief who -had filched a sixpence from a farmer’s boy,<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> came to the -same end, and were hanged. ‘The death penalty,’ says -Horace Walpole, ‘was as frequent as curses in the Commination -Service.’</p> - -<p>Through all these years no attempt had been made by -those in authority to remedy the dangerous state of the roads. -All round the Metropolis, even at noonday, no traveller -was safe. Barnet, Hoxton, the Hendon Fields, Finchley -Common, Tottenham Court Road, Pancras Meadows, the -Half-way House (Mother Red-Cap), Kilburn, and the Highgate -Road, were all haunts of footpads and highwaymen, -of whom, in 1736, Dick Turpin, especially in Epping Forest,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span> -was the most active and successful. Hence the crude co-operation -of the inhabitants of Hampstead and other villages -to defend themselves.</p> - -<p>A pamphlet written by Henry Fielding, the novelist, who -had been himself a magistrate, lets us into the fact that the -sympathies of the working classes were with the law-breakers, -who, though publicly known for such, rode impudently -through the streets<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> in the very sight of an officer -who held in his pocket the warrant for their arrest, but -dare not serve it for his life’s sake. It was verging towards -the close of the eighteenth century before Sir Richard Ford -established his plan of the horse patrol, or blind Sir John -Fielding his system of Bow Street runners—his ‘black band,’ -as they were called—and it was not till the fifteenth year of -George III. (1774) that an Act was obtained for the lighting -of the streets, roads, and public passages within the town of -Hampstead, and for the establishment of a nightly patrol -between the said town and London.</p> - -<p>With light, and the horse patrol, the vocations of footpad -and highwayman very soon showed signs of decline; but -intermediately we read such paragraphs as the following: -‘On Saturday night between eight and nine o’clock four -men were attacked in a field between Tottenham Court -Road and the Half-way House to Hampstead by a single -footpad, who came to them with a pistol in each hand, and -robbed them of what money they had.’</p> - -<p>A Mr. Herman was robbed of eight guineas and some -silver on Finchley Common, on his return from Barnet, by -two well-mounted highwaymen. A man was stopped close -to the barn near the Mother Red-Cap by some villains, who -robbed and murdered him, leaving him under the eaves of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span> -the barn, and two ladies were robbed on Hampstead Heath -by a young man who informed them that he was ‘a baronet’s -son, but in great distress.’</p> - -<p>Very often we read of persons dying from wounds received -in these brutal encounters, the scene of which, as in the -instances above quoted, was often very near to Hampstead. -‘Mr. Bocket, an old inhabitant, remembered the mail-coach -being robbed opposite Pilgrim Lane in 1800’—a fact for -which I am indebted to Martin H. Wilkin, Esq.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE MODERN WELL WALK.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>At the present day all that remains of the original -Well Walk are the great elms on the bank above -the bench at the Heath end of it, with two houses -so facially improved that I do not recognise them, -and the celebrated Long Room (Weatherall Place), converted -to a private house about a hundred years ago. Gainsborough -Mansions on one side of the way, and Gainsborough Gardens -on the other, which memorise the name of the donor of the -Wells, and the 6 acres of waste land lying about it, afford -a striking proof of the growing value of ground for building -purposes in the near neighbourhood of town, and the magnificent -increase in the value of the Wells property to the -poor of Hampstead.</p> - -<p>In 1811 Well Walk and thereabouts contained thirty-nine -houses. In one of these lived Thomas Park, the engraver, -father of the precocious historian of Hampstead. It did not -escape Mr. Abrahams that he was occupying a house rated -at £24 per annum, which should rightly have been rated at -£36. It is a pity that no inhabitant of Hampstead appears -to have taken any particular notice, or have kept any record -of the remarkable young man—Park junior—who, at an age -when other youths are scarcely out of the playground, was -eagerly collecting materials, and seeking every fragment of -information he could obtain towards the history of this -interesting suburb.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span></p> - -<p>Beyond the fact of his valuable work<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> and that he was -the son of a respectable inhabitant, we know nothing of the -youth whose after-career it would have been interesting to -follow.<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a></p> - -<p>In 1817, between the publication of his first poems and -‘Endymion,’ Keats was lodging in Well Walk. The house -was either the first or second from the tavern,<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> and its proprietor -was Bentley, the postman. It was here, feeling the -benefit that Hampstead air had been to himself, that he -invited his consumptive brother Tom to join him; and here -he nursed and tended him till his death, probably hastening -by this act of fraternal devotion the development of the -germs of the same fatal disease in himself.</p> - -<p>His next-door neighbours were two ancient, soft-hearted -single gentlewomen, whom Keats, who had a lively sense of -humour, informed his sister ‘possessed a dog between -them, who had grown so fat,’ ‘a corpulent little beast,’ he -calls it, ‘that when taken out for its daily exercise it had to -be coaxed along at the end of an ivory-tipped cane.’ The -ladies, the Miss Jacksons, continued to reside in Well Walk -long after Keats had left it, and the one who lived longest -attained a sort of local fame and memory, from the fact of -her leaving her dog a legacy, to insure its being taken care -of after her death, the legacy taking the form of a life -annuity to the animal.</p> - -<p>Keats’ visit to Scotland occurred whilst he was Bentley’s -tenant, and at a time when his bodily strength was scarcely -equal to the fatigue of rough roads and climbing hills, and -he writes:</p> - -<p>‘I assure you I often long for a seat and a cup of tea at -Well Walk.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span></p> - -<p>After his return, this walk with its seats and shade -became his favourite outdoor resort; and here it was, as we -have elsewhere said, that Hone saw him for the last time.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus58"> -<img src="images/illus58.jpg" width="500" height="575" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Well Walk.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>In 1830 Well Walk received another memorable tenant in -Constable, the painter, who from his first coming to London -had known and loved Hampstead. Immediately after -leaving the mills and streams of Berghold, we find him -passing whole days upon the Heath, and, with all a poet’s -ineffable love of Nature, making his fairest transcripts of -her at his ‘Sweet Hampstead’—an endless treasury to him -for all the purposes of his art. After his marriage he had -been in the habit of spending a portion of the summer -months here with his wife and children, always with the -same result, ‘no illness amongst them.’ But this year<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span> -(1830), instead of returning to the old lodgings at No. 2, -Lower Terrace, he rented a house in Well Walk, from -which in the August of the same year I find him writing to -his friend Leslie:</p> - -<p>‘Will this weather tempt you to walk over the fields to -my pretty dwelling in Well Walk?’</p> - -<p>In the next year (1831) I think it is quite clear that, for -some reason or other, he gave up this house in favour of a -larger and better situated one, else why should he write thus -to his friend Dean Fisher?—</p> - -<p>‘This house is to my wife’s heart’s content.... It is -situated on an eminence <i>at the back of the spot in which you -saw us</i>’ (Well Walk), ‘and our little drawing-room commands -a view unsurpassed in Europe, from Westminster -Abbey to Gravesend. The dome of St. Paul’s in the air -seems to realize Michael Angelo’s words on seeing the -Pantheon, “I will build such a thing in the sky.”’</p> - -<p>‘We see the woods and lofty grounds of the East Saxons -to the north-east.’</p> - -<p>The Well Walk then extended some distance, but in a -straight line and on level ground. Dean Fisher says the -house he visited was at the bottom of the walk, and Constable -himself that the one he is writing of was on an -eminence. I imagine that it must have stood on the same -side of the way as the Long Room, but beyond the walk, -on the slope of the rising ground about Christchurch, where -at that time of open spaces such a view was possible. I -remember an old and respected inhabitant of Hampstead -High Street telling me in 1859 that thirty years previous -you could see from what he called ‘Perrin’s Corner’ Erith -Reach, and the ships sailing up and down the Thames, -while the back-windows of his house looked over open fields -to Pancras. The house we are in quest of was rented at £52 -per annum, and £24 taxes—not an unimportant house in -those days—yet when William Howitt wrote his ‘Northern -Heights of London’ there was no house in Well Walk -possessing such a view as Constable had described; nor<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span> -could he,<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> though not much more than thirty years had -passed since the delightful painter of the ‘Cornfield, a View -near Hampstead,’ and the ‘Fir-tree Avenue on the Heath,’ -had resided in the vicinity, discover his sometime abode.</p> - -<p>Here the artist lost his beloved and loving wife, and wrote -in his diary under the date of her death, ‘I shall now call -Hampstead home.’</p> - -<p>Whereabouts, I wonder, stood that elegant group of trees, -ashes, elms and oaks, of which he made a study, and that -were to be of as much service to him as if he had bought -the field in which they grew? But his sketch-books were -full of the likenesses of the sylvan beauties of the Heath and -its neighbourhood—the beautiful trees that, like the clouds, -seemed to ask him to do something like them. Perhaps -those in the grounds of Mr. Charles Holford, of which he -made a sketch, may still be flourishing.</p> - -<p>In 1832 he exhibited ‘Sir Richard Steele’s Cottage, -Hampstead,’ and the next year finds him lecturing on art -in the Assembly Room on Holly Bush Hill. The date of his -last lecture before the Literary and Scientific Institution -was July 26, 1836. I was told a little story of Constable, -recounted by his son to an old gentleman who resided at -Hampstead, which exhibits the painstaking genius of the -painter. As a boy, he said, he used to sleep in his father’s -studio, and one of his earliest recollections was that of -being startled by seeing his father enter the room in the -middle of the night, very lightly clad, with a candle in one -hand and a brush in the other, for the purpose of adding a -suddenly conceived idea or additional touch to a picture, -before the suggestion should have faded away. After the -death of his wife, Constable retained his Hampstead house -as an occasional residence. He died in London in 1837, and -rejoined his beloved and two of their little ones in the -churchyard at Hampstead.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span></p> - -<p>In the magnificent summer of 1834 the brothers Chalons, -as full of charm, brightness and fancy as their pictures, spent -six delightful weeks at Hampstead, giving Constable an -opportunity he never lost of pointing out his pet views and -all the loveliest trees and best bits of his ‘Sweet Hampstead.’</p> - -<p>I remember Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Bartholomew, who -knew them well, telling me the following story of the -pleasant brothers: how a very large, straggling old vine -which covered the back of their house, and that of a titled -neighbour in a quiet street off a then fashionable square, -suddenly appeared <i>en papilotte</i>, to the astonishment of the -next-door household, whose share of the vine had never -developed a single blossom. A few days later a ladder was -laid against the wall, and one or other of the brothers -ascended it, and appeared deeply interested in examining the -vintage, which, looking at the number of paper bags covering -the vine, appeared to be quite wonderful. The artists’ old -French manservant and the housekeeper next door were on -very friendly terms, and she had essayed all her arts to discover -the mystery of the one-sided behaviour of the vine; -but the secret of its productiveness was his master’s, and -Le Brun was impenetrable. At last—for there had been -other innocent delusions and merry conceits on the part of -the light-hearted brothers—this daughter of Eve fell upon -the plan of pretending distress at the fruiterer’s failing to -send grapes in time for dessert, conscious that, if there was -any reality in appearances, this feint would discover it, and -was more than ever confounded when the old Frenchman -made his appearance no great while after, with messieurs his -masters’ compliments, and a basket of delicious grapes—‘their -own fruit.’</p> - -<p>Doubtless there have been other residents in Well Walk -of ‘mark and likelihood,’ but I am ignorant of them. The -most important houses in it in my time were the Pump-House -School, the Long Room, and its close neighbour, the -gloomy-looking Bergh, then the officers’ quarters of the -militia barracks close by. This, I am told, is now a private<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span> -residence, with handsome grounds and garden, concealed by -high walls. The Wells died out slowly, for outsiders still -retained their faith in the potency of the waters.</p> - -<p>When Dr. Hughson in 1809 published his ‘History of -London and its Neighbourhood,’ he states that Hampstead -then ranked high for the number and variety of its -medicinal waters; that beside the old spa of chalybeate -quality, there were two other kinds of mineral water. One -of them, a saline spring, was discovered by Mr. John Bliss, -an eminent surgeon of Hampstead, 1802. The other owed -its disclosure to Dr. Goodwin, another local practitioner; so -that it would appear that, though no longer a place of -amusement, the Wells continued to be resorted to by -invalids.</p> - -<p>In my own time it was quite common for working men -from Camden and Kentish Towns, and even places much -farther off, to make a Sunday morning’s pilgrimage to -Hampstead to drink the water, and carry home bottles of it -as a specific for hepatic complaints, and as a tonic and eye-water.</p> - -<p>We know from modern analysis that only one of the -springs contained sufficient iron to be of any medical use, -but, on the other hand, we have the practical testimony of -Dr. Gibbons, and of the royal physician, Dr. Arbuthnot, to -their curative qualities. May not modern building and -drainage have interfered with the sources of the springs and -deteriorated them?</p> - -<p>There has always been an uncertainty in modern times as -to the origin of the chapel in Well Walk. Hampstead’s own -historian, Park, appears to have had no better foundation for -his short notice of it (p. 236, 1818 edition) than surmise and -tradition; but there are cases in which Tradition may be -trusted as the handmaid of Truth, and this is certainly one -of them.</p> - -<p>The chapel appears to have served a very useful purpose -for more than a hundred years, ninety-three of them as a -chapel of ease to the parish church, St. John’s Chapel, on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span> -Downshire Hill, not having been built till 1818. For many -years after I knew Hampstead these three continued to be -the only places of worship connected with the Establishment; -now I understand there are, within the fourteen -ecclesiastical districts into which the parish is divided, as -many churches, besides a number of other places of worship.</p> - -<p>The opening of St. John’s Chapel of Ease to St. John’s, -Frognal, does not appear to have interfered with the congregation -attending the chapel in Well Walk, who continued -to worship there till Christ Church was built, when the -congregation removed to it, about 1852-53. Then the chapel -in Well Walk was let to the Scotch Presbyterians, and it -remained their place of worship till about 1861-62, after -which (never having been consecrated) it was let to the -Hampstead Rifle Volunteers, who were in want of a drill-hall, -and it continued to be retained for this purpose till -about a dozen years ago, when it was taken down and the -site used for building upon.</p> - -<p>A gentleman then connected with the Hampstead Rifle -Corps, and who was deputed to oversee the alterations in -the building, necessary to fit it for its new purpose, has kindly -enabled me to follow, and with his help unravel, the story of -the origin of the Wells Chapel.</p> - -<p>The conversion of this mutable building to military uses -involved the taking down of all its former fittings—pews, -galleries (of which there were three), etc. The space -thus gained resulted in a vast room, 90 feet long by some -36 feet wide, and 24 feet high. A wainscot, about 4 feet -high, ran round the wall, and on removing a portion of it -at the north-east end of the apartment, a sort of niche or -recess in the depth of the wall, which was very thick, disclosed -itself, and was clearly, to men acquainted with such -appearances, the place where the basin and discharge-pipes -of an old fountain had been. It had remained hidden behind -the wainscot from the time this had been put up. This was -surprise the first; but ‘some time after’ (I will let my correspondent -tell the story) ‘the workmen, who were cleaning the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span> -walls for recolouring, came to tell me that they had found -some old paintings on the walls. On going to look at them, I -found that there were just nine life-sized figures representing -the Muses. There could be no doubt about this, for the -name was painted under each figure—Clio, Euterpe, and so -on. These paintings were seen by various people; but they -were rather faint and much damaged, and, as the work of -redecoration had to go on, they were again coloured over -with distemper.’ Now, leaving the region of fact and entering -that of speculation, I think that this large apartment, -some 90 feet long by 36 feet wide, could not have been the -chapel spoken of by various writers.<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> I cannot but think it -was the old Pump Room, converted afterwards into a large -chapel (with its galleries capable of holding some 1,000 -persons). My correspondent adds: ‘Besides its great size, -one can hardly imagine that such uncanonical figures as the -Muses could ever have been painted on the walls of a chapel, -and I am sure that the paintings I saw were as old as the -building itself.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus59"> -<img src="images/illus59.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Assembly and Pump Rooms, Well Walk.</i></p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span></p> - -<p>All this mystery was delightful to me, for I felt sure I held -the key to it. I remembered the fine Assembly Room, 60 feet -long, and elegantly decorated, and felt confident that -Park’s belief was vindicated, and that, as he had stated, the -chapel in Well Walk was ‘made out of the old Assembly -Room.’ This room, however, was stated to have been -60 feet long, and here were 90 feet to be disposed of. But -my informant quickly wrote: ‘Thanks to our correspondence, -I think I see a way of explaining that which has perplexed -you with respect to the chapel mentioned by the -authors you quote. Your last letter seems to give the clue -to the whole matter. If you will kindly refer to the sketch-plan -I sent you, you will see that the size of the building -there depicted is given as 90 feet long by 36 feet wide. I -have, perhaps, rather mistaken the width. Now, if you take -off from this building 60 feet, you will have left an apartment -30 feet long. Was not this smaller room the Pump Room, -and the other the Assembly Room? If you look at the view -of this old building given in Baines, you will see that it is -one as seen from the outside, and I know from my own -observation as a surveyor that from its style this building -must have been built about the commencement of the last -century. I consider,’ adds this gentleman, ‘that the Pump -Room and Assembly Room were converted into what was -known as Well Walk Chapel in the last century.’<a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a> The -change took place, as we know, in the first quarter of it. -Subsequently I learned that the paintings were at the end -and sides of the building farthest from the recess, which, -of course, appertained to the Pump Room. Baines’ view -shows that there were eight windows on the north-west side -of the building, next the Well Walk, and my informant -thinks the windows on the opposite side were equal in -number. The figures of the Muses were painted in the -spaces between the windows and at the end. The exterior -walls of the building were of red brick, but had been coloured -over, and, after the mode of building in those times, were -very solid. I think this discovery definitively establishes the -origin of the Well Walk Chapel, and proves Park to have -been correct.</p> - -<p>Until pretty deep in the fifties, the upper part of Well -Walk possessed a small but beautiful grove of century-old -lime-trees, now very nearly destroyed by the unskilful hands -of someone ignorant of the knowledge of forestry. It is perhaps -noteworthy that Mr. Gurney Hoare, his brother, wife -and children, were members of the Well Walk Chapel -congregation, the first part of the family, it is said, to -become members of the Church of England.</p> - -<p>About fifteen years ago the public basin on the left-hand -side of Well Walk as you entered it from the Heath was -removed, and a new stone structure, with pipe and basin, -was placed by the Wells Charity on the opposite side of the -Walk. A memorial tablet attached to this structure bears -the following inscription: ‘To the Memory of the Honourable<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span> -Susannah Noel, who with her son Baptist, third Earl -of Gainsborough, gave this Well, with six acres of land, to -the use and benefit of the poor of Hampstead, December 20, -1691.’</p> - -<p>Under this inscription appear the following lines:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Drink, traveller, and with strength renewed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Let kindly thoughts be given</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To her who has thy thirst subdued,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Then tender thanks to Heaven.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>G. W. Potter, Esq., a gentleman eminently interested in all -that concerns Hampstead and its inhabitants, and to whom -I am indebted for much valuable information, tells me that -people come in numbers to the fountain of a morning, but the -water barely drips, and is only very slightly chalybeate in -character. But this circumstance induced him, as one of -the trustees of the Wells Charity, to get his fellow-trustees -to make a small grant of money to be expended in the -endeavour to discover the old chalybeate spring, and in -greater volume. The Vestry’s workmen were accordingly employed -under his direction, with the result that a source of the -true chalybeate waters in abundant quantity was discovered. -‘Unfortunately, the analysis showed that the water contained -a small amount of organic matter, and the local -officers of health very properly will not allow the water to -be used by the public unless it is practically pure.’</p> - -<p>‘I have reason for thinking,’ continues my correspondent, -‘that the water was fouled accidentally by the workmen -making the trial shaft, and further efforts are to be made.’ -With what results to Hampstead who can tell?</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_304"></a>[304]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>HAMPSTEAD LATER ON.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>In later years, as soon as May fretted the Kilburn -meadows with cowslips, and the birds began to warble -the livelong day and half the night in the woods and -the thickets and groves upon the Heath, sensitive -persons ‘in populous city pent’ found themselves irresistibly -drawn to one or other of the many paths crossing the Marylebone -fields, or that ran up from the west, by Lisson Grove, -then a tree-shaded, pleasant neighbourhood of good houses, -and so by Kilburn meadows to the Heath and Hampstead, -‘each rural sight, each rural sound, fraught with delight.’</p> - -<p>Such persons sought it simply for the pleasure of the -place, the charming views, the ‘sweet, salutary air,’ the -walk, and a few hours’ idling on the turfy slopes of the -West Heath, or elm-shaded lovers’ bank now lost to us. -Every breath was an inspiration of health, every whiff of air -came laden with the odours of melilot and sweet-scented -vernal grasses—not yet quite ready for the scythe. For -some travellers there followed luncheon or a cosy dinner at -one or other of the favourite taverns (there were no hotels -in those days), and for frugal mothers and their little ones -tea or new milk, home-made bread and fresh-churned -butter, the milk from the Morland-like farmhouse at -North End, familiar to us as Collin’s farm,<a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> or at some convenient -cottage, the cleanliness and modest charges of which -were well known, and tried by past experiment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_305"></a>[305]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus60"> -<img src="images/illus60.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Dr. Johnson.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>Amongst these summer visitors to Hampstead in the last -half of the eighteenth century many old familiar names -jostle. Here we again meet Dr. Johnson, with his dictionary -speech and ponderous learning, dogmatic and dictatorial as -ever. But he has in the meantime finished his great word-book, -and, no longer dependent on booksellers, but much to -his comfort, though directly against his principles (thanks to -Lord Bute), is in the receipt of a Government pension of -£300 a year, and able to indulge the active benevolence of -his nature, and to make his house in Bolt Court, Fleet -Street, an asylum of bounty to many grumbling dependents, -hardly grateful to him. Mercifully, ‘Tetty’ had deceased -before the augmentation of her husband’s means could help -her in the larger development of her personal wants; and -though he decorously mourned her with closed doors for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306"></a>[306]</span> -forty days, he by this time, with the aid of company and the -clubs, appears to have overcome his sorrow, and to be having -an excellent time of it in the society of Mr. Reynolds (not yet -Sir Joshua), with whom almost from the period of his coming -to town he had had a club and tavern familiarity. At -last, according to Northcote, after many failures, he had -succeeded in getting admission to the great painter’s house -in Leicester Fields, as well as to the tea-table of his sister, -Miss R. Reynolds, with whom he soon became a prime -favourite.</p> - -<p>It was after criticising the “Percy Ballads,” and drinking -unnumbered cups of his favourite beverage, that the Doctor -(the rhythm of the verses running in his head) burst into his -clever impromptu imitation of it:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Oh, hear it then, my Renny dear,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Nor hear it with a frown:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">You cannot make the tea as fast</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As I can pour it down.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>It was after this that he made the acquaintance of the rich -Bermondsey brewer, Mr. Thrale, and his young and clever -papillon wife (afterwards Mrs. Piozzi), and became a -weekly guest, and subsequently almost a fixture, at their -hospitable Streatham home, Thrale Park. Better fortune -has made but little change in him so far as appearance is -concerned: he is just as slovenly and personally uncared for -as in the years gone by; perhaps, if possible, he is even -more awkward and ungainly, because grown more massive, so -that, though written of another,<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> it might be said of him,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘When <i>Johnson</i> treads the street the paviours cry,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“God bless you, sir,” and lay their rammers by.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Yet it is something added to the interest of Hampstead and -its walks, that they have known the weight of the great -Doctor’s tread, and the pressure of the serviceable oaken -staff with which he steadied the uncertain movements of his -unwieldy frame and vacillating legs, which, like his arms, to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span> -quote Lord Chesterfield, were never in the position which, -according to the situation of his body, they ought to be in.</p> - -<p>His burly figure is so familiar to us—thanks to friend -Reynolds—that we can easily imagine him rolling along, -not averse to a talk with any intelligent passer-by, for he -himself was an illustration of his own remark, ‘that one man -would learn more in a journey by the Hampstead coach, than -another would in the course of the Grand Tour.’</p> - -<p>It is not the love of Nature, however beautiful, or of fine -views, that brings him here—he valued neither. Either he -accompanies friends, or expects to meet some or other of his -club associates, Goldy or Garrick, whom he ‘allows no man -to find fault with but himself.’ Or it may be Hogarth in his -sky-blue coat, who, with the actor, likes to be where folks -foregather, and loves Hampstead for its own sake. Did he -not select the Hampstead Road for the scene of his “March -to Finchley”?<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> There was a time when he brought with -him his favourite friend, the genial old sea-captain, Thomas -Coram. How could a kindly-hearted man, the merriest in -Fleet Street, enjoy the finest views, and air nearest heaven in -his neighbourhood, and not desire the Jonathan of his soul -to share them with him? While he, having seen his scheme -of a foundling hospital accomplished, could with a white -conscience afford himself a ‘sunshine holiday.’ But all -that is past. The old philanthropist died in 1751, and</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Home had gone and ta’en his wages.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">As it is, what a unique party they must have made at one or -other of the pleasant taverns, and how much has Boswell lost -for us, by not hearing the rich after-dinner talk of them over -the ‘wine and walnuts,’ or bowl of punch, or often the homelier -refreshment of brown ale and clean Broseley pipes! The -number they smoked and the quantity of ale they consumed -remains a social problem of their times unsolved.</p> - -<p>The Well Walk is clean swept out of many of its old -properties, but the Tavern, the Episcopal Chapel, with a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308"></a>[308]</span> -modern Pump House, and the Long Room on the other -side of the way, still remain. In summer the Walk is -seldom destitute of company; either the force of habit -or the associations of the spot attract visitors to it. At -this period patients, though few, were never wholly absent, -and conversation and cards had still their headquarters -in the Long Room; invalids naturally preferred the -level walk and the benches in the Lime-tree Avenue, from -which the unimpeded view eastward must have been very -charming.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus61"> -<img src="images/illus61.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>James Boswell.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>It seems a long way back to the days when Addison, with<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span> -that knot of literary men (‘who gave a more undying lustre -to the reign of Queen Anne than even the brilliant victories -of Marlborough’) met here; yet Pope, the last of them -(save Swift), had been lavish in praise of Richardson’s -“Pamela,” and knowing nothing personally of Johnson at -the time, but the reputation of his scholarship, and of his -poverty, upon the publication of the latter’s poem, “London,” -used all he had of influence with Swift, and that of others -with Lord Gower, to procure the writer of it an Irish degree, -so that the title of Doctor might enable him to obtain a -mastership of £60 per annum. The act was unsolicited, and -should always be remembered to the credit of the bard of -Twickenham. Pope had passed away, but Johnson had -personally known him. Richardson, whom we last met in -1748, and who had fed ever since on the honey of feminine -adulation, is still an occasional visitor to Hampstead, and -finds his way to the Well Walk with his old friend Mrs. -Donnellan, where Mrs. Delany and the Dean, who managed -to spend a considerable portion of their time on this side of -the Channel, might sometimes be met with, for they had -personal connections and friends in Hampstead and the -neighbourhood.<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a></p> - -<p>Dapper little Colley Cibber, ‘the greatest fop either on or -off the stage’ that Lady Braidshaigh had ever seen—‘an -irreclaimable old sinner’ she calls him—still visits his -favourite suburb, and haunts the precincts of the altered -Wells, hunting after new faces, and as happy if he can obtain -the notice of a fine woman as he was at the age of seventy-seven, -when Richardson found him dabbling with the Tunbridge -Waters, and described his vanity in a letter to Miss -Mulso. In the interim one of his odes has been set to -music by Mr. Greene, and been sung in the clubs and -coffee-houses. But some things have gone out of his life. -Mr. Foote is too busy with his summer performances at -the Hay market to be wiled from business by the ancient -Laureate, and his old friend, the handsome, clever Barton<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_310"></a>[310]</span> -Booth, has long since found a place amongst the celebrities -in Poets’ Corner.</p> - -<p>Pertinaciously present at the Assembly balls and in the -Long Room, we should see Dr. Akenside, pale and proud, -and with the stamp of genius on his handsome brow, passing -without recognition, or meeting supercilious looks of contempt, -which he is not slow to return with scorn.</p> - -<p>Sometimes Garrick brings his graceful Viola (she was -called Violette by command of Maria Theresa), on the occasion -of a special concert or other entertainment in the Long -Room, where Goldsmith, who loves music, and still better -to escort Miss Reynolds and her friends, appears in bag-wig -and sword and his second-best suit of ‘Queen’s blue -silk,’ lined with satin. Once Miss Reynolds was asked to -toast the ugliest man she knew, and instantly named Oliver -Goldsmith, but on reading “The Traveller,” rescinded her -opinion. The beautiful thoughts of the poet transfigured -the man, and she could never after think him ugly.</p> - -<p>Another noticeable person seen here from time to time -was the cheerful, chatty Dr. Young, the protégé of Mrs. Boscawen, -widow of the Admiral who resided at Colney Hatch, -the friend and correspondent of Richardson. Young’s daily -utterances had no affinity with his sombre “Night Thoughts,” -lines lit with loveliness though many of them be. Charming -Mrs. Montague, too, occasionally appeared—a little later than -May Day, when she was wholly engaged with her annual -feast and garden-party, her guests being the little sweeps of -London, enfranchised for one summer day in their miserable -existence by this lady’s compassionate thought for them. -Her death must have been a real sorrow for the black -brotherhood of London climbing boys, their one friend out -of all the great multitude of its inhabitants, till Elia’s -gentle-hearted friend Jem White for some years resumed the -festival.</p> - -<p>As we have said, the persons we have recalled are well -known to us, almost as well as if we had lived, and walked, and -talked amongst them; they stand out saliently from the general<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_311"></a>[311]</span> -company. But there is a new order amongst these whom we -know not. The Toupees, young gentlemen of fashion, who, -while periwigs were still worn, wisely took the ordering of -their heads into their own hands, and wore their own hair -powdered and brushed up from the forehead in a top-knot or -toupee. They appear to have been the precursors of the -modern masher, and when on the Mall, or at Ranelagh, or -Vauxhall, were said to be composed of powder, lace, and -essences. ‘You may know them,’ says one authority, ‘by -the dress of the toupee, the buckles in their shoes, the choice -of the waistcoat, and the cock of the hat.’<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a></p> - -<p>But there were times when these ‘pretty fellows’ aspired -to quite another rôle, that of hackney-coach and curricle -driving, the latter vehicle being of such a height and build -as to render the exercise really dangerous. Yet to drive -furiously was a <i>sine quâ non</i>; and as the public parks scarcely -admitted of such performances, the race-course at Hampstead -was a favourite rendezvous for these “young bloods,” and -the Chicken House, and other summer lodgings, were for -some seasons much patronized by Templars, and other -youths in the ranks of the Toupees.</p> - -<p>To old ladies they seem to have been a terror in more -ways than one, and they do not always appear to have put -off the characteristics of the hackney coachman with his -three-caped coat. When Swift, remembering the clever -horsewoman Lady Betty Germain had been when Lady -Betty Berkeley, recommended her for her health’s sake to -ride when in London, among other reasons which she gave -him for not doing so was this: that ‘nothing would more -rejoice the Toupees than to see a horse throw an ancient -gentlewoman.’ Miss Burney a few years later introduces -us, in ‘Evelina,’ to some of these eighteenth-century Jehus.</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, one after the other of the frequenters of the -Hampstead walks we have recalled is missed from them. -First the soft-hearted old seaman, Captain Coram, passes -away; then Colley Cibber vanishes; and Richardson dies<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_312"></a>[312]</span> -(1761), and is followed a year later by his venerable friend, -Mrs. Donnellan. More than a dozen years after Richardson’s -death, I find in the delightfully-named ‘Flowers of Parnassus,’ -in the <i>Monthly Miscellany</i> for 1774, ‘Lines addressed -to a Lady weeping over “Clarissa.”’</p> - -<p>From the period of what is called the Augustan Age of -English literature, Hampstead had claims to be considered, -if not the literary suburb which it subsequently became, at -least an appanage of the Muses. If their most famous representatives -did not absolutely reside here, they were, at all -events, frequent visitors, so much so that the Muses themselves -were poetically fabled to have forsaken</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent12">‘Aganippe’s font,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And hoof-ploughed Hippocrene,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">for</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Hampstead courted by the western winds,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">as Dr. Armstrong in his poem to ‘Health’ sings of the upland -suburb, where he and his brother resided for some time, -being very well regarded by the inhabitants. Could the -doctor have been that other ‘tame genius’ that Horace -Walpole bracketed with Akenside?</p> - -<p>In those years plain little Thomas Gray,<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> who could see -the ‘northern heights’ from his lodgings west of the museum, -with their woods and massy elms, and loved them as much -as Milton had done—Gray of the deathless ‘Elegy,’ that, -had he never written another line, would have ranked him -with the immortals, might occasionally have been met -wandering alone upon the Heath, or in the company of -friends in the walks, an incomprehensible poet to the author -of ‘Rasselas,’ who could neither feel his sensitiveness to -the influence of Nature nor the exquisite pathos of this -poem.</p> - -<p>As one by one the bright lights of literature faded out,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_313"></a>[313]</span> -others arose in their stead, and found their way as visitors -to the topmost of the London levels. Dr. Johnson still -survives the greater number of his contemporaries, and -is occasionally to be found at Hampstead, a guest at the -suburban feasts given by his friends.</p> - -<p>In 1778 Miss Burney’s ‘Evelina’ appeared, to the surprise -and delight of the world of letters, and little Fanny Burney, -Dr. Johnson’s ‘Fannikin,’ became famous. Certain scenes -in her novel assure us of her acquaintance with Hampstead -Wells and its sometime visitors. Her description of the ball -in the Long Room has done as much to memorise that -building as Richardson’s ‘Clarissa’ did for the Upper Flask -and Flask Walk.</p> - -<p>When, in 1782, ‘Cecilia’ was published, Miss Burney’s -fame enlarged. The greatest men of the day eulogized her -works, and overwhelmed her with compliments and congratulations, -Burke, Johnson, Reynolds, Windham, Gibbon, -and Sheridan being of the number. At public places she -became the ‘observed of all observers,’ and the gaze of -admiring crowds ‘followed her along the Steyne at Brighton, -and the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells.’ Two years later, in -1784, the year her friend Dr. Johnson died, Mrs. Barbauld -was staying in London, and witnessed a balloon exhibition -at the Pantheon, which occupied the site of the future opera-house. -In a letter to her niece she observes that next to the -balloon Miss Burney is the object of curiosity. In the next -year, 1785, when the Barbaulds moved from Wimbledon to -Hampstead, Mrs. Barbauld brought her literary reputation -with her, and was at once received in the best local society, -the centre of which at this time, as I have elsewhere said, -was Heath House, the home of the liberal-minded Quaker -banker, Samuel Hoare. Here she made the acquaintance of -many literary persons of note, amongst others that of Dr. -Beattie, and Dr. George Crabbe, the author of the ‘Borough,’ -the poet of the poor as he was called, and subsequently that -of Mrs. Hannah More, Miss Seward, Mme. Chapone, and, -in curious contrast with them, the banker-poet, Samuel<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_314"></a>[314]</span> -Rogers, and later still Montgomery, whose sobriquet was -‘Satan,’<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a> and nearer again to this century Campbell, and -Coleridge. In the autumn of 1788 I find Samuel Rogers -writing to Mrs. Barbauld that they are to have an assembly -at the Long Room on Monday, October 22, ‘which they -say will be a pretty good one,’ inviting her to join their -party. He was probably staying with his sisters at Hampstead, -a frequent practice in those days instead of going to -the seaside.</p> - -<p>In 1855 the author of the ‘Pleasures of Imagination’ and -various other works died, aged ninety-two years. He was -born in 1763.</p> - -<p>In 1785 there had appeared in the journals and magazines -of the day the appointment of Miss Burney to the Court -function of Dresser to the Queen, and for five years the -literary world lost sight of the clever novelist, who at their -expiration managed to get enfranchised from what had -proved to her the house of bondage, and we find her at -Hampstead in 1792, the guest of the celebrated Mrs. Crewe.</p> - -<p>At this time many notable persons were living here. Lord -Loughborough, rather tolerated than trusted, resided in the -Chesterfields’ old house, which we are told resembled in -appearance an ancient French château, and on receiving the -title of Lord Rosslyn he renamed it Rosslyn House. Lord -Erskine had his home at the Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, -as it was sometimes called, not very far from Caen Wood, -Lord Mansfield’s seat, and Lord Thurlow, the ‘lion of the -law,’ had a retreat at Hampstead. His town residence was -in Great Ormond Street, then abutting in the rear on fields, -whence the thieves who stole the Great Seal made their way -to the house. Other men high in legal office, bankers, and -rich merchants, were living at Frognal, and North End; and -so far as rank and wealth were concerned, the village of -Hampstead at this period was eminently favoured.</p> - -<p>Lord Thurlow, who seems to have ostentatiously set -social laws at defiance, in spite of fashion, was wont to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_315"></a>[315]</span> -appear amongst the visitors ‘wearing his full suit of cloth -of the old mode, great cuffs, massy buttons, great wig, long -ruffles,’ his black eyebrows exceeding in size any Lord -Campbell had ever seen, and ‘his voice, though not without -melody, was like the rumbling of murmuring thunder.’<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> -Fanny Burney says of his voice: ‘Though low, it was very -melodious.’ I do not know if when at Hampstead he permitted -the companionship of the tame white goose by which -he was generally attended in his London home, and which -followed him about his grounds, and is said to have been -never absent from his consultations. If so, the presence of -his feathered pet must have considerably added to the -grotesqueness of his own; for a gentleman’s dress of the -period, as established ‘in the polite circles of St. James’s -and at Bath,’ consisted of a light-coloured French frock, -with gilt wire or gold buttons, breeches of the same colour, -and tamboured waistcoats for afternoon dress. His lordship’s -wide-skirted coat, like the rest of his habiliments, -must have been a score of years behind the mode. Strong -passions and a hard, vindictive, unforgiving nature lowered -in the large dusky eyes and thick, almost meeting eyebrows -of his lordship. His treatment of the daughter who had -offended him by marrying the man she loved, but who -nursed her father with the greatest tenderness in his last -illness, fully bears out the character that his countenance -indicated.</p> - -<p>With the commencement of the present century, new names -appear in connection with Hampstead and its celebrities. -Joanna Baillie, the shy girl of Mrs. Barbauld’s acquaintance, -upon the publication of her tragedy of ‘De Montfort,’ was -at once accepted as a genius and poetess. A few years later -Sir Walter Scott visited Sweet Hampstead to do her honour, -and heralded the poet of Rydal Mount,<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> some years in advance -of his appearance there in person. Later on in the present -century we find Lord Byron, for his health’s sake, I presume,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_316"></a>[316]</span> -spending some weeks of summer in one of the toy cottages -in the Vale of Health, two doors distant from that subsequently -tenanted by Leigh Hunt. It was on a window-pane -of this humble habitation, and not, as has been stated, -in Leigh Hunt’s cottage, which he never visited, that he -wrote with a diamond (a favourite amusement of the time -when diamonds were less common than in these days) two -lines which are said to have afterwards appeared in ‘Childe -Harold.’</p> - -<p>In 1816 the presence of Leigh Hunt, fresh from expiating, -by a fine of £1,000 and three years’ confinement in Horsemonger -Lane Gaol, the crime of libellously characterizing -the Regent as ‘a fat Adonis of fifty,’ is felt as a social shock -by some of the eminently loyal residents of Hampstead, -especially when the magnetism of the man attracted Shelley -to him—the disowned and denounced Shelley; then came -Charles Lamb<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> and Keats, and robust Charles Cowden -Clarke, with his voice and laugh as strong as the blast of -the rams’ horns that levelled Jericho—in brief, the brotherhood -who constituted what the critics of that day called -the ‘Cockney School of Poets,’ a school whose works—those -of three of them, at least—were destined to a worldwide -reputation. The ‘Essays’ of Leigh Hunt are too -delightful reading to be ever wholly laid aside.</p> - -<p>When Keats’ first book of poems appeared, one of these -critics, more mannerly than most of them, admitted that -the author had ‘a fine ear for the grand, elaborate, and -abstracted music of Nature, and now and then catches a few -notes from passages of that never-ending harmony which -God made to retain in exaltation and purity the spirits -of our first parents.’ A curious limitation to the power -of an eternal harmony. At the same time, he accuses the -poems of ‘savouring too much of the foppery and affectation -of Leigh Hunt.’</p> - -<p>When the tall, fragile figure and beautiful face of Shelley<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_317"></a>[317]</span> -were no more seen on the Heath, when Keats had forsaken the -‘places of nestling green for poets made,’ and Elia and his -sister were no longer met with in the vicinity of the Vale of -Health, and Leigh Hunt himself—the slight, rather tall, -straight gentleman with the wide low forehead, dark eyes, and -foreign complexion, whom Godfrey Turner remembered and -described to me, and to whom (except in height) his son -Vincent, whom I knew, must have borne a strong resemblance—had -all left Hampstead, there still remained Joanna -Baillie and her literary home, which had, as time went on, -become a pilgrimage and shrine, not only to the most -celebrated men and women of England, but of those of -other countries also.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus62"> -<img src="images/illus62.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Keats.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>As we approach contemporary times, we find Hampstead -as attractive to the Howitts, and the authors of ‘Festus ’ -and ‘Orion,’ poets who almost ‘achieved greatness,’ and -yet failed to grasp it; and Westland Marston, and William -Allingham, and Ruskin, and Tennyson himself, and all the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_318"></a>[318]</span> -wits of the first <i>Punch</i> period; and that bunch of novelists who -bloomed almost simultaneously—Thackeray and Dickens, -Ollier and Ainsworth, Lover and Lever, Anthony Trollope -and Douglas Jerrold, and a host of other authors and artists; -for, from the days of Addison and Sir Godfrey Kneller, no -neighbourhood has proved more in sympathy with the pursuits -of both brotherhoods, whether of pen or pencil.</p> - -<p>Oh, those old taverns!—those trysting-places of successive -generations of wits and men of genius! May your walls, -coeval with the Kit-Cats, keep their memories green for -generations yet to come, and with them those of the men -of genius of our day, whose names are ‘household words’ -in the land of their birth, and in every other English-speaking -country also.</p> - -<p>To-day, as in the older days we have attempted to recall, -artists and literary men and women still feel the attractions -of the pleasant suburb, and increase them by the magnetism -of their own; for delightful as the natural beauties of Hampstead -are, how much less would they loom without the charm -of these associations that meet us everywhere, and people the -Well Walk, and the Hill, and Heath with memories of the -deathless men and women who have trodden them!</p> - -<p>Nor do we forget that a share of this interest is due to our -American kinsfolk, who have freely sent us their stars, whilst -reserving their stripes for our enemies; for them, as for -us, the facts that Washington Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne -of the ‘Scarlet Letter,’ the fated Margaret Fuller, -Mrs. Stowe, Wendell Holmes, and many others of their gifted -nation, have made pilgrimages to the gleby Heath, and looked -with loving eyes on scenes made sacred by the transition of -immortals through them, whose works live on through the -dead centuries, and whose names have passed into glories, -are so many added charms to the intrinsic ones of our Sweet -Hampstead.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_319"></a>[319]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>A RETROSPECT.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>As I approach the end of my pleasant task, the contrast -between the ‘Sweet Hampstead’ of Constable’s -(and even of my own) time with the present, makes -itself felt with a sense of loss and change that is -almost pathetic, so many of its lovely accessories are now -missing. It is like contrasting the simplicity and grace of -childhood with the conventional man or woman it has subsequently -developed.</p> - -<p>Instead of rejoicing in its enlargement, and the importance -of the townlike outgrowths on its skirts, at the increase of -its wealth, and the growing numbers of its population, I like -to think of it as it was in those far-away days, when the -walk to it through Gospel Oak Fields was such an easy one -to me, and the toil of the ascent of what is now the East -End Road repaid itself in refreshing draughts of the ‘impalpable -thin air’ one breathed upon its summit.</p> - -<p>Then Hampstead was a street of village shops upon the -slope of the hill, with a broken sky-line of red-roofed, one-storied, -brown-brick or weather-boarded houses, with small -windows, often glazed with glass that darkened light. Some -of the shops had still hanging shutters, and open shop-boards, -and many of them half-hatch doors, a few of which, -with a fine vein of what was called independence, were -comfortably bolted against all comers during meal-times. -Not many years ago I met with the same custom in -practice at Totnes, on the river Dart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_320"></a>[320]</span></p> - -<p>A narrow footway paved with cobble-stones followed the -irregular outlines of the street, and made Hampstead, like -other places of pilgrimage, a place of penance also for the -pilgrims who chose that narrow way. The shops then -were dusky little places, with not much choice of goods; -and what there were, were exhibited with little taste in the -arrangement of them. What did it signify? Everyone knew -of what his neighbours’ stock consisted, and consequently -where to get what he wanted. There was no hurry in those -days, and plenty of time for everything. Very few people -except visitors were to be seen about, and there was a -delightful freedom from the sounds of vehicles—a stillness -in the uphill street that suggested somnolence. The little -windows seemed to blink at the sunshine like the half-shut -eyes of the sleek tabby I used to see there taking her afternoon -nap amongst the soft goods in one of them.</p> - -<p>There was another peculiarity in many of the Hampstead -shops: the earth had so accumulated outside the houses -that the difference in the level of the street with the floor -had to be taken into consideration when entering them, -otherwise the unaccustomed customer was very likely to -make a more precipitate than graceful entry. This state -of things continued even as late as 1895, at the old post-office -and elsewhere. Such things as these only proved the -antiquity of the delightful suburb, and its unlikeness to other -places.</p> - -<p>In the old sunny days South End lay, a picturesque little -hamlet of red-roofed houses, embosomed in green trees—an -integral part of the parish of St. John, but unenfolded in it—a -sort of Hagar’s child, outside Hampstead.</p> - -<p>I am told that part of South End still remains in South -End Road, close to Hampstead Heath Station, and that -South End Green—with a few houses that have not been -converted to shops, with their palings and gardens, in a very -dilapidated condition—also exists. The Green has on it a -fountain, erected in 1880 by a lady resident (Miss Crump) to -the memory of a relative. It stands on a piece of greensward,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_321"></a>[321]</span> -surrounded by iron railings, nearly opposite her house, and -no doubt answers a very useful purpose, for South End -Green is now the terminus of the tramcars, which in -summer bring many thirsty children and travellers to Hampstead.</p> - -<p>In the days I am recalling, a road ran out of South End -over the sloping fields, sweet with white clover flowers, to -Parliament Hill, and the mounds like tumuli on the sunk -road in the field at the east end of the Heath. I used to -think these mounds were barrows, but am told that they -only cover the dead hopes of a rapacious Lord of the Manor, -who between forty and fifty years ago intended building -houses on the field, but, having only a life interest in the -estate, was prevented doing so. The road and ground -delved for foundations, and thrown up in great heaps here -and there, was left neglected and desolate. But Nature -soon covered the scarred earth with a green mantle, and -turned its unsightliness to beauty. Only a few years ago a -subscription was raised amongst the inhabitants of Hampstead, -and the fields, with Parliament Hill, and the storied -Pancras meadows, were purchased and added to the Heath.</p> - -<p>But in my time there were what Shelley, who knew the -whole of Hampstead by heart, and remembered it with -yearning amidst the lovely landscapes of Italy, called the -beautiful meadows near Shepherd’s Fields, and tells his -friend Hunt that he often longs for them, and the Hendon -Road, and Hampstead lanes, and the pretty entrance to the -village from Kentish Town.</p> - -<p>How well I remember the Shepherd’s Fields,<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> and the old -conduit in them, round the margins of which the yellow -stars of the lesser celandine first opened, and Shakespeare’s -ladies’ smocks were soonest seen.</p> - -<p>Then there were other pretty meadows near Chalk Farm, the -peacefulness of which had often been desecrated by duellists, -and of which some tragic stories might be told, but not here.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_322"></a>[322]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;" id="illus63"> -<img src="images/illus63.jpg" width="700" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption">Old Chalk Farm.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_323"></a>[323]</span></p> - -<p>In those days my walk from the White Stone Pond often -led to the Nine Elms and the old bench beneath them. -The trees grew in a sort of irregular half-circle around it, -tall and straight, of no great girth, being planted too close -together; they drew one another, as gardeners say, but the -boughs and upper branches afforded plenty of shade. The -floor was paved with a sort of natural parquetry, made by -the interlacing of the roots, which was smooth and polished -in places by innumerable feet of loiterers. This was said to -have been the favourite resting-place of Pope and Murray.</p> - -<p>It did not need much imagination to see them in the -serene moonshine of a summer’s night, approaching from the -Upper Flask towards the elms. They walked slowly across -the turf, on which the moonlight played freaks of exaggeration -with the crooked figure of the poet, and caricatured the -wide-skirted coat, and three-cornered hat, and the little -sword he wore. But Pope is familiar with the ugly shadow, -knows himself superior to it, and is indifferent about it. -Moreover, at noonday, into whatever assemblage of his -fellow-men he takes that defective frame of his, the people -crowd around him; or else, as when Sir Joshua Reynolds -saw him at a book auction, they make a lane for him to -walk through, he bowing prince-like right and left as he -passes. I saw the same thing happen to plain little -Charlotte Brontë at the Hanover Square Rooms, a compliment -at least on a par with the homage shown to the -physical beauty of the two lovely Irish girls, the Miss -Gunnings.</p> - -<p>But to return to the Nine Elms. Here, with the stillness -and solitary beauty of Nature, the wits became philosophers, -and gave their spirits air and space in higher realms, and -exercised themselves in profounder thoughts than any of -the salons, clubs, courts of law, or the great town itself, -suggested to them. At such times the gravest and profoundest -cogitations of the human soul by some celestial -attraction rise to the surface, and compel us to oracular -confession. At such seasons one can imagine the nature of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_324"></a>[324]</span> -the little satirist enlarged, and softened, the spirit of the -‘Universal Prayer’ filling his heart, and the natural influence -of their surroundings imparting a gravity, mingled with -poetic exaltation, to their converse, that must have made it -as solemn, and yet more sweet than Johnson’s talk with -Boswell in Dr. Taylor’s garden on that serene autumn night, -when, emboldened by his friend’s ‘placid and benignant -frame of mind,’ his hereafter biographer ‘directed the discourse -to a future state.’</p> - -<p>Seated here, how often must Pope have seen the shades -of friends and kindred spirits flit across the old familiar -paths,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent26">‘Under the silent blue,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With all its diamonds trembling through and through,<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Steele, Gay, Arbuthnot, and the rest, who, as we know, had -slipped out of the daylight of the sweet landscape, years and -years before, but now</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Revisiting the glimpses of the moon,’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">with nothing earthly about them but the still clinging likeness -of their old humanity. No one will ever more dream -dreams or see visions under the Nine Elms, that made such -a charming landmark from the East Heath, and of which -it was locally said that when they fell Windsor Castle would -fall also. This prophecy was, of course, attributed to Mother -Shipton, whose power to prophesy had ceased long before -the Nine Elms were planted, and which, I cannot help -thinking, had its origin in a transverse reading of two lines -of Edward Coxe’s poem, ‘To Commemorate the Preservation -of the Nine Elms on Hampstead Heath’:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘While yonder castle towers sublime</div> - <div class="verse indent0">These elms shall brave the threats of time.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In the years I am writing of, the Heath possessed more -natural beauty than at present; then the grove of pine-trees -opposite the old citizen’s house who had reared and planted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_325"></a>[325]</span> -them looked much as it looked when Constable painted -it, or as it appeared in Blake’s illustration of Dante, -which gave these trees (amongst the artist’s friends) the -name of ‘the Dante Wood.’ Twenty years farther on in -my remembrance of them, time and winter storms had -thinned their boughs, and bared them of their foliage (if -one can apply this phrase to their needle-shaped leaves); -moreover, the sand and gravel diggers had excavated -under and between their roots, leaving them bare, and with -scarcely any hold upon the earth, an easy prey to the first -hurricane.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus64"> -<img src="images/illus64.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Judge’s Walk.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>But the contrast of the tall, orange-brown trunks with the -dusky green, jagged and stretched-out branches made them -picturesque objects; and seeing how well they once flourished -on that windy eminence, and the proofs some of the best -artists have given of the eminently pictorial effect of these -trees, let us hope that the conservators of the Heath may be -induced to plant others.</p> - -<p>In those far-off days the Judge’s Walk, though greatly -despoiled of its primal beauty, retained sufficient of it to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_326"></a>[326]</span> -show what a handsome double grove this triple row of -elms, magnificent in height and form in the amplitude of -spreading boughs and summer foliage, must have made. A -friend of mine possessed a very fine lithographed drawing of -the walk when at the apparent acme of its perfection, the -recollection of which makes one grieve at its present almost -hopeless decadence, the trees pollarded and lopped out of -all resemblance of their old forms, and more than three -parts of their number dead.</p> - -<p>I hear of the planting of flowering shrubs and trees, and -of artificial cascades, and as I do so my heart goes back to -the wild picturesqueness of the uncared-for Heath, with its -groups of storm-bent old hawthorns, its thickets of blackthorn, -and twisted crab-apple-trees, pink all over with their -rosy blossoms in May.</p> - -<p>It was under the Hawthorn bushes on the Heath that -Gerard found lilies of the valley growing. I remember its -coverts of swarthy furze, twice yearly glorified with golden -blossoms, and how on one of these occasions, when every -hillock was ablaze with its brightness, Frederika Bremer, -whom her friend Mary Howitt had brought with her to the -Heath, burst into tears at the first sight of the floral -splendour. Her great countryman, Linnæus, is said to have -fallen on his knees and thanked God for the sight.</p> - -<p>It was on a gorse bush on North End Hill that I first -found dodder, ‘like a red harp string winding about it.’ -Black alders grew on the margin of the Leg of Mutton Pond, -and there used to be wide spaces covered with the creeping -willow, and great beds of close-growing whortleberry, which -turns red in autumn, and dyed portions of the Upper Heath -at that season with its crimson leaves; and upon North End -Hill, breast-high coverts of branching ling, with ferns of -other species, besides the common <i>Lastrea felix mas</i>, and -<i>Athyrium felix femina</i>.</p> - -<p>The vari-coloured clay and sand and gravel that overlies the -Heath were then the cause of very picturesque effects. The -deep orange and yellows of the gravel-pits were contrasted<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_327"></a>[327]</span> -by the glistering hollows scooped in the hillside beyond Jack -Straw’s Castle, where brown gipsies dug the ‘lily-white -sand’ with which they supplied London and other housewives -for domestic purposes; while in various places there -cropped up little hillocks, patched with blue and yellow and -ferruginous brown clay, occasionally verging to red, dashing -in bits of colour in the landscape with charming pictorial -effect. The very irregularity of the surface made one of its -chiefest charms, and the wide beds of treacherous sphagnum -bordering the old watercourse that drained into the deep-set, -sullen-looking Leg of Mutton Pond were full of interest for -the botanist. There grew, with their roots in the stream, -clusters of turquoise-blue forget-me-nots, and the pretty -yellow pimpernel, the ‘creeping Jenny’ of the London area -and attic, with purple brook-lime, and pink ragged-robin -with torn petals, between groups of straight brown rushes, -and beds of flags, and water-mint. The silken flocks of the -greater cotton-grass that lie before me grew there once, as -did the little red-leaved <i>Rosa solis</i> or sundew, with its crook-shaped -flower-scape, and atomic insect remains still held in -its hinged leaves; and this brown bit of dried vegetation, -a specimen of one of the loveliest of wild flowers, ‘buck-bean,’ -with its curiously-feathered corolla, and these unfaded -rosy flowers of bog-pimpernel, looking so large by comparison -with the slender stems and tiny leaves set in couplets -on them—all lived upon those pale-green sphagnum beds.</p> - -<p>It was a delight to trace the descendants of the plants old -Gerard found upon the Heath, still lingering in their ancient -habitats, all but the primrose, the odorous violet, and the -lily of the valley, which, before the fashion of the Wells had -waned, retired from the Heath to Turner’s Wood, and was -wholly lost sight of by outsiders when Lord Mansfield enclosed -it in Caen Wood.</p> - -<p>In those far-away times gipsies, with glittering eyes, -bangled arms, and bright orange or red kerchiefs snooding -their blue-black hair, were not the only picturesque figures -to be met with on the Heath. It was no unusual thing to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_328"></a>[328]</span> -meet with speculative lace-makers from Buckinghamshire, -in their short red cloaks, frilled with black lace, and -wonderful black bonnets, with cushion and pendent vari-coloured -bobbins swinging from it, selling their thread lace -to chance customers, and taking orders from others who had -learned the value of their wares.</p> - -<p>But, after all, their appearance was an accident, while the -gipsies’ was of common occurrence. You passed a furze -clump or a sheltered hollow, and saw no one, but an instant -later a nut-brown palmist stood in your path, with speculation -in her eyes, and promises of love and fortune on her -lips. We have changed all this. The brown hand goes uncrossed -with silver, and faith in palmistry is reserved for -drawing-room professors of it.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_329"></a>[329]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE SUB-MANOR OF BELSIZE.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>The sub-manor of Belsize, lying on the south side -of the parish of Hampstead, was given to the -Abbot and Convent of Westminster by Sir Roger -le Brabazon in 1317, upon condition that they should provide -a priest to say a daily Mass in their church for the souls of -Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, Blanch, his wife, the said Sir -Roger, and all the faithful departed this life.</p> - -<p>Whether, at the dissolution of the abbey, it passed through -the hands of the Bishop of Westminster is not known. At -present it is the property of the Dean and Chapter of that -minster. The manor-house was for a long period the residence -of the Waad (subsequently Wood) family, who held -the lease during many years of the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries, under the said Dean and Chapter.</p> - -<p>Armigall Waad was Clerk of the Council to Henry VIII. -and Edward VI. He was also a nautical adventurer of some -notoriety, and Anthony Wood asserts the first Englishman -who discovered America. This idea, for it amounts to nothing -more, is derived from the inscription formerly on an old -monument in Hampstead Church—apart from which, it is -said, there is not a shred of evidence of a discovery to -which, as everybody knows, he had no claim. It is not even -clear that he was amongst the first Englishmen who visited -that country. Fuller says that his voyages are fully described -by Hakluyt; but Park says that readers may search there -or elsewhere in vain for Waad’s voyages, although in Hore’s<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_330"></a>[330]</span> -account of his voyage to Newfoundland, in 1536, Waad is -mentioned as an adventurer in that undertaking.</p> - -<p>Queen Elizabeth employed him on an undertaking of some -importance, and in old age he retired to Belsize, where he -died in 1567. He was buried in Hampstead Church, under -a fair monument of alabaster, the inscription on which -Nordon copied. Gerard tells us that in a wood by a village -called Hamstede, ‘near unto a worshipful gentleman’s house -(Belsize), one of the clerks of the Queen’s Council called -Mr. Waade,’ he found betony with white flowers, whence -he brought the plant into his own garden at Holborn.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;" id="illus65"> -<img src="images/illus65.jpg" width="400" height="500" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Pepys.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>James I., who hoped to buy popularity by scattering titles -broadcast, knighted Mr. Waade’s son and heir, who succeeded -to his father’s office as Clerk to the Council, and -after being employed in various foreign embassies and -other high official services, was made Lieutenant of the -Tower. His widow (a second wife), daughter of Sir Henry -Browne, Knt., Lady Anne Waad, disposed of her interest in -Belsize in 1640.<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> Twenty-eight years afterwards Pepys, in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_331"></a>[331]</span> -his ‘Diary’ under the date of August 17, 1668, tells us that -he went to Hampstead to speak with the Attorney-General -(Sir Geoffrey Palmer), whom he met in the fields by his -old route and house, and, after a little talk about business, -went and saw the Lord Wotton’s house and garden -(Belsize), ‘which is wonderfully fine, too good for the -house the gardens are, being, indeed, the most noble that -ever I saw, and brave orange and lemon trees.’ In June, -1677, Evelyn pronounces the gardens ‘very large, but ill-kept.’</p> - -<p>Remembering that the Tradescants, father and son, were -successively gardeners to the Wotton family, it is not to be -wondered at that the gardens and grounds of Belsize House -exceeded in beauty any that the diarist had previously seen. -Lord Wotton made Belsize his principal residence for many -years—Brewer says from 1673 till 1681.</p> - -<p>In the year 1681, under the head of ‘London, October 18,’ -we read:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘Last night eleven or twelve highway robbers came on horseback to -the house of the Lord Wotton, at Hampstead, and attempted to enter -therein, breaking down part of the wall and the gate; but there being -four or five men within the house, they very courageously fired several -musquits and a blunderbuss upon the thieves, which gave an alarm to -one of the Lord’s tenants, a farmer that dwelt not far off, who thereupon -went immediately into the town, and raised the inhabitants; who -going towards the house, which was half a mile off, it is thought the -robbers hearing thereof and withall finding the business difficult, they all -made their escape. It is judged they had notice of my Lord’s absence -from his house, and likewise of a great booty which was therein, which -put them upon this desperate attempt.’—<i>The True Protestant Mercury</i>, -October 15-19, 1681.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Lord Charles Wotton’s mother, Catherine, the eldest of -the four daughters and co-heirs of Thomas Lord Wotton, -of Wotton in Kent, married for her third husband Daniel -O’Neale, Esq., Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II., -to whom the grant of Belsize had been renewed in 1660. -This lady had married, firstly, Henry, Lord Stanhope,<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_332"></a>[332]</span> -eldest son of Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, by whom she -had one son. Her second husband was Poliander de Kirkhoven, -Lord of Hemsfleet in Holland, by whom she also -had one son, Lord Charles Henry Kirkhoven, who, on -account of his mother’s descent, was created Lord Wotton -in 1650; to whom on her demise in 1667, without issue by -Mr. O’Neale, her third husband, the grant of the manor and -demesne of Belsize was renewed.</p> - -<p>Upon the death of Lord Wotton without issue 1682, his -half-brother, Philip, Earl of Chesterfield,<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> obtained a renewal -of the grant of the estate.</p> - -<p>Park states that after Lord Wotton’s death the manor -had always been in the occupation of under-tenants. But -though the manor might be so let, it seems quite feasible -that the mansion and demesne should be retained by the -owner. It is hardly to be supposed that the beautiful gardens -and the house (which at some period in Charles II.’s time -had been rebuilt) would be immediately deserted by the -new proprietor. It appears not only possible, but extremely -probable, that the second Earl of Chesterfield resided here -at times until his death in 1713; and five years afterwards we -find that the gardens required putting in order, a proof, I -think, that intermediately they had been kept up and attended -to. In one of Swift’s letters to Stella, dated September 7, -1710, three years before the death of the second Earl of -Chesterfield, he tells her that ‘going into the City to see -his old schoolfellow, Straford the Hombourg merchant,’ and -turning into the Bull on Ludgate Hill, where they met, the -latter forced him to go to dinner with him at his house at -Hampstead, ‘among a great deal of ill company, Hoadley -(afterwards Bishop) being one of them.’ But he adds, ‘I -was glad to be at Hampstead, where I saw Lady Lucy and -Moll Stanhope.’ And he notes on the 24th of the same -month, ‘I dined to-day at Hampstead with Lady Lucy.’ -True, he does not name Belsize; but neither does Pepys<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_333"></a>[333]</span> -when describing Lord Wotton’s gardens. But Evelyn does, -and says that O’Neale built Belsize House.</p> - -<p>Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, is said to have sold -his interest in the estate. It was either before or immediately -after the death of this nobleman that it was let to -Mr. Charles Povey, who appears to have been the first tenant.</p> - -<p>In 1733 we find the late Earl’s grandson, Philip Dormer -Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, obtaining a renewal -for three lives of the manor and demesne of Belsize; and in -1751 he again procured a renewal of the grant.</p> - -<p>The estate continued in the possession of his kinsman, -Philip Stanhope, Esq.,<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> son of Arthur Stanhope, deceased, -lineally descended from the first Earl of Chesterfield, who -succeeded to his titles and estates, till 1807, when, having -obtained an Act of Parliament for selling this and several -estates, it was jointly purchased by four gentlemen resident -at Hampstead,<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a> who in the next year divided the estate, -containing about 234 acres, into four allotments.</p> - -<p>On this partition the mansion of Belsize devolved to James -Abel, Esq., the proprietor when Park published his ‘History -of Hampstead.’</p> - -<p>When Mr. Povey, a retired coal-merchant, entered upon -his occupation of Belsize House, he very soon found his -possession a white elephant. A man of many grievances -against the Whig Government, he strove to avenge them by -publishing a violent pamphlet entitled ‘England’s Inquisition; -or Money raised by New, Secret, Extinct Law, without Act -of Parliament.’ He complained of a series of unjust extortions -and persecutions practised upon his person, property, -and estate by Commissioners of Excise and others, and -enumerates amongst other services and sacrifices he claims -to have made for his country, and which had been ungratefully -overlooked by those in power, his having refused to let -Belsize House to the Duc d’Aumont, the French Ambassador,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_334"></a>[334]</span> -who had offered him £1,000 per annum for the use of it -during his residence in England, being resolved that the <i>new</i> -chapel attached to the mansion should not be used as a -‘mass-house.’</p> - -<p>Subsequently, in the profoundness of his patriotism, he -had made an offer of Belsize to the Prince of Wales, as an -occasional retirement or as a constant residence. But -though he had taken care to inform the Prince of the -tempting offer he had had, and of his self-sacrifice in refusing -it for conscience’ sake, his future King (George II.), -with scant courtesy, never even honoured him with an -answer, though he ‘waited in expectation of it, and kept -the mansion house and park unlet for a considerable time.’</p> - -<p>In the meanwhile, as I have elsewhere said, Hampstead, -under the magisterial rule of Hicks’s Hall, and subjected to -the inquisition of the Head-boroughs and their men at unexpected -moments, sank rapidly in the affections of the populace. -The time for a new place of entertainment was ripe, and -Mr. Povey in despair, when one Howell, who appears to -have been the Barnum of his day, conceived the idea of converting -Belsize House, with its spacious park and beautiful -gardens, into a place of amusement for the public on a more -than usually magnificent scale. He made his offer, which, -after two years of Belsize unlet, Mr. Povey accepted, and one -can imagine the disgust society people must have felt on the -appearance of the following announcement in <i>Mist’s Journal</i> -of April 16, 1720:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘Whereas that ancient and noble house near Hampstead, commonly -known as Belsize House, is now taken and fitted up for the entertainment -of gentlemen and ladies during the whole summer season; the same will -be open on Easter Monday next, with an uncommon solemnity of music -and dancing. This undertaking will exceed all of the kind that has -hitherto been known near London. Commencing every day <i>at six -in the morning</i>, and continuing till eight at night, all persons being -privileged to admittance without necessity of expense, etc. The park, -wilderness, and gardens being wonderfully improved, and filled with a -variety of birds, which compose a most melodious and delightful harmony. -N.B.—Persons inclined to walk and divert themselves, may breakfast on -tea or coffee as cheap as at their own chambers.’</p> - -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_335"></a>[335]</span></p> - -<p>From time to time we find the proprietor of this ancient -prototype of Cremorne, under the title of ‘His Excellency -the Welsh Ambassador,’ introducing various novelties for the -diversion of his visitors. Now he announces ‘A Plate of Six -Guineas to be run for by eleven footmen!’ At another time, -‘For the better diverting of the Company he designs to have -Duck-hunting every evening; and what will be more extraordinary, -the proprietor having purchased a large Bear-dog -that will hunt a duck as well as any spaniel in England; and -any gentleman may have the liberty to bring his own spaniel -to try him.’</p> - -<p>Who doubts that this announcement proved a triumph to -the money-getting sagacity of Mr. Howell, more especially -when we know that the great canals and walks in the grounds -were very commodious for the purpose, and that all ‘the -expense attending the diversion is met by the payment of -sixpence for gentlemen at the time of going into the park; -while the ladies are admitted free.’ But to meet certain -inconveniences attending this liberality, an N.B. adds that -‘No person will be admitted but who will be thought -agreeable.’</p> - -<p>Again we learn that a great quantity of wild deer have -been purchased, and that it is the spirited proprietor’s intention -‘to hunt one down every Thursday and Saturday through -the whole season; and that on these days, for the convenience -of single gentlemen, there will be a good ordinary at two -o’clock, and for one of the dishes there will constantly be -venison.’ Verily, this Welshman appears to have been exceedingly -astute as to the sporting and gastronomic propensities -of Englishmen, Metropolitan or otherwise. This advertisement -involved a double pleasure—the delight of the chase, -enhanced by the expectation of this feast in kind afterwards.</p> - -<p>Twelve months after the opening of Belsize Gardens, -<i>Read’s Journal</i>, July 15, 1721, contained the following announcement:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘Their royal highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales -dined at Belsize House, near Hampstead, attended by several<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_336"></a>[336]</span> -persons of quality, where they were entertained with the -diversions of hunting, and such others as the place afforded, -with which they seemed well entertained, and at their departure -were very liberal to the servants.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>On such occasions the mounted company rode over the -park with horns blowing, and beagles barking, the proprietor -leading the hunt in person. I have tried in vain to find the -advertisement of this royal visit, which doubtless figured on -handbills, or otherwise, in advance of the event, and with as -successful an issue to the treasury of Belsize House as the -appearance of the Prince of Oude, or the Siamese Ambassador, -at Cremorne or the Surrey Gardens in modern -times, or the Shahraza at the Crystal Palace in the summer -of 1895. Such visitors, of course, bestowed a certain prestige -on the new place of amusement, and brought it into favour -with (to use a pet phrase of the day) the bon-ton. But this -‘delightful place of amusement’ was by no means dependent -on the patronage of lords and ladies; those who could not -afford silver were encouraged to spend their pence, ‘a part -of the house being set aside for the accommodation of the -meaner sort’; while the beaux and coquettes of fashion, who -promenaded the Long Room, or minced in high-heeled shoes -over the lawns or through the garden alleys, sipped coffee, -tea, chocolate, or ratafia, or dined at princely prices <i>à la -Pontac</i>, do not appear to have secured perfect immunity -from vulgar and even questionable associates, since ‘sham -gentlemen’ not unfrequently crept in—anyone, according to -the writer of a satirical poem, written only two years after -the opening of Belsize as a place of entertainment,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent14">‘Who would at charges be,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Might keep their noble honours company.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Indeed, the irregularities of the establishment seem to -have led to the proprietor’s imprisonment in Newgate within -the first year of his lesseeship. No wonder, therefore, that -in May, 1722, we find Belsize included in the Justices’ order<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_337"></a>[337]</span> -to the Head-borough of Hampstead, touching the prevention -of unlawful gaming, riots, etc. Yet the fashion of the place -does not appear to have declined greatly on account of its -disreputable notoriety and inexclusive character, or the -license of which it was said to be the scene. On the contrary, -its vogue increased, so that on a day of June, 1722, -the attendance of the nobility and gentry was so numerous, -that they reckoned between three and four hundred carriages. -On this occasion a wild deer (which in the satirist’s -description becomes a starved buck) was hunted down and -killed in the park, after affording the company three hours’ -diversion.</p> - -<p>It is easy to imagine the crowds thronging between the -painted grenadiers<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a> that stood sentinel on either side of the -gates, or walking up the grand old avenue, or dispersing -over the greensward, fluttering and glittering amongst the -trees and glades, for, after all, gold and silver lace, steel -sword-hilts, brilliant buckles, hoods of all hues, that made a -box at the theatre in those days look like a bed of tulips, -hooped petticoats, gorgeously-coloured gowns, and floating -scarfs and ribbons, are fine things at a <i>fête champêtre</i>. One -can fancy the blue sky with fleecy cloudlets dappling it, and -a tepid breeze lifting the leaves, rippling the long grass in -the adjacent meadows, and giving motion to the lace and -ribbons of the ladies’ dresses—a sunny, breezy day of ‘leafy -June,’ before our seasons grew sophisticated, and the prime -of the year took to the ways of April, and became lachrymose—for -June was always the grand month of the season at -Belsize, and, looking back, one sees the day and the place in -all its pristine brightness. If we could pass out of the breezy<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_338"></a>[338]</span> -sunshine and shifting shadows into the Long Room, where -balls and concerts were given, we should find it, according -to the satirist before quoted, the focus of the quintessence of -vanity in both sexes. The women were there to captivate, -the men to admire and be admired; and if outward appearance -counts for anything, the embroidered coats and waistcoats, -gold-clocked stockings, red-heeled shoes, feathered -hats, and clouded canes of the beaux, betrayed as absolute a -desire for effect as any modish madam or lisping coquetilla -of the day could have aspired to.</p> - -<p>Gay describes them on the promenade ‘tuning soft -minuets between their pretty nothings,’ but here, between -the breathings of the dance, the snuff-box helped their little -affectations, and</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Spanish snuff to modish nose is put:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">At which the perfumed handkerchief’s drawn up,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">T’ adjust some bold disorder of the face,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And put the chin-patch in its proper place.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>No doubt Gay, for all his despondency and ill-health, -being at Hampstead this summer, visited the fair gardens -at Belsize, and yet oftener the assembly and gaming rooms, -where the Captain Macheaths and Polly Peachums of the -times were frequent visitors. This mention of the Captain -naturally reminds one of the state of the roads, which, owing -to the fields and woods in the vicinity, were so beset with -footpads and highwaymen that in the handbills of the entertainments -at Belsize House for this season (1722) it is stated -that for the safety of the company the proprietor has hired -twenty stout labouring men, well known about Hampstead, -to line the road betwixt Belsize and London, so that they -will be as safe by night as by day. In the first announcement -of this arrangement the number of these bucolic guardians -of the road is only twelve, so that the highways round the -Metropolis had meanwhile become doubly hazardous.</p> - -<p>Not only did the stage-coaches carry an arsenal of cutlasses -and blunderbusses, and equestrians ride with pistols -in their holsters, but private carriages were built with a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_339"></a>[339]</span> -sword-box at the back, as much for the safety as the convenience -of their occupants, and no one thought of venturing -out after nightfall between the suburbs and the city unarmed.</p> - -<p>The satirist already mentioned aims an ill-natured blow -at the Welsh Ambassador’s arrangement, and suggests as -questionable whether one-half of what he calls</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent24">‘the rabble guard,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Whilst t’other’s half-asleep on watch and ward,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Don’t rob the people they pretend to save.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Belsize is noticed in an old London guide-book of 1724 as -‘an academy of music, dancing, and play for the diversion -of the ladies,’ and it adds with heavy playfulness that ‘where -they are the gentlemen will not fail to be also.’ It describes -the ballroom and gaming-rooms as particularly fine and -handsomely adorned, and intimates that it would surprise one -to see so much good company as came hither in the season.</p> - -<p>Concerts of music, open-air fêtes, hare and buck hunting, -fine grounds and sweet gardens, with fishing, dancing, etc., -from six in the morning till eight at night, were sufficient -inducements to render a less agreeable spot attractive. The -free admission was, of course, a bait by which the visitors -were drawn in just far enough to induce them to go farther. -At any rate, it became a place of resort for persons of all ranks, -and some of the most questionable characters, and according to -contemporary writers, appears to have exceeded in immorality -and dissipation any place of the kind in modern times.</p> - -<p>In 1729 Galloway Races, to be run for a Plate of £10 value, -were advertised to take place at Belsize, the horses to pay -one guinea entrance, and to be kept in the stable at Belsize -from entrance to the time of running.</p> - -<p>Long after rank and fashion had deserted it, Belsize continued -to be popular with the multitude, and remained -open as a tea-drinking house, etc., till 1745, when foot-races -were advertised to take place. This, however, was nothing -new. A paragraph under the head of ‘Domestic Intelligence’ -in the <i>Grub Street Journal</i> of April 1, 1736, informs -its readers that ‘yesterday Mr. Pidgeon and Mr. Garth ran<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_340"></a>[340]</span> -twelve times round Belsize for £50 a side, which was won -with great difficulty by Mr. Pidgeon, although Garth fell -down and ran ten yards on the wrong side of the post, and -was forced to return back; yet he lost it only by a foot.’</p> - -<p>This diversion appears to have been amongst the last -devices of the proprietor to retain the patronage of the -people. But new tea-gardens had been opened; New Tunbridge -Wells at Islington had put forth renewed claims to -popular favour, and a new generation had arisen indifferent -to the past prestige of Belsize House, which was subsequently -restored as a private mansion, and tenanted by -several persons of importance, amongst them the unfortunate -Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, who was shot in the -lobby of the House of Commons, May 15, 1812, by Bellingham, -‘a mild-mannered man,’ maddened by misfortune.</p> - -<p>Mr. Perceval, whose character, both in public and private -life, appears to have been unimpeachable, had taken an -active interest in all that concerned the well-being of Hampstead -and its inhabitants, especially where the poorer classes -of them were concerned. But when, on the suggestion of his -colleagues in the conduct and support of the Sunday-school -(less than half of the scholars in which were unable to attend -a day-school for want of funds), it was proposed to introduce -the Lancastrian system, Mr. Perceval withdrew his patronage -and resigned his presidency of the schools, to which Mr. -Holford (an old and honoured name in Hampstead), who -had been vice-president for years, was nominated. Park -says nothing of it, but in the <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>, 1812-13, it is -noted that Mr. Samuel Hoare had obtained permission to -establish a Lancastrian school.</p> - -<p>Subsequently Belsize House was let to other persons of -position, and in 1811-12 Mr. Everett occupied it, and afterwards -Mr. Henry Wright, a London banker, resided here.<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_341"></a>[341]</span> -How it was afterwards tenanted I do not know. In 1841 -the house and demesne were offered for sale for building -purposes, and subsequently the whole fell into dilapidation -and decay. When I first knew it a great gloom seemed to -have settled on the place. Many of the windows were -boarded up, and the house assumed that air of mystery that -always appertains to large, old uninhabited houses. If one -inquired, unknowing that it waited purchasers, the reason -for the neglected appearance of the mansion and grounds, -curiosity was met by a common cause for it in those days, -viz., that the property was in Chancery, which it was not.</p> - -<p>But one was free to wander in the unpruned wilderness -and forgotten flower-garden, and under the large-limbed -magnificent trees, the planting of which one or other of -the Tradescants might have superintended.</p> - -<p>At this time Belsize Lane was absolutely rural.<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> Great -elms shaded its high grassy banks, with woodbine, wild-rose, -and elder blowing in them. There you might still hear a -‘charm of birds’ on summer mornings, and gather blackberries -in autumn. Between 1842-45 the estate fell into the -builder’s hands, and the site of the famous mansion, which -had had a name in local history from the time of the -Crusades, became mapped out in formal lines, parallels, and -parallelograms, which have since resulted in Belsize Avenue, -Belsize Gardens, Belsize Square, Belsize Crescent, etc., and -with a church in its own precincts. It may be that some of -the fine old elms—part of the grand avenue that led from -Haverstock Hill to the mansion; they were but few when I -last saw it—may remain. If so, these and the name are all -that are left to remind us of Belsize House, except the sketch -of it in the doggerel verse of the satirist when the Welsh -Ambassador was Master of the Revels:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘This house, which is a nuisance to the land,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Doth near a park and handsome garden stand,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Fronting the road betwixt a range of trees,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And is perfumed by the Hampstead breeze.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_342"></a>[342]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus66"> -<img src="images/illus66.jpg" width="500" height="575" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>Belsize Lane, 1850.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>There was, when I knew it, a little-used, gloomy, thorn-hedged -footpath running out of Belsize Lane to Chalk Farm—now -covered with houses, but then a very solitary place of -ill repute after nightfall—which on the evening of February 21, -1845, became the scene of the murder of Mr. James Delarue -by Thomas Henry Hocker, a young man only twenty-one -years of age, who was convicted and executed. Jealousy was -said to have provoked the crime, but the treachery, falsehood, -and cruelty of the culprit appear to have hardened all hearts<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_343"></a>[343]</span> -against him.<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> This is how Lucy Aiken writes of the unsavoury -affair:</p> - -<p>‘I rather congratulate myself on not being in Church Row -during the delightful excitement of the murder’ (the murder -of Delarue) ‘and the inquest, which appear to have had so -many charms for the million. One comfort is, that the -murdered man appears to have been anything but a loss to -society. But I think the event will give me a kind of dislike -to Belsize Lane, which I used to think the pleasantest, as -well as the shortest, way from us to you.’<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a></p> - -<p>From this time Belsize and the beautiful lane became -suspected; people looked shudderingly down the by-paths -before entering them, and few cared to pass that way after -nightfall.</p> - -<p>For some time part of the house remained, with windows -boarded, the garden run to waste, the paths weed-grown, -the lilied ponds filled up, the park a wilderness, the great -trees lopped and broken, till the builder and his men set -about their business in earnest, and evolved almost a suburban -town on what had been a nobleman’s mansion and park for -centuries.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_344"></a>[344]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.<br /> -<span class="smaller"><i>THE HAMLET OF KILBURN.</i></span></h2> - -</div> - -<p>As only one side of this hamlet is in Hampstead -parish, there is not much to be said of it here. It -was rapidly increasing when Park wrote his description -of it; but that was nothing to the proportion -of its increase during the last ten years, when it has grown -to the dimensions of a town. Its name comes from two -Saxon words, <i>kele</i>, cold, and <i>bourn</i>, a rivulet.</p> - -<p>By this cool stream,<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> which rose on the southern slope of -Hampstead, hard by the forest-side, one Godwyn, in the -time of Henry I., built himself a cell, and for a time at least -led a hermit’s life.</p> - -<p>There can be little doubt, from the fact of his ultimately -making over this nucleus of the future nunnery, with the -grounds belonging to it, to the Church of St. Peter of Westminster, -in trust to the Abbot for the use and abode of three -retired Maids of Honour to Queen Matilda (herself a Benedictine -nun), that Godwyn was a penitent courtier or nobleman. -Eventually he himself was made Warden of the abode<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_345"></a>[345]</span> -and guardian of the maidens, Emma, Christiana, and Gunilda, -who took upon themselves a holy life, though no particular -monastic rule is mentioned, nor does it appear in the foundation -deed that they were vowed to celibacy.</p> - -<p>On the death of Godwyn some other person was to be -chosen to his office, with the advice of the Abbot of Westminster, -and with the consent of the nuns themselves; no -one could be appointed without their approval, nor was to -interfere with matters relative to their temporal affairs, nor -with the affairs of the church, except at their desire.</p> - -<p>The Abbot, Osbert de Clair, Prior of Westminster, augmented -the grant to the cell of Kilburne by a rent of thirty -shillings and land at Knightsbridge, after which it became -a nunnery of the Benedictine Order, dedicated to the -Virgin and St. John the Baptist. At the dissolution of the -monasteries the lands of Kilburn nunnery at Hampstead and -Kilburn were given by Henry VIII., in exchange for Paris -Garden and other estates, to the Knights of Jerusalem, -whose Order he soon after dissolved (1540).</p> - -<p>Subsequent to the dissolution of the Knights of St. John -it became the property of John, Earl of Warwick, who lost -no time in alienating it to Richard Taverner, Esq. In 1604 -Sir Arthur Atye died seized of Kilburn and Shuttop Hill. -It was recently in the family of the Powells, an old name at -Hampstead.</p> - -<p>At no time does it appear to have been a religious house -of any importance, though dignified with the name of Priory. -Park states its revenue at the time of the Dissolution to have -been under £200 per annum. Dugdale sets it down at -£74 7s. 11d. per annum, and the whole building, inclusive of -kitchen, larder, bakehouse, and brewhouse, beside the church, -contained only twelve rooms.</p> - -<p>From a rude but interesting etching in Park’s ‘History of -Hampstead,’ of some parts of the domestic buildings, the -only relics of it remaining, and which were standing in 1722, -no idea can be formed of the appearance of the conventual -structure, the site of which was distinguishable at the beginning<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_346"></a>[346]</span> -of the present century by a rising bank in what was -called the Abbey Fields, near the Tea Gardens.</p> - -<p>No doubt the Kilburn well, a mild chalybeate, was one of -the so-called holy wells with which the vicinity of London -abounded in Catholic times. But it was not until 1714 that -some speculator bethought him of converting the slightly-medicated -waters to use.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;" id="illus67"> -<img src="images/illus67.jpg" width="500" height="350" alt="" /> -<p class="caption"><i>The George Inn before 1870.</i></p> -</div> - -<p>The spring or well is situated at the south-western extremity -of the parish of Hampstead. It rises about 12 feet -below the surface, and is enclosed in a large brick reservoir, -with the date cut in the keystone of the arch over the -door. It is a simple saline water with too little iron to -give it the character of a true chalybeate, as may be easily -imagined when we read that in 1813 it was used chiefly for -the domestic purposes of the adjoining tavern. In 1773 the -Kilburn wells were attached to a tea-drinking house, ‘well -known to the holiday folk of London,’ the advertisement of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_347"></a>[347]</span> -which, transcribed by Park from the <i>Public Advertiser</i> in the -July of that year, is amusing:</p> - -<div class="blockquote"> - -<p>‘<span class="smcap">Kilburn Wells, near Paddington.</span>—The waters now in the -utmost perfection; the gardens enlarged and greatly improved; the -house and offices repaired and beautified in the most elegant manner.</p> - -<p>‘The whole is now opened for the reception of the public, the great -room being particularly adapted to the use and amusement of the politest -companies; fit for music, dancing, or entertainments.</p> - -<p>‘This happy spot, celebrated for its rural situation, extensive prospects, -and the acknowledged efficacy of its waters, is most delightfully situated -on the <i>scite (sic) of the once famous Abbey of Kilburn</i>, on the Edgware -Road, at an easy distance, being but a <i>morning’s walk</i> from the -Metropolis, two miles from Oxford Street, the footway from Marybone -across the fields still nearer. A plentiful larder is always provided, -together with the best of wines and other liqueurs.</p> - -<p>‘Breakfasting and hot loaves.</p> - -<p>‘A printed account of the waters, as drawn up by an eminent physician, -is given gratis at the Wells.’</p> - -</div> - -<p>Brewer tells us that this house was much frequented by -holiday people from London.</p> - -<p>We have noted elsewhere that Oliver Goldsmith had -lodgings in a cottage near a place called The Priory at -Kilburn. Poor Goldy had retired thither with the intention -of practically studying the habits of some of the animals he -was writing of in his ‘Animated Nature.’ His range of -subjects must have been necessarily restricted, for, beyond -the humble farmyard of his landlord, the rusticity of Kilburn -appears at that point of time to have been limited to cow-keepers -and market-gardens. It had an evil fame for dog-fights -and pugilistic encounters, at which Hogarth is said -to have been a frequent spectator—not from a love of such -sights, but with a view to the work of humanity he was then -doing, in displaying the coarse brutality and repulsively cruel -features of those so-called sports with all the realism of his -caustic pencil.</p> - -<p>Many years later Kilburn lay heavy on the minds of the -Middlesex magistrates, and during the first half of the present -century its reputation was decidedly low, and its inhabitants,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_348"></a>[348]</span> -or the additional ones they sheltered, a frequent trouble to -the constables of those days.</p> - -<p>Time and the builders have amended all that, and the -village of Kilburn is (1860) partly a suburb of genteel villas, -and a struggling ground for newly-started professional men -and tradesmen of large hope and small capital, with ultimate -success as the prize for those who can play a losing game -longest.</p> - -<p>Before leaving Kilburn I may add that, in the spring of -1878, when the work of widening the London and North-Eastern -Railway was going on at Kilburn, the workmen came -upon a curious brass coffin-plate, bearing an effigy supposed -to be that of an Abbess of Kilburn Nunnery. The nuns gave -a touching reason for the dilapidated condition of their house -(which lay close to the highway for wayfarers and pilgrims -to the shrine of St. Alban’s) in the daily charity of the poor -sisters to those of the poorer sort, a charge they were ill able -to bear; and this fact, in connection with the well-known -poverty of their house, exempted them from taxes to the -Crown, which recompensed itself at the dissolution of the -religious houses by taking the whole of the little they possessed. -At this time the buildings of the priory consisted -of the hall, the chamber next the church, the middle chamber -between that and the Prioress’s chamber; the buttery, pantry, -and cellar; the inner chamber to the Prioress’s room, the -chamber between the latter and the hall, the kitchen, the -larder-house, the brewhouse and bakehouse, the three -chambers for the chaplain and the hinds or husbandmen, -the confessor’s chamber, and the church. The orchard and -cemetery, valued at ‘xx<i>s.</i> by the yere, and one horse of the -coller of black at vs. For all these chambers 2 bedsteads of -bordes, 1 featherbed, 2 matteres, 2 old coverlettes, 3 wollen -blanketts, a <i>syller</i> of old stained work, and 2 pieces of old -hangings paynted,’ appear a sparse allowance of comfort. -They were better off in the matter of church furniture and -vestments, as not only altar-cloths, curtains, hangings, copes, -which were nuns’ work, and very likely made by them, but<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_349"></a>[349]</span> -chalices are enumerated; and they also possessed, closed in -silver, and set with counterfeit stones and pearls, a relique of -the Holy Cross, and a cross with certain other reliques, ‘wt -silver gilded. Item, a case to keepe in reliques, plated and -gilt ... and a clocke.’ These were the nuns’ small treasures, -and all were confiscated.</p> - -<p>In the ‘Romance of London,’ by the late industrious -Mr. Timbs, there is a legend, quoted by Mr. Walford, of -Kilburn Priory. He calls it traditionary, and says that -Mr. Timbs could not trace it to any authentic source; yet -it appears to have been well known to that enthusiastic -collector of ancient ballads and legendary lore, Sir Walter -Scott, who had written a lyrical version of the story long -before Mr. Timbs produced his ‘Romance of London,’ though -without publishing it. Here is the tale of its origin, according -to Mr. H. G. Atkinson, who tells us the verses (which I -give further on) remained unpublished till their appearance -in the columns of the <i>Athenæum</i>, September 17, 1881:</p> - -<p>‘My father, an architect, was a friend of Scott’s, and helped -him, as a friend, in the decoration and finishings of Abbotsford. -Scott would often dine with my father when in London, -and was greatly interested in the garden. In one corner -there was some rockwork, in which were inserted some fragments -of stone ornaments of Kilburn Priory, and crowning -all was an irregularly-shaped stone, having a deep red stain, -no doubt of ferruginous origin. This stone was sent to my -father by Lord Mulgrave in one of his cement vessels, my -father having been struck with its appearance on the shore -at Whitby, and from these simple, really unconnected facts -Scott made out the following story in verse, which might be -regarded as a kind of friendly offering in return for services -rendered. Here are the lines; I had supposed them lost, -but my sister, in turning over some old papers, found a copy.’</p> - -<p>This I have taken the liberty to reproduce:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_350"></a>[350]</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<p class="center">THE MUCKLE STAIN, OR BLEEDING STONE OF KILBURN PRIORY.</p> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">For the blessed rood of Sir Gervase the Good</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The nuns of Kilburn pray;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But for the wretch who shed his blood</div> - <div class="verse indent2">No tongue a prayer shall say.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">The bells shall ring, and the nuns shall sing,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sir Gervase to the blest;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But holiest rites shall never bring</div> - <div class="verse indent2">His murderer’s soul to rest.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Now tell me, I pray, thou palmer gray,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Why thou kneelest at this shrine;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And why dost thou cry so eagerly</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon the help Divine?</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Oh, tell me who the man may be,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And what his deadly sin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That the Church’s prayer, for his soul’s despair,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The mercy of Christ may win.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘I cry at this shrine on the help Divine</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To save the soul of one</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Who in death shall lie ere morning shine</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Upon this ancient stone.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Sir Gervase rode forth far in the north</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To Whitby’s holy see;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In her bower alone his lady made moan,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A fairer could not be.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘His false brother came to the weeping dame:</div> - <div class="verse indent2">“Oh, I love you dearer than life.”</div> - <div class="verse indent0">“Hence! would you win to shame and sin</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thy brother’s wedded wife?”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘“He is far away, thou sweet ladie,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And none may hear or see;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">So, lady bright, this very night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oh, open your door to me.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘“Sir Gervase rides forth far in the north,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">’Tis long ere he comes back,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thine eyes shine bright like stars by night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">From thy hair of raven black.”</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_351"></a>[351]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘“The fire shall burn at the door stone</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ere I open my door to thee,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And thy suit of hell to Sir Gervase I’ll tell,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And a traitor’s death thou wilt die.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘“Then fare ye well, Dame Isabel,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thou lady of mickle pride;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Thou shalt rue the day thou saidst me nay,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">When back to thee I ride.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘The day declined, the rising wind</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Sung shrill on Whitby sands;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">With ear down laid, and ready blade,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Behind a rock he stands.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Sir Gervase rode on in thought alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Leaving his men behind;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The blow was sure, the flight secure,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But a voice was in the wind:</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘“False brother, spur thy flying steed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thou canst not fly so fast;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But on this stone where now I bleed</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Thyself shall breathe thy last.”</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘That stone was then on Whitby’s shore,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And now behold it here;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And ever that blood is in my eye,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And ever that voice in mine ear!’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Now, thou palmer gray, now turn thee, I pray,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And let me look in thine eye.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Alas! it burns bright with a fearful light—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Like guilt about to die.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘That stone is old, and o’er it has rolled</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The tempest of many years;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But fiercer rage than of tempest or age</div> - <div class="verse indent2">In thy furrowed face appears.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Oh, speak not thus, thou holy man,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">But bend and pray by me,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And give me your aid in this hour of need,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Till I my penance drie.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘With book and beads, with ave and creed,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Oh, help me while you may;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When the bell tolls one, oh, leave me alone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For with me you may not stay.’</div><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_352"></a>[352]</span> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">Sore prayed the friar by the gray palmer,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">As both knelt o’er the stone;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And redder grew the blood-red hue,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">And they heard a fearful groan.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Friar, leave me now, on my trembling brow</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The drops of sweat run down;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And alone with his sprite I must deal this night,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">My deadly guilt to atone.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">By the morning light the good friar came</div> - <div class="verse indent2">By the sinner’s side to pray;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But his spirit had flown, and, stretched on the stone,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A corse the palmer lay.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">And still from that stone at the hour of one—</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Go visit it who dare—</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The blood runs red, and a shriek of dread</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Pierces the midnight air.</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Mr. Timbs’ prose variant of the story, briefly told, is as -follows:</p> - -<p>At a place called Kilburn Priory, near St. John’s Wood, -there was a stone of a blood colour, which stain was caused -by the blood of Sir Gervase de Morton, or de Mortonne, -who was slain by his brother centuries ago. The latter, -Stephen de Morton, had sinfully fallen in love with the -beautiful wife of Sir Gervase, whom he persecuted with his -illicit passion, till at length she threatened to inform her -husband. To prevent this, and enraged by hate and jealousy, -the wicked brother lay in wait in a narrow lane through which -Sir Gervase had to pass on his way home, and on one side -of which was a quarry with some rocks projecting. Here -Stephen de Morton lay in ambush, and, as soon as his brother -passed, stepped from his concealment, and stabbed him in -the back. Sir Gervase fell forward upon a part of the rock -mortally wounded, and in dying recognised his brother in -his murderer, who he solemnly predicted should also die -upon that stone.</p> - -<p>Stephen appears to have thought but lightly of his crime, -and less of his murdered brother’s denunciation. He returned -immediately to the prosecution of his design; but the lady<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_353"></a>[353]</span> -was obdurate, and resented his insulting proposals with indignant -scorn, upon which his base passion turned to hate, -and he pitilessly consigned her to a dungeon.</p> - -<p>Subsequently he strove to forget his crime, and the innocent -cause of it, by riotous living, but all to no purpose; his conscience -would not rest, and he suffered such an access of -remorse that at length he caused the remains of his brother -to be brought to Kilburn Priory, and ordered a handsome -tomb to be erected to his memory. The stones used in -building it were brought from the neighbourhood of the -place where the murder was committed, and amongst them -was the one on which the blood of Sir Gervase had flowed, -and which, as soon as the wretched Stephen approached it, -oozed out blood. Upon this the horrified man confessed his -crime to the Bishop of London, submitted himself to severe -penance, and bequeathed all his worldly possessions to Kilburn -Priory. But all in vain; he soon after pined away and died, -breathing his last upon the stone stained with the blood of -his brother, and this miraculous stain was the ‘Bleeding -Stone’ of Kilburn Priory. Not a word is said of the unfortunate -lady’s release from her undeserved dungeon, from -which we can only hope she was freed to find a place amongst -the nuns, and be near the resting-place of her husband.</p> - -<p>Mr. Atkinson, in writing of Sir Walter Scott’s verses, -thinks their origin interesting, equally in an artistic, literary, -and psychological point of view; but looking at Mr. Timbs’ -independent presentation of the same story, the inference is -that, the legend being known to Sir Walter, the juxtaposition -of the red stone and the fragmentary relics from Kilburn -Priory quickened the imagination of the poet, and helped -him to produce the lines. In some place or other the tradition -must have had an independent existence, or it could not -have appeared in Timbs’ ‘Romance of London’ previous to -its publication in the <i>Athenæum</i>.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_354"></a>[354]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</h2> - -</div> - -<h3 id="HEATH">HEATH HOUSE.</h3> - -<p>It would be doing injustice to a family long known and -honoured in this neighbourhood to bid farewell to Hampstead -and the Heath, without some special notice of Heath -House, the present residence of Lord Glenesk, but in 1790 -the home of Samuel Hoare, Esq.</p> - -<p>It is a large, square, heavy-looking Georgian house of brown -brick, surrounded by trees and shrubs, close to the Broad Walk -on one side, and divided by a narrow roadway from Jack Straw’s -Castle on the other. It stands upon the highest ridge of the -Heath, at the same elevation as the tavern, and the windows -command fine views east, west, and north, whilst from the flat, -lead-covered roof one may see on a clear day, it is said, six counties.</p> - -<p>In 1772 Mr. Hoare had joined the firm of Bland and Barnett, -bankers, of 62, Lombard Street, in which his son, grandson, and -great-grandsons were afterwards partners, when the bank was -known as Barnett, Hoare and Co.</p> - -<p>When the first Samuel Hoare moved to Heath House, his -family consisted of himself and second wife, whom he had married -two years previously; his only son Samuel, a boy seven years -old; and a little daughter. The coming of this family to the -Heath was an epoch in the social history of Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Refined, intellectual, religious in the best sense of the phrase, -yet largely liberal, the Quaker banker opened wide his hospitable -doors to friends and neighbours, and brought into their midst the -men and women then most distinguished in literature, philanthropy, -and for high social aims. Nor were the poor forgotten in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_355"></a>[355]</span> -‘beneficent schemes that filled the mind of this benevolent man.’ -Whatever could improve the condition, or help the needs of his -humble neighbours had his earnest aid. England had been for -some time conscience-smitten, and agitated with the wrongs -inflicted on the unhappy negro race. Young Clarkson was calling -the attention of every man of influence he could get at to -their cause, and Wilberforce, one of his earliest converts, had -become his eloquent and pertinacious second. It is well known -that the first petition for the abolition of the slave trade presented -to the House of Commons came from the people called Quakers. -To this amiable and unobtrusive sect belongs the honour of having -taken the initiative in the crusade against this barbarous traffic, -and the young enthusiast Clarkson, who was preparing for the -Church, but had chosen a wider platform for the diffusion of his -impressions of Christian charity, found in Mr. Hoare, not a disciple, -but an apostle already in close sympathy with his purpose, and -daily working for its accomplishment.</p> - -<p>Here at Heath House these ever-to-be-remembered men discussed -with their host their trials, hopes, and disappointments; -for during a series of sixteen or seventeen years the Bill for the -Abolition of the Slave Trade, which Wilberforce Session after -Session presented to the House of Commons, was as constantly -thrown out, and two years before the final triumph of their cause -(1827) their associate and helper, Samuel Hoare senior, died -(1825), aged seventy-five.</p> - -<p>I have not seen it mentioned in the History or ‘Records of -Hampstead,’ but find in a paragraph of the <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>, -December, 1812, that ‘the Lancastrian school which Mr. Hoare, -the banker, has erected at his own expense at Hampstead was -opened a few days ago with about a hundred children. The -establishment is capable of accommodating about one hundred -and fifty, and promises to be soon filled up.’</p> - -<p>Some years before his father’s death, Samuel Hoare junior -had married one of the famous Earlham sisters, Louisa, daughter -of John Gurney, banker, of Norwich, and had gone to reside at -the Hill, North End (the house a wedding-gift from his father). -Later on Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, who had married Hannah, -another of the Miss Gurneys, also resided for some time at -North End, at a house now known as Myrtle Wood, a delightful<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_356"></a>[356]</span> -event for the sisters, their relatives, and friends. It is of Hill -House, during the residence of Sir Fowell and Lady Buxton in -its near neighbourhood (1820), that the celebrated Severen of -Cambridge wrote: ‘More of heaven I never saw than in the two -families at Hampstead’ (the Hoares and Buxtons).</p> - -<p>Of course, the same circle of friends were received at the houses -of both father and son; but when the death of Samuel Hoare -senior occurred, though his widow and daughter continued to -occupy Heath House, the delightful reunions that have made it -memorable ceased.</p> - -<p>Like his father and his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Fowell -Buxton, Samuel Hoare the second entered heartily into the views -of his friends, Clarkson and Wilberforce, and gave their great -scheme for the abolition of slavery his steady help and influence. -He lived long after the cause they battled for so pertinaciously had -been won, and, with his sympathetic wife, inaugurated various -projects for bettering the condition of the poor of Hampstead, -some of which I am told are still actively beneficial.</p> - -<p>There are just two or three old inhabitants of Hampstead who -remember the tall figure of the second Samuel Hoare, who used -to go down to town on horseback followed by his servant; later -on I am told the servant’s place was changed, and he rode very -close to—indeed, side by side with—his master, who towards the -end of his life was subject to sudden seizures.</p> - -<p>This gentleman died December 26, 1846, at the comparatively -early age of sixty-four, and Hill House became the property of -his son Samuel, who did not live very long to enjoy it, dying in -the twenty-sixth year of his age, October 27, 1833. The present -Sir Samuel Hoare, Member for Norwich, is the fourth of the -name, and the great-grandson of the first Samuel Hoare of Heath -House, of which he is the owner, as well as of the Hill, and other -property at Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Mrs. Hannah Hoare, the second wife and widow of Samuel -Hoare of the Heath, continued to reside there with her step-daughter -for many years in the near neighbourhood of their -relations at the Hill. There is something touchingly suggestive -in the fact that they both died in the same year, the widow -on January 21, and her step-daughter on October 21, 1833. -Mr. Gurney Hoare, son of the second Samuel Hoare, lived<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_357"></a>[357]</span> -at Hill House many years, and died there. The only representatives -of this family now at Hampstead (1899) are Mrs. MacEnnis -and her sister, Miss Greta Hoare, who reside at Wildwood -Avenue.</p> - -<h3 id="WENTWORTH">WENTWORTH PLACE, JOHN STREET.</h3> - -<p>The now frequented thoroughfare of John Street has been long -in coming into its inheritance—namely, the interest it derives from -the fact that, after the death of his brother, John Keats resided -here for nearly twelve months, and the last month of his life in -England was spent here.</p> - -<p>Wentworth Place lies on the right side of the road going from -St. John’s Chapel (on Downshire Hill) to the station. It consisted -of two adjoining houses, one of them occupied by Charles -Armitage Brown, the personal friend and sympathetic admirer of -the poet; the other by the Dilkes—Charles Wentworth Dilke, -the critic, who was afterwards editor and part proprietor of the -<i>Athenæum</i>, and his brother William.<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a> A lady, born at Hampstead, -and who resided there till twenty-two years of age, remembers -that a low fence encircled the garden, within which was a hedge -of laurustinus and China roses; latterly it was railed round.</p> - -<p>I can imagine the road then, with only a few houses bordering -it, each in its setting of greensward and evergreens, almost impinging -on the green slope of South Hill, and leading round by -Sol’s Row, where Wilkie at one time had lodgings, and where a -great nobleman and his wife and daughter called upon him with -a proposal for him to paint the portrait of one or both the ladies, -to which the unsophisticated Scotchman bluntly replied that ‘he -would think about it.’</p> - -<p>Sol’s Row then looked out upon a wide stretch of meadow-land, -beautiful with divisional elms and other trees, and had a fair-sized -pond in the foreground.</p> - -<p>It was with his friend Brown, as I have before said, that Keats -visited Scotland, but had not strength left to attempt it a second -season. He occupied the front sitting-room in his friend’s house, -and here he wrote the greater part of ‘Hyperion,’ and the Odes<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_358"></a>[358]</span> -to ‘Indolence’ and to ‘Psyche,’ ‘On a Grecian Urn,’ and to ‘A -Nightingale.’ Here also he commenced the unfinished ‘Cap and -Bells,’ and wrote ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’; and here, at a -party given by the Dilkes, he met Miss Brawne, the lady who -‘was not Cleopatra, but was at least Charmian,’ and who, with -her fine eyes and fine manners, and her rich Eastern looks, was -fated to play so large a part in the inner tragedy of his short life.</p> - -<p>The lady whom I have just now alluded to, who knew Miss -Brawne till she herself was fifteen years of age, when the latter -left England, describes her as a very striking, dignified-looking -woman, fair, but pale, with bright dark eyes and light brown hair. -She remembers her mother saying that Fanny Brawne was a -lovely girl, but that she had lost her colour in an illness she had -after her engagement with Keats was broken off—‘that mad boy -Keats,’ as they used to call him.</p> - -<p>When subsequently the Dilkes moved to Westminster, Mrs. -Brawne and her daughter took their house, so that the lovers -must have seen each other daily. Keats resided with his friend -from 1818 to 1819, when, in order to be near Leigh Hunt, who -had left the Vale of Health and was living at Kentish Town, he -removed there. Afterwards, when Hunt left England for Italy, -Keats made trial of a cheap lodging in College Street, Westminster, -where he only remained a week, returning instinctively -to Hampstead, where the Brawnes, from womanly compassion, -received him (he was then hopelessly ill), and tenderly nursed -him in the white bedroom, with the white curtains and white quilt, -in which Haydon, the painter, saw him, the bright hectic of his -flushed cheeks the only relief to the surrounding wanness. Here -he remained a month, the last month of his life in England, and -Hampstead and his lady-love possessed it.</p> - -<p>If ever a spot of earth could claim as its own one whose charmed -gift of poesy has impenetrated and irradiated the whole sphere of -intellectual life, surely Hampstead may call Keats her own.</p> - -<p>When the Brawnes left Wentworth Place, an actress of some -eminence—a Miss Chester, who held the post of Reader to -George IV.—took both houses, threw them into one, and called -her home Lawn Bank, by which name it continued to be called -till inquiries began to be made for Wentworth Place, which -readers of the ‘Northern Heights of London’ will remember<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_359"></a>[359]</span> -William Howitt could not find. The name has now been -restored.</p> - -<p>Upon this house the Society of Arts placed a memorial tablet -of terra-cotta, inscribed:</p> - -<p class="center">JOHN KEATS,<br /> -<span class="smcap">Poet,<br /> -Lived in this House.<br /> -Born 1795. Died 1821.</span></p> - -<p>Not a very clearly-expressed inscription, since anyone ignorant -of the poet’s history might naturally infer that he had not only -lived, but had been born and had died here. However, this is -better than barren forgetfulness, and now John Street has its -visitors, as Flask Road had in times gone by, but with far livelier -interest, for he who lived and wrote some of his most lovely poems -within these walls, to paraphrase his own prophecy, ‘lives among -the English poets after death.’</p> - -<p>Alas! it would seem that even this poor, long-delayed honour, -the only one his countrymen have afforded him, was a mere -mockery, for I find it stated in the public papers under the date of -August 1, 1898, that Wentworth House has been sold on a building -lease of ninety-nine years, with a proviso that only houses of -a superior class shall be erected on the site.</p> - -<h3 id="VANE">VANE HOUSE.</h3> - -<p>It is generally believed that the fine old red-brick mansion to the -left of the road as you ascend Rosslyn Hill, now the ‘Home of -the Soldiers’ Daughters,’ is the veritable house which the unfortunate -Sir Harry Vane built for himself on Hampstead Hill, a -place in which he had hoped to pass the declining years of his -life in peace.</p> - -<p>Of the original house only an old staircase leading to the garden -exists, but the interior of the mansion has suffered so many -changes, both before and after it became the residence of the -celebrated Dr. Butler, that, together with the alterations necessary -to fit it for its present use, not one of the original apartments -remains.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_360"></a>[360]</span></p> - -<p>The south wing of the house has been cut off; the northern -half is in good repair, and makes a commodious house. It has -received the name of Belmont. When Baines wrote the ‘Records -of Hampstead’ this was the home of H. J. Griffiths, Esq. The -fine avenue of elms that anciently skirted Vane House, some of -which were standing in quite recent years, has wholly disappeared.</p> - -<p>The gardens and grounds were very extensive and well laid -out, but these have been despoiled, though ‘one ancient mulberry-tree -survives.’</p> - -<p>When the grand old house was converted to its present use, -two-thirds of the garden were taken for the children’s playground, -and quite recently half an acre of the kitchen garden has been -sold for £5,000!</p> - -<p>It seems extraordinary that there should be any question as to -the identity of the house. Its original owner was executed on -June 14, 1662, just thirty years before the birth of Butler, who -was born in 1692. The Bishop, who only lived to be sixty, dying -in 1752, appears to have resided here for many years, and ornamented -the windows with a quantity of painted glass.</p> - -<p>One would imagine that a building of such distinction, so -strikingly situated, and tenanted from time to time by important -personages—it was afterwards the home of Mr. Thomas Neave -and of J. Pilgrim, Esq.—without the tragic story attached to -it, was not one to be lost sight of in the annals of the then -small village. Its history might, one would think, even without -the aid of highway and parish books, be fairly trusted to oral -tradition from one generation to another, in a period covered by -ninety years, from the date of Sir Harry Vane’s execution till the -death of Dr. Butler. The architectural characteristics of the -building when intact bore out its claim to have been built in the -days of the Commonwealth.</p> - -<p>Eliza Meteyard, in her ‘Hallowed Spots of Ancient London,’ -a book deserving a better fate than it has met with, tells us that -the famous avenue was the scene of Sir Harry’s arrest. Here -on the evening of an early day in July, 1660, just as the sun was -setting, Sir Harry walked and meditated, as was his wont, till the -glowing splendour of the western sky gradually faded, as did the -sounds of the cotter children at their play, the barking of a sympathetic<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_361"></a>[361]</span> -dog, or some broken scrap of hymn, and still Sir Harry -continued to pace beneath the elm-trees, the sweetness and the -stillness deepening with the twilight, when the measured tramp -of soldiers on the hill, some of whom marched straight to Vane -House, whilst others guarded the exits, struck terror into the -hearts of his humble neighbours, who, before night settled fully -down, saw Sir Harry taken from his home, a prisoner on his -way to the Tower, whence, after two years of torturing uncertainty, -and removals from one place of captivity to another, he -came forth on another summer’s day, June 14, 1662, to die by -the hand of the executioner on Tower Hill, another martyr to -the liberties of his country.</p> - -<p>Readers will remember Pepys’ hurry to shut up his office that -morning, and get off with his friends to see how the great -Commonwealth man would comport himself on so public and so -trying a platform as the scaffold. He is a witness, amongst -others, to the calmness and self-command which the ill-used -enthusiast exhibited in parting from mortality.</p> - -<h3 id="POND">POND STREET.</h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">Pond Street</span>—evidently the fashionable street in the eighteenth -century for the reception of visitors of the class dignified as the -‘quality’—appears to have been in the early years of this, the -Harley Street of Hampstead. Here resided Baron Dimsdale, in -a house on the left side of the road going down, the physician -who inoculated the Empress Catherine of Russia for small-pox. -It will be remembered, to the Empress’s credit, that she requested -him to leave the country as soon as possible after the -operation, as in the event of her death he would be held guilty -of it.</p> - -<p>Dr. Rodd, Dr. Lond, and various other medical men, lived -in Pond Street.</p> - -<p>I can remember it with a row of trees on the right-hand side of -the way as you entered it from the highroad, and a strip of greensward -running down it—a quiet street of formal appearance, with -an air of genteel frigidity characteristic of its period.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_362"></a>[362]</span></p> - -<p>It was in Pond Street that ‘poor Kirkman,’ as Keats sympathetically -calls him, ‘fell amongst thieves,’ who stopped and beat -and robbed him of his watch. He had been visiting the poet at -Wentworth Place, and left about half-past eight in the evening, -and was on his way to the London Road, probably intending to -meet the coach there, when he was waylaid, maltreated and robbed. -This was in 1818, so that the middle passage between Hampstead -and the Metropolis was not even then without its danger.</p> - -<p>Keats, writing to his brother some days after the event, tells -him he had been to see Kirkman, who had not recovered of his -bruises.</p> - -<h3 id="FLORA">A FRAGMENT OF THE FLORA OF HAMPSTEAD.</h3> - -<p>In the reigns of Elizabeth and James the herbalists appear to have -had Hampstead Heath very much to themselves. The laundresses -must have had light feet, and children have been comparatively -few.</p> - -<p>Otherwise they did not wander so far as Bishop’s Wood, or -the old Target Bank, where the lilies of the valley grew so plentifully -in Johnson’s time. Johnson was the pupil of Gerard, and -the editor of a new edition of his master’s work, the ‘Great -Herbal.’ To this lover of Nature, an apothecary by profession, -is due the honour of having prepared the first catalogue of local -plants ever published in England, the locality of these plants being -the Heath and the Woods of Hampstead; many of the plants -have survived the predatory habits of London flower-vendors, -and still flourish in their old habitats.</p> - -<p>Of the survivors, we are glad to give the following list from -personal acquaintance with them:</p> - -<h4><i>March and April.</i></h4> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Daisy</span> (<i>Bella perennis</i>).—Perennial everywhere. We -gathered it on the East Heath January 26, 1874.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Blackthorn</span> (<i>Prunus spinosa</i>).—Upper and West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Marsh Marigold</span> (<i>Caltha palustris</i>).—The borders of the old watercourse -at the back of Jack Straw’s Castle. This watercourse -is now extinct (1895).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_363"></a>[363]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Pasque Flower</span> (<i>Anemone Pulsatilla</i>).—On a bank at the edge of -the Upper Heath. A small bed of it amongst the whitethorn-trees -going to the Leg of Mutton Pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dandelion</span> (<i>Leontodon taraxacum</i>).—In grassy places. East and -West Heaths, everywhere.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Wood Crowfoot</span>, <span class="smcap">Goldylocks</span> (<i>Ranunculus auricomus</i>).—Amongst -the trees beyond the red viaduct, Lower Heath.</p> - -</div> - -<p>We look in vain for the primroses which adorned the hedgerows -and overspread the woods in Gerard’s time, and the cowslips -ankle-deep in the meadows between Kilburn and the Heath. -Like the lilies of the valley, the orchids and ophreys, they have -long since been exterminated by mendicant root-vendors, or -buried under the foundations of modern streets.</p> - -<h4><i>May.</i></h4> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Wild Hyacinth</span>, <span class="smcap">Bluebell</span> (<i>Hyacinthus non-scriptus</i>).—Plentiful -on the grassy banks beside the New Road leading to Child’s -Hill.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Speedwell Germander</span> (<i>Veronica</i>).—In the same neighbourhood.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Wood Sorrel</span> (<i>Oxalis acetosella</i>).—Under the shade of some old -thorn-stocks, south side of the watercourse, Upper Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Butcher’s Broom</span> (<i>Ruscus aculeatus</i>).—Bushy places about the -neighbourhood of the pond, near the red viaduct, Lower -Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Shepherd’s Purse</span> (<i>Bursa pastoris</i>).—Common by roadsides everywhere.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Crab Apple</span> (<i>Pyrus malus</i>).—On the right hand of the watercourse -behind Jack Straw’s Castle, descending the Heath, near the -pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Hawthorn</span>, <span class="smcap">Hagthorn</span>, <span class="smcap">Maybush</span> (<i>Crategus oxyacanthus</i>).—In the -same neighbourhood, right and left.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dog Violet</span> (<i>Viola canina</i>).—In various places on the West -Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dwarf Willow</span> (<i>Salix repens</i>, Smith, <i>Salex repens</i>, Bab.).—Near -the bog opposite the grounds of Hill House, North End.</p> - -</div> - -<h4><i>June.</i></h4> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Watercress</span> (<i>Nasturtium officinalis</i>).—In a pool at the -lower end of the watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_364"></a>[364]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Ragged Robin</span> (<i>Lychnis flos-cuculi</i>).—On the moist margin of -the same place near the pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Marsh Stitchwort</span> (<i>Stellaria glauca</i>).—Same habitat as the above.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Water Ranunculus</span> (<i>R. aquatilis</i>).—In the pond at the bottom -of the old watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Needle Green-weed</span>, <span class="smcap">Petty-whin</span> (<i>Genista anglica</i>).—On high -ground on the West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Broom</span> (<i>Cytisus scoparius</i>).—Frequent on both Heaths, -making the gravelly hollows luminous. These now effaced -(1895).</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Buck Bean</span> (<i>Menyanthes trifoliata</i>).—On the sphagnum by the -watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Marsh Red Rattle</span> (<i>Pedicularis palustris</i>).—Beds of its rosy -flowers in moist places frequent on the West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Cotton Grass, Downy-stalked</span> (<i>Eriophorum pubescens</i>).—Once -plentiful in May and June beside the watercourse, in the -bed of which I found it lingering in the summer of 1873. -Abundant June 3, 1874; lost 1895.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Cotton Grass</span> (<i>Eriophorum angustifolium</i>).—Same habitat.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Marsh Pennywort</span> (<i>Hydrocotyle vulgaris</i>).—In damp places on -the West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Cuckoo-flower</span>, <span class="smcap">Lady’s Smock</span> (<i>Cardamine pratensis</i>).—On bogs -on West Heath, of a beautiful deep lilac hue.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Milkwort</span> (<i>Polygala vulgaris</i>).—I call it gay-wings. -Blue, pink, purple and white, disports itself in all the grassy -hollows on the Western Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sweet Woodruff</span> (<i>Asperula odorata</i>).—In the shade of the trees -in the neighbourhood of the red viaduct, near Lord Mansfield’s -grounds, Lower Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Scarlet Pimpernel</span>, <span class="smcap">Shepherd’s Weather-glass</span> (<i>Anagallis -arvensis</i>).—Borders of the sandy roadsides, fields and paths.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Lesser Stitchwort</span> (<i>Stellaria graminea</i>).—In the little dells on -lower part of West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Rest Harrow</span> (<i>Ononis arvensis</i>).—On Upper Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Furze</span> (<i>Ulex europæus</i>).—Everywhere amongst the gravelly -mounds and hollows on the Upper Heath and North -End Hill.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Mare’s-tail</span> (<i>Hippurus vulgaris</i>).—Margins of ponds, Upper and -Lower Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_365"></a>[365]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Brooklime</span> (<i>Veronica beccabunga</i>).—In channel of the old -watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Elder</span> (<i>Sambucus nigra</i>).—Plentiful in hedgerows and -lanes in the vicinity of the Heath. Constable noticed the -beauty of its rounded cymes.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Speedwell</span> (<i>Veronica spicata</i>).—On West Heath, near Leg of -Mutton Pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sheep’s Sorrel</span> (<i>Rumex acetosella</i>).—Abundant on West Heath, -its deep red clustered spikes of flowers conspicuous above -the yet unopened white ones of <i>Galium saxatile</i>, among which -it frequently appears.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Greater Stitchwort</span> (<i>Stellaria holostea</i>).—Amongst the bushes -near the Leg of Mutton Pond, West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">White Dutch Clover</span> (<i>Trifolium repens</i>).—Sparsely on the West -Heath, near the reservoir, and in the fields going to Parliament -Hill.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dwarf Mallow</span> (<i>Malva rotundifolia</i>).—Under the garden-wall of -Hill House, North End.</p> - -</div> - -<h4><i>July.</i></h4> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Devil’s-bit Scabious</span> (<i>Scabiosa succisa</i>).—On the higher part of -West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Eye-bright</span> (<i>Euphrasia officinalis</i>).—On the high ground -under the western plateau of the Heath. One of Milton’s -flowers.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Bugle</span> (<i>Ajuga reptans</i>).—In moist places; abundant over -all the Heath; perennial.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Upright St. John’s Wort</span> (<i>Hypericum pulchrum</i>).—On the dry -banks above Leg of Mutton Pond, at the foot of the watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Filago</span> (<i>F. germanica</i>).—Frequent about the gravel-pits, -Upper Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Wood Sage</span> (<i>Teucrium scorodonia</i>).—Abundant on Upper Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil</span> (<i>Lotus corniculatus</i>).—Abundant on -the West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil</span> (<i>Lotus major</i>).—Near the old -watercourse, towards the pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Purple Sandwort</span> (<i>Arenaria rubra</i>).—On the sandy paths and -hillocks east of Jack Straw’s Castle, Lower Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_366"></a>[366]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Tormentilla</span> (<i>T. reptans</i>).—Its red trailing stems, strawberry-shaped -leaves, and bright yellow flowers, common everywhere -upon the Heath all summer.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Heath Bedstraw</span> (<i>Gallium saxatile</i>).—Great spaces on the high -ground of the Upper Heath snowy white with the dense -panicles of this lovely little plant.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Harebell</span> (<i>Campanula rotundifolia</i>).—Common over all the upper -parts of the Heath.<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Lesser Spearwort</span> (<i>Ranunculus flammula</i>).—Along the margins -of the old watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Celery-leaved Crowfoot</span> (<i>R. sceleratus</i>).—In the same neighbourhood.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Great Reedmace, or Cat’s-tail</span> (<i>Typha latifolia</i>).—In the pond -on Lord Mansfield’s grounds, beside the viaduct, where an -old boat lies stranded (1856).</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Water Violet</span> (<i>Viola palustris</i>).—Margin of the same pond, and -in the pool at the bottom of the watercourse behind Jack -Straw’s Castle.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Meadowsweet</span>, <span class="smcap">Queen of the Meadow</span> (<i>Spiræa ulmaria</i>).—In -the bed of an old runnel on the right of the New Road going -to Child’s Hill.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sundew</span> (<i>Drosera rotundifolia</i>).—Boggy places amongst sphagnum -beds in the vicinity of the watercourse, West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Yarrow</span>, <span class="smcap">Milfoil</span> (<i>Achillea millefolium</i>).—Almost everywhere -on the Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Mouse-ear Hawkweed</span> (<i>Hieracium pilosella</i>).—Runs over all the -little mounds and hillocks on the Western Heath; abundant -all the summer.</p> - -</div> - -<h4><i>August.</i></h4> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Chamomile</span> (<i>Anthemis nobilis</i>).—In many places on the -Upper Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Dodder</span> (<i>Cuscuta epithymum</i>).—Found on furze bushes on the -Upper Heath August, 1859.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Betony</span> (<i>Betonica officinalis</i>).—Amongst furze clumps in a line with -the old watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_367"></a>[367]</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Fine-leaved Heath</span> (<i>Erica cinerea</i>).—On the West Heath in -gravelly, grass-grown hollows.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Ling</span> (<i>Calluna vulgaris</i>).—Amongst the gravel-beds frequent.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Yellow Water-lily</span> (<i>Nuphar lutea</i>).—In the pond at the viaduct, -Lower Heath. Note its flask-like seed-vessels, which have -libelled it with the name of ‘brandy-bottle.’</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Common Arrow-head</span> (<i>Sagittaria sagittifolia</i>).—Margins of the -same pond.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Small-flowered Hairy Willow Herb</span> (<i>Epilobium parviflorum</i>).—Lower -end of old watercourse.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sweetgale</span> (<i>Myrica</i>).—On West Heath.<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a></p> - -</div> - -<p>To this list I may add a few other plants found on the Heath -and its vicinity by Messrs. Bliss, Hunter and others, leaving out -those proper to Caen Wood, which is still rich in the plants that -flourished on the Heath and in the woods when Gerard wrote:</p> - -<div class="hanging"> - -<p><span class="smcap">Henbane</span> (<i>Hyoscyamus niger</i>).—Near the Vale of Health.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Lesser Centaury</span> (<i>Erythræa pulchella</i>).—In the same habitat -and on the West Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Great Yellow Loosestrife</span> (<i>Lysimachia vulgaris</i>).—In a field -near North End.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Lesser Periwinkle</span> (<i>Vinca minor</i>).—Under the hedge in Belsize -Lane.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Bog Pimpernel</span> (<i>Anagallis tenella</i>).—Boggy places on the Heath, -west side.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Black Whortleberry, or Whinberry</span> (<i>Vaccinium myrtillus</i>).—On -several parts of the Heath.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Lesser Skullcap</span> (<i>Scutellaria minor</i>).—Among the bushes near the -bogs on the west side of the Heath, and very abundant on -the east side between the Vale of Health and Well Walk.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Musk Mallow</span> (<i>Malva moschata</i>).—In a field between Turner’s -Wood and North End.</p> - -</div> - -<p>Only two species of moss were said to grow in a bog to the -west of the Heath, and these I found still growing there, viz.: -<i>Hypnum stramineum</i>, straw-like feather moss, and <i>Hypnum cuspidatum</i>, -pointed bog feather moss. In 1895, the researches<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_368"></a>[368]</span> -of the London Natural History Club added quite a long list to -them, and they appear to be as numerous in the bogs and on -the Heath as in the strictly preserved precincts of Caen Wood.</p> - -<h3 id="BENEFACTORS">BENEFACTORS OF HAMPSTEAD AND THE CHARITIES.</h3> - -<p>One of the earliest benefactors of Hampstead was Elizabeth, -Dowager Viscountess Campden, widow of Sir Baptist Hicks, the -donor of Hicks’s Hall to the county of Middlesex, and Lord of -the Manor of Hampstead (whose town house, by the way, was -Campden House, Kensington), ‘with whom, in all peace and contentment, -she lived, his dear consort and wife, for the space of -forty-five years.’</p> - -<p>She bequeathed by will, dated February 14, 1643, the sum of -£200 to trustees for the purchase of land of the clear yearly value -of £10, ‘in trust to pay yearly for ever one moiety towards the -better relief of the most poor and needy people that be of good -name and conversation, inhabitants of the Parish of Hampstead; -to be paid to them half yearly at or in the Church porch. The -other moiety to put forth annually one poor boy, or more, of the -said Parish to apprenticeship.’ To this gift was joined the sum -of £40, bequeathed by an unknown but eccentric gentlewoman -in the same year, for the purpose of distributing a halfpenny loaf -(probably a crossed bun) annually on Good Friday morning to -the inhabitants of Hampstead, rich and poor. Mad as a March -hare! for what did the rich inhabitants of Hampstead want of a -halfpenny loaf on Good Friday, or any other morning, even in -the days when a crossed bun was a panacea for almost every -ailment? Yet the bequest proved as bread cast upon the waters, -and seen after many days; for being joined to Lady Campden’s -£200, the whole was laid out in the purchase of fourteen acres of -meadow-land at Child’s Hill, in the parish of Hendon, of the -clear value of 10s. per acre.</p> - -<p>When Park wrote, this estate was rented at £84 per annum; -at the present day it must be worth much more, though on -inquiry being made on the part of the Vestry into the management<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_369"></a>[369]</span> -of this charity in 1873, it was said that it had not been -developed.</p> - -<p>Next on the list of Hampstead benefactions, in point of time, -but far beyond the Campden charity in its importance, is what is -called the Wells Charity, that gift of ‘six acres of waste land -lying about and encompassing the Well of Medicinal Water,’ -which the Hon. Susanna Noel of the one part, and the grantees -of a piece of waste ground on the Heath of the other (on behalf of -Baptist, Earl of Gainsborough, her son, then an infant), bestowed -with all the improvements of the same in trust to the sole use and -benefit of the poor of Hampstead.</p> - -<p>On this land stand the houses and chapel in Well Walk, which -when Park lived there produced £95 per annum, the trustees -having at that period £1,100 stock in the Three per Cents. In -1859 the estate was said to be capable of producing from £2,000 -to £3,000 per annum.</p> - -<p>This charity is applied—or at least a portion of it—to apprenticing -poor children of both sexes. The parents of the children -must have been parishioners (not receiving parochial relief) for -three years. The boys must be fourteen, the girls twelve years -of age; and in order to enter an application it is necessary to -obtain a recommendation from one of the trustees.</p> - -<p>Appertaining to this charity there is also a fund for charitable -distribution. Besides these gifts, certain poor widows and housekeepers -were to be maintained and assisted by the benefactions -of Elizabeth Shooter, spinster, the possible foundress of one or -other of the four almshouses formerly existing at Hampstead, and -one of which, being removed from a part of the Heath by Sir -Francis Willes, and the site taken into his grounds at North End, -was rebuilt by him in the Vale of Health. A Mrs. Mary Arnsted, -of Hampstead, widow, assisted in this charity.</p> - -<p>Francis Marshall, Esq., of Hampstead, in 1772 left £100 in -the Three per Cents., to be distributed to poor housekeepers -annually on Easter Day. Besides these, there is another important -bequest, known as Stock’s Charity.</p> - -<p>One would like to know the ancient whereabouts of the donor, -John Stock, Esq., paper-stainer, citizen, draper, and philanthropist, -while resident at Hampstead, who, having, as the white -marble tablet in the north-east corner of Christ Church, London,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_370"></a>[370]</span> -tells us, ‘acquired with the strictest integrity considerable wealth, -bequeathed the greater part of it at his death, September 21, 1781, -for the promotion of religion and virtue ... the advancement of -literature and art ... the relief of the decrepit and comfort of -the blind.’ He specially bequeathed £1,000 (which, with the -dividends that had accrued, and some donations from the trustees, -purchased £2,000 in the Three per Cents.) to the minister and -gentlemen parishioners of Hampstead for the purpose of clothing, -educating, and putting out apprentice ten poor fatherless children -of the parish—viz., six boys and four girls, the former to receive -£5 as an apprentice-fee, the latter £2. Eight boys and seven -girls received the benefit of this fund in 1812, and as it increased -a proportionate number have benefited since then.</p> - -<p>To these generous and useful charities many a poor widow has -been indebted for the training and suitable settling in life of her -otherwise destitute children; but for them many a household -would have been broken up and scattered, and decently-born -children and respectable matrons reduced to the dead-level of the -poor-house. But the large compassion of those ancient benefactors -of the beautiful village, and the more recent charities of honest -John Stock,<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a> have enlarged and widened, as it were, with the -years and the number of the necessitous, and continue to strengthen -the hands and comfort the hearts of the widows and fatherless -with timely and efficient aid.</p> - -<p>The funds of the Wells Charity have grown out of all proportion -to the original intentions of the donor of them, and proposals -have been made to utilize them for the benefit of a class above -those whom the foundress desired to benefit. But the working -classes themselves, or their representatives, have suggested many -ways of using them without wresting them from their proper<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_371"></a>[371]</span> -channel, by which not only they themselves, but the whole community, -will be advantaged. It has been suggested to build baths -and wash-houses, and a working men’s hall and institute; and -who can doubt the reciprocal blessings to rich and poor that must -spring from cleanliness, temperance, and those mental improvements -which come of intelligent association and rational means of -amusement?</p> - -<p>Other charities exist in the parish—various bequests of small -sums, which if amalgamated, like the Campden Fund with the -£40 for annually bestowing halfpenny loaves, would create useful -stock, and go far to relieve the ratepayers of the parish.</p> - -<p>While these lines were being penned, we had the pleasure to -see that a memorial to the Attorney-General, with Mr. Gurney -Hoare at its head, had been signed to provide a working men’s -club and institute at Hampstead with a portion of the revenue of -the Wells Charity.</p> - -<p>It has also been suggested, in accordance with the necessities -of the times, that a larger premium be given with apprentices, to -ensure better masters and mistresses. Some persons have even -advocated a plan for improving the dwellings of the local poor, -and others, again, a middle-class school for poor tradesmen’s -children; but, unless the funds are capable of extension to cover -the whole of these plans, the middle-class school scarcely seems -to come within the scope of the Hon. Susanna Noel’s intentions. -It appears the germ of a working men’s unsectarian club has been -for some little time in existence, and that the want of class-rooms -and other suitable premises has made the members, and the projectors -and encouragers of it, actively alive to the prospect so -appositely thrown open to them.</p> - -<p>Soon, therefore, we may hope that a handsome building will -arise—an ornament to the town and a monument to the memory -of the foundress of the Wells Charity.</p> - -<p>We have already alluded to the practical services rendered by -Mr. Perceval and Mr. Montagu during their residence at Hampstead -and in its neighbourhood. It would not be difficult to trace -the seeds of the present anxiety for mental and social improvement -on the part of local working men, and the desire to aid them -in their advance on the part of their employers and friends, to the -discussions of the Philo-Investigists, and the Sunday and night<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_372"></a>[372]</span> -schools on Rosslyn Hill. Mr. Fearon’s philanthropy took a wider -field: it belonged to no party, or time, or class; his efforts were -for the freedom of human intellect, and the advancement through -education of all. He belongs by right of residence to Hampstead.</p> - -<p>There is in the churchyard a monument to two children of the -Hon. and Rev. Edward John Tornour, a member of the noble -family of that name, the seventh and, at that time, the only child -of the Right Hon. Edward Garth Tornour, Earl of Winterton, -Viscount Tornour, and Baron Winterton, who had been resident -at Green Hill, Hampstead, for several years. Benevolence seems -to have been a hereditary virtue of this noble family. Mr. Tornour -took Holy Orders for love of the sacred office, and not for the -emoluments of the Church; and previous to becoming a permanent -resident of London, whither he was obliged to move for the sake -of his health, he had accepted the offices of curate, afternoon -preacher, and evening lecturer at Hampstead, where he resided -till he could no longer bear the sharp air. While there he -acted as a county magistrate and guardian of the poor. It is -impossible to look at the engraved portrait of him, after a painting -by Drummond, without feeling the fine nature of the man; the -broad, full, philanthropical forehead, the large, sweet, compassionate -eyes and kindly mouth, are full of benignity and goodness, -though we are not aware that he benefited the parish he served -pecuniarily. He was living there about, or shortly before, the -date of Park’s History. The tears and blessings of the poor do -not follow the unreal Christian minister, nor the unworthy magistrate, -nor the uncompassionate guardian, and from the character -given of him on his death, and which may be seen in the pages of -the <i>European Magazine</i>, we venture to regard him as one of the -Hampstead worthies.</p> - -<p>We find the following notice in the columns of the <i>Grub Street -Journal</i>:</p> - -<p>‘Yesterday [April 16, 1736], of the gout in his stomach, Mr. -Andrew Pitt, of Hampstead, one of the most eminent of the -people called Quakers.’ After thirty years’ attention to business, -he had, in the language of Voltaire, who corresponded with him, -‘the wisdom to prescribe limits to fortune and his desires, and settle -in a little solitude at Hampstead.’ Ceasing from business, however, -by no means prevented his active occupations in other ways.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_373"></a>[373]</span></p> - -<p>At the beginning of this year (1736) all the Nonconformists of -England were petitioning against the cruel Test Act, and Tithe -Bill, and Mr. Pitt, as the representative of his ‘people,’ waited -upon the Prince of Wales to solicit His Highness’s favour in -support of the Quakers’ Tithe Bill. Perhaps there is no greater -proof of the charm of manner ascribed to the Prince, and the -tact with which he could soften even the refusal of a request -when so minded, than the fact that, though Mr. Pitt failed, he -came away greatly pleased with the Prince’s reply and his excellent -notions of liberty.</p> - -<p>It is evident that Voltaire had personally known Mr. Pitt.<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> -He describes him as hale and ruddy, a perfect stranger to intemperance -of any kind, and as never having suffered from -sickness.</p> - -<p>Another inhabitant who deserves notice was Mr. Thomas Hayes, -who as a poor lad began life in the humble and unpromising -capacity of a pot-boy at a local public-house, from which post he -raised himself, ‘entirely by his own merit,’ to that of a surgeon. -He received his knowledge of pharmacy from Collins, whom Park -calls ‘the glossarial stalking-horse of Steevens.’ Mr. Hayes died -May 7, 1787, beloved and regretted by his friends and neighbours, -respected and unenvied. He was laid in his native churchyard in -Maiden Lane.</p> - -<p>Another inhabitant of Hampstead who has won the right to be -remembered in a description of it was Mr. Thomas Mitchell, for -twenty of his forty-eight years of life a schoolmaster in the town. -He was the real founder of the Sunday-school, ‘and, by great -application and attention to its interests, left it supported on a -firm basis.’ He appears to have carried out with great earnestness -the spirit of his self-made motto, ‘Do all the good you can.’ -The poor were special objects of his care, and, without the aid of -money, his practical good sense and actively philanthropical nature -enabled him to strike out permanent means of assisting them. He -was one of the Society of the Philo-Investigists, a society which, -as we have elsewhere said, aimed at intellectual improvement, and -suggested the benefit society afterwards known as the Flock of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_374"></a>[374]</span> -the Philo-Investigists. He did not live to see his benevolent -scheme in action; but some years after his death, in 1799, it came -into effect under the name of the Parochial Benefit Society.</p> - -<p>In 1802 Josiah Boydell appears to have taken a very keen -interest and an active part in the care of the poor inhabitants of -Hampstead, and to have materially aided in procuring better -quarters than the old workhouse at Frognal for the superannuants -and ailing pensioners of the parish.</p> - -<h3 id="REFORMER">THE FATE OF A REFORMER.</h3> - -<p>I have had occasion to speak of Mr. Abrahams’ pamphlet<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> -several times in the course of these pages, a publication that fell -like a bomb in an unexpectant place, and aroused among the -well-to-do inhabitants of Hampstead anything but gratitude.</p> - -<p>This gentleman, who had ‘a way,’ he tells us, ‘of looking into -things for himself,’ having become a parishioner of St. John’s, -proceeded to act as he had done when resident in St. Luke’s, -London, where his scrutiny into parochial transactions had resulted -in a saving to Government of upwards of £2,000, and a -reduction of the poor rates from 4s. 8d. in the pound to 3s., a -result that led to an annual commemoration of the event at -Canonbury House.</p> - -<p>But the people of Hampstead did not desire to be saved from -themselves, and resented this new inhabitant’s interference with -indignation. There is something very amusing in Mr. Abrahams’ -account of the proceedings.</p> - -<p>Provided with a list of the names of the inhabitants, he called -on the overseer of the parish and requested he would return it -to him with the figures at which they were rated to the poor. -Whereupon the irate overseer demanded to know if he came to -disturb the harmony that existed among the parishioners in a -parish where everything was properly conducted; they wanted -no looking after, and therefore he should treat his request and the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_375"></a>[375]</span> -list accompanying it with the contempt they deserved by setting -his pipe alight with the latter. Upon which Mr. Abrahams made -no more requests to the courteous official, but possessed himself -by other means of the amounts to which the inhabitants were -assessed, and drew public attention to the matter by the publication -of his pamphlet. It would have been well for parishes -generally had they possessed a representative as energetic as this -new parishioner of St. John’s, for the ignorance and dishonesty -his pamphlet disclosed appears to have been pretty general.</p> - -<p>Six years later (1817) we find Sir Walter Scott writing to his -friend Mr. Moratt, who had himself written a pamphlet on the -subject, ‘Pray let me have your pamphlet on the poor-rates as -soon as it is out. It is an Augean stable; it is the very canker -in the bosom of the country, and no small claim will he have on -the gratitude of England who can suggest a practical remedy.’</p> - -<p>But the people of Hampstead, until they had tasted the fruits -of Mr. Abrahams’ interference, thought otherwise. At that time -they were paying from the inequalities of the rates 4s. 8d. in the -pound poor rates, and 1s. 9d. in the pound for lighting, watching, -and repairing the roads.</p> - -<p>In the happy days which preceded the appearance of this -reformer, neither the parson, vestry clerk, nor beadle paid rates, -and, as has elsewhere been said, the landlord of the Spaniards Inn -enjoyed the same pleasant immunity. The Lady of the Manor -(Lady Wilson) was rated at £100 for the Heath, to which the -critical Abrahams objects that ‘when the rate was made, and till -within the last few years, when <i>so great an impetus had been given to -building</i>, sand, that now sold at 4s. 6d. a load, and gravel<a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> at 6s. -per load, had sold for 2s. 6d. and 4s. 6d.;’ he rated the Heath -therefore at five times the sum, £500.</p> - -<p>Lord Erskine’s house, garden, pleasure-grounds, stables, coach-house, -etc., were also rated at £100, and very few proprietors -were rated higher.</p> - -<p>The following are the places named in his report: Church -Street, Hampstead Hill, the Lower Flask Walk, New End, the -Well Walk and thereabouts, the Square, part of the Heath, the -Terrace, Nag’s Head side, Frognal, the Heath, and North End,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_376"></a>[376]</span> -the whole of which produced at that time £21,078, but might, -according to Mr. Abrahams’ rating, produce above a fourth more, -or £26,788, and reduce the poor rate by 1s. 2d. in the pound. -Amongst the land-owners mentioned at this period are the names -of Neave, Todd, Milligen, Holford, Hoare, Lord Mansfield; -Everett (late Perceval), Belsize House, Haverstock Hill; Lady -Watson, Well Park—a list not very different from Carey’s notes -of the inhabitants a twelvemonth later, in the fifth edition of his -‘Book of the Road,’ 1812.<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> He is describing the Barnet road, -which led up to and skirted Hampstead Heath:</p> - -<p>‘On the left of the three-mile stone from St. Giles’s Pound, -Pryor, Esq.’ (a name retained in the ‘Pryors,’ the present home -of Walter Field, Esq.), ‘whose family have been for some time -resident at Hampstead.’ ‘A little further on Belsize House, -William Everett, Esq., and C. Todd, Esq., nearly opposite to -which is T. Cartright, Esq. Farther on the left Roberts, Esq., -and Coke, Esq. An eighth of a mile on the left, Rosslyn House, -Mrs. Milligen. On the top of Red Lion Hill, to the right, is -T. Gardner, Esq.; opposite is Pilgrim, Esq., adjoining to which -is Mrs. Key. On the entrance to the Heath, T. Sheppard, Esq., -M.P. for Frome’ (who resided in Steevens’ old house, now the -home of the Misses Lister); and ‘across the Heath, S. Hoare, -Esq., and a distant view of Caen Wood, with the seats of Charles -Bosanquet, Esq., and Lord Erskine.’</p> - -<p>He does not mention Edward Coxe, the poet, who was their -neighbour the preceding year. ‘On the right is Caen Wood, Earl -of Mansfield, and near it Fitzroy Farm, Lord Southampton. -Between the Castle (Jack Straw’s) and North End, on the -left, Kerney, Esq.; adjoining Ware, Esq., and opposite S. Hoare -junior, Esq., Hill House, and James Kesteven, Esq. On the -right Robert Ward, Esq., and opposite John Thompson, Esq., -The Priory; and beyond the Hoop on Golder’s Green are seats -of Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., Beck, Esq., and Amand, Esq.’</p> - -<p>Abrahams tells us that in 1811 Church Street (as he calls it) -had 25 residences; Flask Walk, 58; New End, 59; the Well -Walk and thereabouts, 39; the Square, 20; part of the Heath, -20; the Terrace, 58; Nag’s Head side, 74; the Heath and North -End, 38; Heath Street is not mentioned.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_377"></a>[377]</span></p> - -<p>In this year it is stated in the <i>Lady’s Magazine</i>:</p> - -<p>‘We hear that it is in contemplation to form a new Ranelagh -and Vauxhall near Chalk Farm, and a contract has been entered -into for forty acres of land to be appropriated to that purpose.’</p> - -<p>New Georgia had long gone to increase Lord Mansfield’s -demesne and the acreage of Caen Wood. North End Hall and -Well had proved a failure; but the people of Hampstead and its -neighbourhood still hankered after the flesh-pots of Egypt, and -regretted the affluent days of the Wells fashion, and the bankruptcy -of Belsize. Nothing, however, appears to have come of the idea, -and long years passed before the beautiful meadows in the neighbourhood -of Chalk Farm disappeared.</p> - -<h3 id="STRUGGLE">THE STRUGGLE FOR THE HEATH.</h3> - -<p>As early as 1829 we find the freeholders and copyholders of the -Manor of Hampstead meeting at the Assembly Rooms on Holly-bush -Hill, to discuss the best means to prevent further damage -being done to the Heath, by destruction of the herbage, and -digging sand and gravel thereon, as well as to inaugurate a subscription -to try by law the right of the Lord of the Manor to so -disturb and destroy it, or to build on or enclose any part of it.</p> - -<p>Even prior to this date there seems to have subsisted an ill-feeling -between the inhabitants of Hampstead and Sir Thomas -Wilson. The copyholders claimed the right to improve their -own copyholds by building on them, or otherwise, as also to get -materials for such purposes off their own land, or from the waste. -This matter had been tried between Lady Wilson and Sir Francis -Willes, and had gone against the latter, because his removing the -herbage had been detrimental to the rights of the other copyholders, -who on certain parts of the Heath had a right to turn -in their cattle, <i>levant et couchant</i>. Yet from the beginning of the -century, as we have seen, the digging of sand and gravel for the -benefit of Lady Wilson, and subsequently for the Lord of the -Manor, had been going on without stint, and with scarcely any -intermission, though in doing so (to quote the phrase of Professor -Vaughan of Oxford, a resident near the Heath) they were carting<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_378"></a>[378]</span> -away the climate and the drainage, and therefore the health of -the neighbourhood, which depended on the sand and gravel.</p> - -<p>But the then Lord of the Manor was not living for posterity, -but for himself. In the May previous to the meeting we have -mentioned, without even the courtesy of giving the usual notice -to the copyholders, Sir Thomas Wilson had brought his Estate -Bill before Parliament, by which he sought to abrogate the privileges -of the copyholders, and appropriate to himself the power -of granting licenses to improve their customary estates, and -licenses to get materials for that purpose from their own copyholds, -upon payment of 40s. fine to the Lord of the Manor, -and £3 3s. fee to the steward for every such license. The Bill -also sought power to grant building leases of the Heath, or other -wastes of the manor, and to extend the power of granting building -leases over certain lands formerly part of the waste, which were -granted by the Lord of the Manor to himself, in the name of a -trustee, with the consent of the homage, upon the express condition -<i>that no buildings should at any time be erected on them</i>.</p> - -<p>It was by mere accident, it is said, that the people of Hampstead -heard of this Bill being before the House, and only just in -time to oppose its being carried through surreptitiously.</p> - -<p>No wonder that there were meetings in hot haste, and resolutions -passed to defend the rights and privileges of the freeholders -and copyholders, and at the same time those of the inhabitants -and visitors. The sympathy of the public, as well as of the principal -residents in the neighbourhood, was with them. Lord -Clifton favoured the opposition. Lord Mansfield headed the -subscription, as we have elsewhere said, with a donation of £50.</p> - -<p>The inhabitants, well aware how much of their prosperity was -due to the natural beauty of the Heath and its surroundings, gave -with no niggard hands towards the fund for its protection. But, -as we subsequently learn, the £3,000 raised by voluntary contributions -was expended with no other result than the prospect of -endless litigation.</p> - -<p>It was impossible for this state of things to exist without a -certain degree of personal ill-feeling being imported into it. Sir -Thomas was rich and resolute, but the copyholders had their -rights, and determined to hold by them. The years ran on -without any radical adjustment of the questions at issue.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_379"></a>[379]</span></p> - -<p>Every now and again, not Hampstead only, but the heart of -Nature-loving London, was shaken by reports that the Heath -was forthwith to be built on, and then would come appeals for -further subscriptions, with the hope of purchasing it, appeals -headed grandiloquently, but earnestly, ‘Awake! arise! or -lose the Heath for ever!’ and thenceforth other meetings would -ensue, fresh resolutions be declared, but to little apparent purpose, -so far as the assurance of the preservation of the Heath was concerned. -Happily, in the meantime, Government had taken up -the question of public parks and recreation-grounds for the people, -and measures were being adopted for the preservation of the -commons at Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Clapham, Tooting, and -Putney.</p> - -<p>The Hampstead Heath Committee put themselves into communication -with the Board of Works, and authorized it to negotiate -the purchase of the Heath with the Lord of the Manor of -Hampstead.</p> - -<p>But though propositions had been made for its purchase in -1856, it was not till the latter end of 1866 that, from information -received, the Board imagined that the time had arrived when Sir -Thomas Wilson might be willing to negotiate for the sale of his -rights in the Heath. Accordingly an interview was arranged -between the then Chairman of the Board of Works, Sir John -Thwaites, and the Lord of the Manor, upon what proved to be -wholly delusive premises. Instead of being willing to listen to -overtures on the subject, Sir Thomas was altogether indisposed -to entertain any such proposition, or to acquiesce with the Board -in any application for the necessary powers to deal with the -Heath.</p> - -<p>Though himself having only a life-interest in the estate, he insisted -on regarding it as building land, and modestly estimated -the value of the property at from £5,000 to £10,000 per acre, a -prohibitory price, of course, to those who sought the purchase of -the Heath.</p> - -<p>At the commencement of 1870 there stepped in an unexpected -arbitrator, or, as one of the vestrymen expressed it, ‘the hopes of -Hampstead people were brightened by the death of Sir Thomas -Wilson.’ His brother succeeded to the estate, and once more, -and with reason in this instance, it was said that if an offer of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_380"></a>[380]</span> -£50,000 was made by the Board to the new Lord of the Manor, -Sir John Maryon Wilson would be disposed to accept of that -sum, and surrender all his rights and interest in the property, -comprising an area of about 240 acres.</p> - -<p>In consequence of this belief, negotiations were renewed at the -suggestion of Mr. Le Breton, the representative of Hampstead -at the Metropolitan Board, an honoured name in the neighbourhood -from its associations with that of the Aikins family, Mrs. -Barbauld’s grand-niece being the wife of Mr. Le Breton.</p> - -<p>This gentleman, in conjunction with Mr. Gurney Hoare, and a -committee of the influential lease and copy holders, reopened the -overtures for the purchase of the Heath, which had so signally -fallen through with the late Lord of the Manor (Sir Thomas -Wilson), and happily with success.</p> - -<p>Sir John Maryon Wilson and his son, Mr. Spencer Wilson, -agreed to give up all the rights of the Lord of the Manor of -Hampstead in the Heath for the sum of £45,000—costs to solicitors, -surveyors, etc., not to exceed £2,000.</p> - -<p>The Lord only reserved certain defined portions for the making -new roads, which will not affect the enjoyment of the public.</p> - -<p>Thus the struggle between the Lord of the Manor and the -people of Hampstead—we may say, the people of the Metropolis—came -to a final close. The Bill for the Preservation of the Heath -passed the Houses of Parliament in the next spring, and the Act -by which the ownership of Hampstead Heath was transferred to -the Metropolitan Board of Works in trust to maintain it for ever -as an unenclosed space for the purpose of health and recreation -received the Royal Assent June 29, 1871, a day to be long remembered -in the annals of Hampstead.</p> - -<p>Very general pleasure and gratification was felt on the occasion -by all who knew the lovely suburb, and regarded it as a pleasure -spot of the Metropolis; and when the fears which the name of -the Board of Works evoked, of straight lines, gravel-paths, and -frigid plantations, had spent themselves in deprecating any attempt -to make it other than itself, a wild heath, disfigured by turf and -gravel-digging, scarred in all directions, and naked in parts, but -with sufficient recuperative strength, if let alone, to renew its -greensward and gorse and heather, and to restore the vigour of -trees and undergrowth, a formal taking possession of it, and -dedicating it to the use of the public for ever, was resolved on.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_381"></a>[381]</span></p> - -<p>The circuit of its extent was marked out with flags. The -officers of the Board of Works and local authorities were to -perambulate it. But the free atmosphere of the vagrant Heath -seemed to resent the intended formalities, and a downpour of rain -put an end to the whole programme. Flags and bands and -festive company were out of the question, and the ceremony consisted -of a few officials and other gentlemen in close carriages -making the partial circuit of the Heath, pausing at certain points -where alterations and amendments were to be made, but eventually -taking the shortest road to the Flagstaff and Jack Straw’s -Castle, where the Vestry were about to entertain the officers of -the Board of Works, the local authorities, and other guests at a -handsome déjeûner. At the Flagstaff Colonel Hogg, in a brief -but graceful speech, proclaimed the fact that Hampstead Heath -was dedicated to the free use and recreation of the people for -ever, and expressed a hope that it would prove that blessing -which had been so long and fondly desired by the great Metropolitan -community, the spirit of which speech, no doubt, the -hearts of all present echoed.</p> - -<p>Having thus far traced the story of this loveliest of London -suburbs, we, too, rejoice that its wide views on three sides can -never be impeded, but that, as in the days of Defoe, visitors to -the Heath may on a clear day distinguish in the north-west -Hanslip steeple, which is only eight miles distant from Northampton, -and see the Langden Hills in Essex to the east—objects -which lie at least sixty-six miles apart. Then there is the prospect -of London, and beyond to Banstead Downs, Shooter’s Hill, -and Redhill; while on the west the view is uninterrupted to -Windsor Castle. But to the north topographers tell us we can -see no further than Barnet, which is only six miles distant.</p> - -<p>But, unfortunately, there were other troubles to be encountered. -The Board of Works were privileged to make grants of some -portions of the Heath, a privilege that resolved itself into helping -certain influential individuals to enclose some of the loveliest -and most interesting portions of it into their own premises. -The angle of ground on which stood the famous group of trees, -the Nine Elms, was made over to the late Lord Mansfield, -with what result we all know. Another gentleman, before a voice -could be raised against it, was allowed to enclose the loveliest bit<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_382"></a>[382]</span> -of North End, known for generations as the Lovers’ Walk, in his -demesne. And just when a third claimant was bargaining for -the historic grove of trees called the Judge’s Walk, the remnant -of which recalls a memorable fact, not only in the history of -Hampstead, but of England,<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> Mr. Le Breton, who had fortunately -heard of the transaction, was enabled to interfere and -frustrate it.</p> - -<p>A similar piece of good fortune helped the inhabitants to preserve -the remains of the Old Avenue at North End from being -enclosed in an adjacent demesne. The committee of the Hampstead -Heath Protection Society, who now charge themselves with -looking after the Heath and maintaining it intact for the people, -are resolved on getting back as many of its original acres as -possible. When, therefore in the summer of the year 1898 the -beautiful estate of Golder’s Hill, the residence of the late Sir -Spencer Wells, was to be sold, the inhabitants of Hampstead -were naturally disturbed by the report that a syndicate of builders -were plotting its purchase, with the intention of covering the -charming grounds with streets of houses.</p> - -<p>Part of these grounds impinge upon the Heath, and it was -said included the Flagstaff Hill, the very crowning point of view -upon it, the threatened loss of which affected all the inhabitants, -and roused, says my authority, a collective spirit of resistance. -A letter from Mrs. Hart, widow of the artist, who had left a sum -of money for such contingencies, appeared in some of the London -papers, and called popular notice to the threatened vandalism. -A committee was formed, and subscriptions were raised, to which -the local and London County Councils, as well as many of the -inhabitants of Hampstead, generously contributed, till the whole -of the purchase-money, £40,500, was in a very short time happily -provided.</p> - -<p>It is intended to let the house, but the picturesque grounds are -to be kept in their integrity and added to the Heath, from which, -the new ride now divides them. The cost of the ground purchased<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_383"></a>[383]</span> -averages about £1,000 per acre. This was the price paid -to Lord Mansfield for 209 acres of the Heath, while Sir Spencer -Wilson received £100,000 for sixty-one acres, making together, -with all extra expenses in the purchase of the Heath, £302,000.</p> - -<p>Everyone who knows the pleasant suburb must rejoice that a -neighbourhood which has delighted the people of successive ages, -as well as our own, is reserved to give enjoyment to those who -shall come after us, and that henceforth, from generation to -generation, each being, we may hope, more able to appreciate its -natural beauty than the last, Hampstead will continue to be the -scene of unnumbered holidays; the Heath,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent20">‘Where sweet air stirs</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Blue harebells lightly, and where prickly furze</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Buds lavish gold,’<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">with its wide margin of hundreds of added acres, under the wise -supervision of skilled conservators, growing year by year into -fuller beauty of Nature-planted wild-flowers and indigenous furze -and ferns.</p> - -<p>Long may the people of the close courts and alleys of London -come hither in their tens of thousands on the gold-letter days of -their sparse holidays, to revel in the winnowing freshness of its -breezy height, and pleasant groves and lanes and grassy nooks, -and take back with them to their crowded homes a measure of -the health that ‘floats upon the genial atmosphere.’ So shall -Hampstead still (as in old Drayton’s time) ‘remain the noblest -hill.’</p> - -<p>The old Heath covered 220 acres, so that 261 acres acquired by -recent purchase up to 1889, have more than doubled the expanse -of the old Heath (1899).</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<h2 class="nobreak">FOOTNOTES</h2> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> One find I specially remember in connection with this neighbourhood -of peculiar interest with reference to the great forest that once covered -the site: When making the railway through Gospel Oak Fields, a hillock -had to be cut through; some gigantic roots of trees, hard as ebony and -black as bog-oak, were unearthed, bearing witness to the ancient woodlands -that had covered it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Written 1855-60.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Built in 1845-46.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Quoted by Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> No cause is mentioned for the great increase of deaths.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> ‘Pomander’: a round, perforated box, filled with musk, ambergris, -civet, or other sweet-scented ingredients. It was used to perfume apartments, -and was frequently made of some precious material. Doctors -used them for the head of the cane they usually carried as a prophylactic.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> The present sign, the copy of an older one, represents her in a red -conical hat, with a glass of ale in her hand. Her modern memorialist -says:</p> - -<p>‘She was an old camp-follower through the campaignes of the Duke of -Marlborough, and set up a hedge alehouse after the Peace of Utrecht, -with her own portrait as a sign.’—<i>Ante</i> ‘The Anecdote Library.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Blake.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Mr. Rhodes died at a house on Muswell Hill. Rhodes of Rhodesia -is said to be a near descendant.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> This house appears in Hogarth’s ‘March to Finchley.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> For some years Portland Place was used as a fashionable promenade -by the rank and fashion of the town.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> Gray’s ‘Letters.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Romilly’s childhood’s home was in the High Street, Marylebone, -then a small village about a mile and a half from London, with the cheerful -country close to it. Sir Samuel was born 1757; he died 1818.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> At the present time it is said to contain 2,245 acres.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> The charter of Ethelred II. (who began to reign 979) to St. Peters, -Westminster, A.D. 986: ‘Starting from Sandgate east to Bedgar’s “Stywei” -(? lea); then south to Dermod’s house; from Dermod’s house to middle -Hamstead: so forward along the hedge to the rushes; from the rushes -west by the side of the marsh to the <i>barrow west</i> along the boundary to -the stone pit; from the stone pit to Watling Street, so north along -Watling Street to the boundary brook, back east by the boundary to -Sandgate.’</p> - -<p>This last document has only lately become accessible. It is one of the -Stowe MSS. recently secured by the British Museum. This charter has, -I believe, never before been printed, except in Mr. Maude Thompson’s -catalogue of the Stowe MSS. It is No. 10 in that catalogue.—Article by -Professor J. W. Hales, M.A., F.S.A., in Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> ‘The Common-place Book’ of the late Miss Catherine Fry.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> ‘Planché, who has gone deeper into the subject of the Peverels than -either Eyton, the Shropshire historian, or Mr. E. Freeman (who rejects -this supposition with contempt and indignation), puts it in this wise: -“During all the battles and commotions in Normandy preceding the -Conquest, we hear nothing of the Peverels. No land is called by their -name, nor do we hear of it till that of Ranulph, in Domesday Book, when -he figures as the lord of sixty-four manors. Planché suggests what -Mr. Eyton has overlooked that the Saxon lady of rank might have -visited Normandy before 1051, a circumstance that would remove the -only serious difficulty in the story. The latter Ranulph Peverel was the -founder of Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, as shown by Camden, Glover, -Dugdale, Sandford, Weever and others.”’ The author of the ‘Roman -de la Rose’ makes no mention of Peverel.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> Norden.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> London was a city long before the Romans entered it. Ammianus -Marcellinus says that 1200 years before his time it was a city, <i>i.e.</i>, about -900 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, which, if correct, would make it 200 years older than Rome -itself.—C. A. W.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Unfortunately, when copying this account, having no idea of using -it, I neglected to note the date or number of the magazine, but I believe -it was during Mr. Ainsworth’s editorship.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Where was Roman Lane, which Dr. Hughson must have known?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> ‘Bordarii,’ I think, Park scarcely understood for a Domesday Book -word. These would not be bordarii before, but Saxon churls; and -‘hame stead’ is ‘home station,’ <i>i.e.</i>, the outhouses or cots to the big -lord’s residence.—C. A. W.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Hughson thinks that it possibly referred, by way of pre-eminence, to -the residence of the Lord of the Manor.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Sanctus Albanus Verolamiensis.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> In the reign of Henry VI., in the fifteenth century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> See Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ pp. 100, 101.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> ‘Eccles. Hist.,’ ii. 324, quoted by Park, ‘History of Hampstead,’ -p. 21.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Lysons.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> The Heath was generally so called. Lord Erskine speaks of his -house on Hampstead Hill, The Evergreens, near the Spaniards.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, July 19, 1748: ‘To-morrow, the 20th inst., will be -run for on Hampstead Course, a considerable sum, between two poneys, -at the Castle on Hampstead Heath. There are great bets depending. -The poneys will be rubbed down at the Castle aforesaid.’ In reference -to this race we read: ‘On Wednesday a race was run on Hampstead -Heath between a bay poney belonging to Lord Blessington, and a gray -poney of Mr. Woods, of Jack Straw’s Castle, for a considerable sum of -money, which was won by the former.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> Horace Walpole’s Letters.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> Hampstead, July, 1810. It is stated in the <i>Morning Post</i> that the -Hampstead Volunteers, who had been practising firing at a large target -on the Heath, ‘had fired many excellent shots, some of which nearly -entered the bull’s eye.’ They have improved upon this since then, as have -also their firearms.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> Morden’s Map of Middlesex, 1593, shows this road, which skirts the -Fleet for a short distance in the neighbourhood of old St. Pancras, and -runs up Tottenhall or Tottenham Court Road, passing by Lower -Chalcot and Upper Chalcot to Pond Street.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Burnet’s ‘History of his own Times.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> See Macaulay’s ‘Essays.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Steele had his office at the Cockpit, in Whitehall. He held the post -of Gazetteer and Commissioner of Stamps.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> There has been a question as to the burial-place of Steele, which -the following note, kindly forwarded me through a friend, sets at rest: -‘Sir R. Steele was buried in the church at Carmarthen, and only in -August, 1876, was there a memorial tablet placed over his remains by a -gentleman of the name of Davies. It bears the inscription:</p> - -<p class="center">‘“<span class="smcap">Sir Richd. Steele, Knight</span>,<br /> -<br /> -Author, Essayist, and first chief promoter of the periodical press<br /> -of England.<br /> -<br /> -Born in Dublin, March 12, 1671.<br /> -<br /> -Buried in this church, and below this tablet.”’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> A contributor to Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead’ states: ‘Under -an old thorn-tree, near the house, on the north side of the avenue, there -was within the memory of living people a dipping-well for public use.’ -Is this, I wonder, the small fountain of delicious water, the footpath to -which from the High Street Lord Rosslyn tried to stop? But, though -on the Woolsack, he failed to do so. The case appeared in a <i>Times</i> newspaper -of 1878.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> At the present (1899), only one of the beautiful trees is standing.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Subsequently Sir Rowland Hill resided at Bartrum Park, a little to -the east of the green, on the same side of the way.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Where the small-pox sheds stood, the Hampstead Hospital for -Fever and Small-pox stands now (1899).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> There is an engraving of this house in Mr. Gardener’s collection, -copied in Mr. Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> An engraving of this picture appeared in the <i>European Magazine</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> See Appendix.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> The father of this gentleman, the second Thomas Norton Longman, -resided here. He was unfortunately killed by a fall from his horse about -1842. Soon after his daughters came to live at Frognal Rise.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> ‘The Presbyterian Chapel on Rosslyn Hill was built by Isaac Honeywood, -Esq., who inhabited the adjoining mansion, and died there, -November 8, 1740. He was cousin-german to Sir Edward Honeywood, -the first baronet. Frazer Honeywood and Sir John Honeywood, of the -same family, were subsequently resident at Hampstead.’—Baines, ‘Records -of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> ‘Worthies of Middlesex.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> James I., in his speech to Parliament, 1609, says that on his entrance -to England he made knights by hundreds and barons in great numbers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> This was called Hicks’s Hall; many of the milestones were -reckoned from it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> Stowe.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> This family held the Manor of Hampstead for nearly a century.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> See <i>Notes and Queries</i>, s.s. viii. 511.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> Park, 1813.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> Spencer Perceval, who was shot by Bellingham, and is buried at -Charlton in Kent, had married the youngest of the three daughters of Sir -Thomas Spencer Wilson.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Howitt.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> W. Howitt.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> ‘There are periods in which the human mind seems to slumber, -but this is not one of them. A keen spirit of research is abroad, and -demands reform. Perhaps in none of the nations of Europe will their -articles of faith, or their Church establishments, or their models of -worship, maintain their ground for many years in exactly the same position -in which they stand at present. Religion and manners act upon -one another. As religion, well understood, is a most powerful agent in -ameliorating and softening our manners; so, on the other hand, manners, -as they advance in cultivation, tend to correct and refine our religion. -Thus, to a nation in any degree acquainted with the social feelings, -human sacrifices and sanguinary rites could never long appear obligatory. -The mild spirit of Christianity has, no doubt, had its influence in softening -the ferocity of the Gothic times; and the <i>increasing humanity of the -present period</i> will, in its turn, produce juster ideas of Christianity, and -diffuse through the solemnities of our worship, the celebrations of our -Sabbaths, and every observance connected with religion, that air of -amenity and sweetness which is the offspring of literature and the -peaceful intercourse of society. The age which has demolished dungeons, -rejected torture, and given so fair a prospect of abolishing the iniquity of -the slave-trade, cannot long retain among its articles of belief the gloomy -perplexities of Calvinism, and the heart-withering perspective of cruel -and never-ending punishment.’ This is very clever writing for her, but -how absurdly wrong she is in the total!</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> Miss Aikin published her ‘Life of Queen Elizabeth,’ 1813.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> A great man, and student of Swedenborg.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> In 1461 we find the Abbot and Convent of Westminster instituting -John Barton to the Rectory of Hendon <i>cum capella de Hamsted</i> eidum -annexa.—<span class="smcap">Park.</span></p> - -<p>In the time of Edward VI., the curacy of Hampstead was valued at -£10 per annum; but up till that time the inhabitants chiefly consisted of -laundresses and their families.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Park’s ‘History.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> He built St. Giles’s Church.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> For a portrait of Harrison, see the <i>European Magazine</i>, October, 1789.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> I regret that on my recent visit to the churchyard I found this description -no longer true. An air of neglect, very painful to one who -remembers its appearance thirty years ago, pervades it now; and all the -neatness and care seems to be transferred to the newer portion of the -graveyard on the opposite side of the church.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> On the last occasion of my visiting the graveyard (1896), I could not -find this tomb.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Copied for me by Mrs. Godfrey Turner.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> The toll is still exacted. Several attempts have been made by the -parish authorities to extinguish the right, but they have never come to -terms with the successor of Miss Sullivan (1899).—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> The church now St. John’s. Rebuilt in 1745.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> Lysons, ‘Environs of London.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> The Rev. Samuel White, at that time resident at Frognal.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> ‘At the above date Hampstead, with many other parishes, took -advantage of a statute passed in the reign of George I., which, with the -consent of the major part of the parishioners, empowered the churchwardens -and overseers of parishes to purchase or hire any house in the -parish, or to contract with any person to lodge and keep and employ the -poor ... hiring them, in fact, to contractors. The system, for a while, -appeared to work well, but after a time ceased to be useful.’—<span class="smcap">Howitt</span>, -‘Northern Heights.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> It was he who built the magnificent Chesterfield House, Mayfair.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Park, p. 342.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> Obituary, <i>European Magazine</i>, 1804. Haydn says 1805, which is -wrong.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> Howitt, ‘Northern Heights of London.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> Every ticket was sold before the drawing took place.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> Obituary, <i>European Magazine</i>, of this month and year. Haydn -says 1805.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> Fenton House has had many tenants in modern times, amongst -them the Honourable Miss Murrays and the Baroness Grey. It has -been called the Clock House, a resident, some thirty years ago, having -placed a sham dial-plate on the front of the entrance porch.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> Park, the historian of Hampstead, so often referred to in these pages.—C. -W.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> I have a clinging impression that much of the ‘Vanity of Human -Wishes’ was composed in Greenwich Park without being committed to -paper, but I cannot refer now.—Note by C. A. Ward, Esq.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> Mrs. Desmoulins had lived with Mrs. Johnson for some before her -marriage with the Doctor.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> Mr. G. W. Potter reminds me that a very interesting discussion and -much correspondence has recently (May, 1899) taken place as to the -house inhabited by Dr. Johnson, the result being that Park’s account is -believed to be quite correct, viz., that it was the last house south in -Frognal. Park’s father had lived for years in Hampstead, and at the -same time as Dr. Johnson; he must, therefore, have given his son -accurate information on the point. The house in question is now called -Priory Lodge, and the difficulty arose from its being a large house with a -very large garden and stabling. ‘I was enabled,’ continues my correspondent, -‘to point out that the large garden and stables were taken -from Frognal Hall only some thirty-five years since, and that at the same -time large additions were made to the house itself. A Mr. Watson, -whose father I well remember, saw my letter in the <i>Hampstead Express</i>, -and corroborated it, saying that his father, who had lived in it—<i>i.e.</i>, Priory -Lodge—some fifty years ago, had also enlarged it. An inspection of the -house shows that it has grown from a very moderate-sized house to a -much larger building.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> Howitt.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> In 1868 Frognal House was used as the Sailors’ Daughters Orphan -School, and continued for some twelve years to be so used, till the house -on Green Hill was ready for their occupation.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> The original house was known as North Court, and a public well -which existed on Branch Hill, Park tells us, was known as North Hole.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> Lord Burlington was the friend of Handel, who lived in his house -for three years. ‘He used to drive down to the Foundling Hospital with -Gay in his coach-and-four, to hear Leveridge sing there—“Leveridge, -with his voice of thunder.”’ Lord Burlington patronized music, literature, -painting, and architecture.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> Exactly opposite Montagu House is the modern North London -Consumption Hospital, on Mount Vernon.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> Park, ‘History of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> The first charity school was established in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, -1688.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> Henry James, <i>Harper’s Magazine</i>, September, 1897.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> At one period Miss Jane Porter occupied Grove House.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> Constable painted it, and subsequently exhibited his picture, ‘A -Romantic House, Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> Hone, of the ‘Table-Book,’ has given an account of Thompson.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> It was said that Soho Square and many streets in its neighbourhood -belonged to him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> A Jacobean porch said to have belonged to an old Shropshire manor-house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> I believe Thompson did bequeath to the Queen a beautiful bedstead -of ivory or some costly material.—C. A. Ward.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> <i>Vide</i> Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> T. Norton Longman, who died at Hampstead, February 5, 1797, aged -sixty-six, and was buried at Barnet. Nichols gives an account of him in -‘Literary Anecdotes,’ vi. 439. <i>Vide</i> Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> The sketch referred to is now in the collection of Landseer’s early -drawings in the South Kensington Museum. It is said to be wonderfully -lifelike.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> I am informed by Mr. G. W. Potter, who was a member of the court -for thirty years, that the manorial courts are still held at Manor Lodge, -which is in the lane near Frognal, and which is said to stand on the site -of the old manor-house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> It now stands an empty and desolate building. The tenant, for some -breach of the law, forfeited his license about three years ago, and the -disreputable old inn is now (1899) advertised for sale as a building site.—G. -W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> This year (1896) it is said that this is to make room for a new road.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> Mr. Joseph Hoare died at Child’s Hill House in 1886.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> This house is now let as a school for young gentlemen.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> Her real name was Mrs. Hemet, Lessingham being the name she -adopted for the stage.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> In January, 1773, Mrs. Lessingham was playing Lucy in ‘The -Rivals,’ at Covent Garden.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> This gentleman died some twenty years ago, and the house is now -occupied by its owner, Mr. Gross.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> Mrs. Miles, widow of John Miles, Esq., was buried in the family -vault in Hampstead Parish Church, which was specially opened for the -purpose.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> Neither Park nor Abrahams mentions Heath Street, though many of -the houses look very old.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> This is now the middle of Heath Street, and divides old or Upper -Heath Street from Lower Heath Street, leading to Fitzjohn’s Avenue.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> It has been suggested to me that it was so called from Kit’s cates.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> Cunningham says <i>circa</i> 1700.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> ‘Dunciad.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> ‘Mirror.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> It was Dr. Garth who, being present on an occasion when the -Duchess of Marlborough was pressing the Duke to take a medicine, and, -with her accustomed warmth, added, ‘I’ll be hanged, Duke, if it do not -prove serviceable!’ exclaimed, ‘Do take it, my Lord Duke, for it must -be of service in one way or the other!’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> Lately blown down and destroyed (1895).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> Edward Coxe.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> Mr. Steevens left the greater part of his property to his niece, Miss -Steevens, who died at Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> Locally memorable as the last person who wore a pigtail at Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> Park.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> C. Deane was another artist who loved and painted Hampstead -Heath. He exhibited a scene from Hampstead at the British Gallery in -1823—a most perfect representation of local scenery. I owe this note to -an odd number of the <i>Literary Gazette</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> Alfred Edward Chalon proposed to give, in 1859, to the inhabitants -of Hampstead his own large collection of sketches, and his brother’s -unsold works, and some endowment to uphold the collection, if they -would provide suitable premises; but it fell through by their default, and -he died on October 3, 1860.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> Varley was very chary of drawing horoscopes. He was often -terrifically right.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> ‘A copy of the ancient customs used in the Manor of Hampstead -was made, February 14, 1753, from a paper found by Mr. Tims at Jack -Straw’s Castle, where several of the bailiffs of the manor had lived, and, -from the style of the writing, appeared to have been written eighty or -ninety years before.’—Baines, ‘Records of Hampstead.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> ‘Pickwick Papers.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> There is a quaint detached tea-room at the Spaniards, approached -by an outside flight of wooden steps. Until about thirty years ago there -was inscribed on one of the panes of glass in the end window the autograph -of the late Emperor of the French. He is said to have cut this -inscription with a diamond ring, about 1845-46, when in exile here as -Prince Louis Napoleon. The window has been altered, and the pane has -disappeared.—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> When Gibson wrote his additions to Camden, 1695, Mother Huffs -was a house of entertainment on Hampstead Heath. I have recently -learned that in an old map of 1630 a small house near the Elms is marked -‘Mother Houghs.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> It was Martin who inaugurated the idea.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> This house was occupied for many years by Captain Sir Edward -Parry, the Arctic explorer, who was connected by marriage with the -Hoare family.—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> ‘Sylvan Sketches,’ by the author of ‘Flora Domestica,’ 1825.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> ‘Collins’ and Tooly’s Farm were two adjoining but separate grass-farms; -now they are one, in the occupation of the late Mr. Tooly’s son. -Mr. Collins was the occupant of the other, and lived in the farmhouse, -or cottage, where Dickens and so many other famous men have lived. -This cottage is now occupied by Mr. Arthur Wilson, the son of the late -Rev. Daniel Wilson. He has added to the cottage without in any way -spoiling it.’—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> The new paling at the end of the holly hedge shows the place where -the nine elms and the old seat stood.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> Said by some writers to have been married in 1776—a statement -disproved by the magazines of the day, and by the fact of Mrs. Crewe’s -magnificent masquerade in 1775. There is a portrait of Mrs. Crewe -painted by Reynolds.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> The members of this celebrated club included the Dukes of Roxburghe -and Portland, the Earl of Strathmore (whose encounter with the -highwaymen on Finchley Common I have alluded to), Mr. Crewe, Fox, -Sheridan, Lord Carlisle, and others. The club was established in Pall -Mall in 1764, and the proprietor in 1775 founded the present Brooks’s, -in St. James’s Street.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> Mirabeau, in one of his letters, tells of two ladies just arrived from -Paris with tall feathers in their hats, who, as he was conducting them -from the Bell Inn, Holborn, to Hatton Garden, were surrounded by a -mob, from whom they were only rescued by some English gentlemen on -horseback, who used their whips on the crowd, and thus dispersed it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> Sir Aston Lever, who had just made a present of his collection to the -British Museum.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> Fox’s verses to Mrs. Crewe were printed at Strawberry Hill.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> On his death-bed Fox observed: ‘There are two things I wish heartily -to see accomplished—peace with Europe, and the abolition of the slave-trade; -but of the two, I wish the latter.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> While rewriting this chapter, a sale of Romney’s engravings took -place at Christie’s, when Lady Hamilton as ‘Nature,’ engraved in colours -by Meyer, sold for 100 guineas (May, 1894).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> This picture, I am told, is not by Romney.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> It must be patent to everyone that, had the Assembly House been -originally built for that purpose, a proper entrance would have formed an -essential part of it, whereas, as I have said, it was without one till quite -modern times.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> I am indebted to Mr. G. W. Potter for the above information.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> The birch-tree, with its light sprays and silvery bark, is very frequently -styled the ‘Lady of the Woods.’ Constable used the appellation in connection -with the beautiful ash metaphorically.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> ‘Goldsmith’s English, when English comes to be the sole tongue -wanted to run the wide world round, as it spins by day and night under -the sun, will necessarily be more and more resorted to as the best model -to be had of plain and simply effective speech. His “Village” and his -“Vicar” will be carefully searched into to help counteract the ever-augmenting -virus of vulgar dialectical debasement from oversea offshoots, -colonial or enfranchised, that is to-day poisoning the living font of -Chaucer. Addison will then be less read than even now he is, and -Johnson will never be sought for at all out of Boswell. The huge -autocrat of yesterday is with the worms to-morrow, and Oliver, “who -talked like poor Poll,” will then sit enthroned as preceptor of English to -the universe.’—Mr. <span class="smcap">C. A Ward</span>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> I am reminded that Mr. Richardson, the friend and correspondent -of Sir W. Scott, resided here for several years.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a></p> - -<p class="center">DE MONTFORT: A TRAGEDY.</p> - -<p class="center">PLAYED FOR THE FIRST TIME AT DRURY LANE, APRIL 29, 1800.</p> - -<p class="center"><i>Characters.</i></p> - -<table summary="Cast list"> - <tr> - <td>De Montfort</td> - <td>Mr. Kemble.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Rezenvelt</td> - <td>Mr. Talbot.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Albert</td> - <td>Mr. Barrymore.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Manuel</td> - <td>Mr. Powell.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Jerome</td> - <td>Mr. Dowton.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Conrad</td> - <td>Mr. Caulfield.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Jane de Montfort</td> - <td>Mrs. Siddons.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Countess</td> - <td>Miss Heard.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott,’ vol. ii., pp. 267, 268.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> Sir Walter Scott paid his last visit to Hampstead and Joanna Baillie -in April, 1828. It might have been on this occasion that Mrs. Howitt -met him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> To-day the inscription on her tomb needs the tender hand of Old -Mortality to remove the lichen that hides it!</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> <i>Athenæeum</i>, March 20, 1861.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">[160]</a> There is but one good portrait of Goldsmith—that painted by his -friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, now at Knowle.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">[161]</a> Loggan had been dwarf to the Princess of Wales. He kept a -hairdresser’s shop on the Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, and painted fans, -which were ornamented with likenesses of all the most important persons -who appeared there.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">[162]</a> See p. 165.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">[163]</a> At this time Miss Aikin had published her ‘Memoirs of the Court -of Queen Elizabeth,’ and Miss Edgeworth was writing ‘Comic Dramas.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">[164]</a> It will be remembered that the Hoare family allied themselves by -marriage with the Norfolk Gurneys, the Buxtons, and the Frys.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">[165]</a> This name is now given to a row of poor little modern dwellings at -North End.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">[166]</a> I find it is a tradition in one of the oldest families on Hampstead -Heath that this avenue formerly belonged to Lord North’s House.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">[167]</a> Mr. G. W. Potter tells me a very aged walnut-tree still stands in -this paddock, and may be the tree referred to.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">[168]</a> It shows a want of archæological interest to have altered the name.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">[169]</a> Dryden.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">[170]</a> North End House is now the residence of Mr. Figgis; and I read in -Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead’ that the room fraught with such sad -interest is used as a day-nursery.</p> - -<p>This does not appear to be the description of a room that would -adapt itself, or be capable of adaptation to the uses of a day-nursery; -and we sincerely hope that Mr. Baines has been misinformed, and -that the room remains as when Mr. Howitt described it, sacred to the -memory of the great orator.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">[171]</a> I have several times been in this historic room, and visited it only -last summer with the Hampstead Antiquarian Society. The room is a -double one: the smaller apartment has the double-hatch door, and the -larger room opening from it is quite large enough for a nursery. The tradition -is that the Earl of Chatham occupied the double apartment.—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">[172]</a> Horace Walpole, who also vindicated Byng, and regarded his fate as -a gross injustice, or, rather, we should say, a judicial murder, tells us -that, being with Her Royal Highness Princess Amelia at her villa of -Gunnersbury, amongst other interesting anecdotes, she told him that -while Byng’s affair was depending, the Duchess of Newcastle sent Lady -Sophia Egerton (the wife of a clergyman, by the way) to beg her to be -for the execution of the Admiral. ‘And, indeed,’ she continued, ‘I was -already for it. The officers would never have fought if he had not been -executed; nor would Lord Anson have been head of the Admiralty.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">[173]</a> I have seen it this year (1895), and rejoice at its healthy appearance.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">[174]</a> Tom Hood.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">[175]</a> The bower or seat at the Bull and Bush is about 12 feet from -the ground, among the branches of the yew-tree, and is reached by a -rude staircase. The tree was a very ancient one, but a ring of young -shoots have sprung up from the roots, and are growing vigorously round -the spot where the old trunk stood.—G. W. P.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">[176]</a> Hughson’s ‘History of London,’ 1809.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">[177]</a> This well-known physician has died since these lines were written.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">[178]</a> These fields are now covered with houses.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">[179]</a> Mrs. Barbauld’s ‘Richardson’s Correspondence.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">[180]</a> I believe the elm has been preserved, but the house has been -removed.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">[181]</a> Mr. Le Breton, who heard him, says it was the first large elm-tree on -the Heath.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">[182]</a> The Park, Brussels.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">[183]</a> Said to have been one of the most reliable of Charles Kean’s stock -pieces.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">[184]</a> Leigh Hunt and his brother had been condemned to two years’ -imprisonment each, and a fine of £1,000, for having, as he ludicrously -phrases it, contrasted the <i>Morning Post’s</i> description of the Regent as an -Adonis in appearance, and the Mæcenas of his age, with the old real, fat -state of the case, and for having said that H.R.H. had lived for fifty years -without doing anything to deserve the admiration of his contemporaries -or the gratitude of posterity.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">[185]</a> A tradition of the inhabitants of the cottage when I saw it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">[186]</a> These lines do not appear in ‘Sleep and Poetry,’ in Moxon’s edition -in the Pocket Series.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">[187]</a> Old John Cleave, the publisher, and friend of Douglas Jerrold and -William Linton, who visited Leigh Hunt in his Surrey cage, told me that -not only were the walls covered with a rose-patterned paper, but that the -poet had trained living roses on them.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">[188]</a> <i>Vide</i> Mary Cowden Clarke.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">[189]</a> Millfield Lane is said to be a very ancient road. This was the road -traversed by the mounted messenger in 1780 who was despatched for the -military, while the would-be wreckers of Lord Mansfield’s house were -being regaled by the landlord of the Spaniards Inn.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">[190]</a> A fungus so called.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">[191]</a> Hammond’s house was in Elm Row.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">[192]</a> Some persons have asserted that Lord Byron was one of Leigh -Hunt’s visitors in the Vale of Health, but Hunt himself tells us that -though Lord Byron visited him in Horsemonger Lane Gaol, he did not -afterwards. His interviews with Lord Byron took place at his lordship’s -town-house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">[193]</a> In the garden of which her three-year-old son celebrated his mother’s -birthday by eating laburnum seeds, which nearly killed him.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">[194]</a> Those who have had experience of forestry consider the mighty -beeches and oaks in Caen Wood to be the real descendants of the primeval -giants of the old Forest of Middlesex.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">[195]</a> Lloyd’s ‘Caen Wood and its Associations.’ A lecture.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">[196]</a> State Calendars of Charles I. and II., April 24, 1630, and September 21, -1660.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">[197]</a> There is a tradition that the ponds were enlarged, if not made, by the -Monks (Lloyd).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">[198]</a> The old mill has still a local tradition in Millfield Lane, by which it -was approached from the hamlet of Green Street, Kentish Town (<i>ibid.</i>).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">[199]</a> Haydn.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">[200]</a> The South Sea Scheme, thus called.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">[201]</a> Lloyd.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">[202]</a> It was Lord Bute who granted Dr. Johnson a literary pension of -£300 a year.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">[203]</a> Here are all the letters—Kaen, Caen.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">[204]</a> The inscription was as follows: ‘I, Robert Caxton, begun this place -in a wild wood ... stubbed up the wood, digged all the ponds, cut all -the walks, made all the gardens, built all the rooms with my own hands. -Nobody drove a nail here, or laid a brick, or a tile, but myself; and ... thank -God for giving me strength at sixty-four years of age, when I began -it,’ etc.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">[205]</a> Edited by Colley Cibber.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">[206]</a> Mr. G. W. Potter informs me, that while a skating pond was being -enlarged about seven or eight years ago, traces of this strange building -were found.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">[207]</a> It was said of Murray, that he had less law than many lawyers, but -more practice than any. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, was one of -his clients.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">[208]</a> Referred to in a speech, at a City banquet, by Sir Bartle Frere, -July, 1874.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">[209]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">[210]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">[211]</a> That of the claimant to the Tichborne baronetcy.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">[212]</a> It is curious to notice the different description of the event which -Mrs. Delany (writing at the same time as Horace Walpole) gives us, the -latter averring that the Guards, a thousand strong, had been despatched -to prevent the intended arson, whilst the lady writes that the mob was -met by a regiment of militia on the march, who turned them back. It is -plain that Horace Walpole’s description was correct, otherwise there -would have been no obligation to the landlord of the Spaniards, which, -it is said, Lord Mansfield never forgot.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">[213]</a> Abraham states that the Spaniards Tavern paid no poor rate. There -may be no relation between the facts, but as cause is wanted for this -exemption, one wonders if the saving of Caen Wood had anything to do -with it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="label">[214]</a> More than £30,000 by the burning of his house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="label">[215]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="label">[216]</a> Lambert tells us that amongst the celebrated cedars of Lebanon at -Caen Wood, young when he saw them, was one planted by Lord Mansfield -himself.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="label">[217]</a> The ‘Man Milliner,’ as a correspondent of the <i>European Magazine</i> -writes himself, suggests in the August number of that year (1781) that -Lord Southampton at Fitzroy Farm might with advantage stucco the -front of his three rooms to the west. His neighbour Lord Mansfield’s -south front will show him the permanent beauty of the <i>new stucco</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="label">[218]</a> I have been told that this portrait is still preserved at Caen Wood -House.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="label">[219]</a> The freeholders and copyholders of the manor did not even receive -the courtesy of a notice of the intention to bring in the Bill, which was -almost surreptitiously passed through the House.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="label">[220]</a> Prints of the handsome arch were treasured in Hampstead homes -long after the event. One of them, coloured and gilt, is now before me, -rather the worse for sixty-three years’ wear and tear.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="label">[221]</a> The Styrian Hunters were a band of foreign musicians so called, -very popular in London just then.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="label">[222]</a> This was written in 1872 before the great hillocks had been levelled, -or the pits and hollows filled up.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="label">[223]</a> It is the belief of geologists that the whole of Middlesex was the bed -of an estuary of the sea, from which the waters subsided into the -Thames.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="label">[224]</a> A lady whose girlhood was spent at Hampstead tells me she used to -find bright little stones amongst the gravel, locally known as ‘Hampstead -diamonds’; a ring made of them, in her possession, still sparkles very -prettily.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="label">[225]</a> These have been found in the gravel-pits, and also a specimen of -<i>Concha rugosa</i>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="label">[226]</a> Authors of the ‘History of Clerkenwell,’ London, 1828.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="label">[227]</a> So called because formed of the united streams which supplied the -city and suburbs with clear, sweet, and wholesome water in the west -part, whose first decay was owing to certain mills erected thereon by the -Knights of St. John, and by degrees gave it the name of Turnmill Brook, -which name is still preserved in Turnmill Street, through part of which -it took its course. In time this name was lost in that of Fleet Dyke or -Ditch.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="label">[228]</a> There is a mystery about this Walk which, when I first knew -Hampstead, I often heard spoken of. Now I am told, on very reliable -authority, that no such Walk exists; yet the above traditional account of -the course of the Fleet was given me as late as 1895 by a very intelligent -inhabitant, and he spoke of Willow Walk as if he knew it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="label">[229]</a> After great falls of snow or heavy rains, the Fleet frequently overflowed -the Pancras valley and the Bagnigge Wells Road, rendering them -impassable in places.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="label">[230]</a> The Holborn Bars are removed, but the posts stand.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="label">[231]</a> These latter buildings, or part of them, I am told, are still in being, -and used for their original purpose.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="label">[232]</a> A celebrated house, much frequented by the wits. This mention of -Nando’s Coffee-house reminds me that it figures in one of the amusing -papers in the <i>Tatler</i> (No. 180), which Steele had started in 1709. In this -paper the public are informed that ‘a coach runs daily from Nando’s -Coffee House to Mr. Tiptoe’s Dancing School’; and then is added by -way of postscript, ‘Dancing shoes not exceeding four inches height in -the heels, and periwigs not exceeding three feet in length, are carried in -the coach box gratis,’ a satire upon the high heels and exaggerated wigs -then in vogue.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="label">[233]</a> There was, I am told, an old weather-boarded house opposite the -Wells Tavern called <i>Willow</i> House, which remained till some twenty -years ago, when its site, and that of its large garden, were built upon, -and six or more houses were erected there. This was probably the -type of the early houses in Well Walk.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="label">[234]</a> There was a coach running in 1708.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="label">[235]</a> See Haydn’s ‘Dictionary of Dates.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="label">[236]</a> Bank Holidays, though in the near future, had not been inaugurated -when this was first written.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="label">[237]</a> Gibson, who published his additions to Camden at the Black -Swan, Paternoster Row, 1695, tells us that Mr. Pittiver found what -he calls cluster-headed goldy-locks (<i>Ranunculus bulbosus?</i>) in going -from Mother Huffs’ to Highgate. Mother Huffs’ would seem to have been -situated pretty near the Spaniards Inn, and was in all likelihood a tea-drinking -house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="label">[238]</a> The murderer of a Mr. Posto.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="label">[239]</a> The Bird-in-Hand, like the old post-office, was said to be of the same -age as the Chicken House.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="label">[240]</a> This ungraceful adjunct to dress was flourishing when these lines -were first written (1852-53).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="label">[241]</a> I respect the unknown hand that appended the above newspaper -cutting to Soames’ ‘Treatise on the Hampstead Wells,’ in the reference-room -of the Hampstead Library.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="label">[242]</a> In 1721 the tavern in Well Walk was called the White Stone Inn.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="label">[243]</a> Anderson’s ‘Life of Gay.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="label">[244]</a> In this same year, 1722, I find Gay writing to Swift that he is persuaded -Pope had borne his share in the loss of the South Sea—a sentence -that says much for the fortitude and unselfish forbearance of the latter -who had taught himself in this instance to forget his own loss in endeavouring -to strengthen and comfort his friend and fellow-sufferer.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="label">[245]</a> Lady Betty Germain, second daughter to Earl Berkeley, Lord Chief -Justice of Ireland, to whom Swift was either private secretary or chaplain, -or both(?). Visitors to Knowle will remember Lady Betty’s chamber, -and the bed-hangings, chair-covers, etc., of the lady’s own embroidering.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="label">[246]</a> This description is repeated in every edition of this work, long after -the Assembly-room had ceased to exist, and is given verbatim in several -topographical descriptions of Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="label">[247]</a> That this too ambidextrous individual visited Hampstead is well -known. But so she did Belsize and Ranelagh, as well as the opera, the -theatres, and, indeed, the churches—every place, in fact, where well-dressed -persons congregated. Many years ago an old inhabitant of -Hampstead lent me a scrap-book in which was a likeness of Jenny -Diver, a by no means unpleasant-looking woman. She was represented -with an ostentatious display of pearls and other ornaments round her -neck and waist. She held a watch in one hand, and a purse in the other, -and under a cap wore her hair turned back from a rather clever forehead; -the remainder, while tied behind with a ribbon, fell in loose curls upon -her neck. Gay introduces her in the ‘Beggars’ Opera.’ According to -the text, she was demure-looking. March, 1740, closed Jenny’s career at -Tyburn.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="label">[248]</a> The daughters of Mrs. Hervey.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="label">[249]</a> It could not have been the Marriage Act that put an end to it, as that -was not passed till 1753, and Sion Chapel had ceased to be before 1725.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="label">[250]</a> <i>Connoisseur.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="label">[251]</a> Dr. Arbuthnot died in March, 1734-35.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="label">[252]</a> He was a Scotchman. Letter of Mr. Pulteney to Swift. See ‘Correspondence.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="label">[253]</a> I am told that this custom is still maintained.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="label">[254]</a> This is precisely the language of Jonas Hanway, the traveller, and -introducer of that useful article, the umbrella. This was also the favourite -argument of the clergy, when preaching against the use of tea, as they -also did against vaccination.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="label">[255]</a> I am told by an old resident that as late as 1830 there was but one -butcher’s shop in Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="label">[256]</a> A ridiculous custom, of which an account will be found in Hone’s -‘Table Book.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="label">[257]</a> <i>Connoisseur.</i></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="label">[258]</a> Quoted in ‘Hampstead and the Heath,’ which appeared in <i>Sharpe’s -Magazine</i> early in the sixties.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="label">[259]</a> Twelve months later, 1736, Turpin rides on the Highgate road, -wearing an open gold-laced hat, while his companion (who sometimes -passes for his man) has a plain gold-laced hat.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="label">[260]</a> He was Court painter to George II., and the translator of ‘Don -Quixote.’ Sir Joshua Reynolds thought so little of his paintings that -when asked where they were to be seen he replied, ‘In the garret.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="label">[261]</a> Tried for bigamy, and found guilty, 1776.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="label">[262]</a> The Duke of Grafton was Lord Chamberlain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="label">[263]</a> Mrs. Donnellan (the prefix Mrs. was then frequently applied to unmarried -ladies) was the daughter of Chief Justice Donnellan, and sister -to the Bishop, of Killala. Dr. Clayton married her sister, and gave his -wife’s fortune to Mrs. Donnellan, who seems to have passed a great part -of her life in England, making Hampstead a frequent place of residence.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="label">[264]</a> The rich and beautiful Widow Pendarves married the Irish Dean -Delany, 1732, to the great disgust of John Gay. See his letter to Swift -in the correspondence of the latter. ‘As Dr. Delany hath taken away -a fortune from us, I expect to be recommended in Ireland. If authors -of godly books are entitled to such fortune, I desire you would recommend -me as a moral one—I mean in Ireland, for that recommendation would -not do in England’ (Swift’s Correspondence).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="label">[265]</a> I have seen it stated that the burial-place of Pope is unknown.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="label">[266]</a> Clergymen extolled ‘Clarissa’ in the pulpit, and Pope observed of -‘Pamela’ that it would do more good than all their sermons.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="label">[267]</a> The <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, September 26, 1748.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="label">[268]</a> William Moray, for robbing John Head, a farmer’s boy, of sixpence -(<i>Universal Magazine</i>, February 15, 1775).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="label">[269]</a> About nine o’clock on a July morning, Turpin was seen by two -gentlemen who knew him, at Tottenham High Cross, mounted on a -gray horse, with a boy behind as servant on a brown horse, with a black -velvet cap and silver tassel. He rode through the town without molestation.—<i>Grub -Street Journal</i>, 1736, No. 397.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="label">[270]</a> Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ published when the author was little -more than of age.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="label">[271]</a> Mr. Baines, in his ‘Records of Hampstead,’ has remedied this oversight, -and has given some interesting particulars of the young historian’s -after-life.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="label">[272]</a> Then the Green Man.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="label">[273]</a> I am told upon excellent authority that the house Constable lived -in was taken down and rebuilt about six years ago; this house is now -44, Well Walk.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="label">[274]</a> Sion Chapel.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="label">[275]</a> Mr. G. W. Potter.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="label">[276]</a> Now Tooley’s Farm.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="label">[277]</a> Lintot.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="label">[278]</a> Hogarth is said to have painted this picture at Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="label">[279]</a> Mrs. Delany was a Granville.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="label">[280]</a> Richardson’s ‘Correspondence’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="label">[281]</a> ‘Gray was a little man of very ungainly appearance.’—<span class="smcap">Horace -Walpole.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="label">[282]</a> The name of one of his poems.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="label">[283]</a> ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="label">[284]</a> Wordsworth.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="label">[285]</a> Charles and Mary Lamb were at this time living in Russell Street, -over a brazier’s shop.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="label">[286]</a> The fields commonly called the Conduit Fields lie under Fitzjohn’s -Avenue, and a fountain at a corner of it represents the conduit.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="label">[287]</a> Keats.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="label">[288]</a> Brewer’s ‘Middlesex.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="label">[289]</a> Park calls him her second husband, which is wrong. See Pepys’ -‘Diary,’ vol. i., p. 6.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="label">[290]</a> See Lord Braybrooke’s ‘Notes to Pepys’ Diary,’ vol. iv.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="label">[291]</a> Not his son, as a recent writer on Belsize asserts.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="label">[292]</a> These gentlemen were German Lavie, James Abel, Thomas Roberts, -and Thomas Forsyth, Esqs., of Hampstead.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="label">[293]</a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘And on each side the gate a grenadier;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Howe’er, they cannot speak, nor see, nor hear;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But why they’re posted there no mortal knows,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Unless it be to fright jackdaws and crows.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">A modern writer on the neighbourhood appears to have been misled by -these lines into the supposition that the gates were guarded by living -soldiers.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="label">[294]</a> Belsize House stood at the bottom of the present avenue. One of -the last inhabitants was old Mr. Martinez, of the famous firm of port-wine -shippers, Martinez, Gassiot and Co, Mark Lane, about 1847.—C. A. -Ward, Esq.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="label">[295]</a> When Lysons wrote his ‘Environs of London,’ 1812, Belsize was a -subrural place, the house modern.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="label">[296]</a> There was a little stile in the lane, at the south-west corner of the -estate, and this was the spot of the murder, just as Delarue was mounting -it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="label">[297]</a> Letter of Lucy Aiken to Mrs. Mallett, Hampstead, September, 1845.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="label">[298]</a> The Kilburne rises near West End, Hampstead, and passes through -Kilburn to Bayswater, supplying the Serpentine River, Hyde Park; and -in Park’s time it flowed through the fields to the Thames at Ranelagh.</p> - -<p>‘In a note sewn into a copy of the “Speculum Britanniæ,” wrought -by Travaile, and view of John Norden of Fulham, in the year 1596,’ -the name is spelt three different ways—Kylburne, Keylbourne, Kulleburne -(quoted from Baines’ ‘Records,’ etc.).</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="label">[299]</a> Great-uncles to the present Sir Charles Dilke.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="label">[300]</a> The author of the ‘Saturday Half-Holiday Guide’ mentions a pure white -variety of <i>Campanula rotundifolia</i> growing on the Heath, but I never had the -good fortune to meet with it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="label">[301]</a> All the plants enumerated in this catalogue have been found by the writer -in the habitats indicated on Hampstead Heath.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="label">[302]</a> In reference to this charity, the following paragraph from the ‘Monthly -Chronicle’ of the <i>European Magazine</i> for January, 1790, is interesting: ‘At a -meeting held in London of the trustees of John Stock, Esq., of Hampstead, -who bequeathed a bounty of £100 a year to be divided amongst ten poor -curates of the Church of England, whose incomes should not exceed £40 per -annum ... thirty-eight petitions were presented and read from poor curates -to partake of his benevolence, many of whose stipends were not more than -£25 yearly, with which they have to support numerous and burdensome -families. As ten only could receive the gift, twenty-eight were unsuccessful -candidates.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="label">[303]</a> In the winter of 1727 Voltaire was lodging at the White Peruke, Covent -Garden, and visiting Pope at Twickenham. It may have been on this occasion -that he made the acquaintance of Mr. Pitt.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="label">[304]</a> ‘A Pamphlet on the Unequal and Partial Assessments; or, The Book of -Assessments to the Poor Rates of the Parish of St. John, Hampstead, in the -County of Middlesex, laid open by A. Abrahams, 1811, with a view to Meliorate -the Situation of the Middling and Lower Classes by a New Assessment.’</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="label">[305]</a> At this time twenty loads per day passed through Hampstead, besides -what went other ways.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="label">[306]</a> Abrahams mentions Miss Baillie at Frognal, and G. Paxon the Flask—the -Lower Flask, of course.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="label">[307]</a> The reason for the name of this avenue has been gravely questioned, and -the legend attached to it is looked upon as a mere fable. But in 1859 Sir -Francis Palgrave, then Deputy-Keeper of the Record Office, discovered a full -account of the assize which was held under these memorable trees in the year -1662—Communicated by G. W. Potter, Esq.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="label">[308]</a> ‘Endymion.’</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_384"></a>[384]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX.</h2> - -</div> - -<ul> - -<li class="ifrst">Abbey Fields, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Abel, James, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Abraham, Mr., ‘Book of Assessment’ by, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Adam and Eve, The, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Adelaide, Queen, visits Hampstead, <a href="#Page_231">231-233</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Addison, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘Additional Notes,’ Crosby’s, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aikin, Dr., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aikin, Dr. John, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Aikin, Lucy, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ainsworth, Harrison, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Airy, Julius Talbot, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Akenside, Dr., <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Albert, Prince, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alexander, William, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alfred, King, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alvanley, Lady, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Alvanley, Lord, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ampthill Square, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Andrews, Alderman Sir J. W., <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Angler’s Lane, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Arbuthnot, Dr., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Argyle, Duke of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Armstrong, Dr., <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Askew, Dr., <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Assembly Room, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300-302</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Assessment, Abraham’s Book of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Atye, Sir Arthur, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Baillie, Agnes, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baillie, Dorothea, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baillie, James, D.D., <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baillie, Joanna, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154-158</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baillie, Matthew, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baillie, W. H., <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baines, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Baker, William, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ballantyne, Mr., <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Barbauld, Mrs., <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Barbauld, Rochemont, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bartholomew, Valentine, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Battle Bridge, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Baxter, John, Gent., <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Beattie, Dr., <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bedford Garden, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bedford House, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bedingfield, Daniel, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bell, Mr., <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bellingham, assassin of Spencer Perceval, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329-343</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Avenue, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Crescent, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Gardens, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Grove, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize House, <a href="#Page_333">333-341</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Lane, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Belsize Square, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Benefactors of Hampstead, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bentham, General Sir Samuel, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bergh, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Besant, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bill, John, sen. and jun., <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bird in Hand, The, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bishop’s Wood, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Blackmore, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Blackwood, Mrs. <i>See</i> <a href="#Dufferin">Dufferin, Lady Helen</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Blackwood, Sir Stevenson Arthur, K.C.B., <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Blake, William, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bliss, John, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bockett family, The, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bolton House, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Booth, Barton, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bosanquet, Charles, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Boswell, James, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_385"></a>[385]</span>Bowes, Andrew Robinson, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bowling Green House, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Boydell, Alderman, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Boydell, Colonel Josiah, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Branch Hill, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Branch Hill Lodge, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bremer, Frederika, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brewer quoted, <a href="#Page_55">55</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Bridges, William, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brill Tavern, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Britton, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Broad Walk, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown’s Dairy, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Brown’s Well, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Buckingham, Duke of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bull and Bush, The, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burford Lane, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burlington, Lord, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘Burlington Harry,’ <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Burney, Frances, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Bute, Lord, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Buxton, Sir Fowell, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Buxton, Mrs. Charles, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Byron, Lord, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst" id="Caen_Wood">Caen Wood, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215-235</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Caen Wood House, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Caenwood Farm, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Camden, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Camden Town, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Campbell, Lord, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Campden">Campden Charity, The, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cannon Place, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cantleowes, Manor of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carey, John, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carey’s ‘Book of the Roads,’ <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carlton Road, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Carr, Thomas, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cattle Market, The new, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Causton, Robert, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cedar Lawn, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chalk Farm, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Old, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chalon, Alfred Edward, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chalons Brothers, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chapone, Mrs., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Charities of Hampstead, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>. <i>See</i> <a href="#Campden">Campden</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Charles, Elizabeth Rundle, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Charter of Ethelred II. to St. Peter’s, Westminster, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chatham, Lord, <a href="#Page_169">169-172</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chesterfield, Earls of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chicken House, The, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Child’s Hill, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Child’s Hill House, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Child’s Hill Lane, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Christchurch, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Christian, Princess, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Chronometer, John Harrison, inventor of the, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Church, The, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Church Lane, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Church Row, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cibber, Colley, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clarke, Charles Cowden, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clarke, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Clock House, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cock and Hoop, The, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Codrington, Robert, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cole, Mr., <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coleridge, S. T., <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Collins, <a href="#Page_53">53</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Collins’ Farm, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Collins, Wilkie, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Collins, William, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Combe Edge, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Common Rights, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">struggle for, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Conduit Fields, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Consort, Prince, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Constable, John, R.A., <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-296</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Consumption Hospital, North London, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Copenhagen Fields, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Copenhagen House, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coram, Captain, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Cort, Henry, and the iron trade, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Coxe, Edward, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crabbe, Dr. George, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Craddock’s Coffee-house, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Craik, Mrs., <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crewe, Mrs., <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crewe, John, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crokesley, Richard de, Abbot of Westminster, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crosby, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Crump, Miss, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">D’Aumont, Duc, French Ambassador, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Davy, Sir Humphry, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Day, author of ‘Sandford and Merton,’ <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Defoe, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Delany, Mrs., <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Delarue, James, Murder of, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Denman, Lord, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dickens, Charles, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Disney, Admiral, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Diver, Jenny, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dobson, Austin, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Doddridge, Dr., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Domesday Book, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Donnellan, Mrs., <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_386"></a>[386]</span>Downing, Sir George, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Downshire Hill, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Drayton, Michael, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Dufferin">Dufferin, Lady Helen (Mrs. Blackwood), <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Du Maurier, George, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Dyson, Hon. Jeremiah, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">East Heath, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">East Heath Tavern, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Edgeworth, Lovell, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Eleven Sisters, The, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elizabeth House, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elm, Irving’s, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elm, The Great Hollow, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elm Row, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Elms, The Nine, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Enfield, Dr., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">England’s Lane, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Erskine House, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Erskine, Lady, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Erskine, Lord, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ethelred II., Charter of, to St. Peter’s, Westminster, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Euston Road, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Evelyn, John, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Everett, Mr., <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Evergreens, or Evergreen Hill, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Faux, Guy, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fenton House, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fenton, Philip Robertson, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ferns, The, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Finchley Common, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Finchley Road, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fir-tree Avenue, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fisher, Mr., <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fitzjohn’s Avenue, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fitzstephen, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flagstaff, The, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flask Walk, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flaxman, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fleet, The, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fleet Road, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flitcroft, Mr. (‘Burlington Harry’), <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Flora of Hampstead, A fragment of the, <a href="#Page_362">362-368</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Foley House, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Foley, Lord, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Folkard, Master, and common rights, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Footpads, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289-291</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Forbes, Lord William, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Forsyth, Thomas, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fortune Green, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Foundling, The, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fox, Charles James, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Francis Street, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Francis’s Fields, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frazer, Colonel, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Freeling, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Friars, Preaching, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal End, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal Grove, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal Hall, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal House, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal Lodge, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal Priory, <a href="#Page_102">102-106</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Frognal Rise, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fry, Miss Catherine, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Fuller quoted, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Gainsborough, Baptist, third Earl of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gainsborough Gardens, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gainsborough Mansions, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gale, the antiquary, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Galloway, Earl of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Games, William Langhorne, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garrick, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Garth, Dr., <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gate-house, The, or Park Gate-house, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gay, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gayton Road, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gell, Sir William, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li> - -<li class="indx">Geology of the Heath, <a href="#Page_236">236-240</a></li> - -<li class="indx">George Inn, Kilburn, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gibbet Elm, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gibbons, Dr., <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a> <i>et seq.</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Gilchrist, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gillies, The Misses, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gipsies, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Godfrey, Sir Edmondbury, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Godwyn, a hermit, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Golden Square, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Golder’s Green, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Golder’s Hill, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Goldsmith, Oliver, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Goodwin, Dr., <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gordon Rioters and Lord Mansfield, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gospel Oak Fields, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Granville, Lord, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gray, Thomas, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gray’s Inn Road, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Great Plague, The, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Green Hill, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Greening, Mr., <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gregory, proprietor of the <i>Satirist</i>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Greville, Fulke, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grey, Baroness, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Grisoni, Signore, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gross, Mr., <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_387"></a>[387]</span>Grove Passage, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Gunpowder Plot conspirators, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Guyon family, The, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Hales, Professor J. W., <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hall Oak Farm, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hall, Rev. Newman, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hamilton, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead, Benefactors of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Fair, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead, Flora of, <a href="#Page_362">362-368</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Gardens, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead, Geology of, <a href="#Page_236">236-240</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Green, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Hill, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead, Old, <a href="#Page_1">1-11</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">population, 1811-1891, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">early history, <a href="#Page_20">20-32</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">in the Great Plague, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">view of the Great Fire from, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">volunteers in 1803-4, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">and the Church, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead, Old Ways to, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘Hampstead, Records of,’ Baines’s, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Road, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Water Company, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hampstead Woods, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harraden, Miss, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harrington, Sir James, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harrington Square, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harrison, John, inventor of the chronometer, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Harrison, Mrs., <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hart, Mrs., <a href="#Page_382">382</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hart, Sir John, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Haverstock Hill, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Haverstock Terrace, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hay, Lord, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Haydon, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hazlitt, W., <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath, The, encroachments on, and Sir Maryon Wilson’s Estate Bill, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">the struggle for the, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath Cottages, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath End House, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heathfield House, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath House, <a href="#Page_354">354-357</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath Lodge, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Heath Street, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hendon, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Henry VIII.’s Palace, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Henry VIII., Hampstead in reign of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">proclamation of, regarding game at Hampstead, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hicks’s Hall, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Hicks, Michael, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hicks, Sir Baptist, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Highgate, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Highgate Hill, <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Highgate Ponds, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> - -<li class="indx">High Street, The, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hill, The, or Hill House, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hill, Sir Rowland, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hindley, John, complacent egotism of his tombstone, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hoare, Francis, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hoare, Gurney, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hoare, Joseph, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hoare, Samuel, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hocker, Thomas Henry, murderer, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hodgson, Mrs., <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hogarth, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holford, Charles, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holford, George, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holford, Major Charles, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holford, Mr., <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holford Road, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holly-bush Assembly Room, <a href="#Page_143">143-145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Holly-bush Hill, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Honey, Maria, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Honeywood, Frazer, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Honeywood, Isaac, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Honeywood, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Honeywood, Sir John, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hooker, W. J., <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howell, Mr., an eighteenth-century Barnum, <a href="#Page_334">334</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howitt, Mary, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Howitt, William, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">‘Northern Heights of London,’ <a href="#Page_52">52</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Hughson, Dr., <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Hunt, Leigh, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196-211</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Incledon, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Inns. <i>See</i> <a href="#Taverns">Taverns</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Iron Trade, Henry Cort and the, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Irving, Edward, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Irving’s Elm, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Jackson, The Misses, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jack Straw’s Castle, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> - -<li class="indx">James I., <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Jeffrey, Lord, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnson, Dr., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Johnstone, Mrs., <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Judd Street, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Judges’ Walk, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Keate, Thomas, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Keats, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">bust of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kelly, Miss, ‘the beautiful Irish girl,’ <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ken Wood. <i>See</i> <a href="#Caen_Wood">Caen Wood</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kentish Town, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kestevan, Thomas, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kilburn, Hamlet of, <a href="#Page_344">344-353</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kilburn Priory, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349-353</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_388"></a>[388]</span>Kilburn Nunnery, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kilburn Wells, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li> - -<li class="indx">King’s Cross, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> - -<li class="indx">King’s Hill, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kirkhoven, Poliander de, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kirkhoven, Charles Henry, created Lord Wotton, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kit-Cat Club, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Kneller, Sir Godfrey, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Lamb, Charles, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Landseer, Sir Edwin, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Langhorne, Sir William, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lavie, German, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Le Breton, Mrs., <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Le Breton, P. H., <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leg of Mutton Pond, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leggett, Mrs., <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Leslie, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lessingham, Mrs., <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lime-tree Avenue, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Linnell, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lister, Mrs., <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lloyd, Mr., <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Load of Hay, The, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">London, Predicted destruction of, in 1750, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘London Improved’ (1766), <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Long Room, The, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Longman, T. Norman, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Longman, William, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Loughborough, Lord. <i>See</i> <a href="#Rosslyn">Rosslyn, Lord</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lovells, The, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lovers’ Bank or Walk, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lower Flask Walk, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lower Heath, The, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lyndhurst Road, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Lysons, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Macclesfield, Lord Chancellor, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Manor Farm, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Manor House, The, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Manor Lodge, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mansfield, Lord, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221-235</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mansion, The, Frognal, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Marsham, Henry, Lord Scrope of, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Martinez, Mr., <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Maryon, Mrs. Margaret, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Maryon, Rev. John, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">May, Richard, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Meteyard, Eliza, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Middlesex, Elections for, on top of Hampstead Heath, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Miles, John, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Millfield Lane, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Milligan, Mrs., <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mitchell, Thomas, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montagu, Edward, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montagu House, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montague, Mrs., <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Montgomery, ‘Satan,’ <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Moore, Tom, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">More, Mrs. Hannah, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Morel, L’Abbé, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Morland, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mother Huffs’, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mount, The, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mount Vernon, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Mulock, Dinah, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Murray, Hon. Misses, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Neave, Thomas, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Netley Cottage, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Netmaker, Mr., <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New End, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New Georgia, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New Grove House, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New North End Hall Wells, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New Reservoir, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New Road, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li> - -<li class="indx">New West End, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Newton, Sir Adam, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nicoll, Miss Christian, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nine Elms, The, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Noel, Hon. Susannah, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Noel, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Norden, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North Court, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North End, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North End Hill, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North End House, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North End Road, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘Northern Heights,’ Howitt’s, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">North Heath, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North Hole, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North London Consumption Hospital, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">North, Lord, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Norway House, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Nunnery, Kilburn, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Oak Hill House, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Oak Hill Lodge, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ogilby’s Guide, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Old Mother Red Cap, The, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Old Ways to Hampstead, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ollier, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">O’Neale, Daniel, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Otley, Richard, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Oussulston, Hampstead in Hundred of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Oxford Street, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Palgrave, —, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Palgrave, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_389"></a>[389]</span>Palmer, Sir Geoffrey, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pancras, St., boundaries of Hampstead, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pancras Vale, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parish Church, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Park, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Park Gate-house, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Park Road, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Park, Thomas, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parker, Colonel, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parliament Hill, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parnell, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Parry, Sir Edward, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Patmore, Coventry, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pavilion Cottage, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Paxon, Mr., <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pelham, Diana, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pennant, —, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pepys, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Perceval, Spencer, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Perrin’s Court, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Peverel, Ranulph, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Peverel, William, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Piozzi, Mrs., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Plague, The Great, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Platt, Thomas, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Platt’s Lane, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pond Street, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ponds and Waterworks, The, <a href="#Page_241">241-248</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pool, Thomas, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Poor Robin’s Almanack, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pope, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Portland, Duke of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Portland Place, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Potter, G. W., <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Povey, Charles, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Powell, D., <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Powell family, The, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Preaching Friars, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Priestley, Dr., <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Prince Arthur’s Road, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Priory, The, at Kilburn, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">legend of, <a href="#Page_349">349-353</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Priory Lodge, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Prospect Terrace, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pump-House School, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Pump Room, The, <a href="#Page_300">300-302</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Queen Square, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Race-course, The, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Raresby, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Red Lion Hill, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Reformer, The fate of a, <a href="#Page_374">374-377</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Reynolds, Miss, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Reynolds, Sir Joshua, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rhodes, Mr., <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rich, Lady Charlotte, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Richardson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Roads, Carey’s Book of the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Robarts, Abraham, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Roberts, Thomas, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Robinson, Crabb, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Rogers, Samuel, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Romilly, Sir Samuel, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Romney, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rosslyn Hill, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rosslyn Hill Schools, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rosslyn House and Park, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rosslyn Lodge, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Rosslyn">Rosslyn, Lord Loughborough, Earl of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rosslyn Street, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rous, Mr., <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Routh, Mr., <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Russell, Admiral Lord Edward, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Rye, Walter, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Sadleir, John, M.P., suicide of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sailors’ Daughters Orphan School, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. Giles’s Pound, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><i>St. James’s Gazette</i>, 1685, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. John’s Parish Church, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. John’s Wood, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. Mary, Frognal, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. Pancras, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> - -<li class="indx">St. Peter’s Westminster. <i>See</i> <a href="#Westminster">Westminster</a></li> - -<li class="indx">‘Sandford and Merton,’ Day, author of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sandy Road, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Saunderson, Mr., and St. John’s Church, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Schemelpennick, Mrs., <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scott, Sir Gilbert, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Scrope of Marsham, Henry, Lord, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sedley, Sir Charles, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Selwyn’s ‘Diary’ quoted, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Seward. Miss, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sewell, Dr. George, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sharp, Henry, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shelford Lodge, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shelley, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shelley, Mary, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shepherd’s Fields, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shepherds’ Well, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sheppard, Thomas, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shipton, Mother, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shoolbred’s, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Shuttop Hill, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Siddons, Mrs. Sarah, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Silver Street, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sion Chapel, <a href="#Page_253">253-255</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Smith, Horace and James, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Soames, Dr., <a href="#Page_273">273-278</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_390"></a>[390]</span>South End, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li> - -<li class="indx">South End Green, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> - -<li class="indx">South End Road, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li> - -<li class="indx">South Hill Park, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Southampton, Lord, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spaniards, The, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spaniards Garden, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spaniards Road, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Spark, Michael, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sports at Belsize House, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Squire’s Mount, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanfield, Clarkson, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanfield House, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanhope, Arthur, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanhope, Colonel James Hamilton, suicide of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanhope, Lord Henry, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanhope, Philip, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stanton, Samuel, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Steele, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Steele’s Terrace, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Steevens, George, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stephenson, Benj. Charles, F.S.A., <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Stormont, Lord, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Strathmore, Lady, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sullivan family, The, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Sullivan, Miss, her toll-gate, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Swift, Dean, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Talfourd quoted, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Taverner, Richard, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Taverns">Taverns and Tea-houses:</li> -<li class="isub1">Adam and Eve, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Bird in Hand, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Bull and Bush, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Cock and Hoop, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Copenhagen House, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Craddock’s, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">East Heath Tavern, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Flask Tavern, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">George Inn, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Jack Straw’s Castle, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Load of Hay, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Mother Huffs’, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">New Georgia, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Old Mother Red Cap, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Spaniards, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Tea-gardens at Kilburn, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Upper Flask, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">Whitestone Inn, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Taylor, the Water-poet, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tea-gardens, Kilburn, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tea-houses. <i>See</i> <a href="#Taverns">Taverns</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Telford, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thompson, ‘Memory Corner,’ <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thompson, Mr. Maude, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thurlow, Lord, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Thurlow Road, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Toll-gate, Miss Sullivan’s, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tolmer Square, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tonson, Jacob, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tooly’s Farm, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tottenham Court Road, <a href="#Page_13">13-15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tottenham Fields, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Toupees, The, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Tradescants, The, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Traitors’ Hill, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Trimmer, Mrs., <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Turner, Mr., <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Turner’s Wood, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Upper and Lower Flask, Origin of, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Upper Bowling-green House, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Upper Flask Tavern, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Upper Heath, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Upper Park Road, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Upper Terrace, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Vale of Health, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vale Lodge, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vane House, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vane, Sir Henry, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Varley, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Veil, Colonel Sir John de, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Venner, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Vivian, John, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Volunteers, Hampstead, 1803-4, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Waad, Armigall, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Waad or Wood family, The, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Waad, Lady Anne, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wales, Prince and Princess of, at Belsize Gardens in 1721, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Walk, The Judges’, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Walker, Thomas, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_35">35</a> <i>et passim</i></li> - -<li class="indx">Walpole, Lord, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Walpole, Mrs., <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Ware, Isaac, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Warwick, Earl of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Warwick, John, Earl of, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Water Company, Hampstead, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Waterworks, The Ponds and, <a href="#Page_241">241-248</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Watling Way, The, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Watts, Mr., Curate and Lecturer, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Weatherall Place, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wedderburne, Mr., afterward Lord Rosslyn, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Well Walk, The, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">early period, <a href="#Page_249">249-267</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">second period, <a href="#Page_268">268-291</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">the modern, <a href="#Page_292">292-303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Weller, Margaret Marie, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Weller, Jane, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Welling’s Farm, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wells Chapel, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wells Charity, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wells, Sir Spencer, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wells, The, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li> -<li class="isub1">New North End Hall, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wentworth Place, John Street, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li> - -<li class="indx">West End, <a href="#Page_85">85</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li> - -<li class="indx">West End Green and fair, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li> - -<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_391"></a>[391]</span>West End House, New and Old, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li> - -<li class="indx">West End Lane, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li> - -<li class="indx">West Heath Road, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li> - -<li class="indx" id="Westminster">Westminster, St. Peter’s, Charter of Ethelred II. to, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Westminster, Richard de Crokesley, Abbot of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whichello, Abel, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, Charles, engraver, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, Rev. Samuel, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li> - -<li class="indx">White, Robert, engraver, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitestone Inn, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitestone Pond, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Whitfield, George, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wildwood Avenue, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wildwood Corner, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wildwood Cottage, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wildwood Grove, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wildwood Lodge, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilkinson, Mr. Garth, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilkes, the actor, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Willes, Sir Francis, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">William IV. and Queen Adelaide visit Hampstead, <a href="#Page_231">231-235</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Willow House, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Willow Walk, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Arthur, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, General Sir Thomas Spencer, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Lady, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir John, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir John Maryon, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir Maryon, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir Spencer Maryon, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Sir Thomas Maryon, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wilson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Windmill Hill, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Winford, Lady Cook, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Withers, Mr., <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wood, Anthony à, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wood, Mr., <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Woods, Hampstead, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wordsworth, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wotton, Catherine, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wotton, Lord, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wotton, Lord Charles, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wotton, Lord Thomas, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wright, Henry, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wroth, John, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> - -<li class="indx">Wroth, Sir Thomas, Kt., <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li> - -<li class="ifrst">Young, Dr., <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li> - -</ul> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> -<img src="images/deco-owl.jpg" width="200" height="285" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage"><i>Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, London.</i></p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEET HAMPSTEAD AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS ***</div> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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