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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
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SUBURBAN RELIQUES OF OLD LONDON
NORTH OF THE THAMES
This Edition consists of 280 Copies
(250 FOR sale), and the DRAWINGS HAVE
BEEN ERASED FROM THE STONES. TWENTY-
FIVE SETSOF PrOOFSOFTHE LITHOGRAPHS
HAVE ALSO BEEN TAKEN.
THE LITHOGRAPHS HAVE BEEN PRINTED
BY THOMAS WAY, 2 I, WELLINGTON STREET.
THIS COPY IS NO.
^- "^k:
/'/a/c 19
RELIQUES OF OLD
LONDON SUBURBS
NORTH OF THE THAMES
DRAWN IN LITHOGRAPHY BY
T. R. WAY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND DESCRIPTIONS BY
H. B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS: MDCCCXCVIII
CoMega
Library.
PREFACE
THE kindly reception accorded to my two previous
volumes of " Reliques " has encouraged me to
continue the series, and attempt to record a few of
the more important of the old houses in London suburbs.
Whilst searching for subjedls in not only the well-defined
suburbs of to-day, but in those parts of our present city
which at the beginning of this century were distinctly
suburban, I soon found that, owing to the amount of
material at my disposal, it would be impossible for me
to include them all in one volume. I have, therefore,
thought it advisable to divide the field, and in this present
volume to confine myself to the north side of the river
Thames. In a future volume, I shall record buildings on
the river banks and in the Surrey and Kentish suburbs.
The great danger of many of the fine houses now left
just outside the present city is in their large gardens,
which are an immense attraction to the small property
builder. Their surroundings soon render them uncon-
genial to the class of people for whom they were built,
6
/S ,0 i~ J-^ /-> t— <-v
and they are either at once pulled down or converted into
private asylums or schools. A typical example of this
state of affairs is to be seen in the Great House at Leyton,
which at present stands in grounds of some five acres in
extent, but just outside are rows of houses whose rentals
average £2'^ °^ jC4°- ^^^ house itself has already passed
through the school and asylum stages, and now the boards
are up, offering the land for building purposes,
I have to thank many friends who have kindly in-
terested themselves in my work. To Mr. Gleeson White,
who guided me over the western distridt, and to Mr.
H. E. Morgan and Mr. A. T. Way for similar services in
the northern and eastern suburbs, and to Dr. Whistler for
his assistance in the note on Rossetti's house, I am more
particularly indebted.
In every case the drawings have been made diredtly
from the buildings themselves.
T. R. WAY.
P.S. — Whilst this volume has been passing through
the press, I have to lament the loss of a most kind friend,
through the sudden death of Mr. Gleeson White. It was
principally due to his advice and arrangement that these
lithographs were issued in their present form, with the
collaboration of Mr. Wheatley.
CONTENTS
General Introduction ......
Map of London North of the Thames, 1815
The North-Western Suburbs ...
Hampstead :
Church Row .....
Fenton House .....
Jack Straw's Castle ....
Highgate :
The 'Grove .....
Cromwell House ....
Lauderdale House ....
The Archway .....
The Northern and Eastern Suburbs
Canonbury:
Canonbury Tower ....
Lower Clapton :
British Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Females
Leyton :
The Great House ....
West Ham :
The Angel Inn .....
PLATE
PAGE
I
4> 15
17
I
21
2
25
3
29
4
33
5
37
6
41
7
45
49
8
5^
9
55
10
59
II
63
Bow:
High Street .....
Grove Hall .....
Stepney :
Stepney Green, Nos. 37-39
The Western and South-Western Suburbs
Chelsea:
Cheyne Walk, No. 4, East End .
Queen's House, No. i6, Cheyne Walk
Parson's Green :
Belfield House .......
Kensington :
Kensington Square, Nos. 1 1-12, South-East Corner
12
67
13
71
14
75
79
15
81
16
85
17
Frontispiece and 19
Holland House
Hammersmith :
The Red Cow
Kelmscott House and the Doves
Chiswick :
Walpole House, Chiswick Mall
The Burlington Arms . . . . . •. 23
Hogarth's House 24
20
21
22
89
93
97
99
103
107
1 1 1
"5
INTRODUCTION
HAVING produced two volumes of Reliques of Old
London, Mr. Way now brings forward a seleftion
of interesting bits from the Northern, Eastern, and
Western Suburbs. As in London itself the old houses
have almost disappeared, so in the suburbs the fine old
buildings that the gentry of the past inhabited with some
pretension and state have many of them fallen to a low
estate, and are fast disappearing, to be replaced by streets
of commonplace houses or piles of high flats.
Before proceeding to describe more fully the houses
which are illustrated in this volume, it may be well to
make a few general remarks upon the suburbs of London,
and before doing this it seems almost necessary to ask the
preliminary question — What is a suburb ?
The suburbs of one age lose their rurality and become
part of the town in the next. With a County of London
of 75,000 acres, and a Greater London of 445,423 acres, it
is somewhat difficult to say what a suburb really is.
Mr. Way has, however, overcome this difficulty, and
chosen a series of piftures from localities which all will
agree were in the suburbs when the houses delineated were
built, even if now they are swallowed up by the ever-
onward growth of London.
I B
In the early days of London, when the walls enclosed a
good deal of unbuilt-on ground, there was little or no
growth of suburban buildings, and the first suburbs grew
up about the roads outside the different gates. Whitechapel
and Mile End extended eastward from Aldgate; Shore-
ditch and Spitalfields northward from Bishopsgate ; Moor-
lields were built on outside Moorgate ; the village of
St. Giles's (with it Fore Street) grew up outside Cripplegate ;
Smithfield and Clerkenwell were built on outside Alders-
gate, and Holborn extended westward from Newgate, as
Fleet Street and the Strand did from Ludgate. Then
Fleet Street, Holborn, and Whitechapel, as well as other
districts, were added to the City, and bars were eredled to
mark the extent of the new Liberties. What a charmingly
countrified sound there is about the title of Tower hamlets !
The present ad:ual appearance, however, of Wapping,
Limehouse, Bethnal Green, and the other members of the
group is quite sufficient to dispel any pleasant associations
that may arise in our mind as associated with the countrified
title of hamlet. When that curious character, William
Kemp, the famous Elizabethan clown, started on his morrice
dance to Norwich he considered Whitechapel as a suburb.
This is what he wrote as to his start on this eccentric
journey:
" Being past White Chappell, and having left faire
London with all that north-east suburb before named,
multitudes of Londoners left not me : but eyther to keepe
a custome which many holde, that Mile-end is no walke
without a recreation at Stratford Bow with creame and cakes,
2
or else for love they beare toward me, or perhappes
to make them selves merry, if I should chance (as
many thought) to give over my morrice within a mile of
Mile-end. However, many a thousand brought me to
Bow, where I rested a while from dancing, but had
small rest with those that would have urg'd me to
drinking." ^
In those Elizabethan days, just beyond the suburbs which
grew up around the gates, there was a distridl that may be
described as thorough country, and it is well to bear this
in mind when we consider the descriptions of country
sights and scenes that occur in Shakespeare's plays. It
is usually supposed by critics that in these references
Shakespeare was influenced by the surroundings of his
house at Stratford-on-Avon, but flowers grew in the houses
of the citizens within the walls, and in the neighbourhood
of the Theatre and the Curtain at Shoreditch country scenes
were almost as common as they were in Warwickshire.
The very same remark may be made in the case of Samuel
Pepys nearly a century later, for he could wander from his
house in Crutched Friars into the fields before breakfast, and
his wife and maid would rise very early in a spring morning,
and gather the May-dew which was supposed to be specially
good for the complexion. The Diarist's description of his
trips to Mile End give us much the same idea of the distridl
as we gather from the words of William Kemp.
On May 12, 1667, Pepys gives a pidlure of Kingsland
' Kemp's "Nine Dales Wonder." London, 1600, sig. a 3 verso.
3
which is vastly different from the present appearance of
that place :
" My wife and I away to Islington, it being a fine day,
and thence to Sir J. Whitmore's house [at Hoxton], where
we 'light and walked over the fields to Kingsland and back
again ; a walk I think I have not taken these twenty years,
but puts me in mind of my boy's time, when I boarded at
Kingsland, and went to shoot with my bow and arrows in
these fields."
When the restridiions, necessary to a walled city that
had its gates closed each night at a stated time, were in full
force the disorderly characters were pleased to unite the
liberty of living outside the walls with the privilege of
seeking a place of safety within the city whenever this
was desirable. Hence the word " suburbs" obtained a bad
name ; and this was particularly the case in the Elizabethan
period, when we find in the works of the Dramatists a
constant reference to the evil repute of the suburbs.
Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Massinger, Beaumont and
Fletcher, and their contemporaries are full of allusions
to this phase of the manners of the time. When Shakespeare,
in " Measure for Measure," says that " all houses in the
suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down," we have only
to understand that London was in the poet's mind when
he wrote the name Vienna.
Chettle, in his "Kind Harts Dreame," 1592, wrote:
" The suburbs of the citie are in many places no other but
dark dennes for adulterers, theeves, murderers, and every
mischief worker ; daily experience before the magistrates
4
confirmes this for truth." He adds, however, " I would the
hart of the citie were whole."
The gardens and banqueting houses which some of the
citizens established in the suburbs were not always very
respectable resorts, and these, therefore, went to increase the
amount of obloquy that gathered round the name of the
suburbs. The hot-tempered reformer, Stubbs, found in
these garden houses a good subjeft for his severe censures.
He wrote in his " Anatomie of Abuses" : " In the fields and
suburbes of the cities, they have gardens either palled or
walled round about very high, with their barbers and
bowers fit for the purpose. And least they might be
espied in these open places, they have their banquetting
houses with galleries, turrets and what not, therein
sumptuously eredled ; wherein they may (and doubtless
do) many of them play the filthy persons," etc.
The frequenters of these suburbs gave the authorities a
good deal of trouble, especially when the sovereign
happened to be making a progress through them. This
is well illustrated by a remarkable letter which William
Fleetwood, the Recorder of London, wrote to Lord Burghley
upon the apprehending of a number of rogues and master-
less men at Islington, who endangered the progress of Queen
Elizabeth in January, 158 1-2. Fleetwood's description of
his proceedings is as follows :
** My singular good Lord uppon Thursday at even, her
Majestic in her Cooche near Islyngton, taking of the aer,
her Highnes was environed with a number of Rooges.
One M"^ Stone a footeman cam in all hast to my Lord
5
Maior, and after to me, and told us of the cause. I dyd
the same night send Warrants owt into the sayd quarters
and into Westminster and the Duchie ; and in the mornyng
I went a brood my selff, and I tooke that daye Ixxiiij roogs,
whereof some were blynd and yet great usurers, and very
riche ; and the same daye towards night I sent for M'' Harrys
and M^ Smithe and the governors of Bridwell, and tooke
all the names of the roogs and sent theym frome the Sessions
Hall unto Bridwell, where they remayned that night."
Fleetwood afted on the authority of the Lords of the
Council in these proceedings, but his a6tions appear to have
been very summary, for there is no description in the letter
ofany particular offences which these rogueshad committed.
Subsequently Fleetwood dined with the Dean of West-
minster, with whom he conferred touching Westminster
and the Duchy of Lancaster, " and then I tooke orders for
Southwarke, Lambeth and Newyngton, from whence I re-
ceyved a shooll of xl rooggs, men and women, and above.
I bestowed theym in Bridwell,"
He had an interview with the Master of the Savoy, who
said he was sworn to lodge " claudicantes, egrotantes, et
peregrinantes;" so Fleetwood, after he had swept St. Paul's
of the rogues resorting there, sent the constables of the
Duchy to the Hospital, and they brought to Bridewell " vj
tall fellowes that were draymen unto bruers, and were
neither 'claudicantes, egrotantes' nor 'peregrinantes.' " He
adds that " the constables if they might have had theyr
owen wills wold have brought as many moo."
Of all these rogues the majority were given " substanciall
6
payment," while " the rest wee desmyssed with a promise
of a double paye if we mett with theym agayne," It
appears that none of these rogues belonged to London,
Westminster, nor Southwark, nor more than twelve to
Middlesex and Surrey. The remainder came from Wales,
Shropshire, Cheshire, Somerset, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and
Essex. Fleetwood adds that " the chieff nurserie of all
these evell people is the Savoye and the brick kilnes nere
Islyngton. As for the brick kylnes we will take suche
order that they shall be reformed. And I trust by your
Lordship's help the Savoye shall be amended ; for suerlie,
as by experiens I fynd it, the same place, as it is used, not
converted to a good use or purpose." *
Respeftable people in course of time took to residing in
the suburbs, and thus raised their charafter. Accordingly
we find so staid and virtuous a man as Milton associated
with the garden houses of the suburbs. He was born in
the City, but in his later life he did not live within the City
walls by choice. When he returned from his continental
tour he lived in St. Bride's Churchyard. Then he took a
garden house in Aldersgate Street, situated at the end of an
entry, that he might avoid the noise and disturbance of
the street. It was while he was living here that his first
wife, Mary Powell, obtained his forgiveness by presenting
herself suddenly to him at a friend's house in Aldersgate
Street. In 1 644 Milton removed to a house in the Barbican,
11.,
' This letter is printed in Ellis's " Original Letters," First Series, vol. ■■.,
p. 283. There are other letters by Fleetwood on the rogueries of London
in Ellis's work.
where he only remained a short time. He took in 1647 ^
small house in Holborn, "opening backwards into Lincoln's
Inn Fields." While Latin Secretary to Cromwell he was
lodged at " one Thompson's next door to the Bull Head
tavern at Charing Cross opening into Spring Gardens,"
and then, when his official rooms were ready, in Scotland
Yard. Afterwards he took a "pretty garden house in Petty
France, Westminster," in which he lived for eight years.
This house, which looked into St. James's Park, was pulled
down in 1877. Its gardens now form part of the lawn of
Queen Anne Mansions. Jeremy Bentham bought the house
and added the garden to his own house in Queen Square
Place. He also placed a stone tablet on the front with this
inscription, " Sacred to Milton, Prince of Poets." William
Hazlitt rented the house from 18 12 to 18 19.
After the Restoration, Milton is said to have taken refuge
at a friend's house in Bartholomew Close. Then he rented
a house in Holborn near Red Lion Fields (now Red Lion
Square), and afterwards went to Jewin Street, Aldersgate.
His last residence was in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields,
where he died in 1674. Many attempts have been made
to fix the exa6l site of Milton's house. It was on the west
side of the present Bunhill Row, not far from Chiswell
Street. Although blind, he still loved to be among flowers,
and one of his visitors describes him as sitting at his door
in warm sunny weather to enjoy the fresh air. The suc-
cessive movements of few of our great men can be recorded
with the completeness that is possible in the case of one of
the greatest of Londoners.
8
The evil associations of the suburbs had faded away in
the seventeenth century, and now the word " suburban " has
only to bear a slight suspicion of contempt as indicating a
certain amount of pretentiousness which is just the reverse
of its old meaning of want of respectability.
The large growth of the town, which has swallowed up
nearly all the suburbs, is chiefly the work of the present
century, and many parts of London which are now thickly
inhabited were rural places before 1850.
Hoxton, the distindtive charadter of which is now lost
in the map of London, was in Ben Jonson's time a country
place cut off from the City by Moorfields. Knowell's house,
described in "Every Man in his Humour," was at Hogsden,
which was then, according to Stow, a large street with
houses on both sides. Master Stephen describes his uncle's
property as " Middlesex land," and he himself is called a
country gull, in opposition to Master Matthew, the town gull.
Jonson had reason to remember Hoxton, for it was in the
fields close by that he fought and killed Gabriel Spenser.
These rural characteristics continued to modern times.
The late Mr. Hyde Clarke (who died in 1895 at the age
of eighty) told the writer of this that he had an uncle who
lived at Hoxton, and that when a boy (say about 1825) he
often went to spend Saturday to Monday at his uncle's
country house. On these occasions he proceeded as far as
Finsbury Square, where a party was gathered together, who
waited till they could be conducted across the open space
by the patrol provided to proteft them against the dan-
gerous characters in the neighbourhood.
9 C
If we look over the list of places described in Lysons's
valuable work on the " Environs of London " (i8i i), we
find about one-third of the total number of those in Surrey
are now included in the London of to-day, while about
one-half of those in Middlesex are now an integral part of
the town. Lysons includes among his environs such places
as Chelsea, Hackney, Islington, Kensington, Limehouse,
Marybone, Paddington, Pancras, Stepney, etc. This
proves how great a change has taken place since the pub-
lication of his book.
In the last century highwaymen and footpads frequented
the suburbs, and roads which are now filled with tramcars
and omnibuses were then dark and dangerous.
The notorious James Dalton was taken prisoner at the
" Bull's Head," Tottenham Court Road, for stopping the
coach of Dr. Mead in Leather Lane, Holborn,in December,
1729, and robbing him. This man committed about fifty
robberies in and around London, and gave evidence against
Jonathan Wild and Blueskin, but at last he got his deserts,
and was hanged at Tyburn on May 12, 1730.
The " Rose of Normandy," tavern, gaming-house, and
bowling-green, was a very old place of entertainment joined
to the better known Marylebone Gardens. Long's bowling-
green at the " Rose " is mentioned in the *' London Gazette "
for January 11, 1691, as half a mile distant from London;
and in 1746 robberies were so frequent and thieves so
desperate that the proprietor of the gardens was obliged
to have a guard of soldiers to protedl the company to and
from London. Provision of the same kind had to be made
10
by other proprietors, as those of Belsize House, and many
other suburban pleasure gardens.
Knightsbridge, as one of the chief entrances to London,
was well supplied with inns. These places were many of
them favourite resorts by day, but at night they were
frequented by highwaymen, and an old MS. annotator of
Norden's " Speculum Britannix " suggests that " no good
man walk there too late unless he can make his party
good."
The site of the Great Northern Station at King's Cross
was formerly a lonely spot. Near the " Red Lion," Battle
Bridge, John Everett of St. Pancras, the highwayman,
stopped Mrs. Manly's chariot, for which crime he was
hanged at Tyburn on February 29, 1730, Robert Beech,
the landlord, bearing evidence against him. Kentish Town
was tolerably well supplied with inns, but they did not add
to the safety of travellers. Those who now pass these houses
in a yellow omnibus or tramcar will find it difficult to realize
the state of things represented by the following particulars :
Opposite the " Bull and Gate," Squire Greenwood was
robbed by W. Yates, H. Morris, and B. Fink, who, after
frightening the village, got off safely, but they were after-
wards taken and hanged at Tyburn in May, 1736, The
"Bull and Last " was kept by John Young, who was hanged
at Kennington, for the robbery of Thomas Swinton, in May,
1730.
The " Dun Cow " at Holloway was built in 1604, and
on an old view of the house which the writer saw some
years ago, was the following MS. note relating to one of the
II
notorious frequenters of the place : " In this house last year
the 2oth of Oftober I met a person whom I took for an honest
man ; his conversation was agreeable, and he was good-
looking. Since many times I have thought of my fortunate
escape, for he was no other than the notorious Turpin. A
little after he left me he stopped Lady Dolin's chariot,
and robbed her of ^12 and her watch and rings. This is
the last public inn in HoUoway. I find Turpin is staying
near Hackney. 8 May, 173 1."
The Ordinary of Newgate in 1720 describes a highway-
man who stopped the Earl of Harborough during broad day-
light in Piccadilly. One of the chairmen pulled out a pole
of the chair and knocked down one of the assailants, "while
the Earl came out, drew his sword, and put the rest to flight ;
but not before they had raised their wounded companion,
whom they took off with them." Nearly thirty years after
this outrage, in a principal thoroughfare of the town, Horace
Walpole was stopped in Hyde Park by highwaymen, one
being the notorious McLean. Walpole describes the
incident himself in his " Short Notes " : " One night in the
beginning of November, 1749, as I was returning from
Holland House by moonlight about ten at night, I was
attacked by two highwaymen [McLean and Plunket] in
Hyde Park, and the pistol of one of them [McLean]
going off accidentally razed the skin under my eye, left
some marks of shot on my face, and stunned me. The
ball went through the top of the chariot, and if I had sat
an inch nearer to the left side must have gone through my
head,"
12
^
Writing to Sir Horace Mann in the week after the
occurrence, Walpole says, " Pray don't be frightened ; the
danger, great as it was, was over before I had any notion
of it, and the event did not deserve mentioning. The rela-
tion [in the newspapers] is so near the truth that I need
not repeat it, and indeed the frequent repetition has been
much worse than the robbery."^
When it became too dangerous to stop travellers in these
parts the highwaymen retreated further afield, to such places
as Finchley Common and Hounslow Heath.
It was the former custom to measure the milestones in the
northern suburbs from Hicks's Hall, which was the popular
name of the old Sessions House at Clerken well. Thus Isling-
ton Green was described as one mile from Hicks's Hall.
In the southern suburbs the miles were counted from the
Standard, Cornhill. There was a water standard at the east
end of Cornhill as early as the second year of Henry V.'s
reign. At Camden Town there was a milestone giving the
information that it marked two miles from St. Giles's
Pound, which was situated at the junftion of Tottenham
Court Road, Oxford Street, and High Street, St. Giles's.
Even now we have diversities in the fixing of final points
of measurement — Charing Cross and the Post Office being
the favourite points. In the preface to the " Population
Returns of 1 8 3 1 " there is a plan of a circle of eight miles,
which shows the environs of that day such as Marylebone,
Paddington, Chelsea, St. Pancras, Bermondsey, Camberwell,
Brixton, etc.
' "Letters," ed. Cunningham, vol. ii., p. 185.
MAP OF THE ENVIRONS OF LONDON.
In order to give the reader some idea of the appearance
of the suburbs north of the Thames at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, the above map of what were then
environs has been enlarged from an old guide book of 1 8 1 5.
This is not very different (although on a larger scale)
14
T/te, rn^cmbers ftiitjs.l re^r do the^ P/ctffji
(Taken from " The Original Pidure of London," and dated 1815.)
from the eight-mile circle of 183 1 referred to on page 13.
Here Hoxton, Hackney and Clapton, Paddington, Belsize,
Kilburn, Camden Town, etc., are shown as situated in the
country. Some few of the places in Middlesex shown in
this plan, such as Kingsbury, are still in the country.
»5
NORTH-WESTERN SUBURBS
HAMPSTEAD and Highgate are now joined to the town,
but the hills on their south sides have saved them from
losing those distindive charadleristics which make them the pride
of the Londoner as unquestionably the most beautiful suburbs of
London.
For centuries Hampstead and Highgate stood apart on sister
hills, but gradually the town encroached nearer and nearer to
them. Highgate was approached from the east earlier than
Hampstead. The road to Hampstead from the south-west existed
at an early period, but it was for long very sparsely inhabited.
In the last century Tottenham Court Road was a country road
to the manor of Tothill, Totenhall, or Tottenham Court, with
a farm on the east side, and at times a fair was held in its
roadway. The manor house stood at the north-west corner of
the present road, and is now represented by the public house
known as the " Adam and Eve," in the Hampstead Road. It
was in front of the tea gardens attached to this place of entertain-
ment that Hogarth laid the scene of his famous picture, " The
March to Finchley," which so greatly offended George II.
In the middle of the century the " Mother Red Cap " and the
Chalk Farm Tavern were wayside inns surrounded by fields, and
it is only within the present century that much building has taken
place to the north of the New Road (now the Marylebone and
Euston Roads).
The public house in Albany Street, with the odd sign of the
" Queen's Head and Artichoke," at the time that Mrs. Smith (the
mother of J. T. Smith, the antiquary, author of " A Book for a
17
Rainy Day," etc.), took her morning walks from Rathbone Place,
was a little old tavern in a meadow, entered from the New Road
by a turnstile. The sign was a weather-beaten portrait of Queen
Elizabeth, and the report was that the house had been kept
originally by one of her Majesty's gardeners.
How greatly these north-western suburbs have grown within
the last thirty years or so is seen by the constant flow of yellow
omnibuses and tramcars that pass to all parts north of Camden
Town. Formerly the " Mother Red Cap " was the terminus, and
in the open space in front of it the omnibuses waited their turns
of departure. Now the routes have been extended in various
diretftions, and the front of the tavern has been rebuilt in order to
take in this open space.
In 1 729 " Galloway Races " were advertised to be run at Belsize
House for a ^^lo plate, and a few years later a handbill issued by
the proprietor informed the public that " twelve stout fellows
completely armed to patrole between Belsize and London" had
been engaged. When Belsize House became still more popular, it
was necessary to raise the patrol from " twelve stout fellows" to
thirty.
When Hampstead was a village quite unconneded with London,
except by the ordinary high road, it was a favourite place of residence
for many men of the greatest distindtion, such as the Chathams,
the Mansfields, and the Erskines. One cannot but admire the
courage of the men who were willing to encounter the dangers of
the unprotected roads in their outward and homeward journeys.
There are still among us those who when young travelled to and
fro by the Hampstead stage,
Highgate was earlier in complete communication with London
than Hampstead, and in 1363 we hear of a grant from
Edward III. to William Phelippe to the right of toll on the
highway between Highgate and Smithfield, which he had greatly
improved. At this time it was doubtless more convenient to
reach Hampstead by way of Highgate than by the more out-of-
the-way western road.
18
Highgate Hill is associated in popular belief with the adventure
of Dick Whittington, when he heard the bells ring out the words —
" Turn again, Whittington,
Thrice Lord Mayor of London-town ; "
but, in spite of the Whittington Stone, there is no early authority
for associating Whittington with Highgate. It is palpably absurd
to suppose that Whittington could have heard Bow Bells at that
great distance, and from the earliest known chapbook version of
his history it appears that the original hill where he is supposed
to have stopped when leaving the city was Bone-hill, now known
as Bunhill.
This is a good instance of how history grows out of vague
tradition, for not only is there a brand-new Whittington's Stone,
but also the Whittington's Almshouses in the Archway Road, to
give life to a theory which has no kind of foundation in fad:.
19
PLATE I
CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD
HAMPSTEAD is a place of great antiquity, having been
built upon at an early period owing to the outcrop of
Bagshot sands on the hill, which made it a habitable spot in the
midst of a wild of London clay. Apart, however, from its charms
of scenery, which are of no period, its great interest to the lover
of old-fashioned things is its strong eighteenth-century charader.
All around Hampstead are relics of the time when Londoners
visited the village for change of air, and to enjoy the fashionable
frivolities of the Well Walk in the morning and of the Assembly
Room in the evening. The houses where the visitors lodged are
still standing, but their former glory is departed. All these re-
miniscences of the past seem to be concentrated in Church Row.
It is not that so very many distinguished men and women lived
here, but that it was the chief promenade of Hampstead, where
most of the inhabitants were in the habit of meeting at some time
in the day.
It is these associations that have endeared the place to Londoners,
and the least imaginative cannot walk in this open space without
conjuring up before his mind's eye the pi(5hure of those who con-
gregated there when it was at the height of its vogue. The whole
appearance of the place is completely in harmony with these me-
mories. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that its threatened
destrudiion has been deplored by all. Some houses might be re-
built with judgment, and the general effecft might remain much the
same, but the ereftion of a series of high flats which dwarfed the
houses near would entirely spoil the old-world appearance. Un-
fortunately the work of destrudtion has already commenced, and
21
the houses at the beginning of the row on the right-hand side
looking towards the church have been pulled down.
The old church, as pictured in Park's " History of Hampstead,"
is a much more interesting building than the present one, but in
spite of the general ugliness of its exterior, the latter (which was
ereded in 1747) harmonizes well with the avenue that leads up
to it.
Mr. J. J. Park, the historian of Hampstead, who died in 1833,
lived in Church Row.
Mrs. Barbauld, the popular writer of children's books in con-
junftion with her brother, Dr. John Aikin, was a lifelong resident
of Hampstead. Her husband, the Rev. Rochmount Barbauld,
was minister of the Unitarian Chapel on Rosslyn Hill, who resided
in Church Row, and had pupils there. Mrs. Barbauld lived in
No. 9 (now No. 2) for a time after her husband's death, but sub-
sequently she went to Rosslyn Hill.
Her niece, Lucy Aikin, went to live next door (then No. 8,
Church Row) with her mother after the death of Dr. Aikin.
Other inhabitants were Miss Meteyard, the authoress, and Miss
Gillies, the artist. The well-known painter, J. R. Herbert, R.A.,
lived in Church Row before he removed to Elm Bank. The late
Mr. Edward Walford, the author of "Old and New London"
and " Greater London," also lived here for a considerable time.
22
ri.Ue I
PLATE II
FENTON HOUSE, HAMPSTEAD
THIS charming old house with its high-pitched roof is situated
in the Grove nearly opposite to Old Grove House and New
Grove House. In the latter house the late Mr. Du Maurier
resided for many years.
On the front of the house, over the doorway, was formerly a
clock face, which has been covered over, although its outline is still
to be seen. In the last century, the house was called after this —
" The Clock House."
At the back of the house there was a pond which was named
after the house. Clock House pond, and continued to be so called
until comparatively recent times.
On the authority of an old inhabitant it may be stated that
the pond was also known as Crockett's pond, and this gentleman
suggests that Crockett was probably the same man who gave his
name to Crockett's Court in the High Street, nearly opposite Flask
Walk, which he well remembers. The pond was filled up by
Mr. Wills (of Bristol), and a house and stabling were built on the
site in 1876.
At the beginning of the present century the Clock House was
inhabited by a Mr. Fenton, after whom it has since been named.
After Mr. Fenton, Mr. Hart Davis was the next resident, and he
was followed by Mr. Thomas Turner, the first Chairman of the
Hampstead Vestry.
25
(
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P/aU 1
PLATE III
JACK STRAW'S CASTLE, HAMPSTEAD
JACK STRAW'S CASTLE (Castle Hotel), situated on the
summit of Hampstead Heath (443 feet above the sea level),
has been a favourite place of resort for many years, but it does
not date back far into the last century. The house was built at
the beginning of the eighteenth century, but it was occupied as a
private residence for many years.
Little is recorded of the early history of the house, but we know
that when the Middlesex parliamentary eleftions were held at
Hampstead, before they were transferred to Brentford, the Castle
Tavern was the chief rendezvous for candidates and voters.
It has been suggested that Jack Straw's Castle was a place of
resort when a racecourse was established behind the house, but we
learn that before the middle of the eighteenth century the races
run here had fallen in public favour, and had been suppressed on
account of the evils attendant on these meetings. Now at that
time there is no doubt that the house was occupied as a private
residence.
It is a far cry from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth, and,
in spite of romancers, there are no very good reasons for conne<5ling
Wat Tyler's right-hand man either with Hampstead in general or
with this house in particular. Therefore it is as difficult to decide
on the origin of the name as it is to find any information respecting
its early history.
Washington Irving was one of the first to draw attention to the
charms of Jack Straw's Castle in his " Tales of a Traveller" (first
published in 1824).
29
Mr. Edward Walford quoted in his " Old and New London,"
from the " Cabinet of Curiosities," published by Limbird in 1822,
the following lines on the repair of the tavern :
"With best of food — of beer and wines,
Here may you pass a merry day ;
So shall mine host, while Phcebus shines,
Instead of straw make good his hay."
Dickens was a constant frequenter of the house, and on one
occasion, when asking his biographer, John Forster, to accompany
him for a brisk walk over Hampstead Heath, he wrote, " I know
a good house there where we can have a red-hot chop for dinner,
and a glass of good wine."
Everyone who knows Hampstead knows how splendid is the
situation of Jack Straw's Castle, and the views from the windows,
back and front, cannot well be forgotten by those who have once
seen them.
30
"M'-ix
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PLATE IV
THE GROVE, HIGHGATE
THE Grove is still one of the most charming positions in
Highgate, and it will ever be remembered for its associations
with the poet Coleridge.
The site was originally occupied by Dorchester House, the
mansion of the Marquis of Dorchester, the loyal adherent of
Charles I. During the Commonwealth it fell into decay, and was
bought by a woollen-draper in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, who
started a scheme for establishing a hospital for the education and
maintenance of about forty fatherless boys and girls, to be supported
by the voluntary subscriptions of ladies, and to be called the Ladies'
Hospital or Charity School. Blake was an interesting man, and
he published in furtherance of his scheme one of the most curious
little books ever printed, which was entitled, "Silver Drops, or
Serious Things." Blake lost his fortune; the ladies did not do
what was expedled of them, and the whole undertaking came to
naught.
Six houses in the Grove, and two at the side on West Hill,
appear to have been built as early as 1685, and one of the earliest
inhabitants was Sir Francis Pemberton, after whom the place was
first named Pemberton Row. It was also styled Quality Walk
before the modern name of the Grove was given to it.
The Grove has always been well let, but the residence of
Samuel Taylor Coleridge at No. 3 (in the drawing the third from
the right), the house of Mr. James Gillman, the surgeon, has quite
eclipsed the associations of other men with this row of red-brick
houses, and the mention of the Grove suggests Coleridge, as that
of Coleridge does the Grove.
33
During the eighteen years that Coleridge lived under the roof
of Mr. Gillman, tenderly cared for by that worthy man and his
amiable wife, Highgate became a shrine of genius, to which all the
intelledt of the country instindtively turned.
The memoirs of the time are full of allusions to the magic power
of exposition exercised by this marvellous man, but the most
touching of all is the record of the tender friendship between
Coleridge and Charles Lamb. Lamb was a constant visitor at the
Gillmans, and after Coleridge's death he wrote : " He was my fifty-
year-old friend without a dissension. Never saw I his likeness, nor
probably the world can see it again."
The grandson of Coleridge's Gillman (Mr. Alexander W.
Gillman) has published a most interesting book on " The Gillmans
of Highgate," in which there is much fresh matter respecfting
Coleridge.
34
riiiu 4
PLATE V
CROMWELL HOUSE, HIGHGATE
THIS fine old house appears to have been built at the beginning
of the seventeenth century by Richard Sprignell, who was
created a baronet in 1641, and it is probable that an old stone, once
the boundary of the garden, inscribed "a.d. 16 14," really fixes
the exaft date of the building. The Sprignell family were long
connected with Highgate, and names of members of it are found
in the registers after they had ceased to reside at this house.
It is not known how the house came into the possession of Oliver
Cromwell, but he is supposed to have presented it to his eldest
daughter,Bridget, on her marriage, January 15, 1646-47, with Henry
Ireton. As General Ireton was soon after appointed Lieutenant-
General and Governor-General of Ireland under the title of Lord
Deputy, and died at Limerick on November 26, 1651, he could
not have resided long at this house, although its internal decoration
bears evidence of his military tastes. The handsome staircase is
ornamented with carved figures of soldiers of the army of the
Commonwealth, and the balustrades are filled with devices emblem-
atical of a soldier's occupation.
A fire on January 3, 1865, destroyed the upper floors and the
ceiling of the drawing-room, on which the arms of Ireton were dis-
played. Ireton was an afting Governor of the Highgate Grammar
School, and his signature appears three times in the records. This
is good evidence of his residence, and there can be little doubt but
that this building should be called Ireton House rather than
Cromwell House. Curiously enough, a similar misnaming of a
house in Nottinghamshire is recorded.
37
The Iretons were a Derbyshire family, and held property at
Little Ireton, from which village they took their name. German
Ireton, the father of Henry and John, was living at Attenborough,
Notts, when his two sons were born. Henry was the future
general, and John became Lord Mayor of London and was knighted
by Cromwell.
A house now used as a farmhouse is either the original dwelling
of German Ireton modernized, or a later building on its site. It is
known among the villagers as Cromwell House, although there
is no evidence of Cromwell having had anything whatever to do
with it.
After General Ireton's death Major-General Harrison lived at
the Highgate house, and he was visited here by Ludlow after he
had fallen into disgrace with the Protedtor.
The turret covered with cement and crowned with a dome is a
modern addition, and replaces the old platform on the roof.
Early in the present century Cromwell House was occupied as
a boy's school. It is now the Convalescent Home in connexion
with that valuble institution, the Hospital for Sick Children in
Great Ormond Street.
38
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PLATE VI
LAUDERDALE HOUSE, HIGHGATE
LAUDERDALE HOUSE, which, after many vicissitudes,
is now the refreshment house of Waterlow Park, is said to
have been built about 1607, but Httle or nothing is known of its
early history. During the Commonwealth period Sir John Ireton,
brother of General Ireton, seems to have obtained possession of
the house out of the hands of the Lauderdale family. After the
Restoration the second Earl and first Duke of Lauderdale got it
back into his own possession, and on the 28th of July, 1666,
Samuel Pepys came up with Lord Brouncker to Highgate in a
coach and six to visit him.
There is little to interest us in the occupancy of Lauderdale,
who was one of the worst of the courtiers at a bad court. There is
a tradition connefted with Lauderdale House that it was here that
Nell Gwyn induced Charles II. to acknowledge her son, who
was afterwards Duke of St. Albans. There are two forms of the
story: one is that Nell called her son "bastard," and when the
king remonstrated with her, she said that he had no other name ;
whereat Charles created him Earl of Burford. The other version is
that Nell held her son out of one of the windows, and threatened
to let him fall unless the king gave him a title. Taken by sur-
prise, Charles cried out, " Save the Earl of Burford ! " There is
no record of Nell Gwyn's occupancy of this house, but it has been
suggested that the king borrowed it for her from Lauderdale when
the latter was in Scotland.
Of modern residents, Richard Bethell, afterwards Lord West-
bury and Lord Chancellor, was the most distinguished. A later
inhabitant was Mr. James Yates, F.R.S., who paid particular
41
attention to the grounds, and was in the habit of giving garden
parties which were well attended by the scientific and literary men
of his day.
The property came into the possession of Sir Sydney Waterlow,
who, after the death of Mr. Yates, devoted it to the use of St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, of which he was treasurer, as a con-
valescent home.
When Waterlow Park was formed by the munificence of Sir
Sydney, Lauderdale House was carefully and securely restored,
and devoted to the sale of refreshments for the frequenters of the
park.
42
I'l.itc 6
PLATE VII
HIGHGATE ARCHWAY
THE extreme steepness of Highgate Hill has always been a
terror to the coachman and a cause of great distress to his
horse, and various attempts were made in the last century to ease
this severe gradient. It was not, however, until the beginning of
the present century that, in order to make some improvement in
the roadway for the coaches travelling the great Northern Road,
the Archway Road was projedled.
It is worthy of note that the use of the word in this case was
not intended at first to express such an archway as that sub-
sequently erefted, but to denote the arch of a tunnel.
In 1809 a scheme was projedted by Robert Vazie for diverting
the road and forming a subterraneous arch or tunnel, 24 ft. wide,
18 ft. high, and 375 yds. long, through the body of the hill.
Some alterations in the plan were subsequently made under the
advice of the great engineer John Rennie, who recommended a
redudion in the length of the tunnel and the substitution of open
cuttings in certain places. A private aft was obtained in May,
1 8 10, 50 Geo. III., c. 88, incorporating the projedors of the
scheme as " The Highgate Archway Company," and authorizing
the direcflors to raise ^^ 40,000 by shares of ^^50 each, with an
additional sum of ^20,000 if necessary. The directors were em-
powered "to levy perpetual tolls, not exceeding sixpence for every
horse or other beast drawing a carriage ; not exceeding threepence
for every horse or mule not drawing a carriage ; not exceeding
twopence for every donkey, and not exceeding one penny for every
foot passenger."
The seal of the Company represented a cart drawn by twelve
45
horses going up a steep hill, and a cart drawn by six horses on the
level preparing to pass through the tunnel. The inscription was
" Highgate Archway Company, 1810. Sicut talpa sub terram
vivimus." The work was commenced, and the tunnel constructed
to the length of about 130 yards, when the whole fell in with a
tremendous crash. The causes of the failure were the treacherous-
ness of the London clay through which the tunnel was carried, and
the insufficiency of the brick lining.
The tunnel was now abandoned, and in accordance with the
plans and recommendations of the architeft, John Nash, an open
road in the line of the intended tunnel was formed. A further
a6t was obtained in 1 8 1 2, enabling the Company to raise more
capital to the extent of ^70,000.
The road was formally opened on August 21st, 18 13, but it
was exposed to the frequent and sudden influx of water, and all
attempts to form a firm roadway failed. In 1829 the works were
placed temporarily under the management of the Holyhead Road
Commissioners, when by an extensive system of drainage and by
laying the road metal in a thick bed of Roman cement, Telford,
with his assistant, Macneil, brought the road into an excellent
state.
The foundation stone of the Highgate Archway was laid on
Ocflober 2ist, x8i2. It was built of brick, faced with stone, and
surmounted by three semi-arches supporting a bridge, along which
the roadway of Hornsey Lane is continued.
The extension of the system of the North London Tramways
has necessitated a new archway, and the present one will be super-
seded by a bridge of brick and stone designed by the surveyor to
the Hornsey Local Board. The new ereftion will allow of a road
50 ft. wide instead of 1 6 ft. as at present.
The fall of the tunnel in 181 2 was made the subjecft of a play,
entitled " The Highgate Tunnel, or the Secret Arch," produced
at one of the London theatres, and it is said that the experience
gained from this failure was of service to Stephenson in construct-
ing his early railway tunnels through the London clay.
46
V<'
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/VrtA- 7
THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN SUBURBS
THE Londoner of the Middle Ages who looked out to the
North from the battlements at Cripplegate or Moorgate or
Aldersgate, saw several small villages dotted about in the open
country before him.
Nearest to him was Clerkenwell, which took its name from the
holy well where the clerks of London used to repair for the per-
formance of plays on scriptural subjefts. The village grew up
about the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, the site of which is still
marked by St. John's Gate.
Farther north was Islington, which continued to be a true village
even as late as the last century, when Londoners were in the
habit of visiting the place for change of air. The poet Cowley
wrote in his poem on "Solitude" of what was even to him " Monster
London" —
" Let but thy wicked men from out thcc go,
And all the fools that crowd thee so,
Even thou, who dost thy millions boast,
A village less than Islington will grow,
A solitude almost."
Later Addison wrote and fathered on Dryden a couplet in which
the far-offness of Islington is insisted on —
" Not only London echoes with thy fame.
But also Islington has heard the same."
Even in the first half of the present century Islington was still
a pleasant rural resort, and in the census of 1801 the number of
49
inhabitants in the district: including Holloway, Highbury, Canon-
bury, Barnsbury, Kingsland, Ball's Pond, etc., scarcely exceeded
ten thousand.
A little nearer to the walls, but farther to the east, was to be seen
Hoxton, a manor mentioned in Domesday.
The cause of this northern expansion of London is due to the
geological formation of the distrid:. The great expanse of London
clay is covered by gravel over the area of central London. This
formation also runs up to the north of the City, and made it possible
to build there in early times ; whereas in the North-Western dis-
tridts the clay comes to the surface, and it was therefore impossible
for a general settlement to take place until the Water Companies
came into existence, and then building operations commenced,
because the inhabitants of the new houses could be supplied with
water.
Up to the beginning of the present century there were few
buildings in the North- West between central London and Hamp-
stead and Highgate, where there was a local outcrop of Bagshot
sand.
The growth of the Eastern has been more continuous than that
of the Northern suburbs.
The road from Aldgate to Whitechapel and Mile End was long
the principal outlet from the City, and it naturally grew to be
thickly inhabited, more particularly as it is level ground and there
are no impediments in the way of hills.
Bow, however, long continued to be a rural suburb, but now the
huge distri<5l of West Ham has been joined to London, and a walk
eastward shows us an uninterrupted succession of houses and streets
as crowded as is the heart of the town.
It is somewhat startling, in illustration'of the difficulty of dealing
with " monster London," to find that West Ham, which joins Bow,
is outside the County of London, while Hampstead and part of
Highgate, which still retain many of their rural charaderistics, are
included in it.
SO
\
PLATE VIII
CANONBURY TOWER, ISLINGTON
THIS interesting relic is the only remaining portion of the
old manor house given to the Prior and Canons of St.
Bartholomew in Smithfield by Ralph de Berners. The date of gift
is not known, but the place is mentioned among the possessions of
the Priory in 1253.
The manor house was rebuilt by Prior Bolton in Henry VIII.'s
reign, and he marked it with his rebus — a bolt in a tun.
On the dissolution of the religious houses the place was granted
by Henry VIII. to Thomas, Lord Cromwell, but it reverted to the
King on Cromwell's attainder. Edward VI. exchanged it with
Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, and
when it again reverted to the Crown, Mary gave it to Thomas,
Lord Wentworth. Wentworth sold it in i 570 to Sir John Spencer,
whose daughter, Elizabeth, married William, Lord Compton, after-
wards Earl of Northampton. It has been said that the present
tower was built by Spencer, who came to reside at the manor in 1599.
A quaint old story tells about this marriage, that Sir John, one
of the richest of London's merchants, not only objedled to the match,
but entirely refused his consent. Lord Compton, however, out-
witted him by disguising himself as a baker, and, after delivering
the loaves in a large basket, carried off his bride in the same re-
ceptacle. Sir John meeting and not recognizing him, rewarded him
with sixpence for being so early ! However, when he learned the
truth, he was so angry that he disinherited his daughter. Queen
Elizabeth after an interval invited Sir John to stand sponsor with
her for a baby, and he even promised to adopt it, and found it to
be his own grandson.
51
Lord Compton was afterwards created Earl of Northampton,
and inherited through his wife Canonbury Tower and other great
estates at Islington.
Several distinguished persons have resided at the manor house
at different times. Lord Keeper Egerton was here in 1605, Bacon
in 16 1 6, when Attorney-General, and Lord Keeper Coventry in
1625.
In later times Canonbury Tower appears to have been let to
persons who wished to obtain change of air in a retired position
away from the town. Samuel Humphreys died here January 1 1,
1737, and Ephraim Chambers, theencyclopasdist, on May 15, 1740.
John Newbery, the publisher, rented the place for a time, and
Christopher Smart, the poet, was here under Newbery 's proteftion.
Oliver Goldsmith was also a lodger when the place was in the pos-
session of Newbery. A more important person in worldly position
who occasionally resided at Canonbury was the famous Speaker
Onslow. In the " London Chronicle" for May 12, 176 1, there is an
announcement that the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, late Speaker,
had gone to Canonbury House for a few days, for the benefit of
the air.
The Priory of St. Bartholomew's was supplied with water from
Canonbury, and there was an absurd tradition that a subterranean
communication existed between Canonbury and Smithfield.
During this century much very fine woodwork has been removed
from Canonbury Tower to decorate some of the rooms at Compton
Wynyates, the Marquis of Northampton's country mansion.
52
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PLATE IX
BRITISH ASYLUM FOR DEAF AND DUMB
FEMALES, LOWER CLAPTON
HACKNEY was of old one of the most important suburbs of
London, and was also a stronghold of the Nonconformists.
It was full of handsome old mansions of the well-to-do merchants
of a past age, but time has not dealt kindly with the place, and
though it has increased in population most of its more prosperous
residents have left it, and in many instances the larger houses have
been negleded or pulled down.
Clapton (both Upper and Lower) grew out of the prosperity of
Hackney, and one of the most famous of the inhabitants of this
suburb was John Howard, the philanthropist.
The house shown in this picflure is a fine specimen of domestic
architedture, well proportioned and in excellent taste, with a hand-
some iron entrance gate. It is situated on the west side of Clapton,
opposite to and between Pond Lane and the Orphan Asylum.
There are no special points of interest about the various persons
who have inhabited this old mansion. These were men of sub-
stance, but they have not connefted their names in any particular
way with the history of Clapton or of the county. One of them
is said to have made a fortune out of the sale of a certain descrip-
tion of domestic crockery, from which certain frivolous persons
attached a popular name to the house.
The position of the house is marked on Starling's map of
Hackney, 1731, with a field behind backing upon Back Lane.
As the house was probably built about 1700, it must in 1731
have been a fairly recent addition to the suburb. It contains a
handsome carved staircase.
55
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PLATE X
THE GREAT HOUSE, LEYTON
THIS is one of the handsomest houses in the neighbourhood
of London, and it must have been the work of some architeft
of repute. It is said to have been built for Sir Fraser Tench. It
is now, however, of too grandiose a character for its surroundings,
and as it is for sale it cannot be long before it disappears and is
replaced by rows of small houses. The back of this mansion is also
architedlural in design, although it is not so elegant as the front
shown in the drawing. The marble-paved entrance hall and centre
staircase are very fine and palatial, the latter indeed being one of
the most beautiful specimens of its period in existence, and the
paintings on the ceilings are said to be the work of Sir James
Thornhill.
The parish of Leyton, including the hamlet of Leytonstone in
the confines of Epping Forest, extends from Waithamstow on the
north to Stratford on the south. As some Roman remains have
been found in the neighbourhood, a claim was set up for it by
Camden as the Roman station Durolitum, but this opinion is not
confirmed by later writers, who suppose the Latin name to represent
Romford.
The manor of Leyton belonged to the Abbey of Stratford
Langthorne from about the year i 200 to the dissolution of the
religious houses. In 1545 it was granted to Lord Chancellor
Wriothesley, who sold it immediately, and it has since been often
transferred and a good deal subdivided.
The manor and reftory were bought in 1649 jointly by Captain
George Swanley, Bernard Ostler, and Robert Allot. David Gansel
bought Ostler's third portion, and became lord of the manor and
59
patron of the vicarage, which descended to his son, Major-
General William Gansel.
Mr. Gansel sold the manor house with paddock and some land
to John Strange, Solicitor-General, 1736, and Recorder of Lxjndon,
1739. Strange was knighted in 1740, and was subsequently
appointed Master of the Rolls. He improved the house by sundry
additions.
The famous John Strype, the ecclesiastical historian and con-
tinuator of Stow's "Survey of London," was vicar of Leyton for
many years.
60
Plate
PLATE XI
THE ANGEL INN, WEST HAM
THE parish of West Ham is very extensive, and includes four
wards, viz., Church Street, Stratford Langthorne, Plaistow,
and Upton. It was populous in the time of Morant, the historian
of Essex (1768), and he describes the place as "the residence of
several considerable merchants, dealers and industrious artists."
It is greatly changed since then, and although a few interesting
houses still remain, the place has lost whatever attradtions it may
once have possessed. West Ham is now a borough, and has
become the home of manufactures which have been driven away
from London itself.
This view shows the village street of West Ham with the church
tower in the distance. The church is dedicated to All Saints, and
was given to the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne by Gilbert de
Montfichet, son of the founder. It is a large building, and although
it has been badly repaired at times, it contains some interesting
features. I n the restoration of 1 866 a transition Norman clerestory
was discovered. The church contains several interesting monu-
ments.
A little nearer to the front of the pidlure is the curious old
village inn, the "Angel," and on the opposite side of the street
are shown some solidly-built and handsome houses.
In the foreground of the pidure, where the spedlator may be
supposed to stand, there was, some thirty years ago, an old-
fashioned house where Thomas Carpenter, the author of the once-
famous Spelling Book, lived in the forties. At the back of the
house was a large garden, from which there was an uninterrupted
view of the house in Upton Lane where Mrs. Elizabeth Fry lived
63
for many years. Ham House and park, where Samuel Gurney
lived, was purchased for ^T 2 5,000 and vested in the Corporation of
London for the use of the public. Of this amount the Gurney
family contributed ^^ 10,000 and the Corporation the same amount.
The remaining ;^ 5,000 was collefted from the inhabitants of West
Ham.
West Ham Park was formally opened for public use by the
Lord Mayor on the 20th of July, 1874.
64
Plate 1 1
^'^(^L
^^^, ji-.
PLATE XII
HIGH STREET, BOW
THE village of Stratford-le-Bow is described in the "Beauties
of England and Wales" (1816) as situated two miles from
London. The name originated early in the twelfth century, when
Queen Matilda caused the Roman road from Colchester to be
diverted from Old Ford to this place, and built an arched bridge
here. The designation " atte bowe " was added to the name
Stratford on account of the form of the bridge. Further east is
another Stratford, which for distinction's sake was styled Stratford
Langthorne. Now " Stratford atte bowe " has come to be called
Bow, and the other Stratford has lost its distinguishing title of
Langthorne. Leland describes what happened in the following
passage :
" Matilda, wife of Henry I., having herself been well washed
in the water, caused two bridges to be builded in a place one mile
distant from the Old Ford, of the which one was situated over
Lee at the head of the town of Stratford now called Bowe, because
the bridge was arched like unto a bowe, a rare piece of work, for
before that time the like had never been seen in England. The
other over the little brooke, commonly called Chanelse Bridge."
The church was built as a chapel of ease to Stepney early in the
fourteenth century, and was founded by Edward IV. on a piece of
ground that was " part of the king's highway." It is this which
gives the old church such a picturesque effedl, standing as it does
in the middle of the road, and every lover of the antiquities of
London must be pleased that the efforts to save this old landmark
from destruction have been successful.
The church was consecrated as the parish church of Bow on the
67
26th of March, 17 19. Of late years it has been allowed to fall
into a rather dilapidated state, but it is now being restored.
This view gives an excellent idea of the old church, with the road
and interesting old houses on the north side looking London-
wards,
68
Plate 12
PLATE XIII
GROVE HALL LUNATIC ASYLUM, BOW
THE visitor to this interesting old house has a surprise in store
for him. He passes out of the Bow Road into Fairfield
Road, and, after walking by some small suburban houses, he comes
to a high wall on the right-hand side of the road. He rings the
bell and is admitted at the gate. He then sees a large lawn and
garden with shady trees, and in the far distance the imposing out-
line of Grove Hall.
When he comes up to the front, he finds a handsome specimen
of a late seventeenth-century house, whose wings have been added
in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.
On entering the house he comes into a hall which fills the whole
depth of the building, and he finds that the original front was that
which is seen in the drawing and looks upon the river Lea. This
front is certainly superior to the other in architectural efFedl.
Within there is a fine old wooden staircase, but this has been
placed at the side of the house, and is not made a feature of the
interior.
There is much good oak carving and handsome mantelpieces in
the different rooms, but the oak has been thickly painted over and
grained in imitation of oak. The oak panelling has also been spoiled
by having wall-paper pasted over it.
This is a fine specimen of a merchant's mansion, when Bow was
a highly appreciated residential neighbourhood.
71
I
J
Plait 13
PLATE XIV
HOME FOR AGED JEWS, STEPNEY GREEN
STEPNEY was originally the mother-parish of the whole of
what is now called " East London," and included Stratford-
le-Bow, Whitechapel, Shadwell, Mile End, Poplar, Blackwall,
Spitalfields, Ratcliff, Limehouse, and Bethnal Green, some of which
places with others now form the Tower Hamlets.
The manor was originally held by the Bishops of London, who
had a residence here called Bishop's Hall, but this was alienated by
Bishop Ridley, and now the Bishops of London have no residence
either in the City of London or in the East End.
In Domesday the manor is styled Stibenhede. The name has
also been written as Stevenhethe, Stebenhethe and Stebenhythe, and
probably means St. Stephen's haven.
This place suffered very severely from the great Plague in 1665,
and Lord Clarendon, referring to the difficulty of obtaining seamen
in the following year, wrote, "Stepney and the places adjacent,
which were their common habitations, were almost depopulated."
There is a Synagogue and Jews' burial-ground at Stepney, and
this fine old house at 37 and 39, Stepney Green, with its wrought-
iron gate and railing, is occupied as a Home for aged Jews.
75
I
I
I'lalc 14
THE WESTERN SUBURBS
THE Western Suburbs of London are those which are
specially rich in associations of a literary and historical
charaefter.
The town naturally grew along the course of the river, partly
because the gravel followed this course, and partly because the
river itself was the great silent highway which joined the villages
on its banks with the City. It was thus easy and convenient for
the Londoner to reach Chelsea and Fulham, and Hammersmith
and Chiswick, by boat.
When London was confined to the City proper, the citizens
were naturally more inclined to settle in the suburbs in the north
and in the east, which were situated nearer to their doors.
The great western road along the Strand of the river was at
first occupied by the mansions of bishops and great nobles who
wished to take advantage of the river, and to be between the City
on the one side, and the Parliament house and the King's palace at
Westminster on the other. When the West End had grown to a
considerable size, those who wished to go further afield for pure
air, sought the seclusion of the pretty villages by the river-side.
Chelsea is mentioned in Domesday, and a John de Chelse is
entered in the City books in 1283. Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, who fought at Crecy and Poitiers, lived at Chelsea, and
his will was dated from here in 1369, and William, Marquis of
Berkeley, who died in 1491, left his house at Chelsea to John
Whiting and his heirs. The most famous resident of Chelsea
was Sir Thomas More, whose house was on the site of what is
now Beaufort Row.
79
The manor was alienated in 1536 to Henry VIII., from whom
it passed to Katharine Parr as part of her marriage jointure. It
subsequently passed through many hands till it was bought by
Sir Hans Sloane from William, Lord Cheyne, in 171 2. Charles,
second Lord Cadogan, married Sir Hans Sloane's daughter, and
thus obtained the manor, which has remained in his family to the
present time.
Fulham is also mentioned in Domesday, and the manor house
has been occupied by the Bishops of London. The entrance
to this is by an arched gateway which leads into the great
quadrangle. It was built in the reign of Henry VII. by Bishop
Fitzjames, whose arms are on the wall and over the gateway.
Kensington is registered in Domesday, but it did not become a
popular place of residence till the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
Hammersmith began to be a summer retreat for the nobility
and wealthy citizens in the seventeenth century. The most
pleasant part of Hammersmith is the Mall, and from this we pass
on to Chiswick Mall, which, although much altered, retains
still many of its old charadleristics. Several of the fine houses
have been pulled down. One of these was Chiswick Hall
(formerly College House), which was a country residence of the
masters of Westminster School and a retreat for the scholars in
visitations of plague and sickness. It was situated a little to the
east of the " Red Lion." Dr. Busby resided here with some of
his scholars in 1657, "on account of the hot and sickly season of
the year;" and again in 1665, when the plague made a desert of
London and its vicinity, the great schoolmaster and his scholars
fled from Westminster to Chiswick. The house was occupied in
the present century by Mr. Charles Whittingham, who established
here the Chiswick Press.
Of all the western suburbs Chiswick has kept its rural charadler
longest, and even now there still remains much to conned it with
the past.
80
PLATE XV
No. 4, CHEYNE WALK, CHELSEA
THIS terrace of houses by the river-side, with its red-brick
buildings and row of trees in front, is a veritable relic of the
Queen Anne period. It has always been a favourite resort of
artists, and the story of Turner's sojourn during the last days of
his life at the small house (No. 119) is too well known to be
repeated here.
Cheyne Walk (as also Cheyne Row, the residence of Carlyle for
nearly fifty years) is named after Charles, Lord Cheyne, lord of
the manor of Chelsea, who died in 1698. The name is always
pronounced as a dissyllable, and in some old writings is spelt —
Cheyney.
The original embankment of the river was completed about the
end of the seventeenth century, and Faulkner, the historian of
Chelsea and other western suburbs, says that the manorial records
show how the keeping of it in repair and good order was a con-
stant subjedt of vexatious dispute between the lord of the manor
and the tenants. The present Chelsea embankment, which has
done so much to improve Chelsea, was opened in 1874. The
ornamental gardens were formed on the space gained from the
muddy foreshore of the river.
The old house shown in the picture was the residence of the
great painter, Daniel Maclise, R.A., and here he died on April 1 5th,
1870. After him the well-known Oriental scholar and numis-
matist, W. S. W. Vaux, Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society,
lived here for a time. Mr. Vaux subsequently resided at the
Society's house in Albemarle Street, and No. 4 was taken by
Mr. John Walter Cross, who married the great novelist, " George
81
Eliot," on May 6th, 1880, but Mrs. Cross's residence in this house J
was short, for on December 22nd of the same year she died here, ^
and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
The Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, in his" Village of Palaces," records
a peculiarity in this house. There is a shoot or opening from the
top of the house to the basement, and Mr. Vaux surmised that it
was intended for throwing down stolen goods in case of surprise, as
such shoots have been found in houses where highwaymen and
other thieves have resided.
82
I
Plate I :
PLATE XVI
QUEEN'S HOUSE, No. i6, CHEYNE WALK
THIS very fine house was previously called Tudor House, there
being a legend that it had been lived in by the Princess
Elizabeth Tudor, but this can hardly have been founded on fa6t.
Henry VIII. built a large mansion which stood on Cheyne Walk,
and extended from Winchester House on the west to Don Saltero's
Coffee House on the east ; the latter building is said to have been
No. 1 8, so that it is quite possible that Tudor House may have
been built on part of the gardens of the king's mansion, and, also
that the very fine mulberry tree which stood in its garden may
have been the same which Elizabeth is said to have planted. In
the king's building Queen Anne of Cleves died, and it has been
suggested that the present name is due to this incident. The
present building is probably not much older than the reign of
Charles II., and his queen, Catherine of Braganza, is said to have
resided in it. It has also been understood to be the house which
Thackeray describes as the residence of the old Countess of Chelsea
in " Esmond."
But it was during its occupation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
from 1862 that Queen's House reached the great point in its
history. Few houses in London have had gathered together
within their walls such a group of artistic talent as this one. Mr.
George Meredith, Mr. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Mr. W. M.
Rossetti, and Mr. Frederick Sandys lived in it for a time with
Rossetti. Himself a king amongst men, a pioneer and leader in
painting and poetry, he gathered a most brilliant company round
his table, men who excelled in many walks of life, and the meetings,
although not to be described exaftly as Bohemian, were marked by
85
the most genial conviviality. At the back of the house was a great
garden (now much curtailed), overlooked by his studio, which gave
suggestions for the charming vistas seen in mirrors in the back-
ground of his pidtures. In this garden was at times eredted a
great tent, sometimes used as a dining chamber, sometimes as a
place to adjourn to after dinner to spend the summer evenings.
At other times, one has a pidture of Rossetti curled up on a great
sofa in the splendid drawing-room overlooking the river, whilst
G. A. Sala spun yarns, and gathered round would be Ford Madox
Brown, William Morris, Burne-Jones, and Mr. Whistler; Mr.
Philip Webb and Jekyll the architects ; J. E. Boehm, then prince
of sculptors ; Mr. Stillman, and Mr. Val Prinsep, and his father-
in-law, F. R. Leyland, merchant-prince and patron of them all ;
whilst over them presided a brilliant and sympathetic mind draw-
ing the best from each.
Such is an inadequate account of the picture Dr. Whistler has
described to me of his frequent personal experiences of the life
in Queen's House before Rossetti's health broke down.
After his death in 1882 the house was tenanted for some years
by the Rev. H. R. Haweis, who put the small flying Mercury on
the top.
T. R. W.
86
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PLATE XVII
BELFIELD HOUSE, PARSON'S GREEN
PARSON'S GREEN takes its name from the reftory house of
the parish of Fulham, which once stood on the west side of
the green, and was pulled down about the year 1740. Formerly
a fair was held annually on August 17th in the open space. This,
Faulkner tells us, was held from time immemorial.
One of the most distinguished residents on Parson's Green was
Sir Thomas Bodley, the founder of the Bodleian Library ; another
was that erratic genius, the great Earl of Peterborough, who lived
at Peterborough House, the most important mansion on the green.
But a greater than these two great men is believed to have lived
in the house represented in this pidture — and that was Francis
Bacon. Lysons wrote: " When the great Lord Chancellor Bacon
fell into disgrace, and was restrained from coming within the verge
of the court, he procured a licence, dated September 13th, 1 621, to
retire for six weeks to the house of his friend. Lord Chief Justice
Vaughan, at Parson's Green." Faulkner, commenting upon this,
wrote : " This could not be the Sir John Vaughan who was Lord
Chief Justice in 1661. We know of no other who was Lord
Chief Justice. In the parish books the person to whose house
Lord Bacon retired is called ' The Lord Vaughan,' who probably
resided in the house now (18 13) occupied by Mr. Maxwell as a
boarding school, and called Albion House, a spacious mansion
built in that style of architefture which prevailed at the commence-
ment of the reign of James 1."
Belfield House was formerly known as Albion House, and it is
an excellent specimen of a good seventeenth-century mansion. It
has been put into a state of good repair by the present proprietor,
89
Mr. Theodore Roussell, who has disinterred from countless coats
of paint a splendid oak staircase and much delightful carved wood-
work through the house.
Local tradition reports that Belfield House was inhabited by
Mrs. Fitzherbert and also by Mrs. Jordan, but there is probably
some mistake here, for Mrs. Fitzherbert is known to have lived in
the first house on the east side of Parson's Green, which was built
by Sir Francis Child, Lord Mayor of London in 1699, and was
known as East End House.
Samuel Richardson lived at Parson's Green when he removed
from North End in 1755, and here he died on July 4th, 1761.
His house was formerly the residence of Sir Edward Saunders,
Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1682.
90
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PLATE XVIII
Nos. II AND 12, KENSINGTON SQUARE
KENSINGTON was a suburb which early became a favourite
among men of taste. In the Domesday Survey the manor
of Kensington is described as having been in the possession of one
Edwin. Soon afterwards it belonged to Albericus de Ver, who
held it under the Bishop of Coutances. In course of time the De
Veres managed to turn their property into freehold. One of the
De Veres being under obligations to the Abbot of Abingdon,
obtained permission of his father and the next heir to cut off a
part of the manor as a gift to the Abbots of Abingdon. All this is
recorded in such names as Earl's Court and St. Mary Abbots.
Sir Walter Cope purchased the manor of St. Mary Abbots,
and was one of the earliest residents of importance in Kensington.
It was, however, William III. who brought the place into fashion
when he purchased Nottingham House in 1689. Kensington
Square (first called King's Square), however, was commenced before
this time, and the south side was called King's Parade. Mr. Loftie
says that there is an old tradition how King Street and James Street
were named after James II., and Charles Street after Charles
Harmston, the son of the carpenter who built it, and not after
Charles II.
Thomas Young, who gave his name to Young Street, built a
large part of the square. (He died in 17 13.)
In George II. 's reign Kensington Square was at the height of
its popularity, and it was then difficult to obtain houses or apart-
ments. It is said that an ambassador, a bishop, and a physician
were found at one time in the same house. It was here that Colonel
Esmond entertained the Old Pretender. Thackeray's presence, in
93
fad, pervades the whole place. The whole aspeft of the houses tells
us of a time which the great novelist had made entirely his own. In
Young Street, Thackeray lived from i 847 to 1 853. His house, No.
13 (now 16), with its bow windows, looks into the square, and seems
almost a part of it. Here he wrote " Vanity Fair," " Pendennis,"
" Esmond," and portions of the " The Newcomes."
The square is full of old-world houses, but the two in the pidture,
which are situated in the south-west corner, are of special interest.
The left-hand one has a handsome canopy over the door, and probably
the right-hand house had a similar one, which was taken away in the
early part of this century, when a debased taste prevailed.
94
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PLATE XIX
HOLLAND HOUSE, KENSINGTON
HOLLAND HOUSE is by far the most interesting old
mansion in the immediate neighbourhood of London, not
only because it is a charming specimen of a style of building of
which very few examples remain to us, but also on account of the
endless series of historical and literary associations connedted with
it. Macaulay wrote that its "turrets and gardens are associated
with so much that is interesting and noble," and that it " was the
favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of
scholars, philosophers, and statesmen." He prophesied that its
site would be covered by streets, and he lived almost within the
shadow of the house. We may, therefore, be grateful that it still
stands, and we may fervently hope that it may stand for many
years.
The house was built in 1607 by Sir Walter Cope, Gentleman of
the Bedchamber to James I., and one of the Chamberlains of the
Exchequer. It is said to be the work of John Thorpe, the famous
archite6t, of whom so little is known, and it was known originally
as Cope Castle.
Cope's daughter, Isabel, married Henry Rich, created Baron
Kensington and Earl of Holland, who came into possession of the
house and named it after his title. He built the wings and
arcades in 1622-24, ^"^ in 1649 he was beheaded.
During the Civil Wars the Parliament men got hold of the place,
but Lady Holland managed to obtain possession of her house again,
and she set to work at once to build a new wall. An inscription
on a stone to this efFedl — " This side done by y" La. Holland
A.D. 1654" — was discovered in the year 1806 and was placed on
91
the wall of the arcade. Plays were adted here in the later years of the
Commonwealth, and Cavaliers and others were invited to see them.
The widow of Edward Rich, third Earl of Holland and sixth
Earl of Warwick, married Addison in 1716, and for three years
the essayist was a resident at Holland House. His enemies said
that the tedium of his walks in the long library were relieved by
reason of a glass of brandy and water being provided for him at
each end of the room.
William Edwardes (after whom Edwardes Square was named),
who was created Lord Kensington in 1776, sold the house to the
statesman Henry Fox, who took the title of Holland from the
name of his mansion.
In his day, and more particularly in that of his grandson, Henry
Richard, Lord Holland, Holland House was the resort of one of
the most brilliant circles that has ever been gathered together in
one house. From 1799 to 1840 Holland House was at the
height of its brilliancy. In the latter year the third Lord Holland
died, and just before his death he wrote those lines which were
inscribed upon his statue :
"Nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey,
Sufficient for my fame,
If those who knew me best shall say
I tarnished neither name."
It has been said that there was hardly a distinguished man in
politics, science, or literature, who had not been a guest at
Holland House. The names of Macaulay and Sydney Smith,
Luttrell and Moore, Lord Brougham and Sir James Mackintosh,
Talleyrand and Madame de Stael will occur to everyone as those
of the most constant visitors to the house of the genial lord and
the caustic and clever lady who scattered " Kensington nettles "
around her.
Lady Holland, widow of Henry Edward, fourth and last lord,
who died at Naples in 1859, ^°^^ '■^^ reversion of the property to
the Earl of Ilchester, who now owns it, and by whose kind
permission the drawing for the frontispiece to this volume was
made.
98
PLATE XX
THE RED COW, HAMMERSMITH
THIS was a wayside inn that recalled to us the charms of a
former day, when the Hammersmith Road was a pleasant
suburban thoroughfare. Now that it has become a thronged high-
way, it is futile to regret that a relic of a day when there was some
poetry in life should be replaced by a building respedting which
the less that is said the better.
Mr. Way has brought the old inn before us as it appeared
yesterday, for he has introduced into his pidture a young lady on
a bicycle. To-day, the Hammersmith Road is a great hunting-
ground for the cyclist, who has added a new terror to life for the
middle-aged and the old.
Tradition reports that the " Red Cow " is the oldest licensed
house in the neighbourhood of London, but for the truth of this
tradition it is not perhaps safe to vouch.
It is also said to have been the first stage in the coaching journeys
westwards, the place where the smart teams which had started out
from London were replaced by the less showy teams which did
the greater part of the work.
99
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i
PLATE XXI
KELMSCOTT HOUSE AND "THE DOVES,"
UPPER MALL, HAMMERSMITH
THE roadway along the river front at Hammersmith has been
known for some centuries as the Upper and Lower Malls.
Many fine mansions have stood there in the past, and not a few
still remain.
The very charming view of the river and delightful air seem
always to have been an attradlion. The two Malls are divided by
a small but navigable stream, which at one time ran for a con-
siderable distance inland, and a group of very mean cottages known
as " Little Wapping," occupied in the past by fishermen.
*' The Doves " public-house stands at about the west end of
this dividing group ; it is shown on the right of the drawing.
There are some historical interests attaching to it besides its present
boating associations. Faulkner, in his " History of Hammer-
smith," says, " In a room in the Dove Coffee House, situated
facing the water- side between the two Malls, Thomson wrote
part of his 'Winter.' He was in the habit of frequenting this
house during the winter, when the Thames was frozen and the
surrounding country covered with snow." Just beyond "The
Doves " was a little cottage used by the Duke of Sussex as a
" smoking-box."
On the Upper Mall, very near to the site of Kelmscott House,
stood what seems to have been from the old description a very
fine mansion, in which Queen Catherine, dowager of Charles II.,
lived for some years. During her residence the frontage of the
Mall was carried out into the river in the form of a bastion, and
planted with elms, doubtless the trees still standing, which are
magnificent specimens. Later on, during the reign of Queen Anne,
103
Dr. RadclifFe bought the Queen's house — a very famous man in
his day both for his wit and his prescriptions.
' Kelmscott House is a Georgian building with a very plain front,
relieved by a handsome doorway. The back has rather more
architeflural features, with a very large bay overlooking an immense
garden. In 1 8 16 Sir Francis Ronalds, the distinguished eledtrician,
came to live there, and made many experiments in telegraphy ;
indeed, he construded what was doubtless the first eledric telegraph,
some eight miles in length, supported on poles in the garden,
through which he sent messages very much on the same principles
as those now in use. He was knighted in 1870, "in acknowledg-
ment of his remarkable labours in telegraphic investigation," at
the age of eighty -two !
Dr. George Macdonald is said to have also lived here.
William Morris, who took it some time towards the end of the
seventies, has, however, given the greatest interest to it. It was
he who gave it the name of Kelmscott House, after his country
home, Kelmscott Manor, near Lechlade. Here this indefatig-
able worker and mighty genius perfected his lifework, and
must have rejoiced to see the amazing growth of his influence,
the extraordinary power which the principles he had taught so
long were showing. The results of the revolution in arts of
every kind which he led is even now not easy to realize, for
his influence over men was very great, and where he has shown
the way an army of younger men are carrying on the tradition.
In a beautiful old house close adjoining and opposite " The Doves,"
he established the Kelmscott Press, and taught how books should
be decorated by printing a miost superb series of volumes. A
great poet, a great artist, and an incomparable decorator, he died
at Kelmscott House, Odober 3rd, 1896, one of the leading spirits
of the century,
T. R. W.
104
l^^tf*^
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PLATE XXII
WALPOLE HOUSE, CHISWICK MALL
HAMMERSMITH and Chiswick Malls form together one
of the most beautiful of walks along the banks of the river.
The walk is well supplied with handsome trees, and in its prime
was well inhabited. A few years ago it fell on evil times, and
some of the houses decayed and others were taken down. Lately,
however, there has been a revival, and the place is now rated at its
true value.
This picture shows Walpole House, which is situated opposite
to Chiswick Eyot. The building is very handsome and very quaint,
and the fine old doorway is worthy of special notice.
Walpole House takes its name from several members of the
great family of Walpole who originally lived in it, but it was not
at any time the residence of Horace Walpole, as might be supposed
by the name of Strawberry Hill attached to the next house.
Some of the Walpoles were buried in Chiswick Church, and
have had monuments ereded to their memory there.
Like so many of these houses, it has been occupied as a school,
and it has had a distinguished resident in Daniel O'Connell, who
lived here while he was reading for the bar.
Mr. Edward Walford supposes that Barbara, Duchess of Cleve-
land, who died on Odober 9th, 1709, and was buried in the
chancel of Chiswick Church, lived at Walpole House.
107
Plate 22
PLATE XXIII
BURLINGTON ARMS, CHISWICK
THIS view of the village street of Chiswick shows the pidlu-
resque old lath-and-plaster building occupied by the Burling-
ton Arms. In conne<5tion with the name, it will be remembered that
the original Chiswick. House belonging to the Earl of Somerset was
purchased by the Earl of Burlington at the end of the seventeenth
century, and was rebuilt (1730-36) by the architeft earl, who was
pelted with epigrams on the contrast between its inconvenient interior
and elegant exterior.
In the distance is seen the " Lamb " tap.
Although Chiswick has been greatly altered of late years, it still
retains some flavour of its rural charafter, and there are several
" bits " of interest to be seen, such as Chiswick Square, which is a
very quaint place.
On the west side of Chiswick Lane is a row of five red-brick
houses, now called Mawson's Row (formerly Mawson's Buildings),
which is interesting in itself, but has the added interest of having
been for a short time the residence of the poet Pope. Pope's father
died here in 1717, and was buried in Chiswick churchyard. In the
British Museum are portions of the original drafts of the translation
of the "Iliad," written on the backs of letters addressed "To Mr.
Pope, at his house in y" New Buildings, Chiswick."
1 1 1
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PLATE XXIV
HOGARTH'S HOUSE, CHISWICK
THE connexion of Hogarth with Chiswick continued for
several years, and when he died on Ocftober 25th, 1764, his
body was buried in Chiswick churchyard, where the marble tomb
ereded in 1771 is a prominent objeft. On the tomb is inscribed
Garrick's well-known lines, which were reduced from five stanzas
under the advice of Dr. Johnson :
" Farewell, great painter of mankind!
Who reach'd the noblest point of art;
Whose piftured morals charm the eye,
And through the eye correft the heart r
"If genius fire thee, reader, stay;
If nature touch thee, drop a tear;
If neither move thee, turn away.
For Hogarth's honoured dust lies here."
The first four lines are infinitely superior to the last four.
Johnson was very severe in his criticism on Garrick's original
verses, but he specially praised "piftured morals" as a beautiful
expression. The revised version follows Johnson's form, for the
dodlor wrote : " Suppose you worked upon something like this :
" ' The hand of art here torpid lies
That traced the essential form of grace;
Here death has closed the curious eyes
That saw the manners in the face.
"'If genius warm thee, reader, stay;
If merit touch thee, shed a tear;
Be vice and dulness far away!
Great Hogarth's honoured dust is here.'"
This old-fashioned red-brick house in Hogarth Lane was used
as a summer residence by Hogarth from the year 1748. It is
said that it was previously the residence of his father-in-law. Sir
James Thornhill.
The principal room on the first floor has a projecting bow
window of three lights, which the late Mr, Tom Taylor believed
was added by Hogarth. His painting-room, however, was over
the stable at the end of the garden.
Hogarth had many pets, and tablets to the memory of his birds
and dogs were let into the garden wall, but they have now
disappeared. Of his habits at Chiswick Tom Taylor wrote in his
little book on " Leicester Square " (1874) : " Besides his favourite
amusement of riding, he used to occupy himself in painting and
superintending the engravers whom he often had down from
London, and to his Chiswick cottage he now came after his bitter
bout with Wilkes and Churchill, bringing some plates for
retouching. He was cheerful but weak, and must have felt the
end was not far off, when in February, 1764, he put the last
touches to his ' Bathos.' "
On Oftober 25th he travelled from Chiswick to Leicester-
fields, and arrived there in a very weak condition. In the same
night he died, after two hours' struggle. His widow continued to
live in the Chiswick house till her death in 1789.
The house with its large garden and high wall still remains,
and is in the occupation of a gardener, but it is hemmed in by
small houses, and is very different in appearance from what it
must have been when Hogarth inhabited it.
A later resident was the Rev. H. F. Cary, the translator of
Dante.
V
116
Plate 24
CHISWICK I'RESS :— CHARLES WHITTINGHAM ANO CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANXERY LANE, LONDON.
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