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A 

MAPOFTH 
SKIRTS  OF 
THEGRFJtf 

C  ITY 


THE    SKIRTS    OF   THE 
GREAT   CITY 


THE    SKIRTS   OF 
THE    GREAT    CITY 


BY 

MRS.    ARTHUR    G. 


WITH  SIXTEEN   ILLUSTRATIONS   IN  COLOUR  BY 

ARTHUR    G.    BELL 

AMD  SEVENTEEN  OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS 


SECOND  EDITION 


METHUEN  &  CO. 

36  ESSEX   STREET  W.C. 

LONDON 


First  Published    .     .     August  i -907 
Second  Edition     .     .  igo8 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS  .  .  I 

II.   HIGHGATE,   HORNSEY,   HENDON,   AND   HARROW     .  25 

III.  SOME  INTERESTING  VILLAGES  NORTH  OF  LONDON, 

WITH  WALTHAM   ABBEY  AND   EPPING   FOREST  49 

IV.  HAINAULT      FOREST,      WOOLWICH,      AND      OTHER 

EASTERN  SUBURBS   OF  LONDON  .  .          72 

V.   GREENWICH        AND        OTHER       SOUTH  -  EASTERN 

SUBURBS  OF  LONDON       .  .  .  IOO 

VI.   OUTLYING  LONDON   IN   NORTH-EAST  SURREY         .        131 

VII.   CROYDON,     CARSHALTON,      EPSOM,      AND      OTHER 

SUBURBS  IN  NORTH-WEST  SURREY        .  .        148 

VIII.   WANDSWORTH,     PUTNEY,     BARNES,     AND     OTHER 

SOUTHERN  SUBURBS         .  .  .  .172 

IX.  WIMBLEDON,     MERTON,      MITCHAM,     AND      THEIR 

MEMORIES  .....        197 


vl    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


CHAP. 


PAGE 


X.   RIVERSIDE    SURVEY   FROM    MORTLAKE   TO    RICH- 
MOND         ....  .218 

XL  RICHMOND  TOWN  AND  PARK,  WITH  PETERSHAM, 

HAM  HOUSE,  AND   KINGSTON       .  .  .        244 

XII.  RIVERSIDE       MIDDLESEX       FROM       FULHAM       TO 

HAMPTON  COURT  .  .  .  .268 

INDEX  .......       3°7 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

IN  COLOUR 

HAMPTON  COURT  PALACE         .  .  .        Frontispiece 

CHURCH   ROW,   HAMPSTEAD        .  .  To  face  page     21 

A  BIT  OF  OLD  HIGHGATE                                                         „  30 

EPPING   FOREST,   NEAR  LOUGHTON                                     „  65 
GREENWICH   HOSPITAL,  WITH    ST.    ALPHEGE'S 

CHURCH          ......  100 

CHISLEHURST  CHURCH  AND  COMMON               .            „  127 

PUTNEY  REACH   .               .               .               .                             „  175 

WIMBLEDON  COMMON      .  .  .  .,,20$ 

THE  SHIP  INN,  MORTLAKE                                                      „  2IQ 

THE  OLD   PALACE,   RICHMOND                                               „  234 

RICHMOND   FROM  TWICKENHAM   FERRY            .             „  256 

RICHMOND  PARK,  WITH    THE  WHITE    LODGE             „  261 

STRAND  ON  THE  GREEN,  WITH   KEW   BRIDGE             „  273 

THE  CANAL,   BRENTFORD                                                          „  274 

PERIVALE  CHURCH                                                                       „  278 

ISLEWORTH            ......  284 

IN  MONOTONE 
MAP.      FROM  A  DRAWING  BY   B.   C.   BOULTER  Front  Cover 

THE  SPANIARDS,   HAMPSTEAD  HEATH.  To  face  page      1$ 

Front  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

vu 


viii  THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

CONSTABLE'S  FIRS  .  .  .  To  face  page     20 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Frith,  Reigate. 

HARROW-ON-THE-HILL  „  43 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Gale  and  Polden. 

BYRON'S  TOMB,   HARROW  „  45 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

WALTHAM   CROSS  .  „  56 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Frith,  Reigate. 

THE  THAMES  AT  WOOLWICH      .  .  „  87 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

THE  PAINTED  HALL,  GREENWICH   HOSPITAL  .  „  III 

Front  a  photograph  by  the  London  Stereoscopic  Company. 

RUINS  OF  ELTHAM   PALACE        .  .  .  „  119 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Frith,  Reigate. 

DULWICH  OLD  COLLEGE  .  .  „  132 

From  a.  photograph  by  Mr.  Bartlett,  Duhvich. 

THE  CRYSTAL  PALACE    .  .  .  „  135 

From  a  photograph  by  the  London  Stereoscopic  Company. 

THE  OLD  PALACE,  CROYDON  „  149 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Roffey  and  Clark,  Croydon. 

THE  WANDLE,  NEAR   CARSHALTON        .  .  „  155 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

CARSHALTON  POND  .  .  .  .  „  157 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

THE  COCK  INN,  BUTTON  .  .  „  158 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Frith,  Reigate. 

THAMES  DITTON  „  267 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Valentine,  Dundee. 

BUSHEY  PARK       ......  291 

From  a  photograph  by  Messrs.  Frith,  Reigate. 


THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE 
GREAT  CITY 

CHAPTER  I 

HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS 

IN  his  remarkable  work  Les  Recits  de  Vlnfini, 
the  famous  French  astronomer,  Camille  Flam- 
marion,  hit  upon  a  somewhat  original  device  to 
bring  vividly  before  his  readers  the  fact  that  the 
heavenly  bodies  are  seen  by  the  dwellers  upon 
earth,  not  as  they  are  now,  but  as  they  were  when 
the  light  revealing  them  left  them  countless  ages 
ago.  Having  endowed  an  imaginary  observer  with 
immortality,  he  takes  him  from  star  to  star,  showing 
him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  at  the  various 
stages  of  their  development,  and  finally  makes  him 
a  witness  of  the  Creation  by  the  aid  of  the  light  that 
first  shone  upon  the  waters  of  chaos.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  student  of  history  cannot  hope  to 
share  the  supernatural  facilities  of  vision  of  Flam- 
marion's  hero,  but  for  all  that  he  can  lay  to  heart 
some  of  the  lessons  of  the  astronomer's  story  by 
bringing  to  bear  upon  his  task  the  sympathetic 
imagination  which  alone  can  enable  him  to  recon- 
struct the  past,  and  by  remembering  that  that  past 
should  be  judged  not  by  the  light  of  modern 
progress,  but  by  such  illumination  as  was  available 
A 


2     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

when  it  was  still  the  present.  No  matter  what  the 
subject  of  study,  the  accumulation  of  facts  is  of  little 
worth  without  the  power  of  realising  their  inter- 
dependence, and  this  is  very  specially  the  case  with 
the  complex  theme  of  London,  in  which  an  infinite 
variety  of  conflicting  elements  are  welded  into  an 
unwieldy  and  by  no  means  homogeneous  whole,  for 
in  spite  of  the  obliteration  of  landmarks  and  the 
levelling  influences  of  modern  times,  each  of  its 
component  parts  has  a  psychological  atmosphere  of 
its  own.  Illusive,  intangible,  often  almost  inde- 
finable, that  atmosphere  affects  everything  that  is 
seen  in  it,  and  is  a  factor  that  must  be  reckoned  with, 
if  a  trustworthy  picture  of  the  past  or  present  is  to 
be  called  up.  The  truth  of  this  is  very  forcibly 
illustrated  in  the  outlying  suburbs  of  London,  with 
which  the  present  volume  deals,  for  though  these 
suburbs  now  appear  to  the  cursory  observer  to 
bear  the  relation  of  branches  to  a  parent  stem, 
many  indications  prove  that  they  were  all  not 
so  very  long  ago  independent  communities,  which 
were  gradually  absorbed  by  their  aggressive  neigh- 
bour, whose  appetite  grew  with  what  it  fed  upon, 
and  is  still  unsatisfied.  This  is  very  notably  the  case 
with  Hampstead,  which  less  than  a  century  ago 
was  still  a  mere  village,  the  history  of  which  can 
be  traced  back  for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  and 
which,  through  all  its  vicissitudes,  may  justly  be 
said  to  have  been  true  to  itself,  for  its  inhabitants 
have  from  first  to  last  resisted  with  more  or  less 
success  every  attempt  to  merge  its  individuality  in 
that  of  the  metropolis. 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS      3 

The  name  of  Hampstead,  originally  spelt  Ham- 
stede,  signifies  homestead,  and  the  first  settlement 
on  the  site  of  the  present  suburb  is  supposed  to 
have  been  a  farm,  situated  in  the  district  now  known 
as  Frognal,  round  about  which  a  hamlet  grew  up 
that  was  until  after  the  Reformation  included  in 
the  parish  of  Hendon.  The  earliest  historical  re- 
ference to  Hamstede  occurs  in  a  charter  bearing  date 
978,  in  which  Edward  the  Peaceable  granted  the 
manor  to  his  minister  Mangoda,  and  many  theories 
have  been  hazarded  to  explain  the  difficulty  arising 
from  the  fact  that  the  king  died  in  975,  the  most 
plausible  of  which  is  that  the  copyist  was  guilty  of 
a  clerical  error.  In  any  case,  a  later  charter,  issued 
by  Ethelred  II.  in  986,  gave  the  same  manor  to  the 
monks  of  Westminster,  a  gift  confirmed  by  Edward 
the  Confessor,  and  retained  until  the  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

A  touch  of  romance  is  given  to  the  laconic 
description  in  Doomsday  Book  of  the  Hamstede 
Manor,  by  the  mention  of  Ranulph  Pevrel  as 
holding  one  hide  of  land  under  the  abbot,  for  that 
villein  married  the  Conqueror's  former  mistress,  the 
beautiful  Ingelrica,  and  the  fact  that  the  lovers  were 
in  fairly  prosperous  circumstances  is  proved  by 
Ranulph  having  owned  nearly  six  times  as  much 
land  as  any  other  dweller  on  the  estate.  Inci- 
dentally, too,  the  effect  of  the  Conquest  on  the  value 
of  property  is  reflected  in  the  sudden  decrease  in 
that  of  the  manor  of  Hamstede,  which  was  worth 
one  hundred  shillings  under  Edward  the  Confessor, 
and  only  fifty  under  his  successor. 


4      THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Unfortunately,  next  to  nothing  is  known  of  the 
history  of  the  little  settlement  on  the  hill  in  Norman 
and  mediaeval  times,  but  at  the  Reformation  the 
manor  was  included  in  the  newly  formed  see  of 
Westminster,  whose  first  bishop,  Thomas  Thirlby, 
appears  to  have  lost  no  time  in  dissipating  the  epis- 
copal revenues,  for  much  of  his  property,  including 
that  at  Hampstead,  soon  reverted  to  the  Crown. 
The  manor  was  given  in  1550  by  Edward  VI. 
to  Sir  Thomas  Wrothe,  and  after  changing  hands 
many  times  in  the  succeeding  centuries,  it  became 
the  property  about  1780  of  Sir  Spencer  Wilson,  to 
whose  great-nephew,  Sir  Spencer  Maryon  Wilson,  it 
now  (1907)  belongs. 

The  history  of  the  neighbouring  manor  of  Belsize 
greatly  resembles  that  of  Hampstead,  for  it  was 
given  in  the  thirteenth  century  to  the  monks  of 
Westminster  by  means  of  a  grant  from  Sir  Roger 
Brabazon,  chief  justice  of  the  King's  Bench.  It 
remained  the  property  of  the  abbey  until  the  time 
of  Henry  VIIL,  when  it  was  transferred  to  the  Dean 
and  Chapter  of  Westminster,  who  leased  it  to  a 
member  of  the  Wade  or  Waad  family,  whose 
descendants  held  it  until  1649.  Since  then  it  has 
been  sold  many  times,  and  the  manor  has  been  occu- 
pied by  many  celebrities,  including  Lord  Wotton  and 
his  half-brother  the  second  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  but 
in  1720  it  was  converted  into  a  place  of  amusement, 
and  gradually  sank  into  what  was  known  as  a  '  Folly 
House,'  the  resort  of  gamblers  and  rakes.  Closed 
in  1745,  possibly  on  account  of  its  evil  reputation, 
it  was  restored  a  few  years  later  to  the  dignity  of  a 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS     5 

private  residence,  and  between  1798  and  1807  it 
was  the  home  of  the  famous  but  ill-fated  Spencer 
Perceval,  who  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
at  the  latter  date,  and  Prime  Minister  two  years  later. 
Some  sixty  years  ago,  the  ancient  mansion  with  the 
grounds  in  which  it  stood  were  sold  for  building, 
with  the  inevitable  result  that  the  rural  character  of 
what  had  long  been  one  of  the  most  charming  spots 
near  London,  was  quickly  destroyed.  Belsize  and 
Hampstead  are  now  for  all  practical  purposes  one, 
though  two  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  the  former 
still  belong  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  West- 
minster, whilst  the  bounds  of  the  latter  as  accepted 
by  the  Commission  of  1885  remain  precisely  what 
they  were  in  Anglo-Saxon  times  before  the  cata- 
clysm of  the  Conquest  that  removed  so  many 
landmarks. 

It  is  difficult,  indeed  almost  impossible,  to  deter- 
mine when  Hampstead  first  became  a  separate 
parish,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  still  a  part 
of  Hendon  in  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  for  it  can  be  proved  that  the  rector  of  the 
mother  church  was  then  paying  a  separate  chaplain, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  hold  services  in  the  chapel  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  that  is  supposed  to  have  occupied 
the  site  of  the  present  Church  of  St.  John.  It  is, 
however,  equally  certain  that  before  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  Hampstead  had  its  own  church- 
wardens, for  in  1598  they  were  summoned  to  attend 
the  Bishop  of  London's  visitation. 

At  whatever  date  Hampstead  seceded  from 
Hendon,  the  chapelry  of  Kilburn  seems  to  have 


6     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

been  from  the  first  included  in  the  new  parish, 
and  the  history  of  this  chapelry  is  so  typical  of 
ecclesiastical  evolution  that  it  deserves  relation 
here.  The  story  goes  that  the  first  settler  in  the 
wilds  of  Kilburn  was  a  hermit  named  Godwin,  who 
some  time  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  built  himself 
a  cell  on  the  banks  of  the  little  stream,  the  name 
of  which,  signifying  the  cold  brook,  is  very  variously 
spelt — the  usual  form  being  Keybourne,  which  rose 
on  the  west  of  the  Heath,  flowed  though  the 
district  now  known  as  Bayswater,  fed  the  Serpentine, 
and  finally  made  its  way  to  the  Thames,  but  has 
long  since  been  degraded  into  a  covered-in  sewer. 
Shut  in  by  a  dense  forest,  of  which  Caen  Wood  is  a 
relic,  the  lovely  spot  was  an  ideal  retreat  for  medita- 
tion and  prayer,  but  the  recluse  soon  tired  of  its 
seclusion.  He  returned  to  the  world,  gave  his  little 
property  to  the  all-absorbing  Abbey  of  Westminster, 
by  whose  abbot  it  was  a  little  later  bestowed  upon 
three  highly  born  ladies  named  Christina,  Emma, 
and  Gunilda,  who,  fired  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
example  of  the  saintly  Queen  Matilda,  whose  maids 
of  honour  they  had  been,  had  resolved  to  devote  the 
rest  of  their  lives  to  the  service  of  God.  Leaving 
behind  them  all  their  wealth,  they  took  up  their  abode 
in  the  remote  hut,  but  they  were  not  left  entirely  to 
their  own  devices,  for  small  as  was  the  community  it 
was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  sisterhood  of  the  Bene- 
dictine order,  and  a  chaplain  was  soon  sent  to  hold 
services  and  superintend  the  daily  routine  of  the 
sisters'  life.  This  chaplain  was  none  other  than 
the  ex-hermit  Godwin,  and  it  is  impossible  to  help 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS     7 

wondering  whether  there  may  not  perhaps  have  been 
some  secret  attachment  between  him  and  one  of  the 
fair  maidens.  His  readiness  to  return  to  a  place  he 
had  intended  to  leave  for  ever  is  certainly  sugges- 
tive, but  his  conduct  appears  to  have  been  in  every 
way  exemplary,  and  he  remained  at  his  post  till  his 
death.  Meanwhile  the  three  original  occupants  of 
the  nunnery  had  been  joined  by  several  other  ladies, 
a  new  chaplain  was  appointed,  the  little  oratory  with 
which  Christina,  Emma,  and  Gunilda  had  been  con- 
tent was  enlarged  into  a  chapel,  and  a  considerable 
grant  of  land  was  bestowed  upon  the  community, 
which  continued  to  grow  until  what  had  been  but 
an  insignificant  settlement  had  become  an  impor- 
tant priory,  owning  much  property  in  the  neighbour- 
hood and  elsewhere.  Strange  to  say,  however,  this 
prosperity  was  presently  succeeded  by  a  time  of 
great  distress,  for  in  1337  Edward  III.  granted  a 
special  exemption  from  taxation  to  the  nuns  because 
of  their  inability  to  pay  their  debts.  It  would,  in- 
deed, seem  that  the  sisters  had  not  after  all  been  able 
to  manage  their  own  temporal  affairs  successfully, 
but  had  been  too  generous  to  the  many  pilgrims 
who  claimed  their  hospitality  as  a  right,  but  very 
little  is  really  known  of  the  later  history  of  the 
priory,  except  that  when  under  the  name  of  the 
Nonnerie  of  Kilnbourne  it  was  surrendered  to  the 
"commissioners  of  Henry  vill.  its  annual  value  was 
assessed  at  £74,  7s.  nd.  The  nuns  whose  lives  had 
been  given  up  to  aiding  the  poor  and  distressed 
were  now  compelled  to  beg  their  daily  bread,  the 
rapacious  king  exchanged  their  lands  for  certain 


8     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

estates  owned  by  the  Knights  Hospitallers  of 
Jerusalem.  Later,  the  site  of  the  ancient  priory 
was  granted  to  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  after 
changing  hands  many  times  it  became  the  property 
of  the  Upton  family,  one  of  whom  built  the  spacious 
church  of  St.  Mary  close  to  the  spot  where  Godwin's 
little  oratory  once  stood.  Near  to  it  is  the  head- 
quarters of  the  hard-working  sisters  of  St.  Peter's, 
who  carry  on  under  the  modern  conditions  of  densely 
populated  Kilburn  the  traditions  of  their  gentle  pre- 
decessors, the  memory  of  whose  old  home  is  preserved 
in  the  names  of  the  Abbey  and  Priory  Roads.  Not 
far  away,  too,  rises  the  stately  spire  of  the  noble 
Church  of  St.  Augustine,  one  of  Pearson's  finest 
Gothic  designs,  so  that  the  whole  neighbourhood 
would  seem,  in  spite  of  all  the  changes  that  have 
taken  place,  to  be  still  haunted  by  the  spirits  of 
those  who  withdrew  to  it  so  many  centuries  ago  to 
worship  God  in  solitude. 

Although  actual  historical  data  relating  to  the 
bygone  days  of  Hampstead  are  few,  it  is  possible, 
with  the  aid  of  a  little  imagination,  to  call  up 
various  pictures  of  different  stages  in  its  long  life- 
story  which,  even  if  not  strictly  accurate  in  detail, 
may  serve  to  give  a  fairly  true  impression.  When, 
for  instance,  Ranulph  Pevrel  brought  his  bride  to 
the  homestead  of  which  he  was  the  chief  villein, 
the  whole  of  the  present  Heath  and  the  surround- 
ing districts  were  wild  uncultivated  lands,  with  here 
and  there  a  little  clearing  representing  the  sites  of 
the  future  villages  of  Highgate,  Hendon,  Hornsey, 
Willesden,  and  Kilburn  ;  whilst  deep  in  the  recesses 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS     9 

of  the  woods  were  many  bubbling  springs,  the 
fountain-heads  of  the  Holbourne,  the  name  of 
which  is  preserved  in  that  of  Holborn,  also  called 
the  river  of  Wells,  because  of  the  many  rills  that  fed 
it,  but  generally  known  as  the  Fleet,  which  gave  its 
name  to  Fleet  Road  in  Haverstock  Hill,  and  Fleet 
Ditch  and  Fleet  Street  in  London  ;  the  Brent,  which 
joins  the  Thames  at  Brentford ;  the  Tybourne,  or 
double  brook,  so  called  because  its  two  arms  en- 
circle the  Isle  of  Thorney;  and  the  Westbourne,  of 
which  the  rivulet  beside  which  Godwin  built  his  cell 
was  one  of  the  many  tributaries. 

On  the  banks  of  these  picturesque  streams  groups 
of  pilgrims  no  doubt  often  halted  to  rest  on  their 
way  from  London  vid  the  Roman  Watling  Street,  to 
worship  at  the  tomb  of  England's  first  martyr  at  St. 
Albans,  or  at  the  nearer  forest  shrines  dedicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  of  which  there  is  known  to  have 
been  one  at  Willesden,  one  at  Muswell  Hill,  where 
the  Alexandra  Palace  now  stands,  and  one  at  Gospel 
Oak,  which  is  supposed  to  owe  its  quaint  name,  of 
comparatively  recent  origin,  to  the  fact  that  portions 
of  the  Gospel  used  to  be  read  beneath  a  spreading 
oak  at  the  ceremony  of  beating  the  bounds  of  the 
parish,  discontinued  since  1896. 

It  is  also  certain  that  the  Highgate  and  Hamp- 
stead  forests  were  a  favourite  hunting-ground  of  the 
civic  authorities  and  wealthy  citizens  of  London, 
but  this,  of  course,  would  check  rather  than  promote 
the  opening  out  of  the  woodlands,  and  for  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  Conquest  there 
was  little  or  no  building  on  the  northern  heights. 


io    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Gradually,  however,  as  the  population  of  the  city 
increased,  attention  was  drawn  to  the  many  advan- 
tages enjoyed  by  Hampstead,  of  which  its  plentiful 
water-supply  was  the  chief.  There  were  many 
water-mills  on  the  upper  courses  of  the  streams, 
whose  '  clack,'  according  to  a  Norman  writer  of  the 
twelfth  century,  was  delightful  to  the  ear,  and 
almost  from  time  immemorial  the  Heath  has  been 
looked  upon  as  a  paradise  by  the  washerwomen  of 
the  neighbourhood,  who  long  enjoyed  certain  privi- 
leges, including  that  of  washing  the  linen  of  the 
royal  family.  What  is  now  called  Holly  Hill  used 
to  be  called  Cloth  Hill,  because  it  was  the  public 
drying-ground,  and  even  now  it  is  sometimes  used 
for  that  purpose. 

It  seems  certain  that  the  chalybeate  wells  of 
Hampstead  were  known  to  the  Romans,  but  they 
were  practically  forgotten  until  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, when  they  were  rediscovered,  but  little  notice 
was  taken  of  them  until  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  when  the  value  of  their  medicinal  properties 
was  recognised  and  the  foundations  were  laid  for 
the  conversion  of  Hampstead  into  a  fashionable 
health  resort.  It  will  be  interesting  to  take  a 
farewell  look  at  the  old-world  hamlet  on  the  eve  of 
its  transformation,  which  can  be  done  with  the  aid 
of  a  Field  Book  in  a  manuscript  volume  now  in  the 
Hampstead  Free  Library,  describing  a  survey  made 
in  1680,  showing  that  waste  lands  stretched  on  either 
side  of  the  main  road  to  London,  and  that  there 
were  but  half  a  dozen  houses  in  what  are  now 
High  and  Heath  Streets,  of  which  one  was  the  King 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   11 

of  Bohemia  Tavern,  the  site  of  which  is  occupied  by 
one  bearing  the  same  name,  that  keeps  green  the 
memory,  dear  to  the  people  of  Protestant  England, 
of  the  Elector  Palatine  Frederick  V.,  who  was 
elected  king  of  Bohemia  in  1619.  There  was  also 
an  inn  where  Jack  Straw's  Castle  now  stands,  and 
one  known  as  Mother  Haugh's  not  far  away.  The 
gibbet  on  which  a  murderer  was  hung  in  chains  in 
1693  rose  up  on  the  west  of  the  North  End  Road, 
and  on  the  very  summit  of  Mount  Vernon  was  the 
mill  that  gave  its  name  to  Windmill  Hill.  Such 
were  some  of  the  features  of  Hampstead  when  in 
in  1698  the  Countess  of  Gainsborough,  on  behalf  of 
her  infant  son  the  earl,  then  lord  of  the  manor, 
gave  to  the  poor  of  the  parish  the  six  acres  of  land 
that  are  now  known  as  the  Well's  Charity  Estate, 
the  administration  of  which  was  entrusted  to  four- 
teen trustees,  who  appear  to  have  been  aware  from 
the  first  of  the  exceptional  value  of  the  chaly- 
beate wells  on  the  property.  They  were  of 
course  careful  to  safeguard  to  the  people  to  whom 
they  were  responsible  the  right  to  drink  the  waters 
on  the  spot,  and  to  carry  them  away  for  use  at 
home  at  certain  hours  of  the  day,  but  subject  to 
various  restrictions.  They  leased  the  well  to  a 
succession  of  tenants,  who  exploited  it  with  more 
or  less  success.  The  temporary  booths  and 
shelters  that  at  first  sufficed  for  the  visitors  to  the 
well  were  soon  supplemented  by  substantial  build- 
ings, and  a  brisk  trade  was  done  at  the  Flask 
Tavern  in  Flask  Walk,  where  the  waters  were 
bottled,  that  was  only  pulled  down  a  few  years  ago, 


12    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

and  has  been  replaced  by  a  new  inn  bearing  the 
same  name. 

Advertisements  in  the  London  press,  notably  one 
in  the  Postman  for  2Oth  April  1700,  reflect  the  efforts 
made  by  the  lessees  of  the  well  to  attract  custom, 
and  prove  that  the  waters  were  sold  in  various  parts 
of  the  city  at  the  rate  of  3d.  per  flask,  and  that  the 
messengers  who  fetched  it  from  the  well  were  ex- 
pected to  return  the  flasks  daily.  The  public  build- 
ings which  gathered  about  the  famous  chalybeate 
springs  included  a  long  room  in  which  balls  and 
other  entertainments  were  given,  a  pump-room 
where  the  waters  were  dispensed,  a  public-house 
for  the  supply  of  less  innocuous  drinks,  a  place  of 
worship  known  as  Sion  Chapel,  which  as  time  went 
on  became  a  kind  of  Gretna  Green,  for  any  one  could 
be  married  in  it  for  five  shillings ;  raffling  and  other 
shops,  stables,  and  coach-houses.  Gardens,  with  an 
extensive  bowling-green,  were  laid  out,  and  in  fine 
weather  open-air  concerts  were  given  ;  in  a  word, 
no  pains  were  spared  to  attract  the  beau  monde. 

A  new  era  now  began  for  Hampstead,  for  it 
became  the  fashion  for  London  doctors  to  recom- 
mend the  drinking  of  the  waters  on  the  spot. 
Novelists,  including  Fanny  Burney  and  Samuel 
Richardson,  laid  the  scenes  of  some  of  their  most 
exciting  episodes  at  the  spa,  and  on  every  side 
stately  mansions,  standing  in  their  own  grounds, 
rose  up  for  the  wealthy  patrons  who  elected  to 
have  private  residences  at  Hampstead.  What  is 
still  known  as  Well  Walk,  and  was  then  a  beautiful 
grove,  was  the  favourite  promenade  of  the  patients 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   13 

who  came  to  take  the  waters,  and  some  of  the  later 
buildings  of  the  spa  are  still  standing,  including  the 
long  room,  that  is  now  a  private  residence,  after 
going  through  many  vicissitudes,  it  having  at  one 
time  served  as  a  chapel,  and  at  another  as  a  barrack. 
The  fame  of  the  Hampstead  spa  seems  to  have 
been  fully  maintained  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  many  are  the  descriptions 
in  the  contemporary  press  of  the  gay  and,  alas, 
often  rowdy  scenes  that  took  place  in  it ;  but  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  though  the 
entertainments  were  still  attended  by  middle-class 
crowds,  who  replaced  the  aristocratic  gatherings  of 
days  gone  by,  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  waters  died 
out,  and  all  that  now  recalls  their  fame  is  a  com- 
memorative drinking-fountain  in  Well  Walk.  To 
atone  for  this,  however,  a  reputation  of  a  nobler  kind 
than  that  of  a  mere  pleasure  or  health  resort  was 
growing  up  for  Hampstead,  for  by  this  time  it  had 
become  the  favourite  home  of  many  men  and  women 
of  genius,  culture,  and  refinement,  who  were  able  to 
appreciate  its  intrinsic  charm,  and  by  their  associa- 
tion with  it  have  conferred  upon  it  a  lasting  glory.  In 
some  cases  the  actual  houses,  in  others  only  the  sites 
of  the  houses  occupied  by  them  can  be  identified,  and 
their  favourite  open-air  resorts  have  been  again  and 
again  described.  In  what  is  now  the  High  Street, 
in  a  stately  mansion,  part  of  which  alone  remains,  the 
site  of  the  remainder  being  occupied  by  the  Soldiers' 
Daughters'  Home,  lived  the  high-minded  politician 
Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  from  it  he  was  taken  in  1662 
to  be  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill,  in  spite  of  the  fact 


14    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

that  he  had  opposed  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 
and  had  been  pardoned  by  Charles  II.  Later,  the 
same  house  was  occupied  by  Bishop  Butler,  and  in 
the  garden  is  still  preserved  the  ancient  mulberry- 
tree  beneath  which  he  and  his  ill-fated  predecessor 
loved  to  sit.  A  little  lower  down  the  hill  still 
stands  Rosslyn  House,  much  changed,  it  is  true, 
since  it  was  the  home  of  the  famous  lawyer  Alex- 
ander Wedderburn,  who  became  Lord  Chancellor 
in  1793,  for  the  beautiful  grove  of  Spanish  chestnuts 
that  once  surrounded  it  is  replaced  by  the  houses  of 
Lyndhurst  Road. 

The  poet  Gay  was  a  constant  frequenter  of  the 
spa  at  Hampstead,  and  often  visited  his  friend,  the 
brilliant  essayist  Sir  Richard  Steele,  in  his  charming 
retreat  on  the  site  of  the  present  Steele's  Studios, 
opposite  to  which  was  the  ancient  hostelry,  the 
Load  of  Hay.  Gay  may  possibly  often  have  met 
Addison  and  Pope,  perhaps  even  have  gone  with 
them  to  meetings  of  the  famous  Kit  Cat  Club  at 
the  Upper  Flask  Tavern,  now  a  private  residence 
known  as  Heath  House,  to  which  Richardson's 
heroine,  Clarissa  Harlowe,  is  said  to  have  fled  from 
her  dissipated  suitor  Lovelace,  and  in  which  lived 
for  many  years  and  died,  the  learned  annotator  of 
Shakespeare,  George  Steevens,  who  bought  the 
tavern  in  1771. 

To  the  Bull  and  Bush  Inn,  still  standing  in  the 
Hendon  Road,  the  great  painter  Hogarth  often 
repaired,  and  in  its  garden  is  a  fine  tree  planted  by 
him,  whilst  later  Gainsborough  and  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds  used  frequently  to  visit  it.  The  actor 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS  15 

Colley  Gibber,  the  more  famous  David  Garrick,  and 
the  poet  Dr.  Akenside,  were  fond  of  strolling  on 
the  Heath,  and  to  lodgings  near  the  church  came 
Dr.  Johnson,  who  when  there  sometimes  received  a 
call  from  Fanny  Burney,  who  was  often  at  the  spa, 
as  is  proved  by  her  vivid  description  of  it  in  Evelina. 
At  North  End  House,  now  known  as  Wildwoods, 
not  far  from  the  Bull  and  Bush  Inn,  lived  the  elder 
Pitt,  Lord  Chatham,  during  his  temporary  insanity, 
shut  up  in  a  little  room,  with  an  oriel  window  looking 
out  towards  Finchley,  and  the  opening  in  the  wall 
still  remains  through  which  his  food  and  letters  were 
handed  to  him.  Caen  Wood,  or  Kenwood  House, 
was  the  country  seat  of  the  great  advocate,  Lord 
Mansfield,  whose  London  house  was  burned  by  the 
Gordon  rioters  in  1780,  and  a  short  distance  from  it 
is  the  famous  hostelry  of  the  '  Spaniards/  described 
by  Dickens  in  Barnaby  Rudge  and  alluded  to  in  the 
Pickwick  Papers,  that  is  said  to  have  derived  its  name 
from  its  having  been  at  one  time  occupied  by  the 
Spanish  ambassador  to  the  court  of  James  I.  To  the 
'  Spaniards '  the  followers  of  Lord  George  Gordon 
marched  after  their  mad  proceedings  in  the  City, 
and  it  was  thanks  to  the  courage  and  promptitude 
of  its  landlord,  Giles  Thomas,  that  it  and  Caen 
House  were  saved  from  destruction. 

No  less  famous  than  the  '  Spaniards  '  is  the  ancient 
inn  known  as  '  Jack  Straw's  Castle/  now  transformed 
into  a  modern  hotel,  the  name  of  which  has  never 
been  satisfactorily  explained,  for  it  is  really  impos- 
sible to  connect  it  with  the  devoted  follower  of  Wat 
Tyler,  with  whom  it  was  long  supposed  to  have  been 


16    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

associated.  To  it  the  beau  monde  used  to  repair 
after  the  races  that  were  held  on  the  Heath,  before 
Epsom  and  Ascot  rivalled  it  in  public  favour. 
Dickens  and  his  friends  were  fond  of  going  to  supper 
at  Jack  Straw's  Castle  in  summer  evenings,  and  of 
late  years  it  has  been  a  favourite  meeting-place  of 
authors  and  artists,  Lord  Leighton,  amongst  many 
others,  having  been  a  frequent  guest. 

Within  easy  reach  of  the  '  Spaniards '  and  Jack 
Straw's  Castle,  in  a  house  still  named  after  him,  dwelt 
the  great  lawyer  Lord  Erskine,  who  defended  Lord 
George  Gordon  at  the  latter's  trial  for  high  treason, 
securing  his  acquittal ;  and  the  broad  holly  hedge 
dividing  the  garden  from  the  Heath,  as  well  as  the 
wood  of  laurel  and  bay  trees,  on  what  is  known  as 
Evergreen  Hill,  are  said  to  have  been  planted  by  his 
own  hands.  At  Heath  House,  on  the  highest  point 
of  the  Heath,  lived  Samuel  Hoare,  the  enlightened 
lover  of  literature  and  defender  of  the  oppressed, 
who  was  the  first  to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  negro 
in  England,  and  amongst  his  many  distinguished 
guests  were  the  poets  Samuel  Rogers,  Wordsworth, 
Crabbe,  Campbell,  and  Coleridge,  the  noted  writer 
John  James  Park,  the  first  historian  of  Hampstead, 
whose  work,  on  its  Topography  and  Natural  History, 
published  in  1814,  is  still  the  chief  authority  on  the 
subject  up  to  that  date ;  the  philanthropist  William 
Wilberforce,  and  the  not  less  devoted  Sir  Samuel 
Buxton,  who  succeeded  him  in  1824  as  leader  of  the 
anti-slavery  party. 

Bolton  House,  on  Windmill  Hill,  was  long  the 
home  of  the  cultivated  sisters  Joanna  and  Agnes 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   17 

Baillie,  with  whom  Sir  David  Wilkie  sometimes 
stayed,  and  Mrs.  Barbauld,  whose  husband  was 
minister  of  the  Presbyterian  chapel  on  Rosslyn  Hill, 
lived  first  in  a  house  near  to  them,  and  later  in  one 
in  Church  Row.  Mrs.  Siddons,  after  her  retirement 
from  the  stage,  occupied  for  several  years  the  house 
known  as  Capo  di  Monte,  overlooking  the  beautiful 
Judges'  Walk,  beneath  the  elms  of  which  assizes  are 
said  to  have  been  held  in  1663,  when  the  Great 
Plague  of  London  was  raging.  The  poet-painter 
William  Blake  sometimes  stayed  at  a  farm  at  North 
End,  the  same  later  frequented  by  John  Linnell ;  and 
the  Vale  of  Health,  in  which  stood  the  picturesque 
cottage  owned  by  Leigh  Hunt,  will  be  for  ever  asso- 
ciated with  the  memory  of  that  eloquent  writer  and 
of  the  greater  John  Keats,  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  and 
Lord  Byron,  all  of  whom  are  known  to  have  visited 
him  there.  Keats  was  with  him  for  some  days  in 
1816,  and  in  1817  took  rooms  in  what  is  now  No.  i 
Well  Walk,  where  he  wrote  the  greater  part  of 
Endymion.  Later  he  went  to  board  with  his  friend 
Charles  Armitage  Brown  in  a  house  at  the  bottom 
of  John  Street,  known  as  Lawn  Bank,  and  marked 
by  a  tablet,  next  door  to  which  lived  Charles  Went- 
worth  Dilke,  later  editor  of  the  Athenaum,  by  whom 
the  poet  was  introduced  to  Fanny  Brawne,  with 
whom  he  fell  in  love  at  first  sight.  Hyperion,  the 
Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  and  five  of  the  six  celebrated 
sonnets  were  written  at  Lawn  Bank,  and  Keats  was 
looking  forward  to  his  marriage  with  his  beloved 
Fanny  when  the  illness  which  was  to  prove  fatal 
began.  She  and  her  mother  nursed  him  with  the 


i8    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

utmost  devotion,  but  nothing  could  save  him,  and 
he  was  already  doomed  when  he  left  them  to  go  to 
Rome  in  1821.  His  memory  is  still  held  in  great 
honour  in  Hampstead,  but  it  was  reserved  to  an 
American  lady,  Miss  Anne  Whitney,  who  presented 
his  bust  to  the  Parish  Church  in  1895,  to  give  prac- 
tical proof  of  a  desire  to  do  him  honour  in  the  district 
he  loved  so  well. 

The  Arctic  explorer,  Sir  Edward  Parry,  is  said  to 
have  had  his  headquarters  at  Hampstead  ;  Prince 
Talleyrand  lived  in  Pond  Street  during  his  exile 
from  France  ;  and  Edward  Irving,  founder  of  the 
Irvingite  sect,  is  said  to  have  had  a  house  there  for 
a  short  time.  The  historian  Sir  Thomas  Palgrave 
resided  on  the  Green  from  1834  to  1861  ;  the  poet 
William  Allingham  died  in  Lyndhurst  Road  in  1889  ; 
the  novelist  Diana  Muloch,  and  the  less  celebrated 
Elizabeth  Meteyard,  were  often  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. The  mother  of  Lord  Tennyson  shared  Rose- 
mount,  in  Flask  Walk,  with  her  daughter,  and  was 
often  visited  there  by  her  illustrious  son.  Sir  Row- 
land Hill,  the  famous  Postmaster- General,  resided 
for  thirty  years  and  died  at  Bertram  House,  near 
St.  Stephen's  Church,  and  Hampstead  was  long  the 
home  of  the  novelist  Sir  Walter  Besant  and  the  well- 
known  bibliophile  Dr.  Garnett. 

What  may  perhaps  be  called  the  art  era  of  Hamp- 
stead, when  it  became  associated  with  the  names  of 
the  most  distinguished  painters  of  England,  was 
inaugurated  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  by 
the  arrival  there  of  George  Romney,  who  took  a 
house  on  the  hill  long  supposed  to  have  been  that 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   19 

now  known  as  the  Mount,  in  Heath  Street,  though 
the  recent  discovery  of  a  deed  of  tenancy  seems  to 
prove  it  to  have  been  Prospect  House  on  Cloth  Hill, 
now  the  Constitutional  Club.  However  that  may  be, 
the  artist  soon  found  his  new  quarters  too  small,  and 
built  on  to  them  a  large  studio  for  the  painting  of 
historic  pictures,  which  Flaxman,  who  visited  him 
in  it,  called  a  fantastic  structure,  and  in  which,  later, 
when  it  had  become  the  Holly  Bush  Assembly 
Rooms,  Constable  gave  lectures  on  landscape  paint- 
ing to  the  members  of  the  Literary  and  Scientific 
Society  of  Hampstead.  Romney  did  little  or  no 
work  in  Hampstead,  for  his  health  was  already 
undermined  when  he  embarked  on  his  new  enterprise, 
and  his  sojourn  left  no  permanent  impress  on  the 
neighbourhood,  when  he  fled  to  Kendal  to  die  in  the 
arms  of  his  long-neglected  wife. 

Far  otherwise  was  it  with  Constable,  who  has  done 
more  than  any  one  man  to  interpret  for  future 
generations  what  Hampstead  was  in  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  for  the  Heath  and  the  grand 
views  from  its  summit  inspired  some  of  his  finest 
landscapes,  and  many  of  his  most  charming  drawings 
give  details  of  its  scenery.  Even  before  his  marriage 
in  1816  Constable  used  constantly  to  go  up  to 
Hampstead  from  his  London  lodgings  to  paint,  and 
in  1821  he  took  a  small  cottage,  No.  2  Lower  Ter- 
race, still  very  much  what  it  was  then,  for  his  wife 
and  their  three  little  children.  There  they  lived 
until  1826,  when  they  removed  to  the  present  No. 
25  Downshire  Hill,  but  in  1827  Constable  gave  up 
his  London  studio,  and  settled  down  permanently 


20    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

with  his  family  in  Well  Walk,  at  which  house  is  un- 
certain, some  saying  it  was  No.  40,  others  No.  46. 
There  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached, 
died,  and  her  loss  made  him  cling  to  Hampstead 
more  closely  than  ever.  She  was  buried  in  the 
churchyard  of  St.  John,  where  later  her  husband  was 
laid  to  rest  beside  her. 

Though  the  fame  of  no  one  of  them  is  quite  equal 
to  that  of  Constable,  many  other  resident  artists 
have  aided  in  maintaining  the  aesthetic  traditions  of 
Hampstead.  Some  of  the  best  works  of  William 
Collins  were  produced  in  a  house  on  the  Green,  and 
his  friend  Edward  Irving  often  visited  him  there. 
Sir  Thomas  Beechey  retired  to  Hampstead  after  his 
long  career  of  activity ;  Edward  Duncan,  Edward 
Dighton,  and  Thomas  Davis,  all  resided  for  some 
time  and  died  there.  Paul  Falconer  Poole  was  looked 
upon  as  a  Hampstead  artist  par  excellence,  for  he 
worked  in  the  neighbourhood  for  some  twenty-five 
years.  William  Clarkson  Stanfield  was  devoted  to 
the  old  town,  and  lived  in  what  is  now  the  Public 
Library,  in  Prince  Arthur  Road,  from  1847  to  1865, 
when  he  removed  to  Belsize  Park  Gardens,  then 
St.  Margaret's  Road,  dying  in  his  new  home  in  1869. 
Alfred  Stevens,  who  lived  for  some  time  in  Hamp- 
stead, and  died  there  in  1875,  executed  the  beautiful 
monument  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington  for  St.  Paul's, 
in  the  temporary  church  of  St.  Stephen's,  which  he 
rented  for  the  purpose.  The  sculptor  John  Foley 
passed  away  at  the  Priory,  Upper  Terrace,  in  1874, 
and  in  1888  Frank  Holl  died  in  the  house  he  had 
built  for  himself  in  Fitz-John's  Avenue.  The  last 


CONSTABLES    FIR,    HAMPSTEAD    HEATH 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   21 

twenty  years  of  the  long  life  of  Miss  Margaret 
Gillies,  one  of  the  first  Englishwomen  to  adopt  art 
as  a  profession,  were  spent  at  No.  25  Church  Row, 
and  Mrs.  Mary  Harrison,  one  of  the  first  members 
of  what  is  now  the  Old  Water-Colour  Society, 
resided  for  sixteen  years  and  died  at  Chestnut 
Lodge.  Even  more  intimately  associated  with 
Hampstead  than  any  of  these  was  George  du 
Maurier,  for  he  turned  its  scenery  and  the  familiar 
incidents  of  its  Heath  to  account  in  many  of  his 
clever  drawings  for  Punch.  '  It  was,'  says  his  friend 
Canon  Ainger,  writing  in  the  Hampstead  Annual  to* 
1897,  'by  the  Whitestone  Pond  that  the  endless 
round  of  galloping  donkeys  suggested  to  him  the 
famous  caricature  of  the  "  Ponds  Asinorum,"  and  it 
was  near  a  familiar  row  of  cottages  at  North  End 
that  he  saw  the  little  creature  of  eight  years  old 
who  told  her  drunken  father  "  to  'it  mother  again  if 
he  dared." ' 

Du  Maurier  brought  home  his  bride  in  1862  to  a 
house  in  Church  Row,  and  it  was  there,  and  in  New 
Grove  House  on  the  Upper  Heath,  to  which  he 
removed  later,  that  his  best  work  was  done.  He 
lived  at  Hampstead  through  the  exciting  time  of 
the  boom  in  his  famous  novel  Trilby,  which  is  said 
to  have  hastened  his  end,  and  on  his  death  in  1896 
he  was  buried  in  the  churchyard  of  St.  John. 

The  Parish  Church  of  Hampstead  replaces,  as 
already  stated,  a  much  earlier  chapel  that  was 
dedicated  to  the  Blessed  Virgin.  It  was  completed 
in  1745,  and  successfully  enlarged  in  1747  under  the 
auspices  of  the  beloved  Canon  Ainger,  who  was 


22    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

vicar  from  1876  to  1895.  It  is  a  typical  example  of 
the  style  of  the  period  of  its  foundation,  and  the 
ivy-clad  tower  that  rises  from  the  eastern  end  com- 
poses well  with  its  surroundings,  the  eighteenth- 
century  houses  of  Church  Row  forming  a  kind  of 
avenue  leading  up  to  the  main  entrance. 

The  next  oldest  church  in  Hampstead  is  the 
Roman  Catholic  chapel  of  St.  Mary  in  Holly  Place, 
built  in  1816,  whose  first  minister  was  the  French 
Abb£  Morel,  who  was  banished  from  France  during 
the  Revolution,  and  was  visited  in  his  retreat 
by  many  famous  exiles,  including  the  Duchesse 
d'Angouleme.  He  became  so  attached  to  his 
English  home  that  he  refused  to  return  to  his  native 
land  when  he  was  recalled,  and  he  died  at  Hamp- 
stead in  1852,  leaving  behind  him  a  great  reputation 
for  sanctity.  The  year  of  his  death  was  completed 
the  Protestant  church  of  Christ  Church — the  lofty 
spire  of  which  is  a  notable  landmark — associated 
with  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bickersteth,  who, 
after  ministering  in  it  for  thirty  years,  became 
Bishop  of  Exeter ;  and  later  were  erected  the 
churches  of  St.  Saviour  and  St.  Stephen's,  that  have 
been  supplemented  by  many  other  places  of  worship 
of  different  denominations,  so  that  the  parish  presents 
indeed  a  remarkable  contrast  to  the  time  when  the 
little  sanctuary  on  the  hill  met  the  needs  of  the 
whole  district. 

To  a  certain  Mrs.  Lessingham  belongs  the  un- 
enviable distinction  of  having  been  the  first  to 
alienate  public  land  on  the  Heath  by  enclosing,  in 
1775,  the  grounds  of  what  is  still  known  as  Heath 


HAMPSTEAD  AND  ITS  ASSOCIATIONS   23 

House.  Her  right  to  do  so  was  contested,  but  at 
the  trial  which  ensued  she  came  off  victorious,  and 
an  example  was  set  which  has  been  all  too  often 
followed.  The  jury  actually  decided  that  the  land 
in  dispute  was  of  no  value,  and  the  vital  question 
at  issue,  of  the  power  of  the  lord  of  the  manor 
to  grant  permissions  for  enclosure,  was  left  un- 
decided. Not  until  1870  were  any  really  efficient 
steps  taken  to  preserve  for  the  people  the  use  of 
the  beautiful  Heath,  but  at  that  date  the  nucleus 
of  the  present  extensive  estate  was  secured  in 
perpetuity.  Two  hundred  acres  of  land  were  then 
bought  by  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,  and 
to  them  were  later  added  the  265  acres  of  Par- 
liament Hill,  the  name  of  which  is  said  by  some  to 
commemorate  the  fact  that  the  conspirators  of  the 
Gunpowder  Plot  watched  from  it  for  the  blowing 
up  of  the  Houses  "of  Parliament,  whilst  others  as- 
sociate it  with  Cromwell's  having  placed  cannon  on 
it  to  defend  the  capital.  In  1898  the  property  of 
the  nation  on  the  northern  heights  was  still  further 
augmented,  through  the  combined  efforts  of  many 
public  societies  and  private  individuals,  by  the 
acquisition  of  the  celebrated  and  beautifully  laid 
out  Golder's  Hill  estate,  with  the  house  that  once 
belonged  to  David  Garrick,  and  was  used  as  a 
convalescent  home  for  soldiers  after  the  South 
African  war. 

Hampstead  Heath,  with  its  dependencies,  is  now 
universally  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  many  beautiful  open  spaces  near 
London,  and  is  the  resort  on  Sundays  and  Bank 


24    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

holidays  of  thousands  of  pleasure-seekers.  The 
views  from  it,  especially  from  Parliament  Hill,  are 
magnificent,  embracing  London  with  the  dome  of 
St.  Paul's,  the  Tower,  and  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  Surrey  Hills,  Harrow,  Highgate,  Hendon, 
and  Barnet,  differing  but  little,  if  at  all,  from  what 
they  were  when  Leigh  Hunt  and  John  Keats  enjoyed 
them,  and  Constable  painted  his  famous  landscapes. 


CHAPTER    II 

HIGHGATE,  HORNSEY,   HENDON,  AND  HARROW 

"PERCHED  on  a  hill  that  is  twenty-five  feet 
JL  higher  than  the  loftiest  point  of  Hampstead 
Heath,  Highgate  originally  commanded  as  fine  a  pros- 
pect as  it,  but  unfortunately  many  of  the  best  points 
of  view  are  now  built  over,  though  from  the  terrace 
behind  the  church,  and  parts  of  the  cemetery,  some 
idea  can  still  be  obtained  of  the  beautiful  scene  that 
was  the  delight  of  Hogarth  and  of  Morland,  of 
Coleridge  and  Wordsworth,  and  many  other  artists 
and  poets  who,  at  one  time  or  another,  resided  on 
the  hill. 

The  name  of  Highgate  is  generally  supposed  to 
be  derived  from  the  Tollgate  that  used  to  stand  at 
the  entrance  to  the  Bishop  of  London's  park,  a 
two-storied  house  of  red  brick,  built  over  an  arch- 
way that  was  pulled  down  in  1769,  and  to  which 
there  are  many  references  in  the  ancient  records  of 
Middlesex.  Norden,  for  instance,  in  the  Speculum 
Britannia  bearing  date  1593,  says:  'Highgate,  a 
hill,  over  which  is  a  passage,  and  at  the  top  of  the 
same  hill  is  a  gate  through  which  all  manner  of 
passengers  have  their  waie  ;  the  place  taketh  the 
name  of  this  highgate  on  the  hill.  .  .  .  When  the 

26 


26    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

waie  was  turned  over  the  saide  hill  to  leade  through 
the  parke  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  there  was  in 
regard  thereof  a  toll  raised  upon  such  as  passed  that 
waie  by  carriage.' 

The  Gate  House  Inn,  though  considerably  modi- 
fied, still  remains  to  preserve  the  memory  of  the 
building  at  which  the  tolls  were  levied,  and  in  it 
the  quaint  ceremony  of  swearing  on  the  horns  was 
practised  until  quite  late  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
On  the  subject  of  this  ceremony  there  has  been  of 
late  years  much  learned  controversy,  but  the  most 
plausible  explanation  of  its  origin  appears  to  be 
that  the  horns — after  which,  by  the  way,  so  many 
London  inns  are  named — on  which  the  oath  was 
sworn,  were  merely  the  symbol  of  the  gatekeeper's 
right  to  exact  toll  from  the  drovers  of  the  sheep  or 
cattle  who  passed  beneath  the  archway.  The  con- 
version of  the  custom  into  an  apparently  unmeaning 
farce  was  probably  the  result  of  a  harmless  frolic 
indulged  in  by  some  gay  young  travellers  that,  to 
use  a  slang  expression, '  took  on  '  with  the  public,  and 
was  gradually  expanded  into  the  complex  burlesque 
purporting  to  give  the  initiated,  by  virtue  of  the  oath 
on  the  horns,  the  freedom  of  Highgate.  The  cere- 
mony has  often  been  described,  and  is  referred  to  in 
the  much  quoted  lines  of  Byron,  who,  with  a  party 
of  friends,  once  took  the  oath  : — 

'Many  to  the  steep  hill  of  Highgate  hie, 
Ask  ye  Boeotian  shades  the  reason  why  : 
'Tis  to  the  worship  of  the  solemn  horn, 
Grasp'd  in  the  holy  hand  of  mystery, 
In  whose  dread  name  both  men  and  maids  are  sworn, 
And  consecrate  the  oath  with  draught  and  dance  till  morn.' 


HIGHGATE  27 

Until  about  1850  it  was  customary  at  the  inn  to 
stop  every  stage-coach  that  passed,  and  from  its 
passengers  select  five  to  whom  to  administer  the 
oath.  These  five  were  led  into  the  principal  room, 
the  horns,  mounted  on  a  long  pole,  were  produced, 
and  in  the  presence  of  a  number  of  witnesses  the 
neophytes  were  compelled  to  listen  uncovered  to  the 
following  absurd  speech  from  the  landlord : — 

'  Take  notice  what  I  now  say  .  .  .  you  must 
acknowledge  me  to  be  your  adopted  father.  I  must 
acknowledge  you  to  be  my  adopted  son.  If  you  will 
not  call  me  father,  you  forfeit  a  bottle  of  wine.  If  I 
do  not  call  you  son,  I  forfeit  the  same.  And  now, 
my  good  son,  if  you  are  travelling  through  this 
village  of  Highgate  and  you  have  no  money  in  your 
pocket,  go,  call  for  a  bottle  of  wine  at  any  house  you 
may  think  proper  to  enter,  and  book  it  to  your 
father's  score.  If  you  have  any  friends  with  you, 
you  may  treat  them  as  well,  but  if  you  have  any 
money  of  your  own  you  must  pay  for  it  yourself,  for 
you  must  not  say  you  have  no  money  when  you 
have.  .  .  .  You  must  not  eat  brown  bread  when  you 
can  get  white,  unless  you  like  brown  the  best. 
.  .  .  You  must  not  kiss  the  maid  while  you  can  kiss 
the  mistress,  unless  you  like  the  maid  best,  but 
sooner  than  lose  a  good  chance  you  may  kiss  them 
both.  And  now,  my  good  son,  I  wish  you  a  safe 
journey  through  Highgate  and  this  life.  I  charge 
you,  my  good  son,  that  if  you  know  any  in  this  com- 
pany who  have  not  taken  this  oath,  you  must  cause 
them  to  take  it  or  make  each  of  them  forfeit  a  bottle 
of  wine.  .  .  .  So  now,  my  son,  God  bless  you;  kiss  the 


28    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

horns  or  a  pretty  girl  if  you  see  one  here,  whichever 
you  like  best,  and  so  be  free  of  Highgate.' 

The  horns  or  the  girl  duly  kissed  as  the  case 
might  be,  and  the  oath  administered,  other  absurd 
speeches  were  made,  the  farce  often  ending  in  some- 
what rowdy  merriment.  Long  after  the  custom  was 
discontinued,  too,  the  crier  of  Highgate  kept  a  wig 
and  gown  in  readiness  to  be  donned  by  any  one 
desirous  of  obtaining  the  freedom  of  Highgate,  and 
the  expression  '  he  has  taken  the  oath '  came  as  time 
went  on  to  signify  he  knows  how  to  look  after  his 
own  interests.  In  the  Gate-House  Inn  a  huge  pair  of 
mounted  horns  is  still  preserved,  and  a  few  years  ago  a 
party  of  enthusiastic  local  antiquarians  amused  them- 
selves by  going  through  the  ancient  farce  according  to 
the  best  authenticated  traditions,  but  whether  any  of 
the  newly  made  freemen  availed  themselves  of  the 
privilege  of  kissing  mistress  or  maid  is  not  recorded. 

One  of  the  earliest  historical  references  to  High- 
gate  is  in  the  grant  made  by  Edward  III.  in  1363  to 
a  certain  William  Phelippe,  '  as  a  reward  for  his  care 
of  the  highway  between  Highgate  and  Smithfelde, 
of  the  privelege  of  taking  customs  of  all  persons 
using  the  road  for  merchandize,'  and  it  has  been 
suggested  that  this  Phelippe  may  have  been  one  and 
the  same  with  the  '  nameless  hermit '  who  preceded 
the  holy  man  William  Litchfield,  to  whom  in  1386 
the  Bishop  of  London  gave,  to  quote  his  own  words, 
'the  office  of  the  custody  of  our  chapel  of  Highgate 
beside  our  Park  of  Hareng,  and  of  the  house  to  the 
same  chapel  annexed.'  This  chapel  and  hermitage 
were  successively  occupied  by  several  recluses,  the 


HIGHGATE  29 

last  of  whom  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  certain 
William  Foote,  on  whom  they  were  conferred  in  1 5  3 1. 
The  dwelling-house  was  given  in  1577,  by  Queen 
Elizabeth,  to  a  favourite  protege  of  hers  named  John 
Farnehame,  whose  lease  was  later  transferred  to  the 
founder  of  the  '  Publique  and  Free  Grammar  School 
of  Highgate,'  Sir  Roger  Cholmeley,  Lord  Chief 
Justice  of  the  King's  Bench  under  Edward  VI.,  who 
fell  into  disgrace  with  Queen  Mary,  and  after 
suffering  imprisonment  for  some  years,  lived  in  great 
retirement  at  Hornsey.  Sir  Roger  obtained  a 
licence  to  build  a  school,  and  Bishop  Grindal  gave 
him  the  old  Hermitage  Chapel,  with  two  acres  of 
land,  under  certain  conditions,  one  being  that  the 
people  of  Highgate  as  well  as  the  pupils  should 
have  the  use  of  the  chapel.  It  was  to  serve,  in 
fact,  as  a  kind  of  chapel  of  ease  to  Hornsey,  an  in- 
cidental proof  that  there  were  already  at  the  time 
of  the  agreement  a  number  of  inhabitants  in  the 
hamlet  of  the  Highgate.  Sir  Roger  Cholmeley  died 
before  the  projected  work  was  begun,  but  his  wishes 
were  carefully  carried  out  by  his  trustees,  and  the 
first  stone  of  the  institution,  which  was  to  have  such 
a  long  career  of  usefulness,  was  laid  in  1576. 

It  does  not  appear  quite  clear  whether  the  old 
Hermitage  Chapel  was  pulled  down  to  give  place  to 
a  new  one,  or  enlarged  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
increased  congregation,  but  in  any  case  the  school 
chapel  was  the  only  place  of  worship  in  Highgate 
until  1834,  when  the  parish  was  separated  from 
Hornsey,  and  the  fine  Gothic  church  of  St  Michael, 
the  lofty  spire  of  which  is  a  landmark  for  many  miles 


30    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

round,  was  erected.  Five  years  later  the  cemetery, 
that  is  still  the  most  beautiful  suburb  of  the  dead 
near  London,  was  consecrated,  and  since  then  many 
famous  men  and  women  have  been  buried  in  it, 
including  the  philosopher  and  chemist  Michael  Fara- 
day ;  the  eloquent  writer  Henry  Crabb  Robinson ; 
the  lawyers  Judge  Payne  and  Lord  Lyndhurst ; 
the  artists  John  James  Chalon,  Sir  William  Ross, 
and  John  George  Pinwell ;  the  poet-painter  Dante 
Gabriel  Rossetti ;  the  theologian  Frederick  Maurice  ; 
the  novelists  George  Eliot  and  Mrs.  Henry  Ward  ; 
the  pugilist  Tom  Sayers ;  and  the  no  less  celebrated 
cricketer  John  Lillywhite. 

For  many  years  the  land  round  the  old  school 
chapel  had  served  as  a  cemetery,  and  in  it  was 
buried  in  1534  the  poet  Samuel  Coleridge,  who 
had  lived  for  many  years  in  Highgate,  and  when  a 
year  later  the  old  school  chapel  was  replaced  by  the 
present  one,  a  beautiful  Gothic  building  designed  by 
Cockerell,  it  was  wisely  decided  to  erect  the  latter 
over  the  tomb,  that  is  now  enclosed  in  a  crypt 
approached  by  a  flight  of  steps  from  the  western 
side  of  the  building.  The  new  schoolhouse,  class- 
rooms, etc.,  completed  in  1869,  that  replace  those 
that  had  been  in  use  for  some  four  centuries,  and  in 
which  many  men  of  note  were  educated,  including 
Nicolas  Rowe  the  dramatist,  harmonise  well  with  the 
chapel,  and  the  institution  bids  fair  long  to  maintain 
in  the  future  the  reputation  it  won  in  the  past. 

Highgate  no  doubt  owed  its  early  prosperity  and 
rapid  growth  during  the  last  hundred  and  fifty  years 
to  its  situation  at  the  junction  of  the  two  main  roads 


HIGHGATE  31 

from  London  that  meet  in  the  High  Street,  not  far 
from  the  old  village  green,  in  the  midst  of  which 
there  used  to  be  a  pond,  now  filled  in  and  planted 
with  trees,  round  about  which  the  village  lads  and 
lasses  were  wont  to  dance,  and  the  elder  residents  to 
gather  to  gossip  of  a  summer  evening.  Before  the 
Bishop  of  London  consented  in  1386  to  allow  a  road 
to  be  made  through  his  park,  Highgate  could  only 
be  reached  by  a  narrow  lane,  by  way  of  Crouch  End, 
Muswell  Hill,  and  Friern  Barnet,  but  the  new 
thoroughfare  very  quickly  became  the  chief  highway 
to  the  north,  and  is  associated  with  many  noteworthy 
events  and  royal  progresses.  It  remained,  indeed, 
without  a  rival  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  when  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
sanctioning  a  licensed  company  to  make  a  way  from 
the  foot  of  Highgate  Hill  to  join  the  main  road,  a 
principal  feature  of  which  was  the  piercing  of  a 
tunnel  seven  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet  long  by 
twenty-four  wide  and  nineteen  high,  which,  alas,  was 
but  poorly  engineered,  for  it  fell  in  with  a  great 
crash  before  it  was  opened  to  traffic.  The  tunnel  was 
then  replaced  by  the  present  fine  archway,  spanning 
the  road,  that  was  completed  in  1813,  and  for  the  use 
of  which  a  toll  was  levied  until  1876,  when  it  was 
finally  remitted. 

Unfortunately  the  once  beautiful  village  of  High- 
gate  has  of  late  years  been  transformed  into  a 
somewhat  prosaic  suburb,  but  a  few  relics  remain  to 
bear  witness  to  more  picturesque  days  gone  by.  At 
the  foot  of  the  ascent,  a  little  above  the  Archway 
Tavern,  opposite  the  Dick  Whittington  public-house, 


32    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

is  a  railed-in  stone  supposed  to  occupy  the  exact  site 
of  the  one  on  which  the  penniless  boy,  the  future  Sir 
Richard  Whittington,  rested,  weary  and  worn  from 
his  long  tramp  on  foot,  and  heard  the  bells  ring  out : 
'Turn  again,  Whittington,  thrice  Lord  Mayor  of 
London  Town.' 

Within  sight  of  this  stone  are  the  Whittington 
Almshouses,  that  represent  those  of  the  ancient 
foundation  of  Sir  Richard  in  Paternoster  Row,  and 
were  built  in  1822  by  the  Mercers  Company,  as 
trustees  of  the  Lord  Mayor's  will  made  in  1421, 
bequeathing  the  funds  for  erecting  and  endowing  a 
college  of  priests  and  choristers,  and  building  homes 
for  thirteen  poor  men.  With  their  picturesque  chapel 
and  general  air  of  comfort,  it  must  be  owned  that 
they  contrast  favourably  with  the  ancient  almshouses 
not  far  off  in  Southwood  Lane,  that  were  founded  in 
1658  by  Sir  John  Wollaston,  and  added  to  seventy 
years  later  by  Edward  Pauncefoot. 

Within  the  grounds  of  Waterlow  Park,  part  of 
which  was  given  to  the  public  by  Sir  Sydney  Water- 
low,  is  the  famous  Lauderdale  House,  built  about 
1650,  that  was  long  the  residence  of  the  infamous 
Viceroy  of  Scotland  under  Charles  II.,  the  Duke  of 
Lauderdale,  who  was  probably  often  visited  in  it  by 
his  venial  tool,  Archbishop  Sharp.  To  Lauderdale 
House  the  dissipated  king  brought  the  merry-hearted 
Nell  Gwynn,  and  it  was  here  that  she  is  said  to  have 
forced  her  royal  lover  to  acknowledge  himself  to  be 
the  father  of  her  boy,  the  future  Duke  of  St.  Albans, 
by  threatening  to  drop  the  child  out  of  the  window 
if  he  refused  to  do  so. 


HIGHGATE  33 

Quite  close  to  Lauderdale  House,  in  a  cottage  that 
was  pulled  down  in  1869,  lived  the  poet -patriot 
Andrew  Marvell,  who  was  the  friend  of  Milton  and  the 
bitter  enemy  of  his  fair  neighbour  Nell  Gwynn,  who 
tried  in  vain  to  soften  his  animosity.  Opposite  to 
Marvell's  cottage,  in  Cromwell  House,  now  a  branch 
of  the  Ormond  Street  Children's  Hospital,  resided 
General  Ireton  and  his  wife  Bridget,  the  daughter  of 
the  Protector ;  and  a  little  higher  up,  in  what  is  now 
called  the  Bank,  was  Arundel  House,  the  seat  of  the 
Earls  of  Arundel,  supposed  to  have  been  at  one  time 
the  residence  of  Sir  Thomas  Cornwallis,  and  to  have 
been  visited  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  15 89  and  James  I. 
in  1604.  It  is,  however,  more  famous  as  having  been 
the  death-place  of  Francis  Bacon,  who  expired  in  it 
in  1626,  his  end  having  been  hastened,  it  is  popularly 
believed,  through  an  experiment  he  tried  on  his  way 
from  London  with  a  view  to  finding  out  whether 
flesh  could  be  preserved  in  snow. 

The  courageous  William  Prynne,  who  was  so 
cruelly  maltreated  on  3Oth  June  1637,  and  his  fellow- 
sufferers  for  conscience'  sake,  Dr.  Bastwick  and  the 
Rev.  Henry  Burton,  were  often  at  Highgate  ;  to  the 
house  of  Sir  Thomas  Abney,  Dr.  Watts  came  more 
than  once ;  and  the  famous  Jacobite  prelate,  Bishop 
Atterbury,  was  the  frequent  guest  of  his  brother  Dr. 
Atterbury,  when  the  latter  was  minister  of  Highgate 
chapel.  In  a  house  on  the  Green  lived  and  died  Dr. 
Henry  Sacheverel,  the  leader  of  the  Tory  party  in 
the  struggle  of  1709,  and  the  intimate  friend  of 
Addison.  Sir  Richard  Baker,  author  of  the  Chronicles 
of  England,  who  died  in  the  Fleet  Prison  in  great 


34    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

poverty  in  1645,  wrote  much  of  his  valuable  work  in 
a  house  on  the  Hill.  The  famous  Calvinistic  Metho- 
dist, Selina,  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  who  chose  the 
eloquent  preacher  Whitefield  as  one  of  her  favourite 
chaplains,  resided  for  some  time  in  Highgate  ;  and 
Church  House  on  the  Green  was  long  the  home  of 
Sir  John  Hawkins,  the  author  of  the  Standard 
History  of  Music,  who  used  to  drive  to  London  every 
day  in  a  coach  and  four. 

Hogarth,  whilst  he  was  apprentice  to  a  silver- 
smith, was  fond  of  going  to  the  still  standing 
but  much  altered  Flask  Inn,  outside  which  the 
Whitsun  morris-dancers  used  to  foot  it  merrily  for 
the  'honour  of  Holloway,'  as  described  in  the  popular 
comedy  Jack  Dunn's  Entertainment,  first  published 
in  1601.  The  great  painter  is  said  to  have  delighted 
in  making  sketches  of  the  frequenters  of  the  bar 
at  the  Flask  Inn,  especially  of  the  tipsy  brawlers, 
whose  distorted  grimaces  he  hit  off  to  the  life.  At 
another  well-known  hostelry,  the  Bull  Inn,  on  the 
Great  North  Road,  looking  down  upon  Finchley, 
George  Morland,  an  artist  of  a  very  different  type 
to  Hogarth,  was  a  familiar  figure,  for  he  found 
plenty  of  congenial  subjects  near  by,  and  was  on 
friendly  terms  with  the  drivers  of  all  the  stage- 
coaches that  halted  at  the  tavern.  He  used,  it  is 
said,  to  settle  his  score  with  mine  host  with  sketches 
which,  if  they  could  now  be  traced,  would  be  worth 
as  many  hundreds  of  pounds  as  shillings  they  then 
represented. 

Occupying  a  commanding  position  on  the  west 
of  the  Green  was  the  stately  mansion  Dorchester 


HIGHGATE  35 

House,  the  seat  of  Henry,  Marquis  of  Dorchester, 
from  whom  it  was  purchased  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  II.  by  the  eccentric  philanthropist  William 
Blake,  who  turned  it  into  a  school  that  ceased  to 
exist  in  1688.  The  mansion,  after  various  vicissi- 
tudes, was  pulled  down  ;  and  in  one  of  the  houses, 
now  No.  3  The  Grove,  that  were  built  on  its  site,  the 
poet  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  lived  as  the  paying- 
guest  of  a  surgeon  named  Gilman  for  nineteen  years. 
There  he  was  often  visited  by  Wordsworth,  Shelley, 
Keats,  Leigh  Hunt,  Charles  Lamb,  Henry  Crabb 
Robinson,  Edward  Irving,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cowden 
Clarke — the  latter  of  whom  has  eloquently  described 
her  stay  with  the  poet  in  her  charming  book, 
My  Long  Life — and  Thomas  Carlyle,  who  dwelt 
enthusiastically  on  the  glorious  view  from  the 
windows  of  the  house,  that  is  still,  by  the  way,  much 
what  it  was  in  Coleridge's  time. 

The  parish  church  of  Highgate,  in  which  there  is 
a  tablet  with  a  long  inscription  to  the  memory  of 
Coleridge,  and  part  of  the  cemetery  occupy  the  site 
of  the  mansion-house  built  in  1694  by  Sir  William 
Ashurst,  then  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  the  villas 
of  the  present  Fitzroy  Park  replace  a  fine  old  house 
erected  in  1780  by  Lord  Southampton,  and  named 
after  him.  In  one  of  the  new  houses  on  this  beauti- 
ful estate  lived  the  well-known  sanitary  reformer 
Dr.  Southwood  Smith,  and  near  to  the  Park  is 
Dufferin  Lodge,  the  seat  of  Lord  Dufferin,  that  was 
the  maiden  home  of  the  eloquent  writer,  the  Hon- 
ourable Mrs.  Norton,  grand-daughter  of  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan. 


36    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

In  a  little  house  known  as  the  Hermitage,  on 
West  Hill,  where  a  modern  terrace  now  stands,  and 
opposite  to  which  there  used  to  be  an  ash-tree 
popularly  supposed  to  have  been  planted  by  Nelson 
when  he  was  a  boy,  dwelt  the  notorious  gambler 
Sir  Wallis  Porter,  who  was  often  joined  there  by 
the  Prince  Regent ;  and  it  was  in  it  that  the  forger 
Henry  Fauntleroy  is  said  to  have  long  lain  hidden 
from  the  officers  of  the  law  in  search  of  him.  In 
Millfield  Lane,  and  in  the  charming  little  Ivy  Cottage, 
now  enlarged  and  known  as  Brookfield  House,  the 
famous  comedian,  Charles  Mathews,  dwelt  for  many 
years.  Millfield  Cottage,  next  door  to  it,  was  for  a 
time  a  favourite  retreat  of  John  Ruskin,  and  in  the 
same  lane,  as  related  by  Leigh  Hunt  in  his  Lord 
Byron  and  his  Contemporaries ;  John  Keats  presented 
his  brother  poet  with  a  volume  of  his  poems,  the 
first  of  many  generous  gifts. 

West  Hill,  Highgate,  is  associated  with  several 
interesting  memories.  It  was  on  it  that  Queen 
Victoria,  in  the  year  after  her  accession,  was  saved 
from  what  might  have  been  a  very  serious  accident 
by  the  landlord  of  the  neighbouring  Fox  and  Crown 
Inn,  who  arrested  the  frightened  horses  of  the  royal 
carriage,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  as  they  were 
dashing  down  the  steep  descent.  In  West  Hill 
Lodge  the  poets  William  and  Mary  Howitt  lived 
and  worked  for  several  years,  and  not  far  from  their 
old  home  is  Holly  Lodge,  once  the  residence  of  the 
Duchess  of  St.  Albans,  and  long  the  home  of  the 
generous  and  hospitable  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts,  a 
worthy  successor  of  her  aristocratic  predecessor,  who 


HORNSEY  37 

built  in  Swain's  Lane  hard  by  a  group  of  model 
cottages  known  as  Holly  Village. 

In  the  picturesque  cottage  opposite  to  the  chief 
entrance  to  the  grounds  of  Holly  Lodge  the  philan- 
thropist Judge  Payne  died  in  1870;  David  Williams, 
founder  of  the  Royal  Literary  Fund,  and  Dr. 
Rochemond  Barbauld,  husband  of  the  authoress, 
were  at  different  times  ministers  of  the  Presby- 
terian chapel  in  Southwood  Lane;  and  on  the  site 
of  the  once  notorious  Black  Dog  Tavern,  on  the 
hill  going  down  to  Holloway,  are  the  chapel  and 
home  of  the  Passionist  Fathers,  from  which,  instead 
of  the  ribald  songs  of  drunken  revellers,  perpetual 
prayers  now  go  up  for  the  restoration  of  England  to 
the  mother  church  of  Rome. 

Little  now  remains  of  the  beautiful  forests  which 
were  for  many  centuries  one  of  the  most  distinctive 
characteristics  of  the  northern  heights  of  London, 
though  there  are  still  some  unenclosed  portions  of 
the  vast  estate  that  belonged  to  the  Bishop  of 
London,  such  as  Highgate  and  Caen  Woods,  where  it 
is  possible  to  forget  for  a  time  the  near  neighbour- 
hood of  the  ever-growing  towns  of  Hampstead  and 
Highgate.  Equally  rapid  has  been  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  two  mother  parishes  of  Hendon  and 
of  Hornsey,  that  from  isolated  picturesque  villages 
have  grown  into  suburbs  of  the  great  metropolis. 
The  latter  especially  retains  scarcely  anything  to 
recall  the  days  when  it  was  a  favourite  summer 
retreat  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  who  had  a  palace 
in  the  park  of  Haringay,  as  it  was  called,  until  the 
time  of  Elizabeth,  on  Lodge  Hill,  on  the  outskirts  of 


38    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

what  later  became  the  property  of  Lord  Mansfield. 
The  little  forest  hamlet  of  Haringay,  in  which  the 
bishop's  retainers  used  to  live,  was  probably  situated 
in  the  heart  of  the  wood,  now  replaced  by  Finsbury 
Park,  and  its  one  inn,  pulled  down  so  recently  as 
1866,  became  in  course  of  time  first  a  noted  tea- 
house, and  later  a  place  of  resort  of  the  aristocracy, 
who  used  to  practise  pigeon-shooting  in  its  garden. 

With  Hornsey  Park  are  associated  many  interest- 
ing historic  memories.  It  was,  for  instance,  in  it 
that  the  discontented  nobles  used  to  meet  to  concert 
measures  against  the  hated  favourite  of  Richard  II., 
Robert  de  Vere,  Earl  of  Oxford.  In  its  palace  the 
Duchess  of  Gloucester  and  her  confederates,  the 
astrologer  Richard  Bolingbroke  and  the  Rev.  Canon 
Southwell,  concocted  the  plot  against  the  life  of 
Henry  VI.,  and  it  was  there  that  the  last-named  was 
accused  of  invoking  at  the  celebration  of  mass  the 
blessing  of  God  on  the  evil  enterprise,  an  incident 
turned  to  account  by  Shakespeare  in  his  play  of 
Henry  VI.  Through  Hornsey  and  Highgate  rode 
Richard  III.  when  still  Duke  of  Gloucester,  after  the 
sudden  death  of  Edward  IV.,  accompanied  by  the 
doomed  boy -king  Edward  V.,  and  it  was  in  the 
outskirts  of  the  park  that  the  royal  procession  was 
met  by  the  mayor  and  corporation  of  London. 
Almost  on  the  same  spot  Henry  VII.  was  later  wel- 
comed by  the  loyal  citizens  of  his  capital  on  his  way 
back  from  a  successful  expedition  against  Scotland, 
and  there  is  a  tradition  that  after  the  execution  at 
Smithfield,  in  1305,  of  the  Scottish  patriot  Sir 
William  Wallace,  his  dismembered  remains  were 


HENDON  39 

allowed  to  rest  for  a  night,  on  their  way  north,  in 
the  bishop's  chapel. 

The  ivy-clad  tower,  bearing  the  arms  of  Bishops 
Savage  and  Warham,  who  occupied  the  see  of 
London,  the  former  from  1497  to  1500,  the  latter 
from  1500  to  1504,  is  all  that  now  remains  of  the 
ancient  church  of  Hornsey  that  was  founded  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  new  building  that 
was  skilfully  added  on  to  the  tower  was  begun  in 
1832,  and  is  said  to  have  been  constructed  of  the 
materials  of  the  bishop's  palace.  It  contains  little 
of  interest  except  a  kneeling  effigy  of  a  certain 
Francis  Masters,  a  boy  of  about  sixteen,  and  the 
monument  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Atterbury,  removed  from 
Highgate  Chapel  on  its  demolition,  but  in  the 
churchyard  is  the  tomb  of  the  poet  Samuel  Rogers, 
who  died  in  London  in  1855. 

Hendon,  which  for  many  centuries  has  enjoyed 
the  singular  privilege,  first  granted  in  1066,  of  im- 
munity from  all  tolls,  has  retained  far  more  of  its 
ancient  rural  character  than  either  Highgate  or 
Hornsey,  for  in  spite  of  the  many  modern  villas 
that  have  of  late  years  sprung  up  within  its  boun- 
daries, it  is  still  a  village  in  touch  with  the  open 
country.  Its  church,  though  not  architecturally 
beautiful,  is  finely  situated  on  a  lofty  hill,  and  its 
picturesque,  well  laid  out  churchyard,  in  which  rest 
Nathaniel  Hone  the  painter  and  Abraham  Raim- 
bach  the  engraver,  commands  a  charming  and  ex- 
tensive view,  taking  in  Harrow,  Edgware,  Stanmore, 
Elstree,  and  Mill  Hill,  with  the  distant  heights  of 
Buckinghamshire  and  Hertfordshire. 


40    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

The  ancient  manor  of  Hendon  belonged  at  the 
time  of  the  Conquest  to  the  abbots  of  Westminster, 
but  changed  hands  many  times  between  the  twelfth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  The  old  manor-house 
(replaced  first  by  an  Elizabethan  mansion  and  later 
by  the  present  Hendon  Place,  built  about  1850)  was 
sometimes  occupied  by  the  ecclesiastical  owners, 
and  in  it,  as  the  guest  of  the  reigning  abbot  of 
Westminster,  Cardinal  Wolsey  rested  in  Holy 
Week  1530  on  his  way  from  Richmond  to  York 
after  his  fall.  In  1757  the  manor-house  was  sold 
by  the  Earl  of  Powis,  to  whose  family  it  had  long 
belonged,  to  the  actor  David  Garrick,  since  whose 
death  it  has  changed  hands  more  than  once. 

The  various  rivulets  that  unite  to  form  the  Brent 
take  their  rise  in  Hendon  parish,  and  within  its 
bounds  is  the  beautiful  open  space,  three  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  in  extent,  known  as  the  Wyldes,  a 
name  that  probably  means  the  lonely  or  the  unen- 
closed, that  was  for  more  than  four  centuries  the 
property  of  Eton  College,  to  which  it  was  given  in 
1449  by  the  founder,  Henry  VI.  Part  of  this  fine 
estate  has  recently  been  bought  for  the  public  and 
added  to  Hampstead  Heath,  and  the  remainder,  if 
the  necessary  funds  can  be  collected,  is  to  be  ac- 
quired for  the  formation  of  a  garden  suburb,  which, 
if  it  is  ever  laid  out  according  to  the  present  plans, 
will  be  an  ideal  addition  to  the  attractions  of  the 
northern  heights  of  London.  The  ancient  home 
farm  of  the  Wyldes  is  still  standing  on  the  edge 
of  Hampstead  Heath,  but  it  remains  a  private  resi- 
dence, and  is  not  included  in  the  scheme  of  purchase. 


HENDON  41 

Its  fine  barns  and  outhouses  have  been  thrown  into 
one  house,  the  red-tiled  roofs  and  weather-boarded 
walls  of  which  present  very  much  the  same  ap- 
pearance that  they  did  several  centuries  ago,  and 
the  quaint  old  homestead,  long  known  as  Collin's 
Farm,  but  now  renamed  the  Wyldes,  has  long  been 
a  favourite  haunt  of  artists  and  authors.  In  it  the 
painter  John  Linnell  and  his  family  resided  for  a 
long  time,  receiving  amongst  their  many  guests 
Constable,  Morland,  and  Blake ;  and  when  they 
removed  to  London  in  1827  their  rooms  were  occu- 
pied successively  by  Samuel  Lever,  Charles  Dickens, 
and  Birket  Foster.  Ford  Madox  Brown,  Edward 
Carpenter,  the  Russian  author  Stepniak,  and  Olive 
Schreiner  were  often  at  the  Wyldes  ;  and  the  whole 
neighbourhood  of  Hendon  was  dear  to  Mrs.  Alfred 
Scott  Gatty,  the  authoress  of  Parables  from  Nature, 
who  spent  much  of  her  girlhood  at  the  vicarage. 

Within  an  easy  walk  of  Hendon,  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Brent,  is  the  still  picturesque  village  of 
Kingsbury,  supposed  to  occupy  the  site  of  one  of 
Caesar's  camps,  and  to  have  got  its  name  from  its 
having  been  the  property  of  King  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, who  gave  it  to  the  Abbey  of  Westminster. 
The  quaint  little  church  of  St.  Andrew,  said  to  be 
built  of  Roman  bricks  and  to  retain  traces  of  Saxon 
work,  all  now  hidden  in  a  coating  of  rough  cast,  is 
set  on  a  hill  amidst  venerable  elm-trees  dominating 
the  village,  which  contains  many  typical  old-fashioned 
cottages,  and  on  the  east  is  the  beautiful  Kingsbury 
Lake,  or  Welsh  Harp,  an  artificial  reservoir  some 
three  hundred  and  fifty  acres  in  extent,  formed  on 


42    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  eastern  course  of  the  Brent  as  a  source  of  supply 
for  the  Regent's  Park  Locks,  a  most  successful  piece 
of  engineering  work,  presenting  the  appearance  of  a 
natural  sheet  of  water,  that  is  a  favourite  haunt  of 
a  great  variety  of  water-fowl,  and  is  well  stocked 
with  fish.  Unfortunately,  the  opening  of  the  Welsh 
Harp  racecourse  and  station,  both  named  after  an 
ancient  inn  hard  by,  has  done  much  to  destroy  the 
peaceful  seclusion  of  the  beautiful  district  of  Kings- 
bury,  but  country  lanes  still  lead  from  it  in  many 
directions,  in  one  of  which,  running  eastward  towards 
Edgware  Road,  is  the  farmhouse  called  High  or 
Hyde  House,  in  which  Oliver  Goldsmith  lived  for 
some  time,  calling  his  temporary  home  the  Shoe- 
makers' Paradise,  because  of  a  tradition  that  it  was 
built  by  a  votary  of  St.  Crispin,  the  patron  saint  of 
workers  in  leather.  There  many  choice  spirits  visited 
the  poet,  and  Boswell  relates  that  he  once  called  at 
the  Shoemakers'  Paradise,  and  Goldsmith  being  out 
at  the  time,  he  nevertheless, '  having  a  curiosity  to 
see  his  apartments,  went  in  and  found  curious  scraps 
of  descriptions  of  animals  scrawled  upon  the  walls 
with  a  black  lead  pencil,'  evidently  notes  for  the 
History  of  Animated  Nature. 

Two  miles  north  of  Hendon,  with  which  it  is  con- 
nected by  a  beautiful  lane  leading  through  fields,  is 
the  village  of  Mill  Hill,  the  church  of  which,  a  some- 
what commonplace  structure,  was  founded  in  1829 
by  the  philanthropist  William  Wilberforce.  Opposite 
to  it  is  the  Congregationalist  College,  that  occupies 
the  site  of  the  beautiful  Botanic  Garden  laid  out 
by  the  well-known  botanist  Peter  Collinson,  the 


HARROW  43 

friend  and  fellow-worker  of  Linnaeus,  who  was  often 
with  him  at  Mill  Hill ;  and  not  far  off  is  St.  Joseph's 
College  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  with  a  fine  chapel  and 
campanile,  the  latter  surmounted  by  a  statue  of  the 
patron  saint,  that  is  a  landmark  for  many  miles 
round. 

From  the  loftier  Highwood  Hill,  close  to  Mill 
Hill,  a  noble  view  is  obtained  of  the  beautiful 
Harrow  Weald,  that  stretches  away  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  to  Harrow-on-the-Hill,  and  is 
dotted  with  picturesque  villages  and  hamlets,  some 
of  which  are  still  unspoiled  by  the  invasion  of  the 
builder.  The  Hill,  crowned  by  the  parish  church 
and  famous  school  of  Harrow,  rises  up  abruptly 
from  an  undulating  plain,  and  forms  a  conspicuous 
feature  of  the  whole  neighbourhood,  for  it  is  visible 
from  many  widely  separated  points  of  the  northern, 
southern,  and  south-western  suburbs  of  London. 
The  name  of  Harrow,  that  is  a  modern  adaptation 
of  the  Herges  of  Doomsday  Book,  is  differently 
interpreted  by  scholars,  some  being  of  opinion  that 
it  signifies  the  church,  others  the  military  camp  on 
the  hill.  In  any  case,  the  manor  was  held  soon 
after  the  Conquest  by  Archbishop  Lanfranc,  and 
remained  in  the  possession  of  his  successors  until 
I543>  when  Archbishop  Cranmer  exchanged  it  with 
Henry  VIII.  for  other  property.  Three  years  later 
it  was  given  to  Sir  Edward,  afterwards  Lord,  North, 
and  after  changing  hands  several  times,  it  passed 
to  the  Rushout  family,  to  whose  present  repre- 
sentative it  now  belongs. 

The   exact  site   of  the   ancient   manor-house  of 


44    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Harrow  is  not  known,  for  its  ecclesiastical  owners 
early  removed  to  a  mansion  at  Haggeston,  now 
Headstone,  near  Pinner,  supposed  to  have  been 
close  to  the  present  manor  farm.  However  that 
may  be,  it  seems  certain  that  in  1170,  soon  after 
his  return  home  from  France,  the  great  Archbishop 
Thomas  a  Becket  spent  several  days  at  Harrow-on- 
the-Hill,  for  the  story  goes  that  he  was  on  that 
occasion  so  grievously  insulted  by  the  rector  of  the 
parish,  the  Rev.  Nizel  de  Sackville,  that  he  revenged 
himself  by  excommunicating  him  from  the  altar  of 
Canterbury  Cathedral  on  the  following  Christmas 
Day,  just  four  days  before  his  own  assassination  in 
the  same  building.  The  parish  church  of  Harrow 
was  built  by  Archbishop  Lanfranc,  who  died  just 
before  its  consecration,  a  ceremony  that  was  per- 
formed by  his  successor,  the  greatly  venerated  St. 
Anselm,  who,  it  is  related,  was  interrupted  during 
the  service  by  two  canons  sent  by  the  Bishop  of 
London  to  contest  his  right  to  officiate  on  the 
occasion.  The  sacred  oil,  it  is  said,  was  carried 
off  by  the  emissaries,  so  that  the  service  could  not 
proceed,  and  the  point  at  issue  was  later  submitted 
to  St.  Wulstan,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  the  sole  re- 
maining Saxon  prelate  of  England,  who  decided  in 
favour  of  St.  Anselm,  since  which  time  the  special 
rights  at  Harrow  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
have  never  again  been  called  in  question. 

All  that  now  remains  of  the  building  associated 
with  Archbishop  Lanfranc  and  St.  Anselm  is  the 
lower  portion  of  the  tower,  the  western  gateway, 
which  has  well-preserved  Norman  pillars,  and  a  finely 


HARROW  45 

sculptured  lintel.  The  massive  stone  font  is,  how- 
ever, probably  the  very  one  in  which  baptisms  took 
place  in  the  eleventh  century.  The  main  body  of 
the  present  church — that  was  recently  well  restored 
and  enlarged  under  the  direction  of  Sir  Gilbert  Scott 
— dates  from  the  fifteenth  century.  Its  most  note- 
worthy features  are  the  lead-encased  wooden  spire, 
the  stone  porch  with  the  priest's  chamber  above 
it,  and  the  open  timber  roof  with  figures  of  angels 
playing  on  musical  instruments  on  the  corbels.  In  the 
church  are  several  interesting  fourteenth,  fifteenth, 
and  sixteenth  century  brasses,and  in  the  churchyard  is 
a  much  defaced  ancient  tombstone  known  as  Byron's 
Tomb,  on  which  the  poet,  who  was  educated  at 
Harrow,  was  fond  of  resting,  and  to  which  he  re- 
ferred in  an  often-quoted  letter  to  his  publisher, 
Mr.  John  Murray,  dated  May  26,  1822,  and  also 
in  the  well-known  lines — 

'  Again  I  behold  where  for  hours  I  have  ponder'd, 

As  reclining,  at  eve,  on  yon  tombstone  I  lay  ; 
Or  round  the  steep  brow  of  the  churchyard  I  wander'd, 
To  catch  the  last  gleam  of  the  sun's  setting  ray.' 

The  view  from  Byron's  Tomb,  now  enclosed  within 
railings,  from  the  terrace  outside  the  churchyard, 
the  school  buildings,  and  other  points  of  vantage 
on  the  Hill,  is  not  perhaps  quite  so  inspiring  as  that 
from  Hampstead  Heath  immortalised  by  Constable, 
but  there  is  a  quiet  charm  about  it,  and  it  is  very 
extensive,  embracing  parts  of  Surrey,  Buckingham- 
shire, and  Berkshire,  with  Windsor  Castle,  the  Crystal 
Palace,  and  Leith  Hill  Tower  as  its  most  con- 
spicuous features. 


46    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

The  chief  interest  of  Harrow  is,  of  course,  the 
famous  school,  that  ranks  second  only  to  Eton 
amongst  the  great  centres  of  education  in  England, 
and  is  intimately  associated  with  the  memory  of 
many  distinguished  men,  including  amongst  the 
headmasters  Dr.  Vaughan,  who  ruled  from  1844  to 
1859,  and  his  successor  Dr.  Butler,  who  held  office 
until  1885  ;  while  amongst  the  students  were  the 
intrepid  traveller  James  Bruce,  the  Oriental  Sir 
William  Jones,  the  accomplished  scholar  Dr.  Samuel 
Parr,  Admiral  Lord  Rodney,  the  witty  writer  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan,  the  novelist  Theodore  Hook,  the 
statesmen  Sir  Robert  Peel,  Lord  Ripon,  Lord  Aber- 
deen, Lord  Palmerston,  and  Sir  Spencer  Perceval, 
Cardinal  Manning,  Archbishop  Trench,  the  philan- 
thropist Lord  Shaftesbury,  and,  most  celebrated  of 
them  all,  the  poet  Lord  Byron. 

Founded  in  1571  by  John  Lyon,  a  yeoman  of  the 
hamlet  of  Preston,  to  whom  there  is  a  fine  brass  in 
Harrow  Church,  the  school  had  in  it  from  the  first 
the  elements  of  growth,  and  its  interests  were 
watched  over  with  untiring  care  for  twenty  years 
by  its  generous  originator.  No  detail  was  too  trivial 
for  his  consideration,  and  the  statutes  laid  down  by 
him  were  eminently  practicable  yet  sufficiently 
elastic  to  allow  of  future  development,  though  their 
simple-hearted  author  certainly  never  dreamt  of 
what  that  development  was  to  be.  The  salaries  of 
the  masters,  the  books  to  be  used,  were  all  specified ; 
and  it  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  very  special  stress 
was  laid  on  the  exercise  of  shooting,  all  parents 
being  bound  to  give  their  boys  '  bowstrings,  shafts, 


HARROW  47 

and  braces,'  that  they  might  practise  archery,  which 
at  that  time  represented  what  rifle-shooting  does 
now.  To  arouse  the  ambition  of  the  students,  a 
prize  of  a  silver  arrow  was  given  every  year  to  the 
best  marksman  out  of  six  or  twelve  carefully  selected 
competitors,  and  it  was  not  until  1771  that  the 
ancient  custom  was  discontinued  by  the  then  head- 
master, Dr.  Heath,  on  account,  he  said,  of  the  rowdy 
crowds  who  used  to  flock  from  London  to  witness 
the  contests,  and  the  serious  interruption  it  caused 
in  the  routine  of  the  school  work.  The  butts  at 
which  the  students,  in  picturesque  costumes  of  white 
and  green,  used  to  shoot,  and  the  little  hill  on  which 
they  stood,  are  gone,  their  place  being  taken  by 
modern  houses ;  but  the  silver  arrow  made  for  the 
competition  of  1772  is  preserved  in  the  school 
library,  a  silent  witness  to  John  Lyon's  recognition 
of  the  fact,  on  which  Lord  Roberts  and  other  en- 
lightened patriots  are  now  laying  such  stress,  that 
every  boy  should  learn  how  to  aid  in  the  defence  of 
his  native  country. 

The  first  endowment  of  Harrow  School  was  made 
in  1575,  when  Lyon  bequeathed  to  the  governors 
certain  lands  at  Harrow  and  Preston  ;  but  it  was  not 
until  1615,  twenty  years  after  his  death,  that  his 
instructions  were  carried  out  for  the  building  of  a 
'large  and  convenient  schoolhouse,  three  stories 
high,  with  a  chimney  in  it,  and  meet  and  convenient 
roomes  for  the  schoolmaster  and  usher  to  dwell  in, 
and  a  cellar  under  the  said  roomes  to  lay  in  wood 
and  coales  .  .  .  divided  into  three  several  roomes, 
one  for  ye  master,  the  second  for  ye  usher,  and  the 


48    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

third  for  ye  schollers.'  Until  1650  this  house  met 
all  the  requirements  of  the  institution,  the  students 
boarding,  as  they  do  now,  in  outlying  houses ;  and 
the  big  class-room,  known  for  many  generations  as 
the  Fourth  Form  Room,  with  the  three  small  apart- 
ments above  it  and  the  attic  called  the  Cockloft,  still 
remain  much  what  they  were  four  hundred  years 
ago,  and  are  venerated  by  all  Harrovians  as  the  most 
ancient  portion  of  their  beloved  school.  The  rest  of 
the  present  buildings  are  all  modern  ;  a  new  wing 
with  a  speech-room,  class-rooms,  and  a  library,  were 
added  in  1819,  and  in  1877  ft  was  m  'l^s  turn  supple- 
mented by  yet  another  speech-room.  The  chapel 
now  in  use  replaces  two  earlier  ones,  and  was  built 
in  1857,  after  the  designs  of  Sir  Gilbert  Scott.  The 
Vaughan  library,  commemorating  the  headmaster 
after  whom  it  is  named,  was  opened  in  1863  ;  and 
the  beautiful  Museum  buildings,  that  are  perhaps 
the  most  satisfactory  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view 
of  the  recent  erections,  were  completed  in  1886. 


CHAPTER    III 

SOME  INTERESTING  VILLAGES   NORTH  OF  LONDON, 
WITH  WALTHAM  ABBEY  AND  EPPING  FOREST 

OF  the  many  beautiful  villages  north  of  London 
that  have  of  late  years  been  transformed  into 
suburbs  of  the  ever-growing  metropolis,  few  retain 
any  of  their  original  character,  or  can,  strictly  speak- 
ing, be  called  picturesque.  Tottenham,  in  spite  of 
its  fine  situation,  with  the  river  Lea  forming  its 
eastern  and  the  New  River  its  western  boundaries, 
is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  town,  the  re- 
stored High  Cross,  about  which  there  has  been  so 
much  learned  controversy,  the  ancient  parish  church, 
and  two  or  three  old  houses  near  the  green,  alone 
bearing  witness  to  the  good  old  times  when  the 
quaint  poem  of  The  Tournament  of  Tottenham  was 
written.  It  is  much  the  same  with  Edmonton,  where, 
in  the  still  standing  Bay  Cottage,  Charles  Lamb 
lived  for  some  time  and  died,  and  in  the  churchyard 
of  which  he  and  his  sister  are  buried,  and  where 
John  Keats  served  his  apprenticeship  to  a  surgeon 
and  wrote  his  earliest  poems.  It  bears  but  a  faint 
resemblance  to  the  village  into  which  John  Gilpin 
of  immortal  fame  dashed  on  his  famous  ride  after 


So    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

his  vain  attempt  to  pull  up  at  the  Bell  Inn,  on  the 
left-hand  side  of  the  road  from  London.  The  once 
charming  little  hamlet  of  Whetstone,  too,  a  short  dis- 
tance further  north,  where,  according  to  local  tradi- 
tion, the  soldiers  halted  to  sharpen  their  swords  on  the 
way  to  Barnet  Field,  is  rapidly  losing  its  rural  appear- 
ance. On  the  other  hand,  the  scattered  settlement 
of  Friern  Barnet — beyond  the  completely  modernised 
Finchley — with  its  picturesque  church  that  retains  a 
fine  Norman  doorway,  is  still  quite  a  country  place ; 
whilst  Edgware,  the  two  Stanmores,  Elstree,  High 
Barnet,  East  Barnet,  and  Enfield,  though  they  too 
are  already  marked  for  destruction,  are  as  yet  full  of 
the  aroma  of  the  past.  Edgware,  situated  on  the 
ancient  Watling  Street,  prides  itself  on  owning  the 
forge  in  which  Handel,  having  taken  refuge  from  a 
storm,  was  inspired  by  the  rhythmic  beats  of  the 
hammer  on  the  anvil  with  the  famous  melody  of  the 
*  Harmonious  Blacksmith ' ;  and  it  also  owns  several 
quaint  old  inns,  one  of  which,  the  Chandos  Arms, 
preserving  the  memory  of  the  great  mansion — known 
as  The  Canons,  because  it  occupied  the  site  of  a 
monastery — that  was  built  for  the  Duke  of  Chandos 
whilst  he  held  the  lucrative  post  of  paymaster  to  the 
forces,  but  was  pulled  down  after  his  death  by  his 
successor.  Fortunately,  however,  the  richly  decorated 
private  chapel  of  The  Canons,  in  which  Handel  was 
organist  from  1718  to  1721,  and  containing  the 
organ  on  which  he  played,  is  still  preserved  as  part 
of  the  parish  church  of  Little  Stanmore,  or  Whit- 
church,  a  pretty  village  about  half  a  mile  from 
Edgware,  and  in  its  graveyard  Handel  and  the 


HIGH  BARNET  51 

blacksmith  whose  name  is  so  closely  associated  with 
his  are  buried  not  far  from  each  other. 

Great  Stanmore,  near  to  which  are  the  eighteenth- 
century  mansion  known  as  Bentley  Priory,  replacing 
a  suppressed  monastery,  and  the  beautiful  Stanmore 
Park,  the  seat  of  Lord  Wolverton,  is  beautifully 
situated  on  a  hill  commanding  very  extensive  views, 
and  has  two  churches,  one  now  disused,  containing 
some  interesting  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
effigies,  the  other  a  somewhat  uninteresting  modern 
building.  The  chief  charm  of  the  old-fashioned 
village  of  Elstree,  originally  called  Eaglestree,  be- 
cause it  was  much  frequented  by  eagles,  is  the  fine 
artificial  reservoir  haunted  by  water-fowl,  which  is 
nearly  as  extensive  as  that  of  Kingsbury,  and  it  also 
owns  a  beautiful  old  Elizabethan  mansion. 

High  Barnet,  also  known  as  Chipping  Barnet,  is  a 
far  more  important  place  than  Edgware  or  the  Stan- 
mores,  and  is  supposed  to  date  from  Anglo-Saxon 
times.  Its  site,  with  that  of  East  Barnet,  both  once 
covered  with  the  forest  of  Southaw,  belonged  to  the 
abbots  of  St.  Albans,  to  whom  Henry  I.  granted 
the  privilege  of  holding  a  weekly  market  in  it,  and 
it  is  still  the  chief  cattle-mart  of  the  district,  a  great 
fair  taking  place  there  every  year  in  September. 
The  church,  dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
founded  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  in  which  is  a  fine  monument  to  Thomas  Ravens- 
croft,  a  local  worthy  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was 
originally  very  characteristic  of  the  time  at  which  it 
was  built,  with  a  well-proportioned  nave  and  aisles, 
and  square  embattled  tower  ;  but  it  has  been  added 


52    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

to  from  time  to  time,  with  unsatisfactory  results. 
To  make  up  for  this,  the  ancient  grammar-school, 
now  used  as  a  dining-hall  only,  the  charter  of  which 
was  granted  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  her  beloved 
Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leicester,  is  much  what  it 
was  when  completed  in  1575,  the  new  buildings  that 
supplement  it  being  quite  distinct. 

On  the  common,  about  a  mile  from  High  Barnet, 
there  is  a  spring  of  medicinal  water  that  was  held 
in  high  esteem  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  and  is  often  referred  to  in  contemporary 
records.  A  farmhouse  now  occupies  the  site  of  the  old 
spa,  but  the  actual  well,  though  covered  over,  is  even 
now  occasionally  resorted  to  by  invalids,  to  whom 
the  water  is  supplied  by  means  of  a  small  pump. 
The  chief  claim  to  distinction  of  the  village  is,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  near  to  the  scene  of  the  great  battle 
of  1471  between  the  Lancastrians  and  Yorkists,  at 
which  the  former  were  defeated,  the  mighty  king- 
maker, the  Earl  of  Warwick,  was  slain,  and  Edward  IV. 
firmly  established  on  the  throne. 

There  has  been  much  heated  controversy  concern- 
ing the  actual  place  where  the  great  struggle  took 
place,  but  it  is  now  generally  supposed  that  the 
fiercest  fighting  occurred  on  Hadley  Green,  half  a 
mile  north  of  Barnet,  extending  thence  along  the 
ridge  sometimes  called  Gladsome  Heath,  and  some- 
times Monken  Mead.  An  obelisk,  locally  known  as 
the  Highstone,  with  a  rudely  carved  inscription  com- 
memorating the  victory,  was  set  up  in  1740  by  Sir 
Jeremy  Sambook,  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the 
spot  where  it  now  stands  at  the  junction  of  the  St. 


MONKEN  HADLEY  53 

Albans  and  Hatfield  roads, and  the  low  ground  sloping 
down  from  Monken  Mead  is  marked  on  old  maps  as 
Deadman's  Bottom,  an  incidental  proof  that  it  was 
there  the  bodies  of  the  dead  were  buried  after  the 
battle. 

The  village  of  Monken  Hadley,  that  is  rapidly 
becoming  a  suburb  of  High  Barnet,  is  very  pic- 
turesquely situated  along  a  green  and  common,  all 
that  now  remain  of  the  once  famous  Enfield  Chase, 
and  its  fine  old  church,  built  some  twenty  years 
after  the  great  battle,  and  well  restored  in  1845-50, 
looks  down  upon  the  scene  of  that  historic  event. 
Not  far  from  it  still  stands  the  trunk  of  a  huge  oak, 
that  has  been  identified  as  the  'gaunt  and  lifeless 
tree '  on  which,  as  related  by  Lord  Lytton  in  the 
Last  of  the  Barons,  Adam  Warner  was  hanged  by ' 
Friar  Bungay,  and  at  the  foot  of  which  the  victim's 
daughter  fell  down  insensible  close  to  the  shattered 
fragments  of  the  mechanical  invention  from  which 
her  father  had  hoped  so  much ;  and  a  little  distance 
off  is  an  elm  known  as  Latimer's,  because  the  zealous 
Protestant  after  whom  it  is  named,  who  was  later 
to  die  for  his  belief,  is  said  to  have  sometimes 
preached  beneath  it. 

East  Barnet,  a  pretty  village  nestling  in  a  charming 
valley,  is  the  mother  parish  of  the  other  communities 
of  the  same  name,  and  its  manor  was  part  of  that  of 
High  Barnet  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest.  Its 
church,  recently  enlarged  and  modernised,  was 
founded  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  but  it  has 
few  historic  memories.  Some  writers,  however, 
assert  that  it  was  from  the  house  of  Thomas  Conyers 


54    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

at  East  Barnet  that  the  unfortunate  Arabella  Stuart, 
whose  marriage  to  William  Seymour  so  greatly 
incensed  James  I.,  escaped,  disguised  as  a  man,  on 
3rd  June  161 1,  only  to  be  taken  prisoner  immediately 
after  her  embarkation  in  the  boat  that  was  to  have 
borne  her  to  France,  whence  she  was  removed  to  the 
Tower,  there  to  die  four  years  later,  without  having 
again  seen  her  husband. 

The  extensive  parish  of  Enfield,  through  which 
flows  the  New  River,  and  of  which  the  Lea  forms  the 
eastern  boundary,  is  divided  into  four  parts,  known 
as  the  Town,  the  Chase,  the  Bull's  Cross,  and  Green 
Street.  It  is  finely  situated  on  the  borders  of  what 
was  once  a  famous  royal  hunting-ground,  that 
although  now  almost  entirely  enclosed,  is  not  yet 
built  over.  The  actual  town  is  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous of  the  suburbs  of  London,  for  it  is  the  seat  of 
a  thriving  Government  small-arms  factory,  employing 
several  hundred  hands.  The  whole  district  is  full  of 
interesting  historic  memories,  for  even  in  the  eleventh 
century,  as  proved  by  the  descriptions  in  Doomsday 
Book,  Enfield  was  a  populous  village,  and  the  parish 
included  no  less  than  eight  manors — Enfield  proper 
and  Worcesters,  that  long  belonged  to  the  Crown ; 
Durants,  Elsynge  or  Norris,  Suffolks,  Honeylands, 
Pentviches,  and  Goldbeaters,  each  with  a  palace  and 
park  of  its  own.  The  children  of  Henry  VIII.  were 
educated  at  Enfield,  and  it  was  there  that  Prince 
Edward  heard  of  his  father's  death.  In  1552  the 
young  king  settled  the  chief  manor  of  Enfield  on  his 
sister  Elizabeth,  and  also  built  for  her  the  palace,  of 
which  a  small,  but  very  picturesque,  portion  still 


ENFIELD  55 

remains  in  the  High  Street,  but  the  future  queen 
appears  to  have  spent  the  short  time  of  liberty 
enjoyed  by  her  before  she  was  imprisoned  by  the 
jealous  Mary  at  Elsynge  Hall,  of  which  no  trace  is 
left.  It  was  there,  too,  that  she  and  her  escort  pro- 
bably put  up,  when  in  1557  her  indulgent  gaoler, 
Sir  Thomas  Pope,  allowed  her  to  take  part  in  a 
hunt  in  Enfield  Chase,  and  she  certainly  often  held 
her  court  in  it  during  her  long  and  prosperous  reign. 
Of  the  chief  manor-house  of  Enfield  all  that  has  been 
preserved  is  a  fireplace  incorporated  in  the  library  of 
a  private  house  in  the  so-called  Old  Park,  whilst  the 
mansion  of  Worcesters,  the  other  royal  demesne,  is 
represented  by  a  seventeenth-century  house  known 
as  Forty  Hall — in  which,  by  the  way,  there  is  a  fine 
collection  of  pictures — designed  by  Inigo  Jones  for 
Sir  Nicolas  Raynton,  to  whom  the  estate  was  given 
in  1616  by  the  then  owner,  the  Earl  of  Salisbury. 

Of  the  other  manor-houses  of  Enfield  the  memory 
alone  survives,  but  the  neighbourhood  is  still  rich  in 
fine  old  private  mansions,  of  which  the  most  note- 
worthy are  Enfield  Court  and  Foxhall,  and  on 
Chase  side  is  an  ancient  cottage  in  which  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  is  said  to  have  lived  for  some  time, 
not  far  from  which  was  the  '  odd-looking  gambogish 
house'  in  which  Charles  Lamb,  writing  in  1825,  de- 
clared he  would  like  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Unfortunately,  the  beautiful  and  characteristic 
Market  Hall  was  pulled  down  some  little  time  ago, 
to  be  replaced  by  a  modern  and  not  very  satisfactory 
Gothic  cross,  and  the  church,  that  dates  from  the 
thirteenth  century,  has  lost  much  of  its  venerable 


56    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

appearance  through  injudicious  restoration.  It  still 
retains,  however,  several  well-preserved  and  most 
interesting  monuments,  including  that  to  Lady  Tip- 
loft,  who  died  in  1446,  one  to  Sir  Nicolas  Raynton 
and  his  wife,  who  passed  away  two  centuries  later, 
and  one  to  Mrs.  Martha  Palmer,  the  last  the  work 
of  Nicolas  Stone,  the  famous  seventeenth-century 
sculptor. 

Although,  strictly  speaking,  neither  Waltham 
Cross,  Waltham  Abbey,  nor  Epping  Forest  can  be 
called  suburbs  of  London,  they  are  in  such  intimate 
touch  with  the  capital,  that  a  point  may  well  be 
strained  to  include  them  in  a  publication  intended 
to  serve  to  some  extent  as  a  guide  to  beautiful 
places  within  easy  reach  of  the  city.  Waltham 
Cross,  a  hamlet  of  Cheshunt,  is  specially  noteworthy, 
as  owning  one  of  the  crosses  (well  restored  in  1883) 
that  were  set  up  by  Edward  I.  to  mark  the  resting- 
places  of  the  body  of  his  beloved  queen  Eleanor  on 
the  way  to  her  tomb  at  Westminster,  and  it  also 
greatly  prides  itself  on  the  possession  of  the  actual 
inn  at  which  the  bearers  of  the  coffin  rested  for  a 
night,  the  signboard  bearing  the  legend,  'Ye  Old 
Four  Swannes  Hostelrie,  1260.'  The  town  of 
Waltham  Abbey,  or  Waltham  Holy  Cross,  that  may 
possibly  ere  long  be  the  seat  of  a  new  bishopric,  a 
low-lying,  straggling  settlement,  intersected  by  the 
Lea,  which  here  divides  into  several  branches,  is  a 
far  more  important  place  than  its  namesake  of 
Cheshunt  parish,  with  which  it  is  often  confounded, 
for  it  is  the  seat  of  a  great  Government  gunpowder 
manufactory,  the  works  of  which  occupy  an  area  of 


WALTHAM  HOLY  CROSS  57 

some  two  hundred  acres.  It  owes  its  chief  fame, 
however,  to  what  was  once  one  of  the  grandest 
abbey  churches  of  England — of  which  the  nave,  that 
is  amongst  the  oldest  places  of  worship  in  Great 
Britain,  alone  remains — that  was  built  by  Harold, 
the  last  of  the  Saxon  kings,  on  the  site  of  an  earlier 
one  founded  by  Tovi  or  Tovig,  standard-bearer  to 
Canute  the  Great,  to  enshrine  a  remarkable  crucifix 
that  was  found  on  his  estate  in  Somersetshire.  The 
story  goes  that  the  place  where  the  precious  relic 
had  been  buried  for  many  centuries  was  revealed  in 
a  dream  to  a  smith,  and  that  after  it  had  been  dug 
up,  an  attempt  was  made  to  send  it  to  Glastonbury. 
The  twelve  red  oxen  and  twelve  cows  harnessed  to 
the  cart  in  which  the  crucifix  was  placed,  refused, 
however,  to  move  in  that  direction,  and  Tovi  there- 
fore bade  the  drovers  make  for  Waltham  or  Weald- 
ham,  as  the  village  was  then  called,  the  name 
meaning  the  homestead  in  the  forest.  Directly  their 
heads  were  turned  northwards  the  animals  set  off  at 
so  rapid  a  pace  that  the  escort  could  hardly  keep  up 
with  them,  and  they  needed  no  guidance  till  they 
reached  the  site  of  the  abbey,  when  they  halted  of 
their  own  accord.  This  was  at  once  accepted  as  a 
proof  that  it  was  the  divine  will  that  the  church 
should  be  erected  there,  and  the  work  was  begun  at 
once,  the  crucifix  meanwhile  working  many  miracles 
in  the  temporary  shelter  in  which  it  was  housed. 
After  the  death  of  Tovi  the  estate  of  Waltham  was 
forfeited  by  his  son  Athelstan  to  King  Edward 
the  Confessor,  who  gave  it  to  his  brother-in-law 
Harold.  The  Saxon  earl,  who  was  a  very  devout 


58    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Catholic,  considered  the  church  unworthy  of  the 
priceless  treasure  it  enshrined,  and  he  lost  no  time 
in  having  it  pulled  down,  to  replace  it  with  a  stately 
building  that  was  consecrated  in  1060.  To  it  he 
often  went  to  pray,  the  last  time  on  the  eve  of  the 
battle  of  Senlac,  when  it  was  popularly  believed  that 
the  sad  issue  of  the  struggle  was  foreshadowed  by  a 
significant  omen,  for  as  the  king  prostrated  himself 
before  the  miraculous  crucifix  the  figure  of  the  Lord 
bent  its  head,  and  gazed  into  the  suppliant's  face 
with  an  expression  of  infinite  sorrow.  But  a  few 
days  afterwards  the  dead  body  of  the  last  of  the 
Saxon  kings  was  brought  to  the  abbey  he  had  loved 
so  well,  and  buried  in  front  of  the  high  altar,  whence 
it  is  said  to  have  been  later  removed  to  a  tomb  some 
little  distance  from  the  present  church.  During  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  this  tomb  was  opened,  when  it 
was  found  to  contain  the  skeleton  of  a  man  of  great 
stature,  but  there  is  no  absolute  evidence  that  it  was 
that  of  the  unfortunate  Harold. 

After  being  despoiled  of  its  treasures  by  William 
the  Conqueror,  and  suffering  many  things  at  the 
hands  of  his  successors,  the  beautiful  church  of 
Waltham  was  given  in  1187  to  a  branch  of  the 
Augustinian  order  by  Henry  II.,  who  added  greatly 
to  the  monastic  buildings  and  was  from  the  first 
a  liberal  patron  of  the  abbey.  It  was  for  many 
centuries  a  favourite  resort  of  the  English  kings, 
probably  on  account  of  the  fine  hunting-grounds  in 
its  immediate  neighbourhood,  and  it  was  there  that 
Henry  VIII.  received  from  Cranmer  the  joyful  news 
that  a  device  had  been  hit  upon  for  justifying  the 


WALTHAM  ABBEY  59 

divorce  from  Katharine  of  Aragon  on  which  his 
heart  was  set.  It  was  at  Waltham,  too,  that  the 
Reformation  may  in  a  certain  sense  be  said  to 
have  begun,  for  it  was  there  that  the  king  first 
decided  on  the  drastic  measures  which  inaugurated 
it.  Harold's  foundation  shared  the  fate  of  the 
rest  of  the  religious  houses,  and  was  given  to  Sir 
Anthony  Denny,  to  whom  there  is  a  beautiful 
though  much  defaced  monument  in  the  church, 
that  was  well  restored  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century.  Of  the  monastic  buildings,  however,  that 
were  associated  with  so  many  historic  memories,  the 
only  relics  now  remaining  are  a  single  gateway,  a 
small  vaulted  chamber  in  a  market  garden  once 
part  of  the  abbey  grounds,  a  few  fragments  of  the 
walls,  and  some  subterranean  arches.  A  quaint 
little  bridge  spanning  the  Corn-Mill  stream,  a  tri- 
butary of  the  Lea,  is  still  called  Harold's  Bridge, 
and  a  picturesque  modern  mill  occupies  the  site  of 
the  one  that  belonged  to  the  monks  of  the  abbey. 

The  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Waltham 
Abbey  is  still  thoroughly  rural  in  character,  well- 
watered  undulating  districts  dotted  here  and  there 
with  beautiful  seats — amongst  which  Copped  Hall 
and  Warlies  Hall  are  the  chief — replacing  the 
forests  which  once  extended  over  nearly  the  whole 
of  Essex,  including  with  what  is  now  known  as 
Epping  Forest,  the  so-called  Harold's  Park — the 
name  of  which  is  still  retained  by  a  farm — that  was 
given  by  Richard  I.  to  a  branch  of  the  Augustinian 
order. 

At  the  ancient  Copped  Hall— so  named  from  the 


60    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Saxon  cop,  signifying  the  top  of  a  hill  —  that 
occupied  the  site  of  the  present  nineteenth-century 
mansion,  the  Princess  Mary  lived  during  the  brief 
reign  of  her  brother,  and  from  it  she  addressed  in 
1551  a  remarkable  letter  protesting  against  the 
prohibition  to  have  mass  celebrated  in  her  private 
chapel.  There,  too,  she  received  the  messengers  who 
brought  back  the  king's  unfavourable  reply,  and 
gave  to  the  chief  of  them,  no  less  a  personage  than 
the  Lord  Chancellor  himself,  a  ring  to  be  delivered 
to  His  Majesty,  who  was  to  be  informed  'that  she 
would  obeye  his  commandements  in  all  things 
excepte  in  theis  matters  of  religion  towchinge 
the  mass.'  It  is  noteworthy  that  three  years  later, 
when  the  tables  were  turned  on  the  Protestants  by 
the  accession  of  Mary,  the  same  Lord  Chancellor 
should  have  received  orders  from  her  '  to  be  presente 
at  the  burning  of  such  obstinat  persons  as  presently 
are  sent  downe  to  be  burned  in  diverse  partes  of  the 
county  of  Essex.' 

Originally  part  of  the  great  forest  of  Essex,  the 
beautiful  woodlands  of  Epping,  in  spite  of  all  the 
changes  through  which  they  have  passed,  still  retain 
something  of  their  primeval  character,  and  enshrine 
in  their  recesses  some  few  relics  even  of  pre-Norman 
days,  of  which  the  most  noteworthy  are  the  two  camps 
of  Ambresbury  Banks  and  Loughton,  for  each  of 
which  it  has  been  claimed  that  it  was  the  strong- 
hold from  which  Queen.  Boadicea  watched  the  last 
stand  of  her  army  against  the  invaders,  and  the 
massacre  of  the  women  and  children  who  had  come, 
as  they  fondly  hoped,  to  rejoice  over  a  victory. 


EPPING  FOREST  61 

Whether  this  or  any  of  the  many  other  theories  ad- 
vanced be  true,  it  is  certain  that  long  before  the  Con- 
quest, Epping  Forest,  which  at  that  date  included 
some  sixty  thousand  or  seventy  thousand  acres, 
was  the  property  of  the  Saxon  kings,  and  that  in 
Norman  times  it  was  strictly  preserved  for  the  royal 
pleasure,  the  game-laws  being  terribly  severe  and 
most  rigidly  enforced.  The  killing  of  a  stag  was  in 
fact  more  severely  punished  than  the  murder  of  a  man, 
for  in  the  former  case  the  eyes  of  the  offender  were 
put  out,  whilst  for  the  latter  crime  a  money  payment 
was  often  accepted.  The  first  king  to  sanction  any 
disafforesting  was  Stephen,  who  allowed  certain 
districts  to  be  cleared  for  cultivation,  and  his  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  John,  who  reluctantly  gave 
up  the  portion  north  of  the  main  road  between 
Stratford  and  Colchester,  the  concession  having 
been  wrung  from  him  by  the  united  barons,  who 
compelled  him  to  sign  the  Charter  of  Forests,  the 
wording  of  which  is  very  significant  of  the  terrible 
oppression  to  which  the  people  were  subjected  at 
the  time.  Later  the  concessions  were  confirmed  by 
Henry  III.  and  by  Edward  I.,  who  had  at  first  shown 
signs  of  going  back  from  the  promises  of  his  prede- 
cessors, but  in  1301  he  was  brought  to  a  better  mind 
by  means  of  a  heavy  bribe  of  money.  Gradually, 
through  grants  to  nobles,  unauthorised  enclosures, 
etc.,  the  forest  lands  belonging  to  the  Crown  were  re- 
duced to  about  a  third  of  what  they  were  at  the  Con- 
quest, and  a  survey  made  in  1793  estimated  the  still 
uncultivated  woods  and  wastes  at  twelve  thousand 
acres  only.  From  that  date  until  the  middle  of  the 


62    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

nineteenth  century  the  history  of  the  once  magnificent 
forest  was  one  of  constant  encroachment,  one  beauti- 
ful tract  after  another  having  been  sold  and  enclosed, 
for  the  officers  of  the  Crown  interpreted  their  duty 
to  be  to  turn  the  land  to  as  great  a  money  profit  as 
possible  rather  than  to  preserve  it  for  the  enjoyment 
of  its  owners  or  of  the  people  to  whom  at  various 
times  certain  rights  had  been  granted.  In  1850 
some  six  thousand  acres  only  were  left,  and  In  the  next 
twenty  years  these  were  reduced  to  little  more  than 
half  that  amount.  Fortunately,  however,  about  this 
time  public  feeling  began  to  be  aroused  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  thanks  to  the  enlightened  efforts  of  a  number 
of  influential  men,  amongst  whom  special  recognition 
is  due  to  the  members  of  the  Commons  Preservation 
Society,  the  matter  was  brought  before  Parliament, 
and  in  1882  five  thousand  five  hundred  acres  were 
bought  by  the  Corporation  of  London  for  the  nation, 
including  the  woodlands  beginning  near  Chingford 
and  stretching  northwards  beyond  Theydon  Bois, 
parts  of  which  are  still  much  what  they  were  when 
royal  parties  used  to  go  forth  to  hunt  from  the 
palaces  of  Chigwell,  New  Hall,  and  Writtle,  and  when 
the  post  of  Lord  Warden  of  the  Forest  was  eagerly 
sought  by  the  great  nobles,  whilst  a  far  less  pic- 
turesque portion  extends  southwards  to  Wanstead 
Flats  and  Aldersbook  Cemetery. 

Some  two  miles  from  Waltham  Abbey  begins 
what  is  known  as  the  Sewardstone  district,  supposed 
to  be  named  after  a  noted  Saxon  thane,  that  is 
dotted  with  picturesque  hamlets,  from  one  of  which, 
known  as  Sewardstone  proper,  a  pretty  lane  leads 


EPPING  FOREST  63 

to  High  Beech  Green,  a  straggling  village  that  once 
belonged  to  the  Priory,  with  a  good  modern  church, 
near  to  which  is  the  loftiest  point  of  the  Forest: 
High  Beech  Hill,  759  feet  high,  that  commands  a 
very  beautiful  view.  According  to  popular  tradition, 
Dick  Turpin  used  to  lie  in  wait  in  a  cave  at  the 
base  of  this  hill  for  the  travellers  he  intended  to 
rob,  undeterred  by  fear  of  betrayal  at  the  hands  of 
the  landlords  of  the  neighbouring  Robin  Hood  and 
King's  Oak  inns,  now  represented  by  modern 
hotels,  the  latter  named  after  the  stump  of  a 
venerable  oak  known  as  Harold's — the  very  one  that 
inspired  The  Talking  Oak  of  Tennyson,  who  wrote 
it  and  Locksley  Hall  in  a  house  near  by,  since 
pulled  down ;  whilst  in  the  still  standing  Fairmead 
House,  then  a  private  lunatic  asylum,  the  half- 
crazy  peasant  poet  John  Clare,  who  lived  in  it 
from  1837  to  1841,  composed  some  of  his  beautiful 
descriptions  of  the  forest  scenery. 

It  was  from  a  height  not  far  from  the  King's  Oak 
that  Queen  Victoria,  on  6th  May  1882,  set  a  seal 
on  the  gift  of  the  forest  to  the  people  by  declaring 
it  free  and  open  to  them  for  ever,  and  on  the  south 
of  Beech  Wood  opens  the  beautiful  lane  that  winds 
through  the  still  virgin  woods  to  what  is  known 
as  Queen  Elizabeth's  Hunting  Lodge,  supposed  to 
occupy  the  site  of  the  original  manor-house  of 
Chingford  Earls,  the  history  of  which  can  be  traced 
back  to  early  Saxon  times.  However  that  may  be, 
the  lodge  with  its  high-pitched  roof  and  gables,  its 
massive  timber  supports  and  ceiling  beams,  pro- 
jecting chimneys  and  wide  ingle-nooks,  broad  oak 


64    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

staircases  and  spacious  outside  landings,  the  main 
structure  is  a  very  typical  example  of  fifteenth -and 
sixteenth  century  domestic  architecture.  The  fact 
that  the  highest  landing  is  still  called  the  '  horse 
block'  recalls  the  tradition  that  good  Queen  Bess 
used  to  ride  up  to  the  door  of  the  great  reception- 
room  at  the  top  of  the  house,  and  that  she  may 
have  done  so  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  feat — 
not  a  very  difficult  one  after  all — was  successfully 
achieved  for  a  wager  some  few  years  ago  by  a  man 
on  an  unbroken  pony. 

The  village  of  Chingford,  or  the  King's  Ford,, 
close  to  the  Lodge,  and  a  beautiful  sheet  of  water, 
named  after  the  present  ranger,  the  .Duke  of 
Connaught,  is  charmingly  situated  on  the  edge  of 
the  forest,  and  the  ancient  church,  now  disused, 
about  a  mile  from  the  new  Gothic  building  that 
has  supplanted  it,  is  extremely  picturesque.  The 
parish  originally  included  two  manors — the  one 
already  referred  to  in  connection  with  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's Lodge  and  that  known  as  Chingford  St. 
Paul's,  which,  until  it  was  seized  by  Henry  VIII., 
belonged  to  the  Metropolitan  Cathedral.  It  was 
held  before  the  Conquest  by  a  Saxon  thane  named 
Ongar,  and  the  manor-house  that  replaced  his  old 
home,  now  a  farm,  is  still  standing,  though  the 
present  lord  of  the  manor  lives  in  Hawkwood 
House  a  little  distance  off. 

From  Connaught  Water  a  good  road,  known  as 
the  Green  Ride,  leads  to  Ambresbury  Bucks  and 
Epping,  and  another  called  the  Rangers  to  Buck- 
hurst  Hill  and  Loughton.  Buckhurst  Hill,  from 


BUCKHURST  HILL  65 

which  for  many  years  the  famous  Easter  Hunt  used 
to  start,  must  once  have  been  one  of  the  loveliest 
villages  in  the  forest,  and  is  still  charming  in  spite 
of  the  many  new  houses  that  have  been  built.  Its 
name  has  been  very  variously  explained,  some 
supposing  it  to  commemorate  the  aristocratic  poet 
of  Elizabethan  times,  Lord  Buckhurst,  others  that 
the  original  form  was  Book  Forest,  signifying  a  tract 
reserved  in  otherwise  open  moorlands  by  royal 
charter.  Before  the  Easter  Hunt  was  transferred 
to  Beech  Hill  there  were  many  descriptions  in  the 
contemporary  press  of  the  scenes  that  used  to  take 
place  at  Buckhurst,  notably  one  that  appeared  in 
the  Morning  Herald  in  the  week  after  Easter  1826, 
in  which  the  writer  gloats  over  the  gay  costumes 
worn  '  by  the  three  thousand  merry  lieges  then  and 
there  assembled '  to  watch  the  uncarting  of  the  stag 
that,  when  released,  marched  proudly  down  between 
an  avenue  of  horsemen  '  wearing  a  chaplet  of  flowers 
round  its  neck,  a  girth  of  divers-coloured  ribbons, 
and  a  long  blue-and-white  streamer  depending  from 
the  summit  of  its  branching  horns,  adding  that  when 
it  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  hounds  and  huntsmen 
waiting  for  it,  it  bounded  sideways,  knocking  down 
and  trampling  all  who  crowded  the  path  it  chose.' 
The  account  ends  by  stating  that  the  stag  was  finally 
caught  at  Chingford,  '  nobody  knows  how,  for  every- 
body returned  to  town  before  the  end  except  those 
who  stopped  to  regale  afresh  and  recount  the  glorious 
perils  of  the  day.' 

The  picturesque  village  of  Loughton,  perched  on 
high  ground  above  the  valley  of  the  Roding,  about  a 


66    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

mile  from  Buckhurst  Hill,  was  originally  a  mere 
appanage  of  the  manor  of  the  same  name  that  was 
given  by  Harold  to  the  Abbey  of  Waltham,  and  after 
the  Reformation  was  presented  by  Edward  VI.  to 
Sir  Thomas  Davey,  only  to  revert  to  the  Crown  in 
the  reign  of  Mary,  since  which  time  it  has  changed 
hands  again  and  again.  Its  ancient  church  is  now 
a  mere  ruin,  but  it  has  been  supplemented  by  a  fairly 
satisfactory  modern  building  in  the  Norman  style. 
The  old  manor-house,  in  which  Queen  Elizabeth  and 
James  I.  were  guests  at  different  times,  was  destroyed 
by  fire  in  1836,  with  the  exception  of  part  of  the 
great  hall,  now  incorporated  in  a  farm,  and  the  fine 
wrought-iron  entrance  gates.  In  olden  times  the 
inhabitants  of  Loughton  enjoyed,  in  addition  to  the 
privileges  common  to  all  of  pasturing  their  cattle  in 
the  forest  and  turning  out  their  pigs  at  Michaelmas 
to  eat  beechwood  and  acorns,  that  of  lopping  the 
trees  in  the  vicinity  of  their  village,  and  it  was  the 
interference  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  with  the  undue 
exercise  of  this  right  that  inaugurated  the  agitation 
which  in  the  end  had  the  happy  result  of  securing  to 
the  whole  nation  the  priceless  possession  of  Epping 
Forest. 

Not  far  from  Loughton  is  the  scarcely  less  charming 
village  of  Chigwell,  the  name  of  which  calls  up  the 
memory  of  Charles  Dickens,  for  in  it  were  laid  many 
of  the  most  exciting  scenes  of  his  immortal  romance, 
Barnaby  Rudge.  It  was,  however,  by  the  way  in  the 
King's  Head,  a  low,  rambling,  half-timbered  building 
with  a  projecting  upper  story,  not  in  that  now 
known  as  the  Maypole,  that  John  Willett  and  his 


CHIGWELL  ROW  67 

cronies  are  described  as  meeting  to  gossip  together, 
and  in  which  the  sturdy  but  obstinate  landlord 
awaited  the  coming  of  the  rioters.  The  ancient 
hostelry  seems  to  have  altered  but  little  since  the 
great  novelist  used  to  delight  in  going  down  to  what 
he  called  '  the  greatest  place  in  the  world,  with  such 
a  delicious  old  inn  opposite  the  churchyard,  such 
beautiful  scenery,'  etc.,  and  it  is  much  the  same 
with  the  church,  with  its  noble  Norman  doorway 
approached  by  an  avenue  of  venerable  trees.  The 
chief  manor-house,  known  as  Chigwell  Hall,  on  the 
site  of  one  that  belonged  to  Harold,  is  still  standing, 
but  a  modern  grammar-school  replaces  that  founded 
by  Harsnett  in  1629;  and  the  home  of  the  Hare- 
woods,  in  the  garden  of  which  Dolly  Varden  was,  as 
related  by  Dickens,  robbed  of  her  bracelet  by  Hugh 
of  the  Maypole,  was  long  represented  by  an  ancient 
red-brick  mansion  that  was  burnt  down  a  few  years 
ago. 

Chigwell  Row,  that  was  long  a  beautiful  secluded 
hamlet  noted  for  its  spring  of  mineral  water,  from 
which  the  name  of  Chigwell  is  derived,  is  now,  alas, 
a  mere  suburb  of  uninteresting  modern  houses,  and 
is  chiefly  remembered  as  having  been  the  home  of 
the  peasant  who  posed  for  Gainsborough's  famous 
picture  of  the  c  Woodman/  Close  to  it  begins  the 
extensive  parish  of  Woodford — named  after  the  old 
ford  over  the  Roding  that  is  now  spanned  by  a 
bridge — in  which  are  many  villages  rapidly  growing 
into  towns,  such  as  Woodford  Green  and  Woodford 
Wells,  given  by  Earl  Harold  with  seventeen  other 
manors  to  Waltham  Abbey.  That  of  Woodford 


68    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

remained  in  its  possession  until  1540,  when  it  was 
confiscated  with  the  rest  of  ecclesiastical  property 
by  Henry  VIII.,  but  the  old  manor  -  house,  now  a 
convalescent  home  for  children,  founded  by  Mrs. 
Gladstone,  is  still  standing. 

The  extensive  parish  of  Walthamstow  has  shared 
the  fate  of  that  of  Woodford,  for  it  is  becoming  a 
densely  populated  district  with  little  to  recall  the 
past.  Its  name  is  supposed  to  signify  a  storehouse, 
but  whether  of  food,  of  weapons,  or  ammunition, 
there  is  no  evidence  to  show.  Its  manor  belonged, 
at  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  to  the  Saxon, 
Waltheof,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  and 
though  it  was  confiscated  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
he  later  restored  it  to  its  former  owner  in  recognition 
of  his  early  submission.  Moreover,  Waltheof  was 
allowed  to  marry  the  king's  niece,  who,  however,  was 
the  cause  of  his  ruin,  for  she  betrayed  to  her  uncle  a 
plot  in  which  her  husband  was  implicated.  Waltheof 
paid  for  his  disloyalty  with  his  life,  and  his  estate 
was  bequeathed  by  his  widow  to  the  elder  of  their 
two  daughters,  by  whose  marriage  with  Ralph  de 
Toni  it  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  family  of 
that  name,  for  which  reason  the  manor  is  still  known 
as  that  of  Walthamstow  Toni,  though  it  is  now  the 
property  of  the  descendants  of  Lord  Maynard,  by 
whom  it  was  bought  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  once  scattered  hamlets  of  Whip's  Cross,  so  called 
because  it  was  the  starting-point  for  the  whipping 
of  deer-stealers,  Woodford  Side,  Higham  Hill,  and 
many  others  now  practically  form  part  of  the  town 
of  Walthamstow,  to  which  also  belongs  a  narrow 


WALTHAMSTOW  69 

strip  of  land,  called  the  Walthamstow  Slip,  running 
right  through  the  adjoining  parish  of  Leyton,  that 
was  won  under  curious  circumstances  not  long  ago. 
It  was  in  olden  times  the  custom,  if  the  place  in 
which  a  dead  body  was  found  could  not  meet  the 
expenses  of  burial,  that  the  parish  in  which  the  inter- 
ment took  place  should  be  paid  with  as  much  land 
as  those  carrying  the  corpse  could  cover  holding  each 
other's  hands  and  walking  one  behind  the  other. 
An  unknown  man  was  found  in  the  Lea,  and  his 
remains  were  taken  to  Walthamstow  by  way  of 
Leyton,  with  the  result  that  the  latter  had  to  yield 
up  a  slice  of  its  territory  to  the  former. 

The  mother  church  of  Walthamstow,  dedicated 
to  St.  Mary  the  Virgin,  dates  from  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  contains  some  interesting  monuments, 
including  one  by  Nicholas  Stone  to  the  memory  of 
Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Merry,  and  their  four 
children,  and  one  to  Sir  Gerard  Conyers,  Lord 
Mayor  of  London,  who  died  in  1737.  The  rest  of 
the  places  of  worship  are  all  modern,  and  have 
nothing  distinctive  about  them,  but  in  addition  to 
the  chief  manor-house  Walthamstow  owns  several 
fine  mansions,  including  those  of  Higham  Bensted 
and  Walthamstow  Sarum  or  Salisbury  Hall,  the 
latter  named  after  Margaret  Plantagenet,  Countess  of 
Salisbury. 

The  low-lying  districts  of  Walthamstow  parish, 
which  before  the  Thames  embankment  was  made 
were  constantly  flooded,  were  some  years  ago  turned 
to  good  account  by  the  East  London  Waterworks 
Company  for  the  formation  of  their  fine  reservoirs, 


70    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

which  resemble  a  vast  lake  dotted  with  picturesque 
islets.  During  the  progress  of  the  excavations,  more- 
over, many  very  important  geological  discoveries 
were  made,  with  the  aid  of  which  the  whole  life-story 
of  the  valley  of  the  Lea  can  be  read  backwards  to  the 
time  when  the  forest  of  Essex  was  the  home  of  the 
elephant,  the  elk,  the  reindeer,  and  the  wild  ox,  as 
well  as  of  the  red  and  fallow  deer  of  modern  times. 

Wanstead,  the  name  of  which  may  possibly  be  a 
corruption  of  the  word  Woden's  Stede,  or  the  place 
sacred  to  Woden,  near  to  which  many  traces  of 
Roman  occupation  have  been  found,  was  not  very 
long  ago  a  pretty  rambling  village  on  the  very  out- 
skirts of  the  forest,  but  is  now  practically  a  town ; 
and  close  to  it  is  the  somewhat  dreary  district  known 
as  Wanstead  Flats,  once  a  beautiful  furze  -  clad 
common  with  clumps  of  fine  old  trees  that  has  given 
place  to  brickfields  and  gravel-pits.  The  manor  of 
Wanstead  has,  however,  an  interesting  history,  for  it 
was  once  the  property  of  the  Abbey  of  Westminster, 
and  owned  a  famous  manor-house  known  as  Naked 
Hall  Hawe,  that  was  pulled  down  in  the  sixteenth 
century  by  its  then  owner,  Lord  Chancellor  Rich, 
who  built  in  its  place  a  stately  mansion,  in  which 
Queen  Mary  rested  on  her  way  from  Norwich  to  be 
crowned  in  London,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  was  more 
than  once  entertained  by  Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  who  had  bought  the  estate  in  1577. 
Later  it  changed  hands  again  and  again,  and  in 
1683,  as  proved  by  an  entry  in  John  Evelyn's  diary, 
it  was  owned  by  Sir  Joshua  Child,  to  whom  there  is 
an  interesting  monument  in  the  parish  church,  whose 


WANSTEAD  71 

son  replaced  the  Earl  of  Leicester's  house  with  an 
even  more  magnificent  one,  which  he  filled  with  art 
treasures,  and  that  was  considered  one  of  the  finest 
private  residences  in  England.  In  1794,  through 
the  death  of  the  then  owner  and  his  only  son 
within  a  few  months  of  each  other,  the  valuable 
estate  passed  to  Miss  Tylney  Long,  then  a  mere 
child,  during  whose  long  minority  the  mansion  was 
let  to  the  Prince  of  Conde,  and  was  for  a  time  the 
house  of  Louis  XVIII.  and  other  members  of  the 
French  royal  family.  Unfortunately  Miss  Long 
married  a  profligate  spendthrift,  the  Honourable 
W.  Tylney- Long  Wellesley,  who  quickly  dissipated 
his  wife's  wealth,  necessitating  the  sale  of  the 
Wanstead  property.  The  art  treasures  were  dis- 
persed, and  the  mansion  sold  for  building  materials, 
but  fortunately  the  gardens  and  grounds  were 
bought  for  the  nation  by  the  London  corporation, 
and  thrown  open  to  the  public  in  1882. 


CHAPTER   IV 

HAINAULT  FOREST,  WOOLWICH,  AND  OTHER 
EASTERN   SUBURBS   OF  LONDON 

THE  once  beautiful  district  known  as  Hainault 
Forest,  said  to  have  been  named  after  the 
wife  of  Edward  III.,  extending  on  the  north  to 
Theydon  Bois,  on  the  west  to  Leytonstone,  on  the 
east  to  Havering-atte-Bower,  and  on  the  south  to 
Aldborough  Hatch,  belonged  in  early  Norman  times 
to  Barking  Abbey,  and  passed,  at  the  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries,  to  the  Crown.  It  was  almost  as 
favourite  a  resort  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  as 
Epping  Forest  itself,  and  is  nearly  as  full  of  interest- 
ing historic  associations,  but  for  all  that  it  was 
condemned  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century 
as  unprofitable  waste  ground,  and  in  1851  an  Act  of 
Parliament  was  passed  empowering  the  Government 
to  destroy  or  remove  the  deer  that  had  for  so  many 
centuries  haunted  its  recesses,  to  cut  down  the  trees, 
and  to  sell  the  land  for  farming  or  building.  All 
too  rapidly  the  work  of  destruction  proceeded,  but 
fortunately,  before  it  was  completed,  it  was  finally 
arrested  on  the  initiative  of  Mr.  North  Buxton, 
whose  efforts  to  save  the  little  remnant  left  were 

72 


HAINAULT  FOREST  73 

seconded  by  the  London  County  Council  and  various 
local  corporations,  with  the  result  that,  in  1906, 
eight  hundred  acres  were  bought  and  secured  to  the 
public  as  a  recreation  ground.  It  was  of  course  too 
late  to  restore  to  the  forest  anything  of  its  ancient 
charm,  for  its  dense  groves  of  oak  and  beech  were 
gone  for  ever,  but  some  few  delightful  woodlands 
still  remained.  Many  trees  have  been  planted,  and 
even  now  certain  outlying  villages  retain  something 
of  their  original  rural  character,  especially  Aid- 
borough  Hatch,  the  name  of  which  signifies  an 
ancient  mansion  near  a  hatch  or  gate  of  the  forest — 
that  has  now,  however,  receded  far  from  it — and 
Barking  Side.  The  latter,  once  a  secluded  spot  in 
a  densely  wooded  neighbourhood,  is  celebrated  as 
having  been  near  the  scene  of  the  famous  Fairlop  Fair, 
that  was  founded  in  the  eighteenth  century  by  Daniel 
Day,  a  wealthy  blockmaker  of  Wapping,  and  for 
more  than  two  centuries  was  frequented  every  year 
by  thousands  of  pleasure-seekers  from  the  east  end 
of  London.  The  fair  took  its  name  from  a  wide- 
spreading  oak  about  a  mile  from  the  still  standing 
Maypole  Inn,  beneath  which  Daniel  Day  used  to 
entertain  his  tenants  at  midsummer ;  but  it  was 
celebrated  long  before  his  time.  Many  allusions  are 
made  to  it  in  the  contemporary  press,  notably  in  the 
once  popular  Fairlop  Fair  song,  in  which  its  nick- 
name is  explained  in  the  following  quaint  rhyme — 

'  To  Hainault  Forest  Queen  Anne  she  did  ride, 
And  beheld  the  beautiful  oak  by  her  side  ; 
And  after  viewing  it  from  the  bottom  to  the  top, 
She  said  to  her  court :  "  It  is  a  Fair  lop."' 


74    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Long  after  the  death  of  Daniel  Day,  which  took 
place  in  1769,  the  blockmakers  of  London  used  to 
hold  an  annual  beanfeast  beneath  the  Fairlop  oak, 
going  to  it,  it  is  said,  in  a  vehicle  shaped  like  a 
boat,  drawn  by  six  horses  ;  and  although  the  tree 
was  blown  down  in  1820,  and  its  site  is  now  en- 
closed in  a  private  garden,  many  merrymakers  still 
resort  to  Barking  Side  to  be  present  at  a  kind  of 
parody  of  the  ancient  fair.  The  trunk  of  the  oak 
was  used  to  make  the  pulpit  of  Wanstead  Church 
and  that  of  St.  Pancras  in  Euston  Road,  and  the  fact 
that  its  memory  was  still  held  dear  long  after  its  fall, 
is  proved  by  its  name  having  been  given  to  the  boat 
presented  by  the  London  Foresters  to  the  Lifeboat 
Society  in  1865. 

Although,  as  from  Hainault  Forest  itself,  much  of 
the  glamour  and  romance  of  the  past  has  for  ever 
departed  from  the  once  beautiful  country,  between 
it  and  the  Thames,  that  is  now  a  mere  suburb,  and 
not  a  very  interesting  suburb  of  London,  some  few 
of  its  hamlets  and  villages  still  bear  the  impress  of 
the  long  ago,  and  are  intimately  associated  with 
important  episodes  of  English  history.  Near  to  the 
still  independent  market  town  of  Romford,  for 
instance,  is  the  village  of  Havering-atte-Bower,  that 
gives  its  name  to  the  ancient  Liberty,  including  the 
extensive  parishes  of  Romford,  Havering,  and  Horn- 
church,  and  is  built  on  the  site  of  a  royal  palace, 
once  the  favourite  resort  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
and  of  many  of  his  successors.  The  name  of 
Havering  has  been  very  variously  explained,  the 
most  poetic  and  also  the  most  probable  interpretation 


HAVERING- ATTE-BOWER  75 

being  that  it  commemorates  a  beautiful  legend  relat- 
ing to  the  saintly  founder  of  Westminster  Abbey  to 
the  effect  that  he  gave  to  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  who 
had  appeared  to  him  in  the  guise  of  a  pilgrim,  a  ring 
from  his  own  ringer.  Many  years  afterwards,  when 
King  Edward  was  at  the  consecration  of  a  church 
in  Essex,  two  pilgrims  from  the  Holy  Land  came  to 
him  to  tell  him  that  the  beloved  disciple  had  met 
them  in  Jerusalem,  and  charged  them  with  a  message 
for  him.  The  king  at  once  inquired  '  Have  ye  the 
ring?' — a  sentence  that  was  later  converted  into 
Havering — to  which  the  pilgrims  replied  by  pro- 
ducing it.  The  message  was  to  the  effect  that 
St.  John  would  meet  the  original  owner  of  the  ring 
in  Paradise  a  fortnight  later,  a  prophecy  that  was 
fulfilled,  for  King  Edward  passed  away  at  that  time. 
Some  say  the  church  in  which  the  singular  meeting 
took  place  was  at  Waltham,  others  that  it  was  a 
chapel  on  the  site  of  the  present  church  of  Rom- 
ford,  dedicated  to  St.  Edward  the  Confessor  and 
St.  Mary  the  Virgin,  whilst  yet  others  think  it 
was  that  which  stood  where  now  rises  the  modern 
church  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist  at  Havering, 
which  contains  a  font  used  in  the  Saxon  building 
that  preceded  it. 

The  manor  of  Havering  has  remained  Crown 
property  to  the  present  day,  though  the  park  in 
which  the  Confessor's  house  stood  has  been  cut  up 
and  let  on  leases.  The  so-called  royal  palace,  that 
was  probably  merely  a  hunting  lodge,  was  replaced 
after  the  Conquest  by  a  more  convenient  residence, 
called  the  Bower,  to  which  the  English  kings  were 


76    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

fond  of  resorting.  There  Edward  III.,  a  disappointed 
and  disillusioned  man,  spent  several  months  of  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  after  he  had  named  the  unworthy 
son  of  the  beloved  Black  Prince  his  successor.andthere 
Edward  IV.,  a  year  before  his  death,  won  great  popu- 
larity with  the  citizens  of  London  by  the  hospitality 
he  showed  to  the  '  maire  and  aldermen ,'  as  related 
in  Hall's  Chronicle^  who  observes, '  No  one  thyng  in 
many  daies  gatte  him  either  more  hartes  or  more 
hertie  favour  amongst  the  comon  people.'  Ed- 
ward VI.  was  often  at  the  Bower  before  he  came  to 
the  throne ;  Queen  Elizabeth,  to  whom  the  people  of 
Havering  were  devoted,  for  she  secured  to  them 
many  of  their  ancient  privileges,  was  as  fond  of  it  as 
of  any  of  her  palaces  at  Enfield,  and  her  successor, 
James  L,  never  failed  to  visit  it  once  a  year.  After 
his  time,  however,  it,  for  some  unexplained  reason, 
fell  into  disrepute,  and  was  allowed  to  become  a 
complete  ruin.  By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  not  a  trace  of  it  remained,  and  it  is  now 
represented  by  a  new  Bower  House,  a  short  distance 
from  its  site,  built  in  1729  for  a  private  lease- 
holder. 

Not  far  from  the  old  hunting  lodge  there  was 
another  royal  residence,  known  as  Prygo,  which  was 
for  a  long  time  reserved  for  the  use  of  widowed 
queens,  but  was  given  by  Elizabeth  to  Sir  John 
Grey,  a  relation  of  the  ill-fated  nine  days'  queen. 
After  changing  hands  again  and  again,  the  historic 
relic,  which  might  well  have  been  bought  for  the 
nation,  was  sold  for  building  material  and  pulled 
down,  with  the  exception  of  one  wing,  which  was 


LEYTON  77 

later   incorporated  in  a   house   built   in   1852,  that 
retains  the  quaint  old  name. 

The  twin  towns  of  Leyton  and  Leytonstone,  the 
latter  not  long  ago  a  mere  hamlet  of  the  former,  are 
both  named  after  the  Lea,  and  were,  half  a  century 
ago,  charming  villages,  near  to  which  were  many 
fine  old  mansions,  the  homes  of  wealthy  City  mer- 
chants, who  have  since  deserted  them  for  the  more 
fashionable  western  suburbs.  Some  few  of  these 
houses,  notably  those  known  as  Etloe  and  Rockholt, 
though  turned  to  other  uses,  still  remain,  and  near 
to  the  latter  have  been  found  traces  of  ancient 
entrenchments,  that  have  led  some  authorities  to 
identify  the  site  of  Leyton  with  that  of  the  Roman 
Durolitum.  The  churches  of  both  towns  are  modern, 
but  that  of  St.  Mary  at  Leyton,  in  which  is  buried 
the  celebrated  antiquarian  John  Strype,  who  was 
vicar  of  the  parish  for  sixty-eight  years,  retains  the 
tower  of  an  earlier  building,  and  contains  some 
interesting  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century 
monuments,  including  two  to  members  of  the  Hickes 
family,  which  were  recently  removed  from  the  chancel 
and  set  up  at  the  west  end.  There  are  also  several 
noteworthy  brasses  on  the  walls  with  quaint  inscrip- 
tions, such  as  that  relating  to  Lady  Mary  Kingstone, 
who  died  in  1577,  and  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the 
famous  printer  William  Bowyer,  who  passed  away 
in  1777  ;  and  in  the  churchyard  rest  many  celebrities, 
of  whom  the  best  known  outside  Leyton  are  the 
dramatist  David  Lewis,  and  the  Master  of  the  Rolls, 
Sir  John  Strange,  who  died,  the  former  in  1700,  the 
latter  in  1754. 


78    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Stratford  on  the  Lea,  named  after  the  ancient 
ford  that  was  in  use  between  it  and  Bow,  the 
Stratford-atte-Bow  of  Chaucer,  till  the  river  was 
spanned  by  the  bridge  built  by  Matilda,  wife  of 
Henry  I.,  that  was  taken  down  as  recently  as  1839, 
was  originally  only  an  outlying  hamlet  of  West 
Ham,  but  it  has  of  late  years  grown  into  a  densely 
populated  manufacturing  centre,  well  provided  with 
modern  places  of  worship,  but  retaining,  alas,  not  a 
trace  of  the  beautiful  Cistercian  abbey,  founded  in 
the  twelfth  century,  that  was  once  the  pride  of  the 
whole  neighbourhood.  It  is  very  much  the  same 
with  Great  Ilford,  named  after  a  ford  over  the 
Roding,  which,  though  not  yet  so  large  as  Stratford, 
is  already  a  thriving  town,  almost  its  only  relic  of 
the  past  being  the  hospital,  that  now  belongs,  with 
the  estate  on  which  it  is  built,  to  the  Marquis  of 
Salisbury,  originally  founded  for  the  use  of  thirteen 
lepers  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  King  Stephen, 
by  Adliza,  Abbess  of  Barking,  and  dedicated  to  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury.  Little 
Ilford,  on  the  other  hand,  on  the  south-west  side  of 
its  greater  namesake,  is  still  not  much  more  than  a 
village,  though  from  it,  too,  nearly  everything  of 
antiquarian  interest  has  been  improved  away.  The 
beautiful  old  church  was  pulled  down  some  fifty 
years  ago,  but,  fortunately,  in  its  modern  successor 
are  preserved  a  few  of  the  ancient  monuments, 
amongst  which  is  especially  noteworthy  that  to 
William  Waldegrave  and  his  wife,  who  died,  the 
latter  in  1595,  the  former  in  1616. 

A  century  ago  West  Ham  was  one  of  the  most 


UPTON  79 

picturesque  villages  of  Essex,  with  many  charming 
old  mansions  belonging  to  the  wealthy  City  mer- 
chants in  its  immediate  vicinity,  but  it  is  now  a 
densely  populated  town,  with  scarcely  anything 
about  it  to  recall  the  olden  times.  The  much 
modernised  church  of  All  Saints,  however,  retains 
its  original  foundations,  a  Norman  clerestory  and  an 
early  English  nave,  with  which,  unfortunately,  the 
modern  brick  chancel  and  aisles  are  quite  out 
of  character.  Some  of  the  ancient  monuments 
have  also  been  preserved,  notably  the  fifteenth- 
century  tomb  of  a  certain  Robert  Rook,  that  of  Sir 
Thomas  Foot,  who  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in 
1650,  and  that  of  William  Fawcett,  who  died  in 
1631. 

Not  far  from  West  Ham  is  the  village  of  Upton, 
and  near  to  it  are  some  fine  old  houses,  including 
that  known  as  The  Cedars,  once  the  home  of  the 
famous  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Fry,  the  enthusiastic  advocate 
of  prison  reform,  who  was  the  sister  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Gurney,  a  true,  kindred  spirit,  almost  as  well  known 
for  his  disinterested  work  for  the  poor  and  oppressed. 
The  latter  lived  in  what  was  known  as  Ham  House, 
which  was  pulled  down  soon  after  his  death  in  1856, 
and  eighteen  years  later  the  park  in  which  it  used 
to  stand  was  bought  for  the  people,  partly  by  the 
Gurney  family  and  partly  by  the  corporation  of 
London. 

East  Ham  is  another  town  of  rapid  growth,  the 
nucleus  of  which  was  not  long  ago  a  charming  vil- 
lage, still  in  close  touch  with  the  long  ago.  In  early 
Norman  times  it  was  a  dependency  of  Westminster 


8o    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Abbey,  and  the  much  modernised  parish  church, 
dedicated  to  St.  Mary  Magdalene,  retains  portions 
of  the  ancient  building  that  dated  from  about  the 
eleventh  century,  whilst  the  old  manor-house,  now  a 
farm,  is  still  standing.  There  remains,  however,  a 
certain  rural  charm  about  the  dependent  hamlets  of 
Flasket  and  Green  Street,  the  former  retaining  an 
ancient  mansion,  in  which  Elizabeth  Fry  lived  for 
many  years  before  her  removal  to  The  Cedars,  and 
the  latter  still  priding  itself  on  its  ancient  manor- 
house,  now  an  agricultural  training  home  for  boys, 
that  was  once  the  seat  of  the  noble  Nevill  family,  to 
whom  there  is  a  good  monument  in  the  church.  The 
home  bears  the  inappropriate  name  of  Anne  Boleyn's 
Castle,  because  of  a  tradition,  for  which  there  is  no 
historical  information,  that  the  ill-fated  second  wife 
of  Henry  vill.  was  wooed  in  it,  and,  by  a  strange 
irony  of  fate,  shut  up  in  it  later,  to  await  the  day  of 
her  execution,  after  her  condemnation  to  death. 

Greater  even  than  the  transformation  which  has 
taken  place  in  Stratford  and  the  Hams  is  that  which 
has  converted  Barking  from  a  straggling  fishing 
village,  dependent  on  the  famous  Benedictine  abbey, 
after  which  it  is  named,  that  was  founded  in  the 
ninth  century  by  St.  Erkenwald,  into  a  thriving 
market  town,  that  is  still  rapidly  widening  its  boun- 
daries. The  abbey  itself,  that  was  burnt  by  the 
Danes  in  870,  and  rebuilt  a  century  later  by  King 
Edgar,  is  gone,  but  for  all  that  something  of  the  old 
romance  and  sanctity  still  seems  to  cling  to  the 
district  it  dominated,  that  was  for  centuries  looked 
upon  by  the  faithful  as  one  of  the  most  sacred  in 


BARKING  ABBEY  81 

England.  The  first  abbess  was  the  saintly  St.  Ethel- 
burga,  sister  of  the  founder,  and  she  and  St.  Erken- 
wald  were  both  buried  in  the  abbey  church.  After 
the  rebuilding  of  the  abbey  under  Edgar,  until  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  its  history  was  inti- 
mately bound  up  with  that  of  the  whole  country,  the 
holy  women  who  successively  held  the  office  of 
abbess,  many  of  them  of  royal  birth,  taking  a  very 
active  share  in  politics,  and  unlike  their  successors 
in  modern  nunneries,  exercising  jurisdiction  over 
men  as  well  as  women.  Barking  Abbey  became 
celebrated  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land  for  the  miracles  wrought  in  it,  and  also  as 
a  place  of  education  for  the  daughters  of  aristocratic 
parents.  The  Abbess  of  Barking  was  one  of  the 
four  ladies  of  England  who  were  baronesses  in  their 
own  right,  a  privilege  that  included,  strange  to  say, 
the  right  to  a  seat  in  the  Witenagemot,  or  Great 
Council,  the  predecessor  of  the  Parliament  the  doors 
of  which  have  ever  been  so  jealously  closed  against 
women.  The  prosperity  of  the  great  abbey  of 
Barking  seems  to  have  begun  to  decline  about  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  through  the  flooding 
of  some  lands  belonging  to  it,  but  it  was  still  a  very 
valuable  property  when  it  was  confiscated  by 
Henry  VIIL,  who,  with  unusual  generosity,  gave  to 
the  then  abbess  an  annuity  of  two  hundred  marks 
for  the  rest  of  her  life. 

The  only  remaining  relics  of  the  once  beautiful 
and  extensive  abbey  buildings  are  a  few  bits  of  the 
old  walls  and  a  massive  gateway — that  from  which, 
according  to  local  tradition,  \V  illiam  the  Conqueror 


82    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

set  forth  on  his  first  royal  progress  through  his 
newly  acquired  kingdom — which  is  known  as  '  The 
Five-bell  Gate,'  the  curfew  bell  having  been  rung 
from  the  campanile  above  it,  which  used  to  bear  the 
beautiful  name  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Holy  Rood, 
there  having  been  a  bas-relief  of  the  Crucifixion  on 
its  walls. 

The  parish  church  of  Barking,  dedicated  to  St. 
Margaret — the  churchyard  of  which  is  entered  from 
the  Five-bell  Gate — retains  parts  of  the  original 
Norman  building  and  of  the  early  English  additions 
to  it,  and  contains  several  interesting  old  brasses  ; 
but,  unfortunately,  what  was  some  years  ago  a  very 
characteristic  example  of  the  transition  between  the 
two  styles  has  been  almost  completely  spoiled  by 
so-called  restoration,  the  massive  piers  having  been 
whitewashed  and  the  beautiful  timber  roof  covered 
in  with  an  over-ornamented  plaster  ceiling. 

The  town  of  Barking  is  rather  picturesquely 
situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Roding,  about  a 
mile  above  the  creek  named  after  it.  It  contains, 
however,  very  little  of  interest  except  the  ancient 
market-hall,  said  to  have  been  built  by  Elizabeth, 
and  is  practically  an  integral  part  of  London  over 
the  Border,  with  long  monotonous  streets  of  small 
houses.  Of  the  many  mansions  once  occupied  by 
wealthy  merchants,  the  sixteenth-century  Eastbury 
House,  recently  restored  by  its  owner,  is  an  isolated 
example,  and  is  locally  known  as  the  '  Gunpowder 
House/  because  of  an  unfounded  tradition  that  the 
conspirators  in  the  Guy  Fawkes  plot  watched  from 
it  for  the  blowing-up  of  the  Houses  of  Parliament, 


DAGENHAM  83 

or,  according  to  another  version  of  the  same  legend, 
Lord  Mounteagle  there  received  the  letter  which 
enabled  him  to  frustrate  the  iniquitous  scheme. 

The  rapidly  growing  village  of  Dagenham,  that 
will  doubtless  soon  become  a  town,  set  in  the  midst 
of  market-gardens  in  the  low-lying  districts  east  of 
Barking,  retains  far  more  than  the  latter  the  rural 
appearance  it  presented  when  it  was  part  of  the 
extensive  abbey  demesne.  The  ancient  church,  in 
spite  of  much  necessary  rebuilding,  retains  a  fine 
piscina  that  was  long  bricked  up,  and  other  ancient 
relics,  including  an  altar-slab  bearing  the  marks 
symbolical  of  the  Redeemer's  wounds,  and  the  tomb 
of  Sir  Thomas  Ursuyk,  who  died  in  1470,  on  which 
are  effigies  of  himself,  his  wife,  and  their  thirteen 
children. 

Subject  as  it  has  been  from  the  earliest  historic 
times  to  inundation  from  the  Thames,  Dagenham 
has  been  from  the  first  intimately  associated  with 
engineering  enterprise.  Discoveries  were  made  in 
the  early  eighteenth  century  of  what  was  at  first 
taken  for  a  submerged  forest,  but  on  examination 
proved  to  be  relics  of  wooden  embankments  that 
were  probably  existing  in  pre-Roman  times.  In 
1376  the  breaking  down  of  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
at  Dagenham  flooded  the  village  and  the  whole 
neighbourhood,  involving  so  heavy  a  loss  to  the 
Abbey  of  Barking  that  the  then  abbess  had  to 
appeal  to  King  Edward  I.  for  exemption  from  a 
payment  due  to  him.  How  the  mischief  then  done 
was  repaired  there  is  no  evidence  to  show,  but  there 
are  many  allusions  in  contemporary  records  to  later 


84    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

occurrences  of  a  similar  kind,  all  of  which,  however, 
sink  into  insignificance  before  the  great  calamity 
of  December  17,  1707,  when  in  a  violent  storm  a 
breach  four  hundred  feet  wide  was  made  in  the 
Thames  embankment,  and  one  thousand  acres  were 
submerged.  Many  attempts  were  made  to  stop  the 
gap,  but  it  was  not  until  1715  that  anything  like 
success  was  achieved.  At  that  date  Captain  Perry 
undertook  the  arduous  task,  and  five  years  later  he 
had  reclaimed  all  but  a  comparatively  small  portion 
of  the  lost  lands,  the  so-called  Dagenham  Breach 
or  Dagenham  Lake,  a  picturesque  sheet  of  water 
much  resorted  to  by  anglers,  being  all  that  is  now 
left  to  keep  alive  the  memory  of  the  famous  disaster. 
About  1884  a  company  was  formed  to  transform 
this  lake  into  a  dock,  but  fortunately,  perhaps,  for 
those  who  prefer  beauty  to  utility,  the  enterprise 
failed  for  want  of  funds.  Meanwhile  Dagenham 
Breach  had  become  associated  with  an  institution 
still  dear  to  the  hearts  of  politicians — the  annual 
ministerial  whitebait  dinner — for  it  was  in  a  cottage 
on  its  banks  belonging  to  Sir  John  Preston,  M.P.  for 
Dover,  and  president  of  the  committee  for  inspecting 
the  embankment  at  Dagenham,  that  that  dinner 
was  first  eaten.  In  its  inception  a  mere  gathering 
of  friends  who  met  to  enjoy  the  country  air  and  to 
eat  freshly  caught  whitebait  in  each  other's  company, 
the  meeting  gradually  grew  in  importance  as  time 
went  on,  William  Pitt  having  been  often  one  of  the 
guests.  Later,  the  distance  from  town  was  found 
too  great  for  ministers  and  city  magnates,  so  it  was 
transferred  to  Greenwich,  where,  since  the  death 


BARKING  CREEK  85 

of  Sir  John  Preston,  the  old  Dagenham  traditions 
have  been  religiously  maintained. 

The  low-lying,  marshy  districts  near  Barking 
Creek,  where  the  Roding  flows  into  the  Thames, 
and  those  between  Dagenham  and  Woolwich,  have 
unfortunately  lost  nearly  all  the  country  charm 
which  distinguished  them  at  the  time  of  Sir  John 
Preston,  but  the  beautiful  water  highway  intersect- 
ing them,  that  is  associated  with  so  many  thrilling 
memories,  and  has  been  the  scene  of  so  many 
notable  historic  pageants,  will  ever  lend  to  them 
a  strong  element  of  the  picturesque.  Constant 
changes  in  the  tides,  with  never-ending  variations 
in  the  traffic,  dainty  pleasure-craft,  heavily  laden 
barges,  crowded  steamers,  and  busy  tugs  succeeding 
each  other  in  an  unbroken  procession,  or  momen- 
tarily forming  picturesque  groups  to  which  the 
rarely  absent  mist  and  fog  give  an  effective  touch 
of  mystery,  render  every  reach  of  the  Lower  Thames 
full  of  inspiration  to  the  artist.  Even  at  Woolwich 
itself,  one  half  of  which  is  on  the  north  and  the  other 
on  the  south  of  the  river,  there  is  still  much  that  is 
attractive,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  town  is  nearly 
everywhere  divided  from  the  water  by  the  long  lines 
of  the  dockyard  and  arsenal,  and  that  strength  and 
utility  rather  than  beauty  of  structure  are  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  those  two  centres  of 
activity. 

Originally  a  small  fishing-village,  the  site  of  which 
is  supposed  to  have  been  once  occupied  by  a  Roman 
camp,  Woolwich,  now  one  of  the  most  important 
eastern  suburbs  of  London,  owes  its  prosperity 


86    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

chiefly  to  its  having  been  chosen  by  Henry  VIII.  as 
his  chief  naval  station.  In  its  dockyard  was  built 
the  famous  ship  called  the  Henrye  Grace  a  Dieu,  as 
proved  by  entries  in  an  account-book,  now  in  the 
Record  Office,  of  the  payments  made  to  'shippe- 
wrights  and  other  officers  working  upon  the  Kinges 
great  shippe  at  Wolwiche'  from  1512  to  1515,  when 
it  was  launched  in  the  presence  of  Henry  and 
Katharine  of  Aragon,  who  with  their  court  and 
many  invited  guests  dined  on  board  at  the  royal 
expense.  The  career  of  the  great  Henrye  Grace  a 
Dieu  was  short,  for  it  was  destroyed  by  fire  at 
Woolwich  in  1553;  but  many  other  famous  ships 
were  built  in  the  same  dockyard,  including  some  of 
those  that  went  forth  to  meet  the  Spanish  Armada, 
others  that  took  part  in  the  voyages  of  exploration 
of  Hawkins  and  Frobisher,  and  the  Royal  Sovereign, 
nicknamed  the  '  Golden  Devil '  by  the  Dutch  on 
account  of  its  terrible  powers,  that  was  built  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  I.  In  his  famous  Diary  the  gossipy 
Secretary  of  the  Admiralty,  Mr.  Pepys,  often  alludes 
to  Woolwich,  which  he  constantly  visited  to  inspect 
the  dockyard,  the  ships,  and  the  stores,  making  the 
journey  from  Greenwich  sometimes  by  boat,  some- 
times on  foot.  He  describes  how  he  looked  into 
the  details  of  every  department,  examining  the 
charges  made  for  work  done,  and  he  strikes  a  melan- 
choly and  prophetic  note  when  he  says :  '  I  see  it  is 
impossible  for  the  King  to  have  things  done  so  cheap 
as  other  men.'  A  somewhat  later  entry  in  the  same 
journal  calls  up  a  picture  of  a  very  different  kind  of 
place  to  the  crowded,  busy,  and  somewhat  squalid 


WOOLWICH  87 

town  of  to-day,  for  on  May  28,  1669,  the  writer 
says :  '  My  wife  away  down  with  Jane  ...  to 
Woolwich  in  order  to  [get]  a  little  ayre,  and  to  lie 
there  to-night  and  so  to  gather  May  dew  in  the 
morning  ...  to  wash  her  face  with.'  To  quote 
Pepys  again,  he  laments  at  the  time  of  the  scare 
about  the  Dutch,  the  sinking  of  so  many  good  ships 
in  the  Thames  off  Woolwich,  shrewdly  remarking 
that  these  ships  'would  have  been  good  works  to 
command  the  river  below  '  had  the  enemy  attempted 
to  pass  them,  and  adding, '  it  is  a  sad  sight  while  we 
would  be  thought  masters  of  the  sea.' 

The  gallant  Prince  Rupert  was  for  some  time  in 
command  at  Woolwich,  and  greatly  strengthened  its 
defences,  adding  to  them  a  battery  of  sixty  guns. 
According  to  tradition,  he  lived  in  the  house  near 
the  arsenal,  now  converted  into  a  museum,  close  to 
which  was  a  lofty  observatory  named  after  him,  com- 
manding a  fine  view,  which  was  unfortunately  taken 
down  in  1786.  Throughout  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  and  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when 
wars  and  rumours  of  wars  kept  up  a  constant 
demand  for  new  battleships,  additions  continued  to 
be  made  to  the  great  dockyard  of  Woolwich,  which 
reached  the  zenith  of  its  prosperity  under  the  gifted 
engineers,  Sir  John  Rennie  and  his  son,  who  created 
a  large  reservoir,  built  a  strong  river  wall,  and 
proved  themselves  equal  to  meeting  every  emer- 
gency that  arose.  The  dockyard  soon  became  as 
celebrated  for  the  iron  vessels  launched  from  it  as 
for  their  wooden  predecessors,  but  ere  long  even  it 
failed  to  be  able  to  produce  the  huge  iron-clad  men- 


88    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of-war  required  for  modern  scientific  warfare.  On 
September  17,  1869,  the  fiat  went  forth  that  Wool- 
wich dockyard  should  be  closed,  and  soon  after  part 
of  it  was  sold,  whilst  the  remainder  was  converted 
into  a  Government  storehouse  for  munitions  of  war. 

The  fame  of  the  ancient  dockyard  was  soon  to  be 
equalled,  if  not  surpassed,  by  that  of  the  Royal 
Arsenal  that  occupies  the  site  of  what  was  long 
known  as  the  Warren,  which  was  closely  associated 
with  the  memory  of  the  convicts  who  used  to  work 
in  it  and  in  the  dockyard,  living  in  the  ancient 
vessels  called  the  hulks  that  were  moored  in  the 
river.  The  present  arsenal  is  the  successor  of  a  very 
much  more  ancient  military  depot,  for  even  if  there 
be  no  real  foundation  for  the  popular  tradition  that 
Queen  Elizabeth  founded  the  latter,  there  are  many 
references  to  it  in  early  ordnance  accounts,  notably 
in  one  bearing  date  July  9,  1664,  in  which,  in  an 
estimate  for  repairs,  occurs  the  item  :  '  for  floaring  a 
storehouse  att  Woolwich  to  keepe  shipp  carriages 
dry.'  Sixteen  years  later  an  order  was  issued  from 
the  Admiralty  that '  all  ye  sheds  at  Woolwich  along 
ye  proofe  house,  and  ye  shedds  for  carnages  there, 
be  forthwith  repaired,'  supplemented  in  1682  by 
directions  for  building  '  a  new  shedd  at  Woolwich, 
with  all  convenient  speed,  with  artificers  at  ye 
reasonablest  rates,'  and  in  1688  by  instructions  for 
the  removal  of  all  guns,  carriages,  and  stores,  then  at 
Deptford,  to  Woolwich. 

Founded  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  modern  Arsenal  of  Woolwich  is  one  of 
the  most  extensive  and  interesting  institutions  of  the 


WOOLWICH  89 

kind  in  the  world.  Exclusive  of  the  outlying  powder 
magazines  in  the  marshes,  the  present  buildings 
cover  considerably  more  than  three  hundred  acres, 
the  ordinary  staff  of  workpeople  numbers  some  ten 
thousand,  that  is  increased  to  forty  thousand  or  fifty 
thousand  in  time  of  war.  In  the  various  depart- 
ments the  whole  science  of  modern  war  material  may 
be  studied,  whilst  in  the  Royal  Artillery  Museum 
the  history  of  the  past  is  illustrated  by  a  remarkably 
complete  collection  of  weapons  and  models.  On  the 
wharf  and  pier  in  connection  with  the  Arsenal  the 
landing  and  embarkation  of  troops  and  the  shipping 
of  stores  are  constantly  going  on,  troops  are  daily 
exercised  and  reviews  are  often  held  on  the  common 
outside  the  town,  so  that  there  is  always  something 
interesting  to  be  seen  at  Woolwich,  which  in  addition 
to  its  fine  Dockyard  and  Arsenal,  owns  the  Royal 
Military  Academy  that  was  founded  by  George  II. 
in  1741,  and  is  associated  with  the  memory  of  many 
great  soldiers. 

Outside  Woolwich  is  the  lofty  Shooters  Hill,  com- 
manding a  fine  view  of  the  Thames  valley  and 
London,  that  was  in  olden  times  a  noted  haunt  of 
highwaymen,  a  fact  to  which  it  is  supposed  to  owe 
its  name.  It  is  often  alluded  to  by  old  chroniclers, 
notably  by  Phillpott,  who  declares  that  it  was  so 
called  for  the  '  thievery  there  practised  where 
travellers  in  elder  times  were  so  much  infested  with 
depredations  and  bloody  mischief,  that  order  was 
taken  in  the  6th  year  of  Richard  II.  for  the  enlarg- 
ing the  highway ' ;  but  the  evil  was  not  remedied, 
for  as  late  as  1682  Oldham  wrote  that '  Padderscame 


90    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

from  Shooters  Hill  in  flocks.'  In  Hall's  Chronicle 
there  is  a  noteworthy  description  of  a  meeting  on 
Shooters  Hill  between  Henry  vill.  and  his  queen 
and  Robin  Hood,  which  deserves  quotation  at  length  : 
'And  as  they  passed  by  the  way,'  he  says,  '  they 
espied  a  company  of  tall  yeomen,  clothed  all  in  grene 
with  grene  whodes  and  bowes  and  arrowes  to  the 
number  of  ii  C.  Then  one  of  them,  which  called 
himselfe  Robyn  Hood,  came  to  the  kyng  desyring 
him  to  se  his  men  shoote,  and  the  kyng  was  content. 
Then  he  whistled,  and  al  the  ii  C  archers  shot  and 
losed  at  once,  and  then  he  whisteled  agayne  and  they 
likewise  shot  agayne,  their  arrows  whisteled  by  crafte 
of  the  head  so  that  the  noyes  was  strange  and  great 
and  much  pleased  the  kynge  and  quene  and  all  the 
company.'  So  delighted,  indeed,  was  Henry  with  the 
prowess  displayed,  that  when  the  bold  Robin  'desyred 
them  to  come  into  the  grene  wood  and  see  how  the 
outlaws  lyve,'  they  readily  consented.  '  Then,'  adds 
the  chronicler,  'the  homes  blew  till  they  came  to  the 
wood  under  Shoters  Hil,  and  there  was  an  arbor 
made  of  boughs,  with  a  hal  and  a  great  chamber 
very  well  made  and  covered  with  floures  and  swete 
herbes,  which  the  kyng  much  praysed.'  Encouraged 
by  this  success,  the  outlaw  chief  made  a  yet  bolder 
venture,  for  though  he  must  have  known  that  he  was 
risking  the  lives  of  all  his  merry  men  as  well  as  his 
own,  he  said  to  the  king,  '  Outlawes  brekefastes  is 
venyson,  and  therefore  you  must  be  content  with 
such  fare  as  we  use.'  Even  this  bold  confession  of 
guilt,  however,  did  not  rouse  the  ire  of  the  usually 
hasty  monarch ;  he  and  his  queen,  says  Hall,  '  sate 


PLUMSTEAD  91 

doune  and  were  served  with  venyson  and  wyne  by 
Robin  Hood  and  his  men  to  their  contentacion.' 

Writing  more  than  a  century  after  this  notable 
meeting  so  typical  of  the  time  at  which  it  occurred, 
the  ubiquitous  Pepys,  who  seems  to  have  been  here, 
there,  and  everywhere,  tells  how  in  a  journey  from 
Stratford  to  London  he  and  his  wife's  maid  rode 
under  a  dead  body  hanging  on  Shooters  Hill,  and 
that  the  reputation  of  the  famous  height  was  not 
much  improved  in  Byron's  time  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  poet  makes  his  Don  Juan  shoot  a  man 
on  it  who  had  accosted  him  with  the  trite  demand, 
'your  money  or  your  life.'  Now,  however,  all  is 
changed :  no  longer  is  the  Bull  Inn — where, 
according  to  local  tradition,  Dick  Turpin  nearly 
roasted  the  landlady  on  her  own  kitchen  fire,  to 
make  her  confess  where  she  kept  her  savings — the 
stopping-place  of  coaches  ;  the  ancient  woods  are 
replaced  by  the  Military  Hospital,  the  largest  in 
Great  Britain,  named  after  Lord  Herbert  of  Lea, 
who  was  Secretary  of  State  for  War  when  it  was 
erected  ;  trim  villas  and  a  modern  church,  that  is 
already  too  small  for  its  congregation.  The  one 
remaining  relic  of  days  gone  by  is  the  ugly  Severn- 
doorg  Castle,  a  massive  three-storied  tower  on  the 
top  of  the  hill,  built  by  the  wife  of  Sir  William  Jones, 
to  commemorate  his  taking  of  the  stronghold,  after 
which  it  is  named,  on  the  coast  of  Malabar. 

Less  than  a  century  ago,  Plumstead,  which  with 
Burrage  Town  now  forms  the  eastern  suburb  of 
Woolwich,  was  a  mere  isolated  hamlet  of  the 
marshes,  a  dependency  of  the  manor  given  in  960 


92    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

by  King  Edgar  to  the  abbot  of  St.  Augustine's, 
Canterbury,  which  after  changing  hands  many  times 
became  the  property  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford. 
The  ancient  manor-house,  now  a  farm,  still  stands 
near  the  parish  church — which  is  dedicated  to 
St.  Nicolas,  the  patron  saint  of  fishermen — that, 
though  greatly  modernised,  retains  some  few  traces 
of  the  original  building.  Of  the  seat  of  the  noble 
De  Burghesh  family,  who  once  owned  the  site  of 
Burrage  Town,  nothing  now  remains,  though  its 
memory  is  preserved  in  the  name  of  Burrage  Place, 
a  row  of  uninteresting  modern  houses. 

Between  Plumstead  and  Erith  is  a  low-lying 
district,  now  being  rapidly  built  over,  that  is  still 
known  by  the  poetic  name  of  Abbey  Wood,  in 
memory  of  the  beautiful  Lesnes  Abbey  to  which  it 
once  belonged,  of  which  a  few  traces  are  still  pre- 
served, including  a  doorway  and  some  portions  of 
the  garden  walls.  Founded  in  1178  by  Richard  de 
Lacy  for  a  branch  of  the  Canons  Regular  of  St. 
Augustine,  the  abbey  remained  in  their  possession 
till  it  was  confiscated  by  Henry  VIII.,  and  its  site  is 
now  the  property  of  Christ's  Hospital.  Where  the 
fine  old  Abbey  Grange  once  stood,  is  the  so-called 
Abbey  Farm  that  was  built  on  the  old  foundations, 
and  not  very  long  ago  was  surrounded  by  beautiful 
woods.  It  was  due  to  the  untiring  energy  of  the 
monks  of  Lesnes  Abbey,  aided  by  their  neighbours, 
the  owners  of  Plumstead  manor,  that  the  marshes 
which  are  now  such  a  valuable  property  were  first 
drained,  but  their  work  was  again  and  again  un- 
done by  the  breaking  down  of  their  embankments 


CROSSNESS  POINT  93 

and  the  rushing  in  of  the  river.  In  1527  two  such 
breaches  were  made  at  Plumstead  and  Erith,  and 
for  more  than  thirty  years  the  abbey  lands  near  the 
Thames  were  one  unbroken  lake,  all  efforts  to  draw 
off  the  floods  having  been  unavailing.  In  1563,  how- 
ever, an  Italian  named  Giacomo  Aconzio,  a  refugee 
from  religious  persecution  under  the  protection  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  offered  to  reclaim  the  submerged 
district,  and  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
empowering  him  'at  his  own  cost  and  charges, 
during  the  term  of  four  years,  to  inne,  fence  and  win 
the  said  grounds  or  any  parcel  of  them,'  as  a 
reward  for  which  service  he  was  to  receive  a  moiety 
of  the  ground  thus  secured.  Six  hundred  acres 
only  were  drained  before  the  death  of  Aconzio,  but 
the  work  begun  by  him  was  vigorously  carried  on 
after  he  had  passed  away,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  not  more  than  five  hundred 
acres  remained  under  water.  These,  too,  were 
eventually  restored  to  cultivation,  and  since  then  no 
serious  flood  has  occurred,  though  but  for  the  prompt 
action  of  the  engineers  of  the  Woolwich  Arsenal, 
when  through  an  explosion  of  gunpowder  at  Cross- 
ness a  breach  one  hundred  yards  wide  was  made  in 
the  river  wall  at  Erith,  the  whole  of  the  reclaimed 
lands  would  have  been  once  more  submerged. 

Though  all  that  are  now  left  of  the  beautiful 
Abbey  Woods  are  enclosed,  glimpses  of  them  can 
still  be  obtained  here  and  there,  and  there  are  many 
beautiful  walks  in  the  neighbourhood,  notably  one  to 
Lesnes  and  Burstall  Heaths,  the  latter  of  which  has 
recently  been  secured  for  the  people,  and  one  to  the 


94    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

village  ol  West  Wickham,  that  owns  a  thirteenth- 
century  church  containing  the  remains  of  mural  fres- 
coes of  scenes  from  the  life  of  Christ.  Crossness 
Point  too,  where  is  situated  one  of  the  outfalls  of  the 
metropolitan  drainage  works,  is  within  easy  reach  of 
Woolwich  and  Erith,  and  is  really  quite  a  picturesque 
settlement,  the  engine-houses,  master's  villa,  work- 
men's cottages  and  school,  being  grouped  about  a 
well-proportioned  central  chimney. 

Finely  situated  on  rising  ground  a  little  further 
down  the  river  than  Woolwich,  and  commanding  a 
fine  view  up  and  down  stream,  the  densely  populated 
town  of  Erith,  the  name  of  which  is  supposed  to 
mean  the  ancient  haven,  was  long  an  important 
naval  and  commercial  port,  and  is  still  a  much  fre- 
quented yachting  station.  Considerable  doubt  exists 
as  to  the  identity  of  the  first  lord  of  the  manor,  but 
the  estate  was  one  of  those  seized  by  William  the 
Conqueror,  who  gave  it  to  his  half-brother,  Bishop 
Odo  of  Bayeux.  Several  centuries  later  it  was 
granted  by  Henry  VIII.  to  Elizabeth,  Countess  of 
Salisbury,  and  it  now  belongs  to  the  Wheatley 
family,  one  of  whom  replaced  the  old  manor- 
house  by  a  modern  mansion.  The  ancient  parish 
church  that  rises  up  from  the  borders  of  the  marsh 
a  little  distance  from  the  town,  though  it  has  been  a 
good  deal  spoiled  by  restoration,  is  probably  in  its 
main  structure  much  what  it  was  when  the  famous 
meeting  took  place  in  it  between  the  discontented 
barons  and  the  commissioners  of  King  John,  at  which, 
it  is  said,  the  terms  of  Magna  Charta  were  first  dis- 
cussed. Some  portions  of  the  original  timber  roof 
remain,  above  the  chancel  arch  there  is  a  quaint 


ERITH  95 

figure  of  Christ  with  arms  outstretched,  and  in  the 
southern  aisle  is  a  hagioscope  or  squint,  from  which 
the  altar  can  be  seen.  Some  of  the  monuments,  too, 
are  interesting,  notably  that  to  the  Countess  of 
Salisbury,  who  was  once  the  lady  of  the  manor,  and 
there  are  several  good  brasses,  including  two  dating 
from  the  fifteenth  century,  one  commemorating  Roger 
Sinclair,  the  other  John  Aylmer  and  his  wife. 

The  older  portions  of  the  town  of  Erith,  with  the 
background  of  hills  stretching  away  to  the  Abbey 
Woods,  retain  a  certain  rural  character,  and  at  the 
annual  fair  held  on  Whit-Monday  it  resumes  for  a 
time  something  of  its  ancient  appearance  when  it 
was  the  seat  of  a  corporation  and  had  its  own  weekly 
market.  Another  strong  element  of  interest  of  a 
different  kind  is  the  fact  that  in  its  neighbourhood 
the  whole  life-story  of  the  valley  of  the  Thames  can 
be  read  backwards,  the  excavations  made  for  various 
purposes  having  laid  bare  the  strata  and  revealed 
the  remains  of  many  animals,  such  as  the  elephant 
and  the  great  cave  tiger,  that  were  extinct  in  Great 
Britain  long  before  the  historic  era.  Moreover,  the 
draining  of  the  marshes  has  brought  to  light  the 
remains  of  what  was  at  first  supposed  to  be  a 
submerged  forest,  but  is  proved  to  be  the  relics  of 
early 'historic  or  prehistoric  embankments,  trunks 
and  roots  of  a  great  variety  of  trees  bearing  unmis- 
takable traces  of  human  manipulation  having  been 
found  in  a  bed  of  peat  below  the  alluvial  clay. 

Within  easy  reach  of  Erith  is  the  riverside  village 
of  Belvedere,  destined  probably  soon  to  become  a 
town,  that  takes  its  name  from  a  mansion  on  high 
ground  that  was  built  in  1764  by  Sir  Samuel  Gideon, 


96    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

later  Lord  Eardley,  but  was  converted,  in  1869,  into 
a  home  for  aged  seamen,  and  is  now  a  noted  school 
for  boys. 

Further  away  from  the  Thames,  though  still  to  a 
certain  extent  in  touch  with  it,  is  the  romantic 
district  collectively  known  as  the  Grays,  watered  by 
the  river  from  which  it  takes  its  name,  and  in  which 
are  situated  the  town  of  Crayford  and  the  villages  of 
North  Cray,  Foot's  Cray,  Bexley,  St.  Paul's  Cray, 
Mary  Cray,  and  Orpington.  The  site  of  the  first,  the 
Crecgenford  of  the  Saxon  chronicle,  was  the  scene, 
in  457,  of  a  battle  in  which  Hengist  and  his  son  JEsc 
fought  against  the  Britons,  slaying  four  thousand 
men,  and  here  and  there  in  the  neighbourhood  are 
many  artificial  caves  with  vaulted  roofs,  locally 
known  as  Dane  holes,  and  popularly  supposed  to 
have  been  used  as  hiding-places  for  treasure  in  times 
of  war,  but  which  are  possibly  really  parts  of  the 
great  system  of  underground  galleries  and  chambers 
that  was  recently  opened  at  Chislehurst. 

At  the  time  of  the  Doomsday  Survey,  Crayford 
manor  was  the  property  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, and  the  sub-manors  of  Newbury  and  Marshal 
Court  were  bought,  in  1694,  by  Admiral  Sir 
Cloudesley  Shovel,  whose  descendants  sold  the 
mansion  belonging  to  them  to  the  owner  of  a  linen 
factory,  who  quickly  converted  it  into  a  workshop, 
thus  inaugurating  the  transformation  of  a  mere 
hamlet  into  a  thriving  manufacturing  centre,  for  it 
now  owns  many  factories  and  mills  employing  a  large 
number  of  work-people. 

The  church  of  Crayford,  dedicated  to  the  Apostle 


NORTH  CRAY  97 

of  the  North,  St.  Paulinus,  who  did  much  good  work 
in  the  Thames  valley  before  he  became  Bishop  of 
York,  is  a  noteworthy  structure,  in  the  perpendicular 
style,  with  a  fine  timber  roof  that  probably  belonged 
to  an  earlier  building.  It  is  of  somewhat  unusual 
construction,  having  no  nave  but  two  very  broad 
aisles  connected  by  the  chancel  arch,  and  it  con- 
tains some  interesting  monuments,  including  one  to 
William  Draper  and  his  wife,  who  died,  the  former 
in  1650,  the  latter  in  1652,  and  one  to  Dame  Eliza- 
beth Shovel,  who  passed  away  in  1752. 

North  Cray,  about  two  miles  from  Crayford,  is 
still  a  charming  scattered  hamlet,  and  from  it  a  path- 
way leads  across  fields  to  Foot's  Cray,  the  latter  said 
to  be  named  after  Godwin  Fot,  who  owned  the 
manor  at  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  It 
passed,  after  changing  hands  several  times,  to  the 
Walsingham  family,  and  in  its  manor-house  was 
born  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  the  Puritan  statesman 
who  was  so  bitter  an  enemy  of  the  unfortunate  Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots.  Foot's  Cray  owns  a  very  interest- 
ing old  church — unfortunately  a  good  deal  spoiled 
by  unskilful  restoration — with  traces  of  Saxon  and 
Norman  work,  and  a  little  to  the  north  of  it  is  a  fine 
eighteenth-century  mansion  belonging  to  the  Vansit- 
tart  family.  Still  more  noteworthy  is  the  relic  of 
the  once  beautiful  Ruxley  church,  now  used  as  a 
barn,  that  is  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from 
Foot's  Cray  and  deserves  careful  examination,  the 
sedilia  and  piscina,  with  part  of  the  original  chalk 
walls  faced  with  flint,  having  been  preserved  when 
the  rest  of  the  materials  were  sold  for  building. 


98    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Built  on  the  river  Cray,  that  is  bridged  over  in  its 
principal  street,  Bexley  has  recently  grown  almost 
into  a  town,  but  it  is  still  a  pretty  place  and  owns 
an  interesting  old  church — with  a  lofty  tower  sur- 
mounted by  an  octagonal  spire — that  is  supposed  to 
occupy  the  site  of  a  Saxon  chapel  founded  in  the 
ninth  century  by  Wilfrid,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
A  beautiful  Norman  arch  above  the  Early  English 
southern  doorway  is  probably  a  relic  of  a  second 
building  that  preceded  the  present  one.  The  latter, 
that  dates  from  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century,  was 
well  restored  some  thirty  years  ago,  when  portions  of 
a  fine  old  rood  screen  were  skilfully  dovetailed  into  a 
modern  one,  the  ancient  oak  stalls  were  replaced  in 
the  chancel,  and  several  brasses  that  had  long  been 
buried  were  set  up  in  their  former  positions,  includ- 
ing one  to  the  memory  of  the  At  Hall  family — who 
owned  the  eighteenth-century  Hall  Place  on  the  road 
from  Bexley  to  Crayford — that  bears  the  symbol  of 
the  horn,  proving  that  they  held  their  manor  on  what 
was  known  as  a  homage  tenure,  a  horn  having  been 
the  token  of  a  forester's  office. 

St.  Paul's  Cray,  named  after  the  much  loved  St. 
Paulinus,  who  was  sent  to  England  by  St.  Gregory 
in  response  to  an  appeal  from  St.  Augustine  for 
labourers  to  aid  him  in  reaping  the  great  harvest  of 
souls  in  Kent,  is  situated  in  a  beautiful  valley,  and 
its  manor,  now  the  property  of  the  Sydney  family, 
was  one  of  those  given  by  William  the  Conqueror  to 
Bishop  Odo  of  Bayeux.  Its  Early  English  church 
contains  relics  of  a  Norman  building  that  formerly 
occupied  its  site,  and  it  ranks  with  that  of  St.  Mary 


ORPINGTON  99 

Cray  and  the  remains  of  that  of  Ruxley  amongst 
the  most  interesting  ecclesiastical  survivals  in  the 
eastern  counties  of  England.  The  church  of  St. 
Paul's  Cray,  which  presents  in  its  dignified  beauty  a 
marked  contrast  to  the  commonplace  buildings  of 
the  modern  mills  that  now  make  up  the  greater  part 
of  the  village,  is  a  noble  cruciform  structure  with  a 
grand  nave  upheld  by  massive  pillars,  a  well-pre- 
served piscina  and  other  characteristic  features.  It 
should  be  studied  with  the  somewhat  earlier  church 
of  All  Saints  in  the  neighbouring  village  of 
Orpington,  in  which  the  transition  from  the  Norman 
to  the  Gothic  style  can  be  very  distinctly  traced. 
The  western  doorway  in  the  entrance  porch,  of 
which  there  is  an  ancient  holy-water  stoup,  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  examples  of  Norman  work  in 
England,  and  the  piscina  and  sedilia  in  the  chancel 
are  also  very  fine. 

Orpington,  the  name  of  which  is  supposed  to 
signify  rising  springs,  is  a  typical  Kentish  village 
in  the  heart  of  the  hop  country,  and  is  closely 
associated  with  the  memory  of  John  Ruskin,  many 
of  whose  famous  books  were  produced  at  his  private 
printing-press  there.  It  owns,  in  addition  to  its 
beautiful  church,  a  number  of  fine  old  houses,  in- 
cluding the  fifteenth-century  Priory  now  in  private 
possession,  with  massive  walls  and  good  Tudor 
windows,  and  the  mansion  known  as  Bark  Hart,  in 
which  the  first  owner  and  builder,  Perceval  Hart,  en- 
tertained Queen  Elizabeth,  which  probably  occupies 
the  site  of  the  old  manor-house. 


CHAPTER  V 

GREENWICH  AND  OTHER  SOUTH-EASTERN  SUBURBS 
OF   LONDON 

/"OCCUPYING  as  it  does  a  unique  position  on 
\^s  the  Thames,  which  is  here  often  crowded 
with  British  and  foreign  shipping,  owning  in  the 
group  of  buildings  collectively  known  as  the  Hospital 
one  of  the  masterpieces  of  eighteenth-century 
domestic  architecture,  and  in  its  park  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  open  spaces  near  the  capital,  whilst 
its  Observatory  gives  to  it  the  distinction  of  a  leader 
in  astronomical  research,  Greenwich  has  long  ranked 
as  one  of  the  most  important  ancl  popular  suburbs 
of  London.  It  is  mentioned  as  Grenawic  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  and  its  history,  which  is 
intimately  bound  up  with  that  of  England,  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  time  of  Alfred  the  Great,  when  it 
was  a  mere  scattered  hamlet,  the  home  of  a  few  poor 
fishermen.  In  the  days  of  the  protracted  struggle 
with  the  invading  Northmen,  their  fleet  often  lay  at 
anchor  for  months  together  near  Greenwich,  within 
easy  reach  of  their  camp  on  the  high  ground  at  the 
edge  of  Blackheath,  now  known  as  East  and  West 

Coombe,  that  until  quite  recently  retained  traces  of 
100 


GREENWICH  101 

their  defensive  earthworks.  It  was  near  Greenwich 
that  the  noble  St.  Alphege,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, who  had  been  taken  prisoner  at  the  siege  of  that 
town  in  1001,  was  massacred  by  the  Danes  on  April 
I,  1002,  in  revenge  for  his  persistent  refusal  to  buy 
his  life  at  the  expense  of  his  friends,  and  it  is 
supposed  to  have  been  on  the  actual  scene  of  his 
martyrdom  that  the  parish  church  was  built  many 
centuries  afterwards. 

The  manor  of  Greenwich,  with  that  of  Lewisham, 
to  which  it  originally  belonged,  was  given  by  Ethel- 
ruda,  a  niece  of  King  Alfred,  to  the  monks  of  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Peter  at  Ghent,  who  held  it  till  it  was 
seized  by  the  Crown  after  the  disgrace  of  Bishop 
Odo  of  Bayeux.  When  in  1414  the  alien  religious 
houses  were  suppressed,  it  was  granted  by  Henry  V. 
to  the  newly  founded  Abbey  of  Sheen,  but  later  it 
again  reverted  to  the  Crown.  There  seems  to  have 
been  a  royal  residence  and  chapel  at  Greenwich  as 
early  as  the  thirteenth  century,  for  it  is  related  that 
on  a  certain  occasion  King  Edward  I.  made  an 
offering  of  seven  shillings  and  his  son,  the  future 
Edward  II.,  one  of  three  shillings  and  sixpence,  at 
each  of  the  holy  crosses  in  the  chapel  dedicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin  at  Greenwich,  though  exactly 
where  that  chapel  was  situated  there  is  no  evidence 
to  show.  Later,  Henry  IV.  made  his  will,  dated 
1408,  at  his  manor-house  of  Greenwich,  and  his  son 
Henry  V.  bestowed  the  estate  on  Thomas  Beaufort, 
Duke  of  Exeter,  for  his  life.  On  his  death  in  1417 
it  was  given  to  Duke  Humphrey  of  Gloucester, 
uncle  of  the  king,  and  some  few  years  after- 


102    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

wards  two  hundred  acres  of  land  were  added  to 
the  property,  whilst  permission  was  granted  to  its 
owner  to  build  on  to  the  manor-house,  a  concession 
confirmed  and  increased  in  1437.  The  duke,  aided 
by  his  wife  Eleanor,  quickly  converted  the  ancient 
residence  into  a  palace,  to  which  he  gave  the  name 
of  the  Pleasaunce,  or  Placentia,  that  occupied  the 
site  of  the  western  wing  of  the  present  hospital — 
the  crypt  of  its  chapel  being  still  preserved  beneath 
the  portion  now  used  as  a  museum — and  he  began 
to  build  the  tower  that  now  forms  part  of  the  famous 
Observatory.  In  1447,  however,  Duke  Humphrey's 
work  was  suddenly  cut  short  by  his  death,  and  the 
greatly  improved  property  reverted  to  the  Crown, 
to  which  it  has  ever  since  belonged.  The  park  was 
added  to  and  stocked  with  deer  by  Edward  IV.,  and 
Henry  VII.  greatly  improved  the  palace,  building  a 
brick  front  on  the  riverside.  He  also  completed 
the  tower  begun  by  Duke  Humphrey,  and  built  a 
convent  close  to  the  palace  for  the  Grey  Friars,  to 
whom  Edward  iv.  had  already,  in  1480,  given  a 
chantry  and  a  little  chapel  dedicated  to  the  Holy 
Cross,  that  probably  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  new 
monastery.  Henry  VIII.  was  born  at  Placentia,  and 
to  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  a  very  great  affection 
for  it,  sparing  no  expense  to  beautify  it.  In  its 
chapel  he  was  married  to  his  first  wife,  Katharine 
of  Aragon  ;  in  its  hall  he  presided  over  many  stately 
banquets,  and  took  part  in  its  park  in  many  a 
brilliant  tournament.  He  and  his  court  generally 
spent  Christmas  at  Greenwich,  and  it  was  there,  in 
1511,  that  the  first  masked  ball  took  place  in  England. 


GREENWICH  103 

The  Princess  Mary  was  born  at  Greenwich  in  1516, 
and  a  year  later  her  aunt,  Mary,  Queen-Dowager  of 
France,  was  married  with  much  pomp  and  ceremony, 
in  the  chapel  of  Placentia,  to  the  Duke  of  Suffolk. 
In  1517  no  less  than  three  queens — Katharine  of 
Aragon,  Margaret  of  Scotland,  and  Mary,  Queen- 
Dowager  of  the  same  country — were  together  at 
Greenwich,  and  in  1527  a  grand  entertainment  was 
given  there  to  the  French  ambassadors,  who  had 
come  to  ask  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Mary,  then 
eleven  years  old,  for  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  second 
son  of  the  King  of  France,  although  she  was  already 
affianced  to  the  Emperor  Charles  v.  It  was  at 
Placentia,  too,  that  the  fickle  Henry  VIII.  spent  part 
of  his  honeymoon  with  Anne  Boleyn,  and  thence 
that  the  newly  wedded  pair  made  their  triumphal 
progress  up  the  river  for  the  coronation  of  the 
bride  at  Westminster  on  May  15,  1533,  escorted  by 
a  long  procession  of  gaily  decked  barges,  bearing 
the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London,  the 
officers  of  the  royal  household,  the  bishops,  and 
great  nobles  with  their  retinues,  making  up  such 
a  goodly  pageant  as  had  never  before  been  seen  on 
the  Thames.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  was  born  at  Greenwich,  and 
baptized  in  the  chapel  of  the  Grey  Friars  convent. 
For  the  next  two  years  the  happiness  of  her  father 
and  mother  in  each  other  seemed  to  be  complete; 
they  were  often  together  at  Placentia,  dividing  most 
of  their  time  between  it  and  Hampton  Court  Palace, 
but  after  the  birth  at  the  latter  of  Anne  Boleyn's 
still-born  son,  the  clouds  that  had  already  begun  to 


104    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

gather  before  that  event  became  more  threatening 
than  ever.  At  a  tournament  held  in  the  palace 
park  at  Greenwich  on  May  Day  1536,  Henry  found 
the  excuse  he  had  been  long  looking  for  for  the 
condemnation  of  his  wife.  The  unfortunate  queen 
accidentally  dropped  a  handkerchief,  and  the  king 
chose  to  assume  that  it  was  meant  as  a  signal  for 
one  of  the  competing  knights.  Without  vouchsafing 
a  word  of  explanation  he  started  from  his  seat, 
called  to  a  few  attendants  to  follow  him,  and 
hastened  off  to  London,  ordering  as  he  went  the 
execution  of  Anne's  brother.  The  next  morning 
the  same  measure  was  meted  out  to  the  queen  her- 
self; she  was  hurried  off  to  the  Tower,  her  request 
that  she  might  be  allowed  to  take  leave  of  her  child 
being  refused.  On  the  ipth  of  the  same  month 
she  was  executed,  her  husband,  to  whom  she  had 
addressed  a  most  pathetic  appeal,  having  steadily 
declined  to  see  her  again.  The  death  a  year  later 
of  her  successor,  soon  after  the  birth  of  the  future 
King  Edward  VI.,  must  have  appeared  a  judgment 
on  the  double  crime  of  murder  and  bigamy,  for  the 
king  was  married  to  Jane  Seymour  the  day  before 
the  death  of  Anne,  and  it  is  just  possible  that  even 
Henry's  hardened  conscience  may  have  reproached 
him,  for  he  avoided  Greenwich,  with  its  melancholy 
associations,  for  some  little  time  after  the  loss  of  his 
third  queen.  In  January  1540,  however,  it  was  the 
scene  of  the  magnificent  reception  of  the  hated  Anne 
of  Cleves,  whose  reluctant  suitor  had  decided  to 
divorce  her  before  the  ceremony  at  which  he  pro- 
mised to  cherish  her  till  death  should  part  him 


GREENWICH  105 

from  her.  On  the  occasion  of  this  mock  marriage, 
that  was  celebrated  in  the  private  chapel  of  Pla- 
centia,  the  whole  of  the  park  and  of  the  adjoining 
Blackheath,  in  spite  of  the  inclement  season  of  the 
year,  was  dotted  with  tents  and  pavilions  of  cloth 
of  gold  for  the  accommodation  of  the  queen  and 
her  ladies.  To  quote  from  Hall's  Chronicle,  the 
'esquires  gentlemen  pensioners  and  serving  men 
(were  so)  well  horsed  and  apparelled  that  whoever 
well  viewed  them  might  say  that  they  for  tall  and 
comely  personages  and  clean  of  limb  and  body  were 
able  to  give  the  greatest  prince  in  Christendom  a 
mortal  breakfast  if  he  were  the  king's  enemy.'  In 
the  opinion  of  this  partial  chronicler,  however,  Henry 
himself,  when  he  rode  forth  from  the  palace  attended 
by  all  his  great  nobles  and  the  foreign  ambassadors, 
far  excelled  them  all,  so  rich  was  his  apparel,  so 
gorgeous  the  trappings  of  his  steed, '  so  goodly  his 
personage  and  his  royal  gesture.' 

Neither  the  doomed  Catherine  Howard  nor  the 
more  fortunate  Catherine  Parr,  who,  but  for  the  fact 
that  she  survived  her  husband,  would  probably  have 
shared  the  fate  of  her  predecessor,  were  ever  at 
Greenwich,  but  the  palace  there  was  the  home  for 
a  short  time  of  Edward  VI.,  who  spent  the  Christmas 
of  1552  there,  and  died  in  it  in  1553.  Queen  Mary, 
too,  occasionally  resided  at  Placentia,  leading  an 
extremely  quiet  life,  that  was  one  day  disturbed 
by  an  alarming  incident,  for  a  salute  from  a  passing 
vessel  was  fired  by  mistake  from  a  loaded  gun,  and 
a  ball  pierced  the  wall  of  the  room  in  which  she  sat 
with  her  ladies,  fortunately  without  injuring  any  one. 


io6    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

It  was  Queen  Elizabeth  who  restored  to  her  birth- 
place something  of  the  eclat  it  had  enjoyed  during 
her  father's  lifetime.  She  spent  the  greater  part 
of  several  summers  there,  celebrating  on  April  23  the 
fete  of  St.  George,  the  patron-saint  of  England,  with 
great  pomp,  receiving  foreign  ambassadors  in  state, 
and  giving  audience  to  her  own  faithful  subjects 
when  it  suited  her  humour  and  convenience.  In 
the  first  year  of  her  reign  she  reviewed  in  her  park 
at  Greenwich  a  large  company  of  London  volunteers, 
who  had  banded  themselves  together  to  aid  her 
against  the  rebel  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  it  was  in 
the  palace  that  she  held  her  first  chapter  of  the 
Order  of  the  Garter,  after  which  she  went  to  supper 
with  her  devoted  adherent,  the  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
at  his  seat  of  Baynard's  Castle,  who,  the  repast  over,, 
attended  her  whilst  she  indulged  in  her  favourite 
pastime  of  boating  on  the  Thames,  the  royal  barge 
attended  by  hundreds  of  smaller  craft  passing  to 
and  fro  again  and  again,  to  the  delight  of  the 
crowds  assembled  on  the  banks  to  watch  the  brilliant 
scene. 

Many  significant  stories  are  told  of  the  doings  of 
the  maiden  queen  at  Greenwich ;  how,  for  instance, 
she  caused  a  dishonest  purveyor  of  poultry  to  be 
hanged  on  the  complaint  of  a  farmer  who  boldly 
intercepted  her  on  one  of  her  progresses,  crying  in  a 
loud  voice,  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  attendants 
to  silence  him,  'Which  is  the  Queen?  Which  is  the 
Queen  ? '  Elizabeth  herself  replied  to  him,  listened 
to  all  he  had  to  say,  and  granted  his  request  without 
more  ado,  although  he  dared  to  assume  that  she  had 


GREENWICH  107 

devoured  the  hens  and  ducks  seized  by  her  servant, 
declaring  that  she  could  eat  more  than  his  own 
daughter,  who  was  blessed  with  a  very  good 
appetite. 

Every  year  on  Maundy  Thursday  it  was  the 
queen's  habit  to  wash  one  of  the  feet  of  as  many 
poor  women  as  the  years  of  her  own  life,  and  the 
ceremony  on  these  occasions  was  alike  lengthy  and 
imposing.  A  service  in  the  chapel  inaugurated  the 
proceedings,  and  the  feet  of  the  chosen  women 
having  been  first  thoroughly  cleansed  by  members 
of  the  queen's  household,  her  majesty  entered  the 
hall  attended  by  her  whole  court,  and  performed  her 
part  with  great  condescension,  kissing  each  foot 
she  had  washed  with  earnest  devotion  and  making 
over  it  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Gifts  of  wearing 
apparel  and  food  were  then  presented  to  the  women, 
one  of  them  chosen  beforehand  receiving  the  costume 
worn  by  her  majesty. 

It  is  said  to  have  been  at  Greenwich  that  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  was  first  presented  to  the  queen, 
and  the  oft-told  episode  of  the  cloak  is  by  some 
authorities  supposed  to  have  taken  place  there,  the 
gallant  young  courtier  having  flung  down  his  richly 
decorated  mantle  on  the  landing-stage  just  in  time 
to  prevent  his  royal  patron  from  wetting  her  feet  as 
she  alighted  from  her  barge  opposite  the  palace. 
Whether  there  be  any  truth  in  this  version  of  the 
story  it  is  certain  that  Raleigh  was  often  at  Green- 
wich, as  was  also  his  rival  the  handsome  Earl  of 
Essex,  who  was  so  soon  to  succeed  him  in  the  favour 
of  the  fickle  queen.  It  may  possibly  have  been  from 


io8     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Placentia  that  Raleigh  started  for  Ireland  in  1587, 
and  it  was  certainly  there  that  he  learned  to  love  his 
future  wife  Bessy  Throckmorton,  one  of  the  queen's 
maids  of  honour,  jealousy  of  whom  had  much  to  do 
with  his  committal  to  the  Tower  in  1592. 

To  the  end  Queen  Elizabeth  retained  her  affection 
for  Greenwich,  and  some  of  the  last  walks  she  took 
were  in  her  beloved  park  there,  in  which  is  preserved 
a  mighty  hollow  oak-tree,  capable  of  holding  no  less 
than  twenty  people,  that  is  still  known  as  Queen 
Elizabeth's  and  is  protected  by  a  railing  from  injury. 
Her  successor  James  I.,  however,  cared  little  for  the 
palace  or  its  grounds,  and  bestowed  them  both  in 
1605  upon  his  wife,  Anne  of  Denmark,  who  became 
much  attached  to  her  new  possession.  She  greatly 
improved  the  old  palace  and  began  the  building  of 
another,  to  which  she  gave  the  name  of  the  House  of 
Delight.  Her  affection  for  Greenwich  was  shared 
by  her  son,  Charles  I.,  and  his  wife,  Henrietta  Maria, 
who  were  often  in  residence  there  before  their 
troubles  began,  and  had  the  House  of  Delight,  which 
now  forms  the  central  portion  of  the  Royal  Naval 
School,  completed  by  Inigo  Jones.  They  opened 
negotiations,  too,  with  some  of  the  chief  artists  of  the 
day,  including  Rubens,  who  was  often  their  guest  at 
Placentia,  for  the  painting  of  the  walls  of  the  new 
palace,  but  the  terms  asked  were  prohibitive,  and  all 
too  soon  more  pressing  matters  took  up  all  the 
king's  time  and  thoughts.  After  his  fatal  journey  to 
Scotland  Charles  I.  was  never  again  at  Greenwich, 
and  for  some  little  time  after  his  death  the  palaces 
there  were  deserted,  but  later  Cromwell  resided  for 


GREENWICH  109 

some  time  in  the  older  of  the  two.  On  the  Restora- 
tion the  Greenwich  estate  became  once  more  the 
property  of  the  royal  family,  and  the  widowed  queen 
Henrietta  Maria  lived  in  one  of  the  palaces  for  a 
short  time.  That  of  Placentia  was,  however,  now  in 
such  a  melancholy  state  of  decay  that  it  was  decided 
to  pull  it  down,  and  a  new  palace  was  begun  on  its 
site  after  the  designs  of  Inigo  Jones,  of  which, 
however,  only  one  wing  was  completed,  with  which, 
says  Pepys  in  his  Diary,  '  the  king  was  mightily 
pleased,'  but  his  majesty's  ardour  soon  cooled,  and 
writing  in  1669  the  gossipy  journalist  remarks: 
'The  king's  house  at  Greenwich  goes  on  slow  but  is 
very  pretty.'  Gradually  the  slowness  became  stagna- 
tion, Charles  II.  lost  all  interest  in  the  work,  and 
neither  he  nor  his  successors,  James  II.  or  William  III., 
used  the  new  palace  as  a  residence.  The  wife  of  the 
latter,  however,  who  cherished  many  happy  memories 
of  Greenwich,  resolved  to  turn  the  royal  buildings 
there  to  account  by  using  them  as  a  hospital  for 
disabled  seamen.  The  idea,  it  is  said,  first  occurred 
to  her  after  the  great  victory  of  La  Hogue  in  1692, 
at  which  so  many  English  sailors  were  crippled  for 
life ;  and  without  waiting  for  the  return  of  her 
husband  from  Holland,  she  at  once  ordered  various 
alterations  to  be  made  to  render  the  building  suitable 
for  its  new  purpose.  Later  William  entered  very 
cordially  into  the  scheme,  and  in  1694  the  palace 
and  the  estate  connected  with  it  were  formally  given 
over  to  trustees  'for  the  relief  and  support  of  seamen 
of  the  Royal  navy  .  .  .  who  by  reason  of  age  or  other 
disabilities  shall  be  incapable  of  further  service  .  . . 


i  io    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

and  also  for  the  sustenance  of  the  widows  and  main- 
tenance and  education  of  the  children  of  seamen 
happening  to  be  slain  or  disabled  in  such  sea  service.' 

Unfortunately  Queen  Mary  died  before  the  work 
inaugurated  by  her  was  completed,  but  William  III. 
resolved  to  make  the  hospital  a  worthy  memorial  of 
her,  and  entrusted  the  task  of  supplementing  the 
existing  buildings  with  another  of  noble  proportions 
to  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  under  whom  was  to  work  as 
treasurer  John  Evelyn,  and  as  secretary  the  famous 
dramatist  and  architect  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  who  in 
1714  built  the  mansion  known  as  Vanburgh  Castle, 
still  standing  on  Maize  Hill  on  the  eastern  outskirts 
of  the  park,  in  which  a  number  of  French  prisoners 
were  shut  up  during  the  last  war  with  France. 

Greenwich  Hospital  was  designed  without  fee  by 
Sir  Christopher,  for  love,  as  he  said,  of  the  cause  of 
the  seamen,  and  is  considered  one  of  his  master- 
pieces. With  his  usual  skill  in  subordinating  detail 
to  general  effect  and  dovetailing  the  new  on  to  the 
old,  he  made  the  colonnades  connecting  his  work 
with  that  of  his  predecessors  appear  an  integral  part 
of  a  single  harmonious  scheme,  and  fortunately  there 
is  nothing  incongruous  with  that  scheme  in  the 
additions  made  since  his  death.  As  it  now  stands 
the  hospital  consists  of  four  groups  of  buildings, 
named  respectively  after  Charles  II.,  Queen  Anne, 
Queen  Mary,  and  King  William.  The  two  first  on 
either  side  of  the  great  square  face  the  river  and  are 
both  handsome  structures,  but  they  are  excelled  in 
beauty  of  design  by  the  two  last.  In  Queen  Mary's 
is  the  richly  decorated  chapel  completed  in  1789 


THE    PAINTED    HALL,    GREENWICH    HOSPITAL 


GREENWICH  in 

that  replaces  an  earlier  building  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1779,  whilst  King  William's  encloses  the  most 
important  feature  of  all,  the  fine  Painted  Hall  origin- 
ally the  refectory  of  the  pensioners,  that  was  decorated 
between  1708  and  1729  with  a  series  of  mural  and 
ceiling  paintings  by  Sir  James  Thornhill,  and  is  now 
used  as  a  national  gallery  for  portraits  of  naval 
heroes  and  pictures  of  'marine  subjects,  some  of 
which,  notably  Turner's  '  Battle  of  Trafalgar,'  are  real 
masterpieces.  Many  banquets  to  royal  and  other 
distinguished  guests  have  been  held  in  the  Painted 
Hall,  but  the  most  memorable  association  with  it  is 
the  fact  that  in  it  in  1806  the  dead  body  of  Lord 
Nelson  lay  in  state  for  three  days  before  it  was 
taken  by  boat  on  January  8  to  be  interred  in  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral. 

Until  1865  Greenwich  Hospital  continued  to  be 
one  of  the  most  useful  and  appreciated  charitable 
institutions  of  the  United  Kingdom,  but  at  that  date 
it  was  decided,  in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the 
seamen,  that  they  should  be  allowed  pensions  enabling 
them  to  live  in  their  own  homes.  In  1869  the  last 
of  the  inmates  left,  and  four  years  later  the  buildings 
were  re-opened  as  a  naval  college,  those  named  after 
Queen  Anne  being  set  aside  as  a  museum  of  naval 
relics,  models  of  ships,  etc.,  for  the  use  of  the  students, 
to  which,  however,  the  public  are  admitted.  From 
the  first  the  new  school  throve  in  a  remarkable  way, 
and  at  the  present  day  as  many  as  a  thousand  pupils 
are  received  in  it  at  a  time. 

The  parish  church  of  Greenwich,  dedicated  to 
St.  Alphege,  occupies  the  site  of  an  earlier  one, 


ii2    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

that  in  its  turn  is  supposed  to  have  replaced  a  chapel 
marking  the  spot  where  the  martyrdom  of  the  holy 
man  it  commemorated  took  place.  The  present 
building  was  completed  in  1718,  and  is  a  fairly 
good  example  of  the  Renaissance  style  then  in 
vogue.  It  contains  a  fine  memorial  window  to  its 
titular  saint,  who  is  represented  in  his  bishop's  robes 
raising  the  right  hand  in  blessing,  an  ornate  royal 
pew,  some  good  carving  by  the  famous  Grinling 
Gibbons,  and  on  one  of  the  walls  a  quaint  old 
painting  representing  Charles  I.  in  prayer.  In  the 
crypt  beneath  rest  Major-General  Wolfe,  the  hero 
of  Quebec,  the  celebrated  musician,  Thomas  Tallis, 
and  the  famous  beauty,  Polly  Peacham,  who  became 
Duchess  of  Bolton,  and  resided  with  her  husband 
the  duke  at  Westcombe  Park.  In  the  same  place 
was  also  interred  the  noted  antiquarian,  William 
Lombarde,  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and 
founded  the  picturesque  almshouses  named  after 
her,  still  to  be  seen  opposite  the  modern  railway 
station,  but  when  the  old  church  was  pulled  down 
his  tomb  was  removed  to  Sevenoaks. 

Greenwich  Park,  that  was  first  roughly  enclosed 
by  Duke  Humphrey  of  Gloucester  and  his  wife 
Eleanor  in  1433,  was  further  protected  some  two 
centuries  later  by  a  brick  wall  erected  by  order  of 
James  I.  The  grounds  were  laid  out  by  the  famous 
landscape  gardener,  Le  N6tre,  chosen  by  Charles  II., 
who  took  a  great  interest  in  the  progress  of 
the  work,  himself  planting  many  trees,  including 
the  noble  avenue  of  Spanish  chestnuts  that  is  still 
one  of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  the  park. 


GREENWICH  113 

It  was  the  same  monarch  who  decided  to  trans- 
form into  an  Observatory  the  tower  built  by  Duke 
Humphrey,  which  had  been  the  home  for  many 
years  of  the  younger  members  of  the  royal  family, 
and  in  which  the  Princess  Mary,  one  of  the  daughters 
of  Edward  IV.,  died  in  1482.  Later  the  building,  to 
which  the  inappropriate  name  of  Mirefleur  was  given, 
was  used  as  a  prison,  and  in  it  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
the  Earl  of  Leicester  shut  up  after  his  marriage  to 
the  widowed  Duchess  of  Essex.  James  I.  gave  the 
property  to  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Northampton, 
founder  of  the  still  flourishing  Trinity  Hospital,  and 
he  greatly  enlarged  the  Tower,  converting  it  into  a 
really  fine  mansion.  The  work  of  transforming  it  into 
an  observatory  was  entrusted  to  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
who  found  it  necessary  to  have  the  greater  part  taken 
down,  but  he  used  the  old  materials  ;  and  in  spite  of 
the  many  additions  that  have  been  made  since  his 
time,  the  group  of  buildings,  with  their  numerous 
turrets  and  domes,  harmonise  well  with  each  other 
and  their  surroundings.  Through  Greenwich  Obser- 
vatory runs  the  meridian  line  from  which  longitude 
is  reckoned,  and  from  it  the  exact  time  is  conveyed 
by  electricity  every  day  at  one  o'clock  to  the  chief 
towns  of  Great  Britain.  In  it  elaborate  records  are 
made  of  the  daily  changes  in  temperature,  the  direc- 
tion of  the  wind,  and  many  other  data  of  importance 
to  astronomical  and  meteorological  science.  The 
great  telescope,  that  is  twenty-eight  feet  long  and  has 
an  object  glass  of  twenty-eight  inches,  is  the  most 
powerful  anywhere  in  use,  and  near  to  the  chief  en- 
trance is  the  huge  astronomical  clock  that  shows  the 


H4    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

true  official  time.  Many  distinguished  men  have 
held  the  important  post  of  Astronomer-Royal  at 
Greenwich,  including  Flamsteed,Halley,  Bradley,  and 
Sir  George  Airey,  under  whose  enlightened  auspices 
the  observatory  has  won  first  rank  amongst  similar 
institutions  elsewhere,  a  position  it  seems  likely  long 
to  maintain  if  its  interests  are  protected  from  the 
dangers  that  have  recently  begun  to  threaten  them. 
The  annual  reports  issued  by  the  Astronomer-Royal 
are  practically  a  history  of  astronomical  science, 
and  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value  of 
the  quiet,  systematic,  unremitting  work  done  under 
his  auspices  all  the  year  round,  or  of  the  unceasing 
vigilance  of  the  experts  whose  business  it  is  to 
make  sure  that  all  the  instruments  used  are  in 
the  highest  possible  state  of  efficiency. 

From  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Observatory, 
especially  from  Flamsteed  Hill,  a  fine  view  is 
obtained  of  the  river  with  its  shipping — the  Isle 
of  Dogs,  and  its  church,  connected  by  a  subway 
with  the  mainland,  and  the  country  between 
Greenwich  and  London ;  but,  unfortunately,  the 
long  famous  prospect  from  One  Tree  Hill,  so 
called  after  a  single  giant  growth  that  formerly 
surmounted  its  summit,  is  now  nearly  shut  out  by 
trees  and  shrubs,  the  planting  of  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  justify,  for  they  were  certainly  not  needed. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  Greenwich  Park  remains 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  popular  open  spaces 
within  easy  reach  of  the  capital.  The  deer  which 
roam  about  in  it  are  so  tame  that  they  will  eat  out  of 
the  hands  of  strangers,  and  even  when  it  is  crowded 


GREENWICH  115 

with  holiday-makers  it  still  retains  something  of  the 
old-fashioned  aroma  of  days  long  gone  by.  The 
Ranger's  Lodge,  now  used  as  a  restaurant  and 
meeting-place  for  local  clubs,  that  has  one  entrance 
from  Greenwich  Park  and  another  from  Blackheath, 
so  that  it  forms  a  kind  of  link  between  the  two,  is 
a  fine  old  mansion  associated  with  many  interesting 
memories  of  the  time  when  the  post  of  Ranger  was 
held  by  noble  or  royal  personages.  It  was  once 
the  home,  for  instance,  of  the  famous  Philip,  Earl 
of  Chesterfield,  and  later  of  the  Dowager-Duchess  of 
Brunswick,  whose  daughter,  the  unhappy  Caroline, 
Princess  of  Wales,  lived  near  by  in  the  now  de- 
stroyed Montague  House,  going  once  a  week  to  see 
her  child,  the  Princess  Charlotte,  who  was  under 
the  care  of  her  mother.  In  comparatively  recent 
times  the  Lodge  was  occupied  by  Prince  Arthur  of 
Connaught  when  he  was  studying  at  the  Woolwich 
Academy,  and  in  its  grounds,  recently  added  to  the 
public  park,  is  a  model  of  a  fort  built  by  him,  and  a 
curious  bath  bearing  a  quaint  inscription. 

The  common  known  as  Blackheath,  probably 
because  of  its  sombre  appearance,  that  adjoins  the 
parish  of  Greenwich,  is  all  that  is  left  of  a  vast 
unenclosed  tract  of  country,  which  between  the 
time  of  St.  Alphege  and  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  often  played  an  important  part 
in  the  history  of  England.  On  it,  in  June  1381, 
Wat  Tyler  and  his  followers  were  encamped  for 
some  days,  their  numbers  constantly  increasing, 
before  the  march  to  London  that  was  to  end  so 
disastrously.  There  Richard  II.  and  his  young 


n6    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

bride  Isabel  of  France,  Henry  V.  and  his  victorious 
troops  fresh  from  Agincourt,  and  Henry  vi.  after 
his  coronation  at  Paris,  were  at  different  times 
met  by  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  London, 
who  had  come  from  the  city  to  welcome  them. 
There,  too,  after  the  tragic  death  of  their  leader, 
the  adherents  of  Jack  Cade  knelt,  with  halters 
round  their  necks,  before  Henry  VI.  to  plead  for 
pardon ;  and  there,  a  few  months  later,  the  same 
monarch,  with  his  army  around  him,  awaited  the 
coming  of  the  Duke  of  York,  whose  claim  to  the 
throne  was  stronger  than  his  own,  resolved,  in  spite 
of  all  his  promises  to  the  contrary,  to  have  him 
sent  a  prisoner  to  London.  It  was  on  Blackheath 
that  the  son  of  the  Duke,  Edward  IV.  halted,  in 
1471,  to  receive  the  congratulations  of  the  citizens 
of  London  on  his  return  from  Paris  after  signing 
the  famous  treaty  of  peace  with  Louis  of  France, 
and  there,  twenty-six  years  afterwards,  Henry  VII. 
met  and  cut  to  pieces  the  rebels  from  Cornwall, 
who  had  marched  to  London  under  the  joint  leader- 
ship of  Lord  Audley  and  the  sturdy  blacksmith 
Michael  Joseph,  whose  burial-place,  a  mound  locally 
known  as  the  Smith's  Forge,  from  which  Whitefield 
used  to  preach,  is  marked  by  a  group  of  fir-trees. 
To  Blackheath  came,  in  1519,  the  Papal  legate 
Cardinal  Campeggio,  to  take  counsel  with  the 
Catholic  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  there  in  the  same 
year  the  High  Admiral  of  France,  the  chivalrous 
Bonivet,  attended  by  many  young  French  gallants 
in  gorgeous  array,  was  welcomed  with  great  pomp 
by  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  who  held  the  same  office 


BLACKHEATH  117 

in  England.  During  the  reigns  of  Henry  VIII., 
Elizabeth,  Charles  I.,  and  Charles  II.,  Blackheath 
was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  scene  of  many  a 
pageant  besides  the  one  already  alluded  to  in  con- 
nection with  Greenwich,  when  the  wooer  of  so  many 
fair  women  went  forth  from  his  palace  there  to 
receive  his  bride,  the  unattractive  Anne  of  Cleves. 
The  last  great  historical  gathering  which  took 
place  on  the  Heath  was  that  of  May  29,  1660, 
when  the  army  was  drawn  up  on  it  to  welcome 
back  Charles  II.,  an  event  graphically  described 
by  Macaulay,  who  remarks  :  '  In  the  midst  of  the 
general  joy  at  the  restoration,  one  spot  [Blackheath] 
presented  a  dark  and  threatening  aspect,  for  though 
the  king  smiled,  bowed,  and  extended  his  hand 
graciously  to  the  lips  of  the  colonels  and  majors,  all 
his  courtesy  was  in  vain.  The  countenances  of  the 
soldiers  were  sad  and  lowering,  and  had  they  given 
way  to  their  feelings  the  festive  pageant  in  which 
they  reluctantly  formed  a  part  would  have  had  a 
mournful  and  bloody  end.' 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  who  introduced  in 
his  southern  dominions  the  favourite  game  of  Scot- 
land, that  was  founded  what  is  now  the  oldest 
athletic  society  of  England,  the  Blackheath  Golf 
Club,  the  history  of  which  is  one  of  unbroken  con- 
tinuity, for  it  has  flourished  ever  since,  surviving  the 
popular  fair,  that  until  it  was  suppressed  by  Govern- 
ment in  1873  used  to  take  place  in  May  and  October 
of  every  year.  Blackheath  is  now  in  fact  a  local 
playground  rather  than  a  factor  in  the  national  life ; 
much  of  it  has  been  built  over,  and  the  little  village 


ii8    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

named  after  it  has  become  a  populous  town.  There 
remain,  however,  a  few  fine  old  mansions  to  recall 
the  days  gone  by,  notably  that  known  as  Morden's 
College  at  the  south-eastern  corner  of  the  still  un- 
enclosed common,  built  in  1694  by  Sir  John  Morden 
as  a  home  for  twelve  decayed  merchants,  and  added 
to  later  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  forty  pensioners 
now  received  in  it,  the  value  of  the  property  left  in 
trust  for  the  charity  by  the  owner  having  greatly 
increased  since  his  death. 

The  village  of  Charlton,  on  a  hill  about  halfway 
between  Greenwich  and  Woolwich,  with  its  seven- 
teenth-century church  that  has  been  well  restored, 
and  its  many  old  cottages,  is  now  much  what  Black- 
heath  was  a  century  ago,  but  it  seems  likely  ere  long 
to  lose  its  picturesque  appearance.  It  will  always, 
however,  retain  the  advantage  of  commanding  a  fine 
view  of  the  Thames  valley,  and  it  is  still  in  touch 
with  much  beautiful  scenery.  Its  manor-house, 
known  as  Charlton  House,  said  to  have  been 
designed  by  Inigo  Jones,  is  a  good  example  of 
the  domestic  architecture  of  the  period  at  which  it 
was  built,  and  probably  occupies  the  site  of  the 
ancient  homestead  that  with  the  rest  of  the  estate 
of  Charlton  was  given  by  William  the  Conqueror  to 
Bishop  Odo  of  Bayeux. 

Two  miles  south-east  of  Greenwich  is  the  popular 
suburb  of  Eltham,  the  name  of  which  is  a  contrac- 
tion of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Ealdham,  signifying  the 
ancient  homestead,  that  was  in  olden  times  an 
important  town  with  a  royal  palace,  of  which 
the  banqueting  -  hall  alone  remains.  Given  with 


ELTHAM  119 

Charlton  and  many  another  valuable  property  in 
southern  England  to  Bishop  Odo  of  Bayeux  by 
William  the  Conqueror,  the  manor  of  Eltham 
passed  through  many  vicissitudes,  reverting  again 
and  again  to  the  Crown,  and  becoming  after  the 
Restoration  the  property  of  Sir  John  Shaw.  The 
date  of  the  erection  of  the  palace,  the  ruins  of 
which  are  situated  near  to  the  picturesque  mansion 
known  as  Eltham  Court,  is  unknown,  but  it  is  re- 
ferred to  as  a  royal  residence  in  the  supplement  to 
the  thirteenth-century  Historia  Major  of  the  famous 
Latin  chronicler  Matthew  Paris,  that  is  supposed  to 
.have  been  added  by  William  Rishanger,  a  monk  of 
St.  Albans  Abbey.  In  any  case  it  seems  certain 
that  Henry  III.  spent  Christmas  of  1270  in  it, 
though  it  was  probably  not  then  completed,  and 
Edward  II.  and  his  wife  Queen  Isabella  were  very 
fond  of  it.  It  was  in  it  that  their  son  John, 
familiarly  called  John  of  Eltham,  was  born,  and 
there  his  elder  brother  Edward  III.  took  his  young 
bride,  Philippa  of  Hainault,  in  1328.  The  first 
parliament  of  his  reign  was  held  in  it,  and  he 
was  residing  there  just  before  he  broke  free 
from  the  pernicious  influence  of  his  mother, 
whom  he  banished  to  Rising  Castle.  It  was  at 
Eltham  that  the  famous  banquet  was  given  to  the 
captive  king  John  of  France  by  Edward  III.  and 
the  Black  Prince  in  1363,  at  which  probably  the 
princess  royal,  who  was  to  become  the  wife  of 
the  prisoner,  was  present ;  and  there  the  English 
monarch  presided,  the  year  before  the  death  of  his 
beloved  son,  over  the  parliament  that  met  after  the 


120    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

conclusion  of  the  long  war  with  France.  Richard  II., 
who  was  made  Prince  of  Wales  at  Eltham  in 
1375,  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  there  during  his 
minority,  and  went  there  after  his  marriage  in 
1382  to  his  first  wife  Anne  of  Bohemia,  who  shared 
his  affection  for  the  palace.  The  royal  couple 
kept  Christmas  at  Eltham  in  1384,  1385,  and 
1386,  receiving  on  the  last  occasion  Leo,  King  of 
Bohemia,  who  had  come  to  England  to  plead  for 
aid  against  the  Turks,  and  also  a  less  welcome 
deputation  of  the  faithful  Commons  who  had  sought 
an  audience  to  remonstrate  with  the  young  king  on 
his  extravagance. 

In  1395,  a  year  after  the  death  of  Queen  Anne, 
which  was  such  a  bitter  grief  to  Richard,  the  French 
historian  Froissart,  who  was  then  engaged  in  writing 
his  famous  Chronicles^  went  to  Eltham  to  present 
one  of  his  books  to  the  widowed  king,  and  was 
present  at  a  council,  of  which  he  gives  a  very 
graphic  account.  He  was  also,  he  relates,  admitted 
to  a  private  audience  in  the  monarch's  bedroom, 
and  he  tells  how  he  laid  his  gift  upon  the  bed, 
and  how  greatly  the  recipient  appreciated  it,  for  he 
dipped  eagerly  into  the  manuscript  here  and  there, 
reading  portions  of  it  aloud. 

It  was  at  Eltham  in  1396  that  the  marriage  was 
arranged  between  Richard  II.  and  the  eight-year-old 
Isabella,  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  of  France,  and  it 
was  from  the  palace  that  the  newly  married  pair 
went  forth  in  great  state  for  the  coronation  of  the 
bride  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Isabella  was  but 
eleven  years  old  when  three  years  later  her  husband 


ELTHAM  121 

was  deposed,  and  they  were  never  again  at  Eltham ; 
but  Henry  IV.  often  held  his  court  in  the  palace, 
spending  Christmas  there  no  less  than  four  times.  It 
was  in  it  that  he  was  first  seized  with  the  illness  that 
terminated  fatally  in  Westminster  Abbey  in  March 
1413,  and  there  that  his  son  and  successor  Henry  v. 
spent  much  of  the  short  time  he  lived  in  England. 
From  Eltham  Palace  he  hastened  up  to  London  in 
January  1414  to  deal  with  the  Lollards.  Henry  VI., 
after  his  long  minority,  and  before  he  realised  how  in- 
secure was  his  tenure  of  the  throne,  went  to  Eltham 
to  superintend  the  restoration  of  the  palace  for  the 
reception  of  his  wife,  Margaret  of  Anjou,  and  her 
infant  son,  the  ill-fated  Prince  Edward,  but  so  far 
as  the  royal  family  was  concerned  his  labour  was 
all  in  vain.  The  queen  never  saw  the  home  pre- 
pared for  her,  and  it  was  her  bitter  enemy  Edward  IV. 
who  reaped  the  benefit  of  her  husband's  improve- 
ments. The  new  king  became  greatly  attached  to 
his  palace  at  Eltham,  and  some  authorities  attribute 
the  building  of  the  banqueting-hall  to  him,  though 
the  probability  is  that  he  only  enlarged  and  beautified 
it.  In  1480  his  third  daughter  Bridget  was  born  in 
the  palace,  and  baptized  in  the  private  chapel,  and 
in  1482,  three  months  before  his  sudden  death,  the 
king  kept  Christmas  there  with  great  pomp,  daily 
entertaining  more  than  two  thousand  guests.  The 
founder  of  the  Tudor  dynasty  too,  Henry  VII.,  whose 
marriage  with  one  of  Edward  IV.'s  daughters  united 
the  red  and  white  roses,  kept  up  the  traditions  of 
Eltham  hospitality,  and  did  much  to  embellish  the 
palace,  building,  according  to  Hasted,  a  handsome 


122    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

front  towards  the  moat.  The  sixteenth-century 
chronicler  Lambarde  gives  a  vivid  description  of 
the  fair  residence  at  Eltham,  but  he  also  strikes 
the  note  of  the  waning  of  its  glory,  for  he  remarks 
that  the  court  was  beginning  to  prefer  Greenwich 
to  it.  Henry  VIII.,  it  is  true,  was  sometimes  at 
Eltham,  keeping  Christmas  there  in  1515,  when  a 
mock  tournament  was  held  in  the  banqueting-hall, 
and  again  in  1526  when  he  took  refuge  there  from 
the  plague  then  raging  in  London,  but  he  never 
really  cared  for  the  palace  as  a  residence.  In  1527 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  was  still  in  high  favour,  spent 
a  fortnight  at  Eltham,  drawing  up  there  what  are 
known  as  the  Statutes  of  Eltham,  and  are  still 
honoured  at  the  English  court  for  regulating  the 
affairs  of  the  royal  household.  This  was  perhaps 
the  last  time  that  any  important  gatherings 
assembled  in  the  once  popular  residence,  for 
though  Queen  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  were  some- 
times there,  their  visits  were  but  brief.  Charles  I. 
never  lived  in  the  palace,  but  his  favourite  painter 
Sir  Antony  van  Dyck  was  once  the  guest  of  the 
king's  physician  Sir  Theodore  de  Mayerne  in  what 
was  then  Park  Lodge,  and  Horace  Walpole  in  his 
chatty  Anecdotes  of  Painting  refers  to  sketches  made 
by  the  great  master  in  the  neighbourhood. 

After  the  death  on  the  scaffold  of  Charles  I., 
Eltham  Palace  was  taken  possession  of  by  parlia- 
ment, and  a  report  was  drawn  up  of  its  condition,  in 
which  it  is  stated  that  it  consisted  of  a  fair  chapel, 
a  great  hall,  and  several  suites  of  apartments  cover- 
ing an  acre  of  ground,  all  very  much  out  of  repair. 


ELTHAM  123 

A  little  later  the  entire  building  was  sold  for  the 
modest  sum  of  £2753,  the  chapel  and  all  the  rooms 
were  pulled  down,  and  the  grand  banqueting-hall  was 
converted  into  a  barn.  Several  centuries  elapsed 
before  any  effort  was  made  to  rescue  it  from  this 
degraded  position,  but  in  1828,  at  the  instance  of  the 
Princess  Sophia,  who  was  then  living  at  Greenwich, 
it  was  carefully  restored,  and  it  now  remains,  with 
the  picturesque  ivy-clad  bridge  spanning  the  moat, 
a  notable  witness  to  what  must  have  been  the  beauty 
and  grandeur  of  the  group  of  buildings  of  which  it 
was  once  the  most  remarkable  feature.  The  hammer- 
beam  roof,  in  spite  of  the  loss  of  most  of  its  pen- 
dants, ranks  with  that  of  Westminster  Hall  as  a  fine 
example  of  combined  lightness  and  strength  of  con- 
struction, and  the  effect  of  the  vast  and  lofty  hall, 
with  its  grand  bays  at  the  upper  end,  must  indeed 
have  been  impressive  before  the  windows  by  which 
it  was  lighted  from  both  sides  were  blocked  up. 

When  Eltham  Palace  was  pulled  down,  the  three 
parks  that  had  belonged  to  it  were  also  practically 
destroyed,  all  the  venerable  trees  in  them  having 
been  cut  down,  so  that,  as  remarked  by  a  seventeenth- 
century  writer  of  somewhat  gruesome  tastes,  there 
was  scarcely  one  left  to  make  a  gibbet,  the  deer 
were  killed  off,  and  what  had  long  been  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  neighbourhoods  near  London  was 
transformed  into  a  scene  of  desolation. 

In  spite  of  its  many  interesting  associations  there 
is  now  little  that  is  distinctive  about  modern  Eltham. 
Its  church,  however,  retains  the  quaint  wooden 
tower  and  shingle  spire  of  an  earlier  building,  and 


124    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

there  are  a  few  fine  old  mansions  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, notably  the  Elizabethan  Well  Hall,  now  a 
farmhouse,  in  which  Sir  Thomas  More's  favourite 
daughter,  Margaret  Roper,  lived  for  some  time. 

Two  densely  populated  suburbs,  that  not  long  ago 
were  remote  and  secluded  villages,  picturesquely 
built  on  the  Ravensbourne,  are  Lee  and  Lewisham, 
the  former  connected  with  Eltham  Palace  by  a 
subterranean  passage  which  was  discovered  in  1836, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  formed  part  of  a  complete 
system  of  communication  between  the  latter  and  the 
outer  world.  Its  exit  from  the  Eltham  end  was 
protected  by  massive  iron  gates  beneath  the  moat, 
near  to  which  a  flight  of  steps  led  down  to  a  strong- 
room, probably  used  as  a  hiding-place  for  treasure, 
though,  strange  to  say,  there  are  no  local  traditions 
concerning  it. 

All  that  is  now  left  at  Lee  to  recall  the  old  days 
when  it  was  an  outlying  hamlet  of  Eltham,  is  the 
tower  of  the  ancient  parish  church  ;  and  Lewisham, 
the  name  of  which  means  the  homestead  in  the 
meadow,  is  even  more  modernised,  though  its  history 
can  be  traced  back  to  Anglo-Saxon  times,  when  it 
seems  to  have  formed  part  with  Greenwich  and  the  two 
Coombes  of  one  property  that  was  given,  as  related 
above,  by  Ethelruda,  a  niece  of  King  Alfred,  to  the 
Abbey  of  St.  Paul's  at  Ghent,  in  connection  with 
which  a  Benedictine  priory  was  founded  at  Lewis- 
ham,  the  memory  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  name 
of  the  Priory  Farm  occupying  its  site.  Another 
suburb  in  close  touch  with  Eltham  is  Mottingham, 
that  retains  more  of  its  rural  character  than  either 


CHISLEHURST  125 

Lee  or  Lewisham  ;  and  not  far  away  are  the  still 
pretty  villages  of  Rushey  Green,  Catford,  and  Cat- 
ford  Bridge.  More  celebrated  than  any  of  these, 
however,  is  the  important  settlement  of  Chislehurst, 
that,  owing  chiefly  to  the  exceptional  beauty  of  its 
situation  on  a  lofty  common,  defended  from  en- 
croachment by  a  natural  rampart  of  woods,  seems 
likely  to  be  able  long  to  defy  the  levelling  influences 
which  have  spoiled  so  many  of  the  districts  of  out- 
lying London. 

Originally  but  a  remote  and  secluded  hamlet 
scarcely  known  to  the  outside  world,  Chislehurst  has 
of  late  years  become  a  centre  of  archaeological  interest, 
for  in  addition  to  its  other  attractions  it  enjoys  the 
unique  distinction  of  being  in  close  touch  with  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  and  extensive  systems  of 
subterranean  galleries  and  caves,  the  ramifications  of 
which  are  supposed  to  be  many  miles  in  length,  that 
have  yet  been  discovered  in  England.  The  exist- 
ence of  this  underground  world  was  long  known,  but 
it  is  only  recently,  thanks  to  the  enterprise  of  Mr. 
Ryan,  proprietor  of  the  Beckley  Arms  Hotel,  in 
whose  grounds  there  is  an  entrance  to  it,  that  it  has 
been  opened  to  the  public.  Mr.  Ryan  had  many  of 
the  galleries  and  chambers  cleared  of  the  rubbish — 
the  accumulation  of  centuries — encumbering  them, 
and  lighted  them  with  electricity,  so  that  it  is  now 
possible  to  explore  them  without  fear  of  being  lost 
or  buried  alive.  The  origin  and  purpose  of  this  won- 
derful net-work  of  excavations  are  alike  unknown, 
some  experts  claiming  that  they  were  used  for 
Druidical  worship,  two  altar  tables,  probably  used 


126    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

for  sacrifices,  having  been  found  ;  whilst  others  are 
of  opinion  that  they  were  used  as  hiding-places  in 
times  of  war,  or  as  storehouses  for  grain  and  treasure. 
Some  few  of  the  smaller  chambers,  that  are  mere 
cells,  can  only  be  entered  on  all  fours,  and  could  be 
defended  by  a  single  man,  whilst  the  larger  ones  are 
capable  of  holding  as  many  as  fifty  people.  There 
were  two  ways  of  gaining  access  to  them,  one  by 
steps  in  the  sides  of  the  shafts  pierced  here  and 
there,  the  other  with  the  aid  of  a  notched  pole  which 
could  easily  be  removed,  and  Mr.  Nicholls,  Vice- 
President  of  the  Archaeological  Society,  in  a  deeply 
interesting  pamphlet  on  the  subject,  expresses  an 
opinion  that  in  times  of  danger  the  whole  population 
of  the  district  may  have  lived  contentedly  under- 
ground for  weeks  at  a  time.  'The  little  colony,'  he 
says, '  might  be  working  in  the  fields  or  tending  their 
cattle ;  suddenly  a  cry  of  alarm  is  raised,  the  look- 
out man  rushes  in  and  reports  that  the  enemy  is 
approaching  in  force.  If,'  he  adds,  '  the  incursion 
were  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  there  would  be  an 
immediate  stampede ;  the  population  would  swarm 
down  the  shafts,  and  in  a  few  minutes  not  a  sound 
would  be  left  to  guide  the  invaders.  Even  if  the 
raiders  succeeded  in  finding  a  shaft  they  would  be 
practically  helpless,  since  one  or  two  resolute  men 
at  the  foot  could  hold  it  against  a  host'  Possibly 
the  caves  may  have  been  used  in  succession  by  many 
different  tenants,  the  Britons  after  their  defeat  by  the 
Romans  may  have  withdrawn  into  yet  deeper  recesses 
of  the  forests,  and  their  conquerors  may  have  driven 
new  galleries  through  the  ancient  moatings,  to  be  in 


CHISLEHURST  127 

their  turn  supplanted  by  the  Jutes,  the  Angles,  and 
the  Saxons,  so  that  could  the  whole  story  of  the  ex- 
cavations be  read,  fresh  light  might  be  thrown  on 
much  of  the  early  history  of  Southern  England.  As 
time  goes  on,  and  further  explorations  are  made,  new 
facts  may  come  to  light,  but  at  present,  in  spite  of 
the  many  theories  advanced,  the  mystery  remains 
unsolved. 

Originally  a  dependency  of  Dartford,  now  a  thriving 
manufacturing  town,  the  manor  of  Chislehurst,  the 
name  of  which  is  supposed  to  signify  a  wood  of 
pebbles,  was  given  by  King  John  to  a  Norman 
noble  known  as  Hugh,  Earl  of  St.  Paul,  and  after 
many  vicissitudes  it  became  the  property,  in  1584,  of 
the  Walsingham  family,  to  whom  it  was  granted  on 
a  long  lease  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Walsinghams 
were  already  in  residence  in  Chislehurst,  and  the 
future  minister,  Sir  Francis,  was  born  in  the  village 
in  1536,  though  exactly  where  is  not  known,  the 
so-called  manor-house  near  the  church,  which  is 
generally  spoken  of  as  his  birthplace,  not  having 
been  built  until  1584. 

The  parish  church  of  Chislehurst,  though  practi- 
cally modern,  was  built  on  the  lines  of  its  sixteenth- 
century  predecessor,  and  with  its  lofty  spire  pre- 
sents a  picturesque  appearance.  It  contains  the 
altar  tomb  of  the  Walsingham  family  and  several 
other  noteworthy  memorials,  including  a  fifteenth- 
century  brass  in  memory  of  Alan  Porter,  and  a 
monument  to  William  Selwyn,  designed  by  Chantrey. 
The  font  is  said  to  be  of  great  antiquity,  and  may 
possibly  have  been  in  use  in  Saxon  times,  and  in 


128    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  churchyard  are  some  interesting  old  tombs,  in- 
cluding that  in  which  rest  the  remains  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Bonar,  who  were  murdered  by  their  servant  in 

1813- 

A  well-preserved  cock-pit,  now  fortunately  disused, 
opposite  the  church,  is  another  Chislehurst  link  with 
the  past,  and  in  the  neighbourhood  are  some  fine 
old  mansions,  of  which  the  most  noteworthy  is 
Camden  Place,  named  after  the  antiquarian  William 
Camden,  who  bought  it  in  1609,  but  more  celebrated 
as  having  been  the  scene  of  the  cruel  fate  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Bonar,  and  the  home  later  of  Napoleon  III.,  who 
died  in  it  in  1873.  The  widowed  Empress  Eugenie 
lived  in  it  for  some  time,  and  built  the  memorial 
chapel  in  connection  with  the  little  Roman  Catholic 
chapel  in  Crown  Lane,  in  which  rested  the  remains 
of  her  husband,  and  later  of  her  son,  before  their 
removal  to  the  Mausoleum  at  Earn  borough,  near 
her  present  home.  It  was  at  Camden  Place  that 
the  Empress  received  the  news  of  the  death  in 
South  Africa  of  the  Prince  Imperial,  to  whose 
memory  she  erected  the  fine  cross  outside  the 
entrance  gates. 

Within  easy  reach  of  Chislehurst,  and  sharing 
to  some  extent  the  beauty  of  its  surroundings, 
are  the  charming  village  of  Beckley,  that  owns 
a  fine  modern  church  and  a  picturesque  tower, 
the  latter  now  the  property  of  the  Kent  Water 
Company,  and  the  thriving  town  of  Bromley, 
the  name  of  which  is  derived  from  the  broom  that 
flourishes  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  latter  owns 
what  was  once  the  palace  of  the  bishops  of  Rochester, 


BECKENHAM  129 

built  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  manor-house,  and 
now  a  private  residence,  m  the  grounds  of  which  is 
a  medicinal  well  dedicated  to  St.  Blaise,  that  used  to 
be  credited  with  miraculous  powers  of  healing,  and  is 
associated  with  the  memory  of  King  Ethelbert,  for  to 
commemorate  his  conversion  to  Christianity  special 
indulgences  were  granted  to  those  who  drank  its 
waters.  Another  noteworthy  feature  of  Bromley  is 
the  well-restored  parish  church — in  which  rests  the 
wife  of  Dr.  Johnson — rising  from  the  highest  point  of 
the  town,  and  approached  by  an  avenue  of  venerable 
elms  from  a  picturesque  lych  gate,  whilst  here  and 
there  in  the  town  are  a  few  quaint  old  houses,  and  a 
little  outside  it  the  seventeenth-century  buildings  of 
Bromley  College,  now  a  home  for  the  widows  and 
daughters  of  clergymen. 

Another  village  of  Kent  that  has  of  late  years 
grown  into  a  town  is  Beckenham,  prettily  situated 
on  a  tributary  of  the  Ravensbourne,  in  the  original 
straggling  high  street  of  which  there  remain,  how- 
ever, several  ancient  half-timbered  houses.  The 
old  manor-house  known  as  Beckenham  Place,  too, 
is  still  standing,  and  the  modern  parish  church  is  as 
nearly  as  possible  a  reproduction  of  the  old  one  that 
was  pulled  down  on  account  of  its  melancholy  state 
of  decay  in  1885.  The  well-preserved  lych  gate, 
with  an  avenue  of  yews  leading  from  it  to  the 
southern  entrance,  is  but  little  changed  from  what 
it  was  long  years  ago,  and  in  the  rebuilding  of 
the  church  care  was  taken  to  preserve  the  old 
monuments,  that  include  the  altar-tomb  of  Sir 
Humphrey  Style,  who  died  in  1552,  and  that  of 


130    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Dame    Margaret    Damsell,    who    passed    away    in 

1563- 

The  history  of  Beckenham  Manor  can  be  traced 
back  to  pre-Norman  times  :  it  was  given  by  William 
the  Conqueror  to  Bishop  Odo  of  Bayeux,  and  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  I.  it  was  in  the  possession  of 
the  De  la  Rochelle  family.  Later  it  was  owned,  in 
right  of  his  wife,  by  William  Brandon,  who  was 
standard-bearer  to  Henry,  Earl  of  Richmond,  and 
was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Bosworth.  During  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIL,  Charles,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  the  son 
of  this  William  Brandon,  often  visited  Beckenham 
Place,  and  is  said  to  have  there  entertained  Henry 
VIII.  when  that  monarch  was  on  his  way  to  meet  his 
bride  Anne  of  Cleves. 

The  rapidly  growing  suburb  of  Shortlands — the 
birthplace  of  the  historian  George  Grote — connects 
Beckenham  with  Bromley,  and  in  touch  with  it 
are  several  noted  mansions,  including  the  Georgian 
Langley  House,  Eden  Lodge,  named  after  the  first 
Lord  Auckland,  who  lived  in  it  for  many  years,  and 
was  often  visited  by  William  Pitt,  and  the  eighteenth- 
century  Kelsey  House,  on  the  site  of  an  earlier 
residence  that  is  often  referred  to  in  the  records  of 
the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  his  successors. 


CHAPTER    VI 

OUTLYING  LONDON  IN  NORTH-EAST  SURREY 

OF  the  many  villages  of  Northern  Surrey  that 
have  during  the  last  half-century  been  con- 
verted into  popular  suburbs  of  London,  few  have  had 
a  more  interesting  history  than  Dulwich,  which  has, 
moreover,  in  spite  of  all  the  changes  that  have  taken 
place  in  it  and  its  surroundings,  retained  some- 
thing of  the  sylvan  character  that  distinguished  it 
when  it  was  a  mere  outlying  forest  hamlet  of  the 
monastery  of  Bermondsey.  On  the  dissolution  of 
the  religious  houses  the  manor  of  Dulwich  was  given 
by  Henry  VIII.  to  Thomas  Calton,  from  whose  de- 
scendants it  was  bought  in  1606  by  the  famous  actor 
and  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  Edward  Alleyn,  who 
on  his  retirement  from  the  stage  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  the  ancient  mansion  belonging  to  it,  from 
which  he  watched  the  rising  up  of  the  '  Chappell, 
Schoole  House  and  Almshouses'  that  formed  the 
nucleus  of  the  celebrated  college  founded  by  him,  to 
which  he  gave  the  beautiful  name  of  God's  Gift. 

In  his  delightful  retreat  the  generous  patron 
worked  out  the  details  of  his  scheme  with  the  aid 
of  his  architect  and  other  helpers,  and  in  its  grand 

181 


132    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

old  hall  "he  probably  received  the  first  master  and 
warden  of  his  new  foundation,  and  nominated  the 
earliest  recipients  of  his  bounty.  From  the  Dulwich 
manor-house,  too,  are  dated  many  of  the  letters  still 
preserved,  that  reveal  the  difficulties  with  which 
Edward  Alleyn  had  to  contend  before  he  could 
obtain  the  royal  sanction  necessary  to  the  perma- 
nent success  of  his  enterprise,  his  chief  opponent, 
strange  to  say,  having  been  the  enlightened  Lord 
Bacon,  then  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  who  was 
anxious  that  he  should  endow  learning  rather  than 
relieve  poverty.  In  1619,  however,  the  victory  was 
finally  won,  for  on  the  2ist  June  of  that  year  the 
Great  Seal  of  England  was  affixed  to  letters  patent 
granting  leave  to  Edward  Alleyn  'to  found  and 
establish  a  college  in  Dulwich  to  endure  and  remain 
for  ever  to  the  glory  of  Almighty  God.'  God's 
Gift  College,  thus  started  on  its  long  and  useful 
career,  originally  consisted  of  a  master  and  a 
warden,  both  to  be  of  the  same  name  as  the 
founder,  four  fellows,  six  poor  brethren,  six  poor 
sisters,  and  twelve  poor  scholars  to  be  selected  from 
four  London  parishes.  Later,  however,  the  founder 
somewhat  extended  his  scheme,  admitting  eighty 
instead  of  twelve  students,  and  allowing  the  children 
of  non-resident  parents  to  share  in  the  benefits  of 
the  college  on  the  payment  of  a  small  fee. 

The  land  included  with  the  'Chappell,  Schoole 
House  and  Almshouses'  in  Edward  Alleyn's  muni- 
ficent gift  extended  from  the  heights  now  covered 
with  houses,  known  as  Champion  and  Denmark  Hill, 
across  the  valley  in  which  nestled  the  village  of  Dul- 


DULWICH  133 

wich,to  the  lofty  ridges  now  occupied  by  Sydenham 
and  Forest  Hill,  the  value  of  which  has  increased 
more  than  a  thousandfold  since  the  death  of  the 
donor,  so  that  it  became  absolutely  necessary  to 
modify  the  original  rules,  which,  in  spite  of  Alleyn's 
earnest  desire  to  provide  for  future  contingencies, 
were  from  the  first  wanting  in  the  elasticity  neces- 
sary to  meet  the  inevitable  changes  that  time  brings 
about.  Not  until  1857,  however,  was  any  radical 
transformation  effected,  but  at  that  date  an  Act  of 
Parliament  was  passed  fully  meeting  the  necessities 
of  the  case. 

The  buildings  erected  under  the  superintendence 
of  Alleyn  fell  into  decay  soon  after  their  completion, 
and  those  replacing  them  suffered  much  during  the 
Civil  War,  when  troops  were  quartered  in  the  chapel, 
who  not  only  defaced  the  walls  and  desecrated  the 
altar,  but  melted  down  the  leaden  coffins  enshrined 
in  it  to  convert  the  material  into  bullets.  After  the 
death  of  Charles  I.,  whose  cause  had  been  espoused 
by  the  fellows,  all  the  revenues  and  lands  of  the 
college  were  confiscated  by  Cromwell,  but  on  the 
accession  of  Charles  II.  they  were  restored  to  their 
owners,  and  they  have  never  since  been  tampered 
with. 

The  ancient  college  buildings  have  been  well 
restored,  and  retain  the  old  entrance-gates  of  finely 
wrought  iron  surmounted  by  the  crest  and  motto  of 
the  founder.  They  are  grouped  about  a  central 
square,  and  consist  of  a  chapel,  in  the  chancel  of 
which  Edward  Alleyn  is  buried,  a  dining-hall,  and 
an  audit  room,  in  which  is  an  interesting  collection 


134    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  portraits,  a  library  containing  more  than  five 
thousand  volumes,  a  schoolroom,  and  a  kitchen. 
Adjoining  the  quadrangle,  on  the  south-west,  is  the 
comparatively  modern  picture-gallery,  built  after  the 
designs  of  Sir  John  Soane  for  the  reception  of  a  fine 
collection  of  pictures  bequeathed  to  the  college  in 
1811  by  Sir  Francis  Bourgeois,  on  the  singular  con- 
dition that  he  and  his  friends,  Monsieur  and  Madame 
Desenfans,  from  whom  he  had  inherited  the  paint- 
ings, should  be  buried  near  them.  Their  remains  rest 
in  a  mausoleum  connected  with  the  gallery,  that 
was  thrown  open  to  the  public  in  1817,  and  con- 
tains, amongst  many  other  priceless  treasures, 
masterpieces  by  Rembrandt,  Murillo,  Velasquez, 
Gainsborough,  and  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  The  new 
school  buildings  at  Dulwich  were  built  under  the 
superintendence  of  Sir  Charles  Barry  after  the 
radical  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  college,  and 
were  opened  in  1870.  They  include  a  noble  central 
block  with  a  spacious  hall,  a  lecture-theatre  and 
library,  whilst  two  wings  connected  with  them 
afford  accommodation  for  a  large  staff  of  masters 
and  some  eight  hundred  boys. 

Although  the  fame  of  its  college  and  gallery  has 
long  since  eclipsed  that  of  its  spa,  Dulwich  was  at 
one  time  much  frequented  by  the  wealthy  citizens  of 
London,  who  resorted  there  to  drink  the  waters  of  a 
spring  near  the  Green  Man  Inn,  the  site  of  which 
was  later  occupied  by  the  private  school  of  Dr. 
Glennie,  pulled  down  in  its  turn  in  1825,  in  which 
Lord  Byron  was  a  pupil  for  two  years.  There  was 
a  rival  well  in  the  neighbouring  hamlet  of  Sydenham 


SYDENHAM  135 

that  was  even  more  popular,  but  all  traces  of  both 
are  now  lost,  and  there  is  absolutely  nothing  about 
the  densely  populated  neighbourhood  dominated  by 
the  Crystal  Palace,  to  recall  the  days  when  Campbell 
lived  in  the  old  house  still  standing  on  Peak  Hill, 
where  he  wrote  '  Gertrude  of  Wyoming/  '  O'Connor's 
Child,'  and  the  'Battle  of  the  Baltic.'  The  view 
from  the  terrace  of  the  palace  itself  is  of  course  much 
the  same  in  its  general  features  as  that  upon  which 
the  poet  looked  down,  but  the  forest  in  which  he 
used  to  wander,  that  gave  its  name  to  Forest  Hill,  is 
replaced  by  a  sea  of  villas  with  no  special  character 
about  them.  Fortunately  the  palace,  in  spite  of 
the  north  wing  having  been  destroyed  by  fire  in  1866, 
is  a  dignified-looking  structure.  It  was  built  with 
the  materials  and  partly  on  the  plan  of  the  Great 
Exhibition  of  1851,  and  the  public  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated on  the  fact  that  its  three  hundred  acres 
of  grounds  preserve  some  of  their  original  rural 
character  when  the  district  was  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  near  London. 

Anerley,  once  famed  for  its  tea-gardens  ;  Gypsy 
Hill,  long  the  haunt  of  Zingari  squatters  ;  Norwood, 
or  the  wood  north  of  Croydon  ;  Streatham,  long  the 
home  of  Mrs.  Piozzi,  with  whom  Dr.  Johnson  often 
stayed ;  and  Penge,  that  appears  in  an  early  nine- 
teenth-century map  as  a  town  with  one  inn,  the 
Crooked  Billet,  were  all  for  many  centuries  outlying 
settlements,  each  with  a  distinctive  charm  of  its 
own,  the  last-named  set  in  the  midst  of  a  wide- 
stretching  common  crossed  by  the  Croydon  Canal 
with  many  picturesque  locks,  now  replaced  by  the 


136    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

iron  road,  the  levelling  influence  of  which  is  apparent 
on  every  side. 

From  the  somewhat  melancholy  fate  that  has 
overtaken  so  much  of  Kent  and  Surrey,  the  wildly 
beautiful  Keston  Common  has  so  far  escaped,  and 
the  villages  of  Hayes  and  Keston,  both  on  its  north- 
western edge,  are  still  unspoiled.  The  former  has 
a  well-restored  Early  English  church,  its  Georgian 
rectory  is  a  fine  example  of  the  domestic  archi- 
tecture of  its  period,  and  near  to  it  is  the  celebrated 
Hayes  Place,  built  in  1757  by  the  great  orator  and 
statesman,  Lord  Chatham,  whose  favourite  home  it 
was.  In  it,  two  years  after  its  completion,  was  born 
his  even  more  famous  son,  William  Pitt  the  younger, 
whose  childhood  was  passed  in  a  small  house  con- 
nected with  Hayes  Place  by  a  covered-in  passage, 
for  his  father  was  already  suffering  from  the  de- 
pression which  so  often  clouded  his  happiness,  and, 
as  related  by  Horace  Walpole,  who  was  a  frequent 
guest  of  Lord  Chatham,  the  harassed  statesman 
'  could  not  bear  his  children  under  the  same  roof, 
nor  communication  from  room  to  room,  nor  what- 
ever he  thought  promoted  noise.'  When  in  1766 
the  elder  Pitt  inherited  another  property  elsewhere, 
Hayes  Place  was  sold  to  the  Honourable  Thomas 
Walpole,  but  its  previous  owner  was  taken  ill  soon 
afterwards,  and  entreated  the  purchaser  to  let  him 
have  it  back.  He  was  convinced,  he  said,  that  he 
could  recover  nowhere  else,  and  his  whim  was 
humoured,  with  the  best  results.  Lord  Chatham 
returned  to  his  old  home,  which  was  his  chief  resi- 
dence until  his  death.  There  he  received  George  II. 


HAYES  137 

and  George  III.,  as  well  as  the  leading  politicians 
of  the  day ;  and  there  the  young  General  Wolfe 
dined  with  him  on  the  eve  of  sailing  for  Canada. 
The  younger  William  Pitt  was  now  the  constant 
companion  of  the  'oracle  of  Hayes,'  as  his  father 
was  affectionately  called  by  his  intimates,  imbibing 
from  him  no  doubt  much  of  the  practical  wisdom 
that  from  the  first  distinguished  him  ;  and  he  it  was 
who  had  the  melancholy  privilege  of  carrying  the 
stricken  minister  from  the  House  of  Lords  when  he 
fell  down  insensible  after  his  noble  speech  against 
the  unworthy  terms  of  peace  proposed  by  the  Duke 
of  Richmond.  The  dying  statesman  was  taken 
back  to  Hayes  Place,  where  in  a  small  room  on 
the  ground  floor  he  breathed  his  last  four  weeks 
later. 

After  the  death  of  Lord  Chatham,  Hayes  Place 
was  sold,  and  since  then  it  has  changed  hands  many 
times,  but  fortunately  its  various  owners  have 
respected  it  for  the  sake  of  its  memories,  and  but 
for  the  addition  of  a  new  entrance-hall  it  remains 
practically  what  it  was  during  the  occupancy  of  its 
first  owner.  It  is  the  same  with  the  stables,  that  are 
some  little  distance  from  the  house,  which  have  been 
kept  as  they  were  when  the  old  earl  and  his  sons 
used  daily  to  go  down  to  inspect  the  horses,  and  in 
one  corner  of  the  yard  is  a  platform  from  which, 
according  to  tradition,  William  Pitt  the  younger 
used  to  rehearse  his  speeches  in  the  presence  of  his 
father  and  the  rest  of  the  household. 

Keston  village,  originally  a  dependency  of  the 
manor  of  the  same  name  that  was  once  the  property 


138    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  Bishop  Odo  of  Bayeux,  consists  of  a  few  old 
houses  and  cottages,  some  grouped  about  the  Red 
Cross  Inn,  also  known  as  Keston  Mark,  possibly 
because  it  is  situated  on  an  ancient  boundary,  others 
on  the  common  near  a  picturesque  windmill.  Its 
church,  a  humble  little  sanctuary,  with  a  nave  and 
chancel  only,  contains  a  fine  Norman  arch,  possibly 
a  relic  of  an  earlier  building,  and  in  its  quiet  grave- 
yard rests  the  novelist  Mrs.  Craik,  better  known  as 
Miss  Muloch. 

On  Keston  Common,  in  a  spring  known  as  Caesar's 
Well,  rises  the  Ravensbourne,  which  widens  close  by 
into  a  series  of  ponds  overshadowed  by  venerable 
trees,  and  near  to  them,  within  the  grounds  of 
Holwood  House,  are  the  remains  of  a  Roman  camp 
in  which,  according  to  some  authorities,  Aulus 
Plautius  awaited  the  coming  of  the  Emperor 
Claudius  to  receive  the  homage  of  the  conquered 
Britons.  Whether  there  be  any  foundation  for  this 
belief  or  not,  there  appears  at  one  time  to  have  been 
an  important  Roman  settlement  on  Holwood  Hill, 
a  complete  villa,  the  foundations  of  a  temple,  and 
many  bricks  and  tiles  having  been  unearthed  at 
different  times.  Keston  is,  however,  now  chiefly 
celebrated  for  its  connection  with  William  Pitt,  who 
lived  for  many  years  in  a  house  that  occupied  the 
site  of  the  present  mansion  in  Holwood  Park.  Even 
when  still  a  child  living  on  his  father's  estate  atHayes, 
Pitt  longed,  as  he  often  told  his  friends,  '  to  call  the 
wood  of  Holwood  his  own/  and  great  was  his  delight 
when,  in  1785,  two  years  after  he  became  Prime 
Minister,  he  was  able  to  purchase  it.  The  table  at 


HOLWOOD  HOUSE  139 

which  he  used  to  write  is  still  preserved  in  Hoi- 
wood  House,  and  the  park  was  laid  out  by  him. 
Many  of  its  trees  were  planted  by  his  own  hand,  and 
others,  already  venerable  when  he  became  their 
owner,  are  associated  with  interesting  incidents  of 
his  career.  One  noble  wide-spreading  oak  near  the 
chief  entrance  to  the  park  is  specially  revered,  be- 
cause of  the  tradition  that  Pitt  and  William  Wilber- 
force  were  seated  beneath  it  when  they  arranged 
the  opening  of  the  campaign  against  slavery,  a  fact 
commemorated  by  a  quotation  from  oneofthelatter's 
letters  that  is  cut  in  the  back  of  a  stone  seat  mark- 
ing their  resting-place,  placed  in  position  by  Lord 
Stanhope  in  1862.  'I  well  remember,'  said  the 
philanthropist,  '  after  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Pitt, 
in  the  open  air,  on  the  root  of  an  old  tree  at  Hoi- 
wood,  just  above  the  steep  descent  into  the  vale  of 
Keston,  I  resolved  to  give  notice,  on  a  fit  occasion, 
to  bring  forward  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade.' 
The  important  meeting  probably  took  place  in  1787, 
and  Wilberforce  was  often  at  Holwood  House  during 
the  first  few  of  the  nineteen  years'  struggle  thus 
inaugurated,  finding  distraction  from  his  ever  ac- 
cumulating worries  in  aiding  his  host  in  his  amateur 
woodcraft.  In  his  diary  for  April  7,  1790,  for 
instance,  he  records  how  he  sallied  forth  with  Pitt 
and  Grenville,  then  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 'armed  with  bill-hooks,  cutting  new  walks 
from  one  large  tree  to  another  through  the  thickets,' 
neither  of  them  dreaming  how  soon  the  beautiful 
estate  would  cease  to  belong  to  their  host  who,  a 
little  later,  was  compelled  to  part  with  it,  It  was 


140    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

sold  for  ;£i  5,000,  a  very  large  sum  for  those  days, 
and,  after  changing  hands  more  than  once,  was 
bought  by  a  Mr.  John  Ward,  who,  with  little  respect 
for  its  memories,  pulled  down  the  old  house  to  make 
room  for  an  ornate  villa  in  the  Italian  style,  and 
cleared  away  much  of  the  woods  that  had  been  the 
Prime  Minister's  especial  pride. 

Though  not  quite  so  picturesquely  situated  as 
Keston,  the  neighbouring  villages  of  Farnborough 
and  Downe — the  former  associated  with  the  name  of 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  who  lived  for  some  years  at  High 
Elms,  the  latter  with  that  of  Charles  Darwin,  who 
long  resided  at  Downe  House — have  something  of 
its  quiet  charm.  West  Wickham,  too,  though  it  has 
unfortunately  recently  been  discovered  by  the  jerry- 
builder,  is  still  a  pretty  place,  the  older  cottages  and 
farms  clustering  about  Wickham  Court,  erected  on 
the  site  of  the  original  manor-house  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.  by  Sir  Henry  Heydon,  but  almost 
entirely  rebuilt  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
Heydons  were  near  relations  of  Anne  Boleyn,  who 
is  said  to  have  passed  some  of  her  happiest  days  at 
Wickham  Court  when  her  royal  suitor  was  courting 
her,  a  tradition  confirmed  by  the  true-lovers'  knot 
in  which  her  initials  and  Henry's  are  intertwined, 
engraved  on  one  of  the  windows  in  the  dining-hall. 
Very  often,  probably,  the  enamoured  pair  paced  to 
and  fro  on  the  smooth  bowling-green  or  on  the  long 
grass  walk,  still  known  as  Anne  Boleyn's,  between 
the  dense  yew  hedges,  that  remain  unchanged  to 
this  day.  Sometimes,  too,  it  is  related,  the  fair  Anne 
would  await  the  coming  of  her  lover  in  a  little  Gothic 


WEST  WICKHAM  141 

tower,  to  which  a  subterranean  corridor  gave  access, 
and  the  two  may  possibly  have  explored  together 
the  secret  passages  that  led  beneath  the  grounds  of 
the  mansion  to  Hayes  Common  and  elsewhere.  A 
new  entrance  was  made  to  Wickham  Court  by  Sir 
Charles  Farnaby,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  owner, 
but  the  rest  of  the  house  is  much  what  it  was  when 
completed  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  is  a  fine 
example  of  Tudor  domestic  architecture.  The  massive 
oaken  door,  with  its  huge  iron  bolt,  may  be  the  very 
one  that  was  so  often  flung  open  to  admit  the  guests 
of  the  Heydons,  including  Henry  VIII.  and  Anne 
Boleyn,  to  pass  through  to  the  banquets  held  in  the 
great  hall.  It  bears  the  marks  of  many  a  siege,  and 
must  have  received  very  rough  usage  in  the  troublous 
times  of  the  Stuarts,  when  the  gloomy  dungeon 
beneath  the  north-west  turret  served  sometimes  as  a 
prison  to  the  enemies,  sometimes  as  a  hiding-place 
to  the  friends  of  the  owner  of  the  property. 

The  church  of  West  Wickham,  which,  with  the 
creeper-clad  turrets  and  chimneys  of  the  court  form 
a  charming  group  when  seen  from  a  distance,  was 
rebuilt  at  the  same  time  as  the  latter  by  Sir  Henry 
Heydon,  and  owns  some  fine  sixteenth-century 
windows,  including  one  representing  scenes  from  the 
legend  of  St.  Catherine.  There  are  also  some  well- 
preserved  monuments  and  brasses  in  the  nave  and 
chancel,  and  in  the  churchyard,  entered  by  an  ancient 
lych  gate,  with  a  tiled  roof,  are  some  interesting  old 
tombs. 

In  a  wood  not  far  from  West  Wickham  is  the 
grand  old  hollow  oak  painted  by  Millais  as  the  hiding- 


142     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

place  of  his  '  Proscribed  Royalist,'  and  the  village 
itself  is  associated  with  the  memory  of  many  other 
famous  men.  Before  Lord  Chatham  bought  the 
mansion  at  Hayes  in  which  his  celebrated  son  was 
born,  he  lived  for  some  years  at  South  Lodge,  and  in 
a  smaller  house  dwelt  the  Latin  chronicler  Gilbert 
West,  who  was  often  visited  in  his  retreat  by  William 
Pitt  the  younger,  Lord  Lyttelton,  and  the  eccentric 
merchant  poet  Richard  Glover. 

Another  ancient  and  still  picturesque  village  of 
Surrey  is  the  beautifully  situated  Aldington,  the 
name  of  which  is  supposed  to  signify  the  town  of  the 
Edings,  though  who  these  Edings  were  history  does 
not  say.  The  manor  is  referred  to  in  Doomsday  Book 
as  being  held  under  the  king  by  Tezelm,  a  cook  in 
the  royal  service,  and  from  that  time  to  the  acces- 
sion of  George  III.  the  owners  of  the  property  were 
bound  to  observe  the  quaint  custom  of  preparing  a 
dish,  or  providing  a.  substitute  to  do  so,  for  the 
monarch's  consumption  on  the  day  of  his  coronation. 
The  last  time  the  strange  ceremony  was  performed 
was  in  1760,  when  Mr.  Spencer,  then  lord  of  the 
manor,  presented  to  the  newly  crowned  monarch  a 
dish  of  pottage  made  according  to  an  ancient  recipe, 
and  containing  an  extraordinary  number  of  in- 
gredients. 

Early  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  manor-house,  that 
was  more  of  a  stronghold  than  a  private  home,  was 
erected  at  Addington,  on  what  is  still  known  as  Castle 
Mill,  but  it  was  pulled  down  in  1780  and  replaced 
by  a  less  ambitious  building  on  another  site,  that  later 
became  a  summer  residence  of  the  Archbishops  of 


ADDINGTON  143 

Canterbury,  to  whom  the  property  passed  by  purchase 
in  1807.  With  the  chapel  and  library,  added  in 
1830,  it  now  presents  a  very  dignified  appearance, 
and  is  surrounded  by  a  beautiful  park. 

The  parish  church  of  Addington,  though  it  has 
been  much  modified  by  restoration,  retains  a  fine 
Norman  arch  dividing  the  nave  from  the  chancel, 
some  early  Gothic  arcades  and  three  very  ancient 
windows,  with  a  good  modern  one  to  the  memory  of 
Archbishop  Tait,  who  with  his  wife  and  one  of  his 
sons  lie  buried  in  the  churchyard,  close  to  Arch- 
bishop Longley.  In  the  chancel  are  some  quaint  old 
monuments,  notably  one  to  some  members  of  the 
Leigh  family,  and  several  interesting  brasses,  in- 
cluding that  to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Hatteclyff, 
who  was  one  of  the  Masters  of  the  Household  of 
Henry  VIIL,  and  died  in  1540. 

There  is  little  very  distinctive  about  the  modern 
village  of  Addington,  though  it  retains  a  few  quaint 
old  cottages,  and  is  celebrated  for  its  inhabitants' 
love  of  flowers.  It  is,  however,  set  down  in  very 
beautiful  scenery,  that  seems  likely  long  to  remain 
unspoiled.  Within  easy  reach  of  it  and  of  Croydon, 
the  former  residence  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canter- 
bury, are  several  other  pretty  villages  and  hamlets, 
including  Shirley,  with  a  good  modern  church,  finely 
situated  on  the  edge  of  a  breezy  common ;  Wood- 
side,  that  is  rapidly  losing  its  rural  character  through 
its  proximity  to  the  racecourse  and  railway ;  and 
Addiscombe,  once  famous  for  a  fine  old  mansion, 
long  the  residence  of  Lord  Liverpool,  which  was 
pulled  down  in  1863.  When  Lord  Liverpool,  who 


144    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

became  Prime  Minister  in  1809,  was  at  Addiscombe, 
his  predecessor  in  that  office,  William  Pitt,  was  often 
his  guest,  and  the  story  goes  that  on  one  occasion 
the  latter  had  a  narrow  escape  from  sudden  death, 
for  he  and  a  party  of  politicians,  who  had  been  dining 
with  the  Tory  statesman,  dashed  through  the  turn- 
pike gates,  without  paying  the  toll.  The  keeper, 
supposing  them  to  be  highwaymen,  fired  his  blunder- 
buss at  the  offenders,  but  with  such  bad  aim  that  no 
one  was  hurt — somewhat,  it  was  rumoured  at  the 
time,  to  the  regret  of  Pitt's  many  enemies,  who 
would  gladly  have  heard  of  his  removal  from  their 
path. 

In  a  charming  district  east  of  Croydon  are  several 
other  still  picturesque  villages  that  are  gradually 
being  drawn  into  the  ever-widening  circle  of  outly- 
ing London,  amongst  which  must  be  specially  noted 
Sanderstead,  perched  on  the  brink  of  the  chalk- 
downs  some  550  feet  above  the  sea  level.  Men- 
tioned in  the  will  of  its  Anglo-Saxon  owner  in  871 
as  Sansterstede,  the  manor  was  in  the  possession  one 
hundred  and  ninety-five  years  later  of  the  abbey  of 
St.  Peter's,  Westminster,  and  in  the  family  of  the 
Wigsells,  to  whom  it  now  belongs,  is  preserved  an 
interesting  memorial  of  that  ownership  in  the  form 
of  a  deed  bearing  the  abbey  seal,  recording  the 
exchange  of  half  a  hide  of  land  for  a  piece  of  equal 
value  at  Papeholt. 

Although  it  has  unfortunately  been  somewhat 
spoiled  by  restoration,  the  general  appearance  of  the 
fifteenth-century  parish  church  of  Sanderstead,  with 
its  square  tower  and  shingled  spire,  is  much  what  it 


PURLEY  145 

was  when,  in  1676,  the  mansion  replacing  the  old 
manor-house — that  is  said  to  have  been  constructed 
of  the  materials  of  a  twelfth-century  monastery — 
was  completed,  and  amongst  the  monuments  pre- 
served in  it  are  three  of  considerable  antiquarian 
interest:  that  of  Joanna  Ownstead,  who  died  in  1587; 
that  of  her  brother,  John  Ownstead,  who  was  for 
forty  years  in  the  service  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and 
passed  away  in  1601  ;  and  that  to  Mary  Bedell  bear- 
ing the  date  1655.  Within  a  short  walk  of  Sander- 
stead  is  the  village  of  Purley,  generally  believed  to 
be  named  after  William  de  Pirelea,  who  bought  the 
land  on  which  it  and  the  mansion  known  as  Purley 
Lodge  are  built,  some  time  in  the  twelfth  century, 
from  the  abbot  of  the  neighbouring  Monastery  of 
Hide,  of  which  no  trace  now  remains.  The  date  of 
the  building  of  Purley  Lodge  is  not  known,  but  it  is 
famous  as  having  been  the  residence  of  John  Brad- 
shaw,  who  was  President  of  the  High  Court  of 
Justice  that  condemned  Charles  I.  to  death.  Later 
it  was  the  home  of  William  Tooke,  who  often  received 
in  it  his  more  celebrated  friend,  the  Rev.  John  Home, 
who  took  the  name  of  his  host  in  gratitude  for  the 
kindness  shown  to  him  in  the  long  struggle  with  the 
Government  during  the  War  of  Independence.  After 
the  imprisonment  of  Home  for  getting  up  a  sub- 
scription for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  those  who 
fell  at  Lexington,  or,  as  he  expressed  it,  were 
murdered  by  the  king's  troops,  Tooke  gave  him  an 
asylum  at  Purley,  and  it  was  there  that  he  com- 
pleted the  quaint  Epea  Ptroenta,  to  which  he  gave 
the  sub-title  of  the  '  Diversions  of  Purley.'  On  his 


146    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

death  William  Tooke  bequeathed  £8000  and  Purley 
Lodge  to  Home,  who,  though  he  had  a  house  at 
Wimbledon,  where  he  died  in  1812,  was  often  at 
Purley.  He  wished  to  be  buried  in  the  garden  of 
the  Lodge,  and  had  prepared  his  grave  and  tomb- 
stone, the  latter  bearing  the  inscription  —  'John 
Home  To.oke,  late  Proprietor  and  now  occupier  of 
this  spot,  born  in  June  1736,  died  in  —  aged  — 
contented  and  grateful ' — but  his  relatives  disregarded 
his  instructions,  and  he  rests  in  the  parish  where  he 
breathed  his  last. 

Other  still  secluded  hamlets  of  north-east  Surrey 
are  Farley,  with  a  very  interesting  Norman  and  Early 
English  church,  and  a  quaint  old  moated  manor- 
house,  now  a  farm,  and  Warlingham,  long  celebrated 
for  its  beautiful  common,  that  was,  alas,  enclosed  in 
1864  with  the  exception  of  five  acres  that  were 
reserved  for  a  recreation-ground,  the  latter  with  a 
well-restored  old  church  of  uncertain  date,  the  first, 
according  to  tradition,  in  which  the  service  of 
Edward  VI.  was  used. 

Warlingham  was  one  of  the  four  hams  or  homes 
on  the  hill  occupied  before  the  Conquest  by  the 
Saxon  tribe  known  as  Wearlingas,  the  other  three 
having  been  Woldingham,  Chelsham,  and  Caterham, 
near  to  all  of  which  extensive  remains  have  been 
found  of  early  encampments  and  defences.  Wold- 
ingham, that  gives  its  name  to  a  new  suburb  close 
by,  is  still  a  village,  though  its  doom  is  evidently 
sealed,  and  it  is  the  same  with  Chelsham,  but  Cater- 
ham has  already  grown  into  a  town.  Picturesquely 
built,  partly  in  a  beautiful  valley  and  partly  on  the 


CATERHAM  147 

slope  of  a  hill,  it  retains,  however,  some  interesting 
relics  of  the  long-ago,  including  a  well-restored 
fourteenth-century  church,  and  all  four  of  the  ancient 
hams  are  in  touch  with  beautiful  scenery,  lofty  and 
breezy  commons  commanding  fine  views  alternating 
with  well-wooded  undulating  districts. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CROYDON,  CARSHALTON,  EPSOM,  AND  OTHER 
SUBURBS  IN   NORTH-WEST  SURREY 

OITUATED  near  the  source  of  the  Wandle  at 
O  the  entrance  to  a  beautiful  valley  that  is  shut 
in  on  the  east  by  wooded  hills,  and  on  the  west  and 
south-west  by  breezy  uplands,  the  prosperous  modern 
town  of  Croydon  occupies  the  site  of  a  very  ancient 
settlement  that  owned  before  the  Conquest  a  church 
and  a  mill,  as  proved  by  the  detailed  description 
given  of  it  in  Doomsday  Book.  Now  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  important,  though  by  no  means 
the  most  picturesque  of  the  Surrey  suburbs  of 
London,  Croydon,  the  name  of  which  is  variously 
interpreted  to  mean  the  chalk  hill,  the  crooked  or 
winding  valley,  and  the  village  of  the  cross,  is 
associated  from  very  early  times  with  the  history  of 
the  Church  in  England.  Its  manor,  the  value  of  which 
was  assessed  at  the  Conquest  at  sixteen  hides  and 
one  virgate,  was  given  by  William  I.  to  Archbishop 
Lanfranc  of  Canterbury,  to  whose  successors  it  long 
belonged,  though  the  palace  that  in  course  of  time 
replaced  the  ancient  manor-house  was  deserted  by 
them  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 

148 


CROYDON  149 

was  later  altogether  superseded  by  that  at  Addington 
already  referred  to. 

Combining,  as  did  most  of  the  episcopal  residences 
of  mediaeval  times,  the  strength  of  a  fortress  and 
the  latest  refinements  of  domestic  architecture,  the 
palace  of  Croydon  before  its  partial  destruction 
must  have  been  a  kind  of  epitome  of  the  various 
styles  that  succeeded  each  other  between  the  eleventh 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  or,  to  quote  the  words  of 
Archbishop  Herring  writing  in  1754, 'an  aggregate 
of  buildings  of  different  castes  and  ages.'  Fortunately 
it  still  retains  its  three  most  distinctive  features,  the 
banqueting-hall,  the  guard-room,  and  the  chapel, 
with  some  few  relics  of  the  many  outbuildings  for 
the  use  of  its  owner's  retainers,  and  those  of  his 
guests,  that  once  covered  a  vast  area.  In  spite  of 
all  its  manifest  advantages,  however,  it  was  never  a 
favourite  residence  of  the  archbishops,  who,  though 
many  of  them  spent  large  sums  upon  it,  are 
said  to  have  complained  constantly  of  its  unhealthy 
situation.  Henry  VIII.,  too,  often  spoke  of  it  in  a 
disparaging  way,  and  Lord  Bacon  once  declared  it 
to  be  'a  very  obscure  and  dark  place.' 

Of  the  existing  buildings  the  oldest  is  the 
guard-chamber,  with  a  fine  stone  ribbed  roof  and  a 
beautiful  oriel  window,  a  true  gem  of  Gothic  archi- 
tecture. Built  between  1396  and  1415  by  Archbishop 
Arundel — who  is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  devo- 
tion to  Henry  Bolingbroke,  at  whose  coronation  as 
Henry  IV.  he  officiated  in  1399,  and  for  his  bitter 
hostility  to  the  Lollards — the  guard-chamber  was 
the  scene,  in  1587,  of  the  stately  ceremony  when 


150    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Queen  Elizabeth  gave  to  Sir  Christopher  Hatton  the 
seals  of  office  of  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  that 
dignity  having  been  refused  by  the  then  reigning 
Archbishop  Whitgift,  whose  memory  is  held  in  high 
honour  at  Croydon  as  the  founder  of  the  famous 
hospital  and  other  chanties  bearing  his  name. 

Of  somewhat  later  date  than  the  guard-chamber, 
for  it  was  built  by  Archbishop  Stafford  between 
1443  and  1452,  and  restored  in  the  seventeenth 
century  by  Archbishops  Laud  and  Juxon,  the  great 
hall  is  still,  in  spite  of  much  defacement,  a  noble 
structure,  with  a  fine  timber  roof  and  a  beautiful  late 
Gothic  porch.  It  is  associated  with  many  important 
historic  memories,  for  in  it,  when  in  residence  at 
Croydon,  the  archbishops  held  their  court,  receiving 
visits  from  the  reigning  sovereign  and  the  great 
nobles  and  statesmen.  It  was  there  that  Archbishop 
Cranmer,  in  1553,  condemned  the  heretic  John  Firth 
to  the  stake,  at  which  he  was  himself  to  suffer  three 
short  years  afterwards  ;  there  that  Queen  Mary,  with 
Cardinal  Reginald  Pole  as  her  adviser,  presided  over 
her  first  council  after  her  beloved  husband  had  left 
her  and  she  had  realised  how  hopeless  was  the  task 
of  winning  his  affections ;  and  there  her  successor, 
Elizabeth,  gave  frequent  audience  to  Archbishop 
Parker,  whom  she  had  made  primate  soon  after  her 
accession,  and  whom  she  sorely  embarrassed  by 
expecting  him  to  give  her  and  her  whole  court 
hospitality  for  several  days  at  a  time.  In  the  great 
hall  at  Croydon,  too,  the  virgin  queen  received  the 
French  ambassador  after  the  execution  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots,  taking  his  breath  away  by  introduc- 


CROYDON  151 

ing  him  to  his  fellow-guests  as  the  man  who  had 
plotted  to  bring  about  her  own  death ;  and  it  was 
there,  perhaps,  that  the  doomed  Archbishop  Laud 
penned  much  of  the  journal  that  reveals  the  secret 
springs  of  his  severely  criticised  actions. 

To  Croydon,  after  the  see  of  Canterbury  had 
been  vacant  for  fifteen  years,  came  the  newly 
appointed  Archbishop  William  Juxon,  the  faithful 
friend  who  had  ministered  to  Charles  I.  to  the  bitter 
end,  in  spite  of  the  contempt  the  ill-fated  monarch 
had  shown  for  his  wise  counsels;  and  later  the 
palace  was  tenanted  for  a  few  weeks  at  a  time  by 
Archbishop  Sheldon,  builder  of  the  theatre  named 
after  him  at  Oxford,  and  by  his  successors :  San- 
croft,  suspended  in  1689  for  his  refusal  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary ;  Tillotson, 
the  famous  preacher  who  attended  Lord  Russell  on 
the  scaffold ;  Tenison,  Herring,  Hutton,  and  Dr. 
Cornwallis ;  none  of  whom,  except  Archbishop 
Herring,  who  wrote  of  it  in  loving  terms,  showed 
any  affection  for  their  Surrey  home. 

The  chapel  of  Croydon  Palace,  built  under  Arch- 
bishops Laud  and  Juxon  between  1633  and  1663, 
occupies  the  site  of  a  much  earlier  place  of  worship 
that  is  often  referred  to  in  ecclesiastical  records. 
No  trace  of  it,  however,  remains,  and  its  successor 
has  suffered  much  in  the  various  vicissitudes  through 
which  it  has  passed.  It  was  divided  from  the  see 
of  Canterbury  in  1780,  and  secularised  in  1807,  after 
which  it  served  for  some  time  as  an  armoury  for 
the  local  militia,  and  was  put  to  other  even  less 
dignified  usages.  In  1887  it  was  bought,  with  the 


152     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

banqueting-hall,  by  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who 
presented  both  to  the  sisters  of  the  Church  Exten- 
sion Society,  and  it  is  now  an  orphanage  under  the 
care  of  the  Kilburn  sisters. 

The  Saxon  church  of  Croydon,  or  Croidene,  as  it 
was  then  spelt,  referred  to  in  the  Doomsday  Survey 
— whose  priest,  ./Elffic  by  name,  was  one  of  the  wit- 
nesses to  a  will  still  extant  dated  960 — probably 
rose,  as  did  its  Norman  successor,  from  an  islet  in 
the  midst  of  the  head-waters  of  the  Wandle,  which 
united  to  form  that  tributary  of  the  Thames  in  what 
was  known  as  My  Lord's  or  Laud's  Pond  in  the 
palace  grounds.  Near  to  this  church  were  a  great 
water-mill  and  a  huge  dam,  but  this  was  not  the 
mill  of  Doomsday  Book,  all  trace  of  which  is 
lost.  The  huts  of  the  original  settlement,  of  which 
a  few  interesting  relics  were  discovered  when  the 
excavations  were  made  for  the  railway,  probably 
extended  from  the  church  in  the  direction  of 
Beddington,  but  those  that  formed  the  nucleus  of 
the  new  town,  and  were  chiefly  occupied  by 
charcoal-burners,  were  grouped  near  the  church  on 
the  Haling  side.  Until  the  completion  in  1850  of 
the  admirable  modern  system  of  drainage,  the 
whole  of  the  now  healthy  district  of  Croydon  was 
frequently  flooded,  and  for  several  centuries  the 
inundations  were  looked  upon  as  supernatural 
visitations  that  could  not  be  averted,  but  were 
tokens  of  impending  evil  or  good  fortune.  Refer- 
ences to  this  strange  belief  are  of  frequent  occur- 
rence in  the  contemporary  press,  the  seventeenth- 
century  antiquary  John  Aubrey,  to  quote  but  one 


CROYDON  153 

case  in  point,  writing :  '  Between  this  place  (Cater- 
ham)  and  Coulsdon  .  .  .  issues  out  sometimes  a 
bourne  which  overflows  and  runs  down  to  Croydon. 
This  is  held  by  the  inhabitants  to  be  ominous,  and 
prognosticating  something  remarkable  approaching, 
as  it  did  before  the  happy  restoration  of  Charles  II. 
in  1660  ;  also  before  the  Plague  of  London  in  1665.' 

The  walls  of  the  church  in  which  the  priest  ^Elffic 
officiated  were  skilfully  incorporated  in  the  Gothic 
building  that  was  begun  in  1382,  completed  in  1442, 
and  well  restored  in  the  sixteenth  century ;  but  un- 
fortunately the  latter,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Norman  walls  and  Early  English  tower,  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  in  1869.  A  new  building,  however, 
soon  rose  out  of  the  ruins  of  its  predecessor,  in 
which  these  two  distinctive  features  were  skilfully 
retained,  and  the  lines  of  the  ancient  fabric  were 
followed  ;  but,  strange  to  say,  little  attention  was 
given  to  the  old  monuments,  amongst  which  those 
to  Archbishops  Grindal,  Whitgift,  and  Sheldon  were 
the  most  remarkable,  all  of  which  were  seriously 
damaged  by  the  fire,  which  also  destroyed  several 
interesting  epitaphs  and  some  quaint  frescoes  that 
were  discovered  in  1845  beneath  the  whitewash  dis- 
figuring the  walls. 

The  only  other  building  of  note  in  modern  Croy- 
don is  the  Whitgift  Hospital,  erected  between  1596 
and  1599  by  the  archbishop  after  whom  it  is  named, 
for  the  reception  of  twenty-two  old  men  and  sixteen 
old  women,  and  for  the  education  of  twenty  poor 
children,  ten  boys  and  ten  girls,  who  were  under  the 
care  of  a  warden  and  schoolmaster,  the  latter  also 


154    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

acting  as  chaplain.  Well  restored  in  1860,  and 
supplemented  later  by  a  modern  college  that 
receives  as  many  as  three  hundred  boys  at  a  time, 
the  actual  hospital  still  presents  very  much  the 
appearance  it  did  during  its  founder's  lifetime,  and 
is  a  good  example  of  Elizabethan  architecture.  In 
its  hall,  a  spacious  apartment  with  some  fine  stained 
glass,  is  preserved  a  black-letter  Bible,  said  to  have 
been  given  to  the  school  by  Queen  Elizabeth ;  and 
in  the  room  known  as  the  treasury  above  the 
entrance-gate  are  several  valuable  MSS.,  including 
the  letters-patent  granted  to  Whitgift. 

To  the  extensive  parish  of  Croydon  belong  a 
number  of  outlying  villages  that  were  not  long  ago 
picturesque  riverside  hamlets,  but  are  now  rapidly 
developing  into  populous  suburbs,  with  little  to 
distinguish  them  from  each  other.  There  is  still, 
however,  a  certain  rural  charm  about  Waddon,  with 
its  ancient  mill,  and  Beddington,  with  its  well- 
restored  fourteenth- century  church,  in  which  are 
some  interesting  monuments  to  the  Carews,  retains 
something  of  the  dignity  that  characterised  it  when 
its  hall  was  the  seat  of  that  famous  family.  The 
history  of  Beddington  can  be  traced  back  to  Roman 
times,  for  near  to  it  have  been  found  the  remains  of 
a  villa  and  foundry,  with  other  relics  left  behind 
them  by  the  conquerors  from  Italy ;  its  manor  is 
referred  to  in  Doomsday  Book  as  owning  a  church 
and  two  mills,  and  it  was  the  property  in  the  early 
fourteenth  century  of  Sir  Nicholas  Carew.  For- 
feited in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  by  another  Sir 
Nicholas,  who  was  beheaded  in  1539  for  his  sup- 


CARSHALTON  155 

posed  share  in  the  Cardinal  Pole  conspiracy,  it  was 
restored  to  his  son  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  was 
often  the  guest  of  the  new  owner.  The  manor-house 
was  either  rebuilt  or  added  to  for  her  reception,  and 
is  said  to  have  been  a  grand  example  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  time,  but  it  was  unfortunately  pulled 
down  in  1709,  with  the  exception  of  the  great  hall 
that  was  preserved  in  its  successor,  and  now  forms 
the  nucleus  of  an  orphanage  for  girls  that  was  com- 
pleted in  1866,  its  site,  with  the  still  existing 
buildings  of  the  Carew  mansion  and  twenty-two 
acres  of  its  grounds,  having  been  bought  by  the 
corporation  of  that  institution  in  1857.  Not  far 
from  Beddington  is  the  still  pretty  village  of  Wal- 
lington,  famous  for  the  beautiful  gardens  laid  out  in 
the  low-lying  meadows  in  which  it  is  situated  by 
the  enthusiastic  botanist  Alfred  Smee ;  and  adjoin- 
ing it  is  the  more  important  Carshalton,  that,  in 
spite  of  much  building  in  the  neighbourhood,  retains 
several  picturesque  features,  notably  one  or  two 
old  mills  on  the  Wandle.  Known  before  the  Con- 
quest as  Oulton,  or  the  Old  Town,  a  name  implying 
great  antiquity,  Carshalton  is  supposed  to  have 
received  the  prefix  now  distinguishing  it  because 
of  its  position  on  cross-roads.  In  the  Doomsday 
Survey  no  less  than  five  manors  are  mentioned  as 
included  in  Oulton  that  were  later  consolidated  into 
one,  and  were  owned  until  the  time  of  Stephen  by 
the  powerful  De  Mandeville  family.  Confiscated 
then  because  of  its  owner's  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  Empress  Maud,  it  has  since  changed  hands 
many  times,  and  of  the  ancient  manor-house,  asso- 


156    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

ciated  with  many  memories  of  Norman  times,  not 
a  trace  now  remains.  To  atone  for  this,  however, 
in  Carshalton  Park — soon,  alas !  to  be  built  over — 
is  a  fine  eighteenth-century  mansion,  now  a  Roman 
Catholic  convent,  in  which  long  lived  the  great 
lawyer  Lord  Hardwicke,  replacing  a  much  earlier 
building  that  was  for  some  years  the  home  of  Dr. 
Ratcliffe,  founder  of  the  library  at  Oxford  bearing 
his  name.  Another  interesting  old  house  in  Car- 
shalton is  Stone  Court,  now  the  rectory,  that  once 
formed  part  of  a  much  larger  mansion,  pulled  down 
in  1800,  that  belonged  at  one  time  to  Nicholas 
Gwynesford,  Sheriff  of  Surrey  in  the  reigns  of 
Henry  VI.,  Edward  IV.,  and  Henry  VIL,  and  who 
was  also  Esquire  of  the  Body  to  the  two  latter 
monarchs. 

The  church  of  Carshalton  was  founded  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  but  with  the  exception  of  the  lower 
part  of  the  tower,  it  has  been  entirely  rebuilt.  It 
contains,  however,  a  very  fine  fifteenth-century  brass 
to  the  memory  of  Thomas  Ellymbridge,  a  servitor  of 
Cardinal  Morton,  and  several  interesting  old  monu- 
ments, including  one  to  the  Nicholas  Gwynesford 
mentioned  above,  and  one  to  Sir  William  Scawen, 
the  devoted  friend  of  William  III.,  who  owned  Stone 
Court  from  1729  to  his  death.  Close  to  the  church- 
yard is  another  relic  of  the  long-ago,  a  railed-in 
and  arched-over  spring,  known  as  Queen  Anne 
Boleyn's  well,  because  of  a  tradition  that  its  water 
suddenly  gushed  forth  beneath  the  feet  of  her 
horse  as  she  was  riding  with  her  husband  from 
Nonsuch  Palace  to  Beddington,  a  legend  not  borne 


SUTTON  157 

out  by  historical  fact,  for  the  palace  was  not  begun 
until  three  years  after  Henry  vin.'s  second  wife 
was  beheaded.  Probably  the  spring  was  in  use 
long  before  the  sixteenth  century,  as  it  is  but  one 
of  several  feeders  of  the  Wandle  that  flows  through 
Beddington,  widening  in  the  centre  of  the  old 
village  into  a  pond,  that  is  referred  to  by  Ruskin 
in  the  Crown  of  Wild  Olives,  near  to  which  there 
used  to  be  several  picturesque  old  inns  that  were 
much  frequented  in  coaching  days  by  Londoners 
on  their  way  to  and  from  Epsom  races. 

Some  three  miles  from  Carshalton,  on  the  edge 
of  the  undulating  downs,  that  under  different  names 
extend  for  many  miles  on  every  side,  is  the  now 
populous  town  of  Sutton,  the  last  halting-place  on 
the  way  to  the  world-famous  racecourse,  that  still 
owns  the  ancient  though  modernised  Cock  Inn 
that  is  associated  with  so  many  memories,  and  the 
approaches  to  which  are  still  crowded  with  vehicles 
of  every  variety  during  the  race-weeks.  The  pro- 
perty in  Saxon  days  of  Chertsey  Abbey,  Sutton, 
has  a  long  and  well  -  authenticated  history.  Its 
manor  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  monks  until 
1538,  when  it  was  given  with  those  of  Epsom, 
Coulsden,  and  Horley  to  Sir  Nicholas  Carew,  who, 
as  related  above,  already  owned  the  neighbouring 
Beddington.  Since  then  it  has  changed  hands 
many  times;  in  1845  ft  was  bought  by  a  certain 
Thomas  Alcock,  who  was  in  a  great  measure  re- 
sponsible for  the  conversion  of  a  secluded  hamlet, 
deserted  by  all  but  the  resident  farmers  and  their 
dependants,  into  a  busy  and  prosperous  suburb. 


158     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Two  still  beautiful  though  rapidly  growing 
villages,  within  easy  reach  of  Sutton,  are  Cheam 
and  Ewell,  both  of  which  were  long  in  close  touch 
with  the  famous  Nonsuch  Palace,  part  of  the  site 
of  which  is  now  occupied  by  a  nineteenth-century 
castellated  mansion  in  the  Elizabethan  style,  the 
only  relics  of  its  predecessor  being  the  founda- 
tions of  the  banqueting-hall,  that  still  remain  in 
an  orchard,  near  the  long  avenue  of  trees  leading 
up  to  the  entrance  of  the  new  house,  that  was  once 
part  of  the  now  built  over  park. 

The  village  of  Cheam,  situated  on  high  ground 
commanding  a  fine  view  of  the  Downs,  clusters 
about  a  modern  church  with  a  good  spire,  close  to 
which  is  preserved  the  chancel  of  a  much  more 
ancient  place  of  worship,  containing  some  interest- 
ing monuments,  including  one  to  Lord  John  Lumley, 
the  famous  book  collector,  whose  library  was  bought 
by  James  I.  on  the  death  of  its  owner  in  1609,  and 
is  now  in  the  British  Museum,  whilst  in  the  care 
of  the  rector  of  Cheam  parish  are  some  excep- 
tionally fine  brasses,  that  were  removed  to  pre- 
serve them  from  injury  when  the  old  church  was 
destroyed. 

The  manor  of  Cheam  belonged  at  the  Conquest 
to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  but  it  was  divided  some- 
what later  into  two  parts  by  Archbishop  Lanfranc, 
who  retained  the  eastern  half  himself,  giving  the 
western  to  the  abbot  of  Canterbury  Monastery. 
Both  were,  however,  confiscated  by  Henry  VIII., 
and  granted  by  Queen  Elizabeth  to  Lord  John 
Lumley,  who  held  them  till  his  death,  when  they 


EWELL  159 

passed  to  his  nephew,  Henry  Lloyd.  The  two  old 
manor-houses  were  pulled  down  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  one  of  them  is  represented  by  a  modern 
residence,  known  as  Lower  Cheam  House.  More 
interesting,  however,  is,  or  rather  was  until  quite 
recently,  the  early  Tudor  homestead,  bearing  the 
name  of  Whitehall,  containing  a  room  called  the 
council-chamber,  because  Queen  Elizabeth  is  said 
to  have  once  presided  in  it  over  her  council  when 
she  was  resident  at  Nonsuch  Palace,  which,  accord- 
ing to  local  tradition,  was  connected  with  Cheam 
by  an  underground  passage  that  had  an  entrance 
from  a  cellar  beneath  Whitehall.  In  this  cellar, 
that  probably  served  as  a  larder,  the  persecuted 
Protestants  used  to  meet  for  worship  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary,  and  later,  by  a  strange  irony  of 
fate,  it  was  turned  to  account  for  the  same  pur- 
pose by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  the  neighbour- 
hood. 

Ewell,  the  name  of  which  is  a  corruption  of  the 
Saxon  ^Etwelle,  signifying  the  village  on  the  well, 
so  called  because  it  is  close  to  the  springs  forming 
the  source  of  a  stream  known  as  the  Hogsmill,  that 
joins  the  Thames  at  Kingston,  was  but  a  short 
time  ago  a  secluded  village,  but  is  now  rapidly 
growing  into  a  popular  suburb.  Unfortunately  its 
characteristic  old  market  -  hall  has  been  pulled 
down,  and  of  the  ancient  church  the  tower  alone 
remains,  but  in  its  modern  successor  are  preserved 
several  old  monuments,  tablets,  and  brasses  com- 
memorating residents  of  days  gone  by,  and  in 
the  churchyard  are  some  ancient  tombs  with  curious 


160    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

inscriptions.  Ewell,  however,  owes  its  chief  dis- 
tinction to  its  nearness  to  the  site  of  Nonsuch 
Palace,  and  the  whole  surrounding  district  is  full 
of  memories  connected  with  the  Tudor  sovereigns. 
Situated  in  the  still  sparsely  populated  parish  of 
Cuddington,  that  owned  a  manor-house  and  church 
at  the  time  of  the  Doomsday  Survey,  the  history  of 
which  can  be  traced  down  to  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  property  was  acquired  in  1539  by  Henry  VIII., 
who  added  it  to  his  Hampton  Court  estate.  With 
his  usual  reckless  lavishness  he  resolved  to  clear 
away  all  the  existing  buildings  to  make  room  for 
a  palace  that  should  excel  all  his  other  residences. 
He  enclosed  sixteen  hundred  acres  as  pleasure 
grounds,  and  brought  down  from  London  a  whole 
army  of  architects  and  workmen,  under  whose 
auspices  quickly  rose  up  a  truly  beautiful  struc- 
ture, to  which  the  name  of  Nonsuch  was  given, 
because,  said  its  proud  owner,  it  had  no  equal. 
It  was  not  quite  completed  when  Henry's  career 
was  cut  short  by  death,  and  his  son,  Edward  vi., 
seems  to  have  cared  nothing  for  it.  He  simply 
handed  it  over  to  the  care  of  the  then  Master  of 
the  Revels,  Sir  Thomas  Carwardine,  who  evidently 
appreciated  it  greatly,  for  the  story  goes  that  when 
Queen  Mary  came  to  the  throne  and  instructed  him 
to  vacate  her  palace  at  Nonsuch,  he  at  first  refused  to 
leave  it.  Indeed,  he  remained  till  the  royal  retainers 
arrived,  and  many  unseemly  quarrels  took  place  be- 
tween them  and  their  servants  about  trivial  details, 
such  as  the  division  of  the  produce  of  the  royal 
gardens.  There  were  armed  encounters  in  the  park 


NONSUCH  PALACE  161 

before  her  majesty  took  over  the  custody  of  the 
property,  to  which,  however,  she  was  really  as  in- 
different as  her  brother  had  been.  She  actually 
decided  that  the  best  way  to  save  herself  from 
further  trouble  connected  with  it  would  be  to  pull 
down  the  palace  and  sell  the  materials.  It  was 
saved  from  this  untimely  fate  only  through  the 
generosity  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  who  for  love  of 
his  former  master,  who  had  taken  such  pride  in  it, 
persuaded  the  queen  to  exchange  it  for  certain  fair 
lands  in  his  possession  elsewhere.  The  transfer 
having  been  duly  arranged,  the  new  owner,  as 
related  by  his  biographer  Lyons,  proceeded  'fully 
to  finish  the  house  in  building,  reparations,  pave- 
ments, and  gardens  in  as  complete  and  perfect  sort 
as  by  the  first  intent  and  meaning  of  the  King.'  In 
it,  thirty  years  after  the  first  stone  was  laid,  the  Earl 
of  Arundel  entertained  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her 
court  for  a  week,  presenting  her  before  she  left 
with  a  costly  set  of  plate.  So  greatly,  indeed,  did 
the  maiden  queen  enjoy  herself  at  Nonsuch  that 
she  longed  to  become  its  owner,  and  when  a  few 
years  later  it  passed  from  the  possession  of  her  host 
to  that  of  his  son-in-law,  Lord  Lumley,  she  made 
overtures  to  the  latter  for  its  purchase,  which  had, 
of  course,  the  force  of  a  command.  During  the  rest 
of  her  life  Elizabeth  was  often  at  the  palace,  and 
from  it  many  important  state  papers,  and  even  more 
interesting  private  letters,  were  dated.  It  was  there 
that  took  place  the  remarkable  interview  with  her 
disgraced  favourite,  the  Earl  of  Essex,  after  his 
return  from  Holland  on  Michaelmas  Eve  1599,  that 
L 


162     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

is  so  vividly  described  by  Rowland  Whyte  in  an 
oft-quoted  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Sydney,  in  which  he 
says :  '  At  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  my 
Lord  of  Essex  lighted  at  Court  Gate  in  post,  and 
made  all  hast  up  to  the  Presence,  and  so  to  the 
Privy  Chamber,  and  stayed  not  till  he  came  to  the 
Queen's  Bedchamber,  where  he  found  the  Queen 
all  newly  up,  the  hair  about  her  face;  he  kneeled 
unto  her,  kissed  her  hands,  and  had  some  private 
speech  with  her,  which  seemed  to  give  him  great 
contentment  for  coming  from  her  Majesty  to  go 
shift  himself  in  his  chamber,  he  was  very  pleasant, 
and  thanked  God,  though  he  had  suffered  much 
trouble  amid  storms  abroad,  he  found  a  sweet  calm 
at  home.  'Tis  much  wondered  at  here,'  comments 
the  writer,  '  that  he  went  so  boldly  to  her  Majesty's 
presence,  she  not  being  ready,  and  he  so  full  of  dirt 
and  mire,  that  his  face  was  full  of  it.'  It  was  this 
very  boldness,  as  Essex  knew  full  well,  that  was  his 
one  chance  with  his  angry  mistress,  but  this  time  it 
did  not  serve  him  long.  The  memory  was  still  fresh 
with  them  both  of  the  bitter  quarrel  six  months 
before,  when  Elizabeth,  stung  to  the  quick  by  his 
insolent  assertion  that  'her  conditions  were  as 
crooked  as  her  carcase,'  had  boxed  his  ears  and 
told  him  to  go  and  be  hanged,  and  on  the  very 
night  of  his  arrival  at  Nonsuch,  after  the  apparent 
reconciliation,  the  earl  was  ordered  to  consider 
himself  a  prisoner.  A  few  days  later  he  left  the 
palace  in  custody,  and  the  next  year  he  was  beheaded 
in  the  Tower,  all  the  appeals  he  had  addressed  to 
the  woman,  to  whom,  in  spite  of  all  his  plots  against 


NONSUCH  PALACE  163 

her,  he  pretended  to  the  last  to  have  been  devoted, 
having  been  in  vain. 

On  the  death  of  Queen  Elizabeth  James  I.  gave 
Nonsuch  Palace  to  his  consort,  Queen  Anne,  and 
later  Charles  I.  and  Henrietta  Maria  were  often 
there,  but  its  days  of  glory  were  already  over.  It 
was  confiscated  by  Parliament  after  the  death  of 
the  king,  but  restored  to  the  Crown  on  the  acces- 
sion of  Charles  II.,  who,  when  his  widowed  mother 
had  passed  away,  gave  it  and  the  park  in  which 
it  stood  to  his  mistress,  Lady  Castlemaine,  whom 
a  little  later  he  made  Duchess  of  Cleveland.  She, 
alas,  valued  not  at  all  the  memories  of  the  historic 
building,  but  as  soon  as  it  was  legally  secured  to 
her,  she  had  it  pulled  down,  let  out  much  of  the 
park  in  plots  for  building,  and  sold  the  deer  that 
used  to  wander  about  in  it.  Thus  suddenly  ended 
the  brief  career  of  Henry  VIIl.'s  dream  palace,  that 
is  but  poorly  represented  by  its  successor,  a  building 
erected  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  after  the 
designs  of  the  then  popular  architect,  Sir  Jeffrey 
Wyattville.  Part  of  the  once  beautiful  park  is 
now  occupied  by  the  suburb  of  Worcester,  but  the 
grounds  immediately  surrounding  the  new  resi- 
dence, through  which  there  is  a  public  footpath 
to  Cheam  and  Ewell,  still  retain  much  of  their 
original  charm,  and  some  of  the  older  trees  may 
possibly  have  been  amongst  those  beneath  which 
Queen  Elizabeth  delighted  to  walk. 

Although  it  can  scarcely,  strictly  speaking,  be  said 
to  form  a  part  of  outlying  London,  the  town  of 
Epsom  is  so  intimately  associated  with  the  metro- 


1 64    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

polls,  to  which  it  has  from  first  to  last  owed  its 
prosperity,  that  an  account  of  it  may  well  be  in- 
cluded in  a  book  dealing  as  much  with  the  memories 
of  the  past  as  with  the  attractions  of  the  present. 
Its  history  can  be  traced  back  to  the  seventh 
century,  when  it  is  said  to  have  been  the  residence 
of  the  holy  abbess,  St.  Ebba,  after  whom  it  is 
named,  the  daughter  of  King  Ethelred  the  Avenger, 
and  sister  of  Kings  Oswald  and  Oswy,  whose  story 
is  very  variously  told,  certain  chroniclers  declaring 
that  she  suffered  martyrdom  at  the  hands  of  the 
Danes  after  disfiguring  herself  to  escape  a  worse 
fate ;  others  that  she  died  peacefully  at  a  great  age, 
surrounded  by  her  devoted  nuns.  However  that 
may  be,  no  trace  now  remains  of  the  home  of 
St.  Ebba  at  Epsom,  though  some  are  of  opinion 
that  its  site  is  occupied  by  the  farm  now  known 
as  the  Court,  replacing  the  manor-house  that  is 
referred  to  in  the  Doomsday  Survey  as  an  appan- 
age of  Chertsey  Abbey,  which  also  owned  in  the 
same  district  the  manor  of  Horton,  the  home- 
stead of  which  is  now  represented  by  an  eighteenth- 
century  mansion  called  Horton  Place,  two  churches 
and  two  mills,  with  many  acres  of  land.  To 
these  a  park,  now  known  as  that  of  Woodcote, 
with  '  right  of  free  chase  and  free  warren/  was 
added  in  the  twelfth  century,  the  whole  property 
remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  abbot  of  Chertsey 
until  1538,  when  it  was  bought  from  him  by 
Henry  VIII.,  who,  strange  to  say,  actually  paid  for 
it.  A  few  months  afterwards  it  was  given  to  Sir 
Nicholas  Carew,  who  already  owned  so  much  real 


EPSOM  165 

estate  in  Surrey,  and  on  his  execution  for  treason 
in  1539  it  reverted  to  the  Crown.  In  1589  it  was 
bestowed  by  Queen  Elizabeth  on  Edward  D'Arcy, 
one  of  the  Grooms  of  the  Chamber,  passing  after 
his  death  through  many  different  hands,  at  one 
time  being  owned  by  Mrs.  Richard  Evelyn,  sister- 
in-law  of  the  famous  diarist. 

For  many  centuries  Epsom  remained  a  secluded 
hamlet  scarcely  known  to  any  one  but  the  owners 
of  the  great  houses  in  the  neighbourhood,  who 
delighted  in  its  charming  situation  at  the  edge  of 
the  breezy  Banstead  Downs.  The  discovery  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  however,  of  medicinal 
springs  on  the  adjacent  common  inaugurated  a 
complete  change,  and  Epsom  Spa  soon  became 
a  formidable  rival  to  Tunbridge  Wells  and  Hamp- 
stead  as  a  favourite  resort  of  the  beau  monde  of 
the  capital,  who  flocked  to  it  in  crowds  to  drink 
its  waters  and  amuse  themselves.  In  that  enter- 
taining storehouse  of  local  information  The  Wort/lies 
of  England,  published  in  1662,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Fuller  gives  a  very  graphic  description  of  the 
finding  of  the  springs  at  Epsom  in  1618  :  'One 
Henry  Wicker,'  he  says,  'in  a  dry  summer  and 
great  want  of  water  for  cattle,  discovered  in  the 
concave  of  a  horse  or  neat's  footing  some  water 
standing  .  .  .  with  his  pad  staff  he  did  dig  a 
square  hole  about  it  and  so  departed.  Returning 
the  next  day,  with  some  difficulty  he  discovered 
the  same  place,  and  found  the  hole  running  ovei 
with  most  clear  water.  Yet,1  he  adds,  '  the  cattle, 
though  tempted  with  thirst,  would  not  drink 


166    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

thereof,  it  having  a  mineral  taste  therin.'  He  then 
relates  the  gradual  growth  in  popularity  of  the 
spring  thus  accidentally  discovered,  but  he  himself 
evidently  had  his  doubts  as  to  the  real  efficacy  of  the 
waters,  for  he  remarks  that  he  does  not  wonder  the 
citizens  coming  to  Epsom  from  the  '  worst  of  smokes 
into  the  best  of  airs  find  in  themselves  a  perfective 
alteration.' 

In  1621  the  lord  of  the  manor  had  a  fence  put 
round  the  well  and  a  rough  shelter  erected  for  the  use 
of  those  who  came  to  drink  from  it ;  but  in  spite  of 
many  efforts  made  by  those  interested  in  advertising 
its  merits  Epsom  did  not  become  really  fashionable 
for  another  forty  years,  probably  because  the  people 
of  London  were  too  much  occupied  by  the  political 
troubles  of  the  day  to  be  able  to  give  much  atten- 
tion to  other  things.  Soon  after  the  Restoration, 
however,  the  golden  age  of  the  Banstead  Wells 
began :  a  great  hall  for  balls  and  other  entertain- 
ments, houses,  inns,  and  shops  sprang  up  as  if  by 
magic :  regular  services  of  coaches  were  estab- 
lished between  London  and  the  rapidly  growing 
town  on  the  downs ;  and  all  through  the  summer 
the  approaches  to  the  latter  were  crowded  with  the 
equipages  of  those  in  search  of  health  or  pleasure. 
Charles  II.  was  very  fond  of  going  to  Epsom  with 
his  court,  and  one  special  occasion  was  long  remem- 
bered when  he  was  accompanied  by  his  consort, 
Caroline  of  Braganza,  his  mistress,  Lady  Castle- 
maine,  and  his  illegitimate  son,  the  future  Duke  of 
Monmouth,  then  a  handsome  boy  of  twelve  years 
old,  who  was  born  the  very  year  of  his  grand- 


EPSOM  167 

father's  death  on  the  scaffold.  The  neglected  queen, 
it  is  said,  looked  really  beautiful  for  once,  but  for 
all  that  she  was  quite  eclipsed  by  her  rival  in  her 
husband's  affections,  who  was  triumphantly  lovely. 
The  king  won  all  hearts  by  his  gracious  manner, 
and  it  was  indeed  impossible  to  help  sympathising 
with  him  in  his  evident  delight  in  the  noble  child, 
who  kept  close  to  him  all  day,  and  would  have  been 
a  noble  heir  to  the  throne. 

The  popularity  of  Epsom  was  maintained  through- 
out the  whole  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  proved 
by  many  references  to  its  attractions  in  the  contem- 
porary press.  John  Toland,  for  instance,  in  a  work 
published  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  speaks  of 
it  as  '  an  enchanted  camp  .  .  .  where,'  he  quaintly 
observes, '  the  rude,  the  sullen,  the  noisy,  the  affected, 
the  peevish,  the  covetous,  the  litigious,  the  sharp- 
ing, the  proud,  the  prodigal,  the  impatient,  and  the 
impertinent  become  visible  foils  to  the  well-bred 
prudent,  modest,  and  good-humoured.'  In  the 
early  years  of  the  reign  of  George  III.,  however, 
the  efficacy  of  the  Banstead  waters  began  to  be 
doubted,  and  changing  fashions  resulted  in  the 
abandonment  of  Epsom  by  the  beau  monde.  All 
efforts  to  revive  interest  in  the  once  beloved  resort 
were  unavailing,  and  though  the  mineral  spring 
still  exists  in  a  private  garden,  its  existence  was 
soon  practically  forgotten.  By  a  strange  turn  of 
the  wheel  of  fortune,  however,  what  the  fickle 
goddess  took  away  with  one  hand  she  gave  back 
with  the  other,  for  thanks  to  Banstead  Downs  being 
the  scene  of  what  is  looked  upon  as  a  national 


168    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

event,  the  running  of  the  annual  races  known  as  the 
Derby  and  the  Oaks,  Epsom  has  long  occupied  a 
more  important  position  than  it  did  even  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 

According  to  local  tradition  James  I.,  when 
resident  at  Nonsuch  Palace,  was  the  first  to  intro- 
duce horse -racing  on  the  downs,  but  the  earliest 
competitions  referred  to  in  the  contemporary  press 
were  apparently  between  men,  not  horses.  Pepys, 
writing  as  late  as  1663,  describes  a  foot-race 
between  Lee,  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  footman, 
and  a  certain  Tyler,  a  famous  runner.  That  horse- 
racing  was  practised  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  is, 
however,  proved  by  the  fact  that  in  1648  a  meet- 
ing was  held  by  the  Royalists  on  Banstead 
Downs  under  pretence  of  looking  on  at  it,  on 
which  occasion,  as  related  by  Clarendon  in  his 
History  of  the  Rebellion,  '  600  horses  were  collected 
and  sent  to  Reigate  for  the  use  of  the  King's 
adherents.' 

Writing  five  years  later,  the  dramatist  Thomas 
Heywood  says,  '  Epsom  is  a  place  of  great  resort, 
and  commonly  upon  the  market  days  all  the 
countrye  gentlemen  appoint  a  friendly  meeting  .  .  . 
to  match  their  horses.'  Charles  II.  was  as  fond  of 
watching  the  racing  as  of  attending  the  festivities 
at  the  spa,  and  it  is  generally  supposed  that  it 
was  his  patronage  that  enabled  Banstead  to  rival 
Newmarket  in  popular  favour.  However  that  may 
be,  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
fame  of  the  Epsom  races  had  spread  throughout 
the  length  and  breadth  of  England,  and  advertise- 


EPSOM  RACES  169 

ments  of  the  principal  events  appeared  in  all  the 
principal  newspapers  of  the  day.  In  an  August 
number  of  the  London  Gazette  for  1698,  for  instance, 
it  is  announced  that  the  Banstead  Downs  Plate  of 
£20  value  will  be  run  for  on  the  24th  inst.,  being 
St.  Bartholomew's  Day ;  and  the  information  is 
added  that  any  horse  may  run  for  the  said  plate 
that  shall  be  at  Carshalton  and  certain  other  places 
specified,  fourteen  days  before  the  Plate  Day.  Before 
many  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  passed 
by  Epsom  had  become  practically  the  capital  of 
the  racing  world,  but  the  famous  Derby  and  Oak 
Stakes  were  not  instituted  until  1779  and  1780. 
Both  were  founded  by  the  then  Earl  of  Derby,  and 
were  named,  the  former  after  him,  the  latter  after 
his  seat  at  Woodmansterne,  a  picturesque  little 
village  on  the  highest  point  of  the  Banstead  Downs. 
As  is  well  known,  the  May  meeting,  which  lasts 
from  the  Tuesday  to  the  Friday  before  Whitsun- 
tide, during  which  these  two  great  races  are  run, 
is  the  chief  event  of  the  racing  year,  and  Derby 
Day  is  looked  upon  as  a  national  festival,  even 
members  of  Parliament  taking  a  holiday  in  order 
to  be  present  at  the  great  event.  A  vast  concourse 
of  people  assembles  on  the  downs,  and  the  scenes 
witnessed  there  and  on  the  road  to  and  from 
Epsom,  that  have  been  again  and  again  eloquently 
described  in  poetry  and  prose,  are  without  a  parallel 
elsewhere.  Scarcely  less  popular  is  the  Oaks,  often 
called  the  Ladies'  Race,  when  only  filly-foals  are 
allowed  to  run,  and  the  fair  sex  is  always  much 
in  evidence  among  the  spectators,  but  the  excite- 


i;o    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

merit  is  generally  less  than  on  the  Derby  Day. 
The  grand-stand  of  Epsom,  the  finest  in  England, 
commands  a  magnificent  prospect,  extending  across 
the  beautiful  undulating  downs  beyond  Windsor 
Castle  on  one  side  and  London  on  the  other. 
There  are,  moreover,  many  other  fine  points  of  view 
from  the  higher  portions  of  the  common,  and  the 
town  itself,  though  deserted  by  all  but  its  compara- 
tively few  residents  except  in  race  week,  retains 
even  now  a  certain  picturesque  appearance,  with 
its  clock  tower  rising  up  in  the  main  street.  The 
once  much  frequented  assembly-rooms  are  now 
divided  up  into  shops,  and  of  the  ancient  church,  in 
which  the  aristocratic  drinkers  of  the  waters  used 
to  worship,  the  tower  alone  remains.  There  are, 
however,  several  well-preserved  eighteenth-century 
mansions  in  the  neighbourhood,  including  Wood- 
cote  House,  in  which  is  a  room  with  a  ceiling 
painted  by  Verrio,  and  Pitt  Place,  in  which 
Thomas,  the  second  Lord  Lyttelton,  died  sud- 
denly on  November  27,  1779,  at  the  very  time, 
it  is  popularly  believed,  predicted  by  the  ghost 
of  a  girl  he  had  wronged,  who  appeared  to  him 
as  he  was  going  to  rest  three  days  before  the 
end. 

The  village  of  Banstead,  that  gives  its  name  to 
the  famous  downs,  and  is  associated  with  the 
memory  of  Hubert  de  Burgh,  is  finely  situated  5  36  feet 
above  the  sea-level  and  commands  a  view  even  finer 
than  that  from  the  grand -stand  on  the  racecourse. 
Its  history  can  be  traced  back  to  Norman  times, 
but  it  retains  scarcely  any  relics  of  the  past,  its 


BANSTEAD  171 

ancient  church  having  been  almost  entirely  rebuilt 
and  most  of  its  old  houses  pulled  down.  It  is,  how- 
ever, in  touch  with  much  charming  scenery,  and 
from  it  may  be  reached  many  beautiful  hamlets 
still  far  beyond  the  furthermost  limits  of  outlying 
London. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

WANDSWORTH,  PUTNEY,  BARNES,  AND  OTHER 
SOUTHERN   SUBURBS 

A  CENTURY  ago  a  charming  little  hamlet, 
traversed  by  the  limpid  stream  of  the  Wandle, 
after  which  it  is  named,  and  surrounded  on  every 
side  by  breezy  undulating  commons,  the  thriving, 
bustling,  and,  in  its  poorer  quarters,  somewhat 
squalid  town  of  Wandsworth  has  now  little  that  is 
attractive  about  it  except  two  or  three  ancient  mills 
which,  with  the  tawny -sailed  barges,  generally 
grouped  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  that  here  joins  the 
Thames,  present  a  really  picturesque  appearance. 
There  is,  moreover,  something  dignified  about  the 
massive  eighteenth-century  church  of  All  Saints  in 
the  modern  High  Street,  and  it  contains  several  inter- 
esting monuments,  notably  one  to  Alderman  Smith, 
a  native  of  Wandsworth,  whose  memory,  though  he 
passed  away  as  long  ago  as  1627,  is  still  held  dear 
in  the  neighbourhood,  for  he  bequeathed  large  sums 
of  money  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  also  for 
giving  them  work,  proving  his  recognition  of  the 

importance  of  the  problem  of  the  unemployed,  which 
m 


WANDSWORTH  173 

public-spirited  philanthropists  had  evidently  much 
at  heart  even  at  that  early  date. 

Wandsworth  is  unfortunately  associated  with  but 
few  important  historic  memories,  but  towards  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  many  French  Protestants, 
who  had  fled  to  England  after  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew's  Eve,  took  refuge  in  it,  and  in  the 
Huguenots'  cemetery,  just  outside  the  town  on  the 
way  to  Clapham,  are  several  tombstones  marking 
their  burial-places.  Later,  the  exiled  Voltaire  was 
for  three  years  the  guest  at  Wandsworth,  in  a 
mansion  now  destroyed,  of  Sir  Everard  Fawkener ; 
and  the  famous  novelist,  George  Eliot,  lived  for 
some  time  in  a  house  in  Southfields,  still  dis- 
tinguished by  a  vine  growing  on  it  planted  by  her. 

In  1792  was  founded  in  the  neighbouring  hamlet 
of  Garratt,  now  absorbed  in  Wandsworth,  the  club 
for  checking  encroachments  on  the  common,  that  for 
several  years  enjoyed  some  little  fame  through  the 
addresses  of  the  candidates  for  election  having  been 
written  by  the  witty  dramatist,  Samuel  Foote,  who 
made  the  Mayor  of  Garratt  the  hero  of  a  popular 
comedy,  the  great  actor,  David  Garrick,  and  the 
versatile  patriot,  John  Wilkes.  Through  the  instru- 
mentality of  this  gifted  trio  a  purely  local  question 
was  turned  to  account  to  bring  forcibly  before  the 
public  the  abuses  that  attended  the  election  of 
members  of  Parliament,  but  unfortunately  the 
Garratt  ceremony  degenerated  by  degrees  into  an 
occasion  for  mob  meetings  characterised  by  riotous 
behaviour,  the  candidates  being  chosen,  not  on 
account  of  their  fitness  for  the  dignity  to  be  con- 


174    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

ferred  on  them,  but  for  some  accidental  reason,  such 
as  a  personal  deformity  or  a  caustic  wit.  The 
rowdy  scenes  that  took  place  at  these  mock  elections 
were  immortalised  in  a  series  of  clever  etchings  by 
the  celebrated  mezzotint  engraver,  Valentine  Green, 
and  the  names  of  Sir  John  Harper,  Sir  Jeffrey 
Dunstan,  and  Sir  Harry  Dunstable,  none  of  whom 
had  any  right  to  the  titles  they  assumed,  are  still 
remembered  as  '  mayors '  who  successively  held 
office.  In  1796  the  elections  were  suppressed,  and 
the  Garratt  Club  ceased  to  exist,  but  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  the  work  it  had  inaugurated  was 
completed  by  the  purchase  for  the  public  of  all  that 
was  still  left  of  the  once  vast  Wandsworth  Common. 
Though  it  has  grown  during  the  last  fifty  years 
as  rapidly  as  Wandsworth,  the  adjacent  suburb  of 
Putney,  thanks  to  its  fine  situation  on  the  main 
stream  of  the  Thames,  has  retained  a  distinction 
that  is  wanting  to  its  neighbour  on  the  Wandle. 
It  is,  moreover,  in  close  touch  with  much  beauti- 
ful scenery,  and  is  associated  with  the  names  of 
many  men  who  have  left  their  mark  in  history 
and  in  literature.  True,  the  ancient  church,  sup- 
posed to  have  been  founded  early  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  in  which,  according  to  tradition,  Cromwell 
and  his  generals  several  times  met  to  hold  council 
during  the  Civil  War,  was,  with  the  exception  of  the 
tower,  replaced  by  a  modern  building  in  1836  ;  many 
a  noble  riverside  mansion  has  been  pulled  down  ;  and 
the  quaint  old  wooden  bridge,  on  which  the  tolls 
were  long  levied  by  collectors  wearing  blue  cloth 
costumes  and  armed  with  copper-headed  staves 


PUTNEY  175 

was  improved  away  in  1886  when  the  present  solid 
structure  was  completed,  but  the  view  across  the 
river  to  Fulham,  and  up  and  down  stream,  remains 
full  of  charm.  The  grand  water  highway  that  has 
witnessed  so  many  historic  pageants  is  alive,  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  year,  with  a  great  variety 
of  picturesque  crafts,  and  the  towing-path  on  the 
Surrey  side  is  the  scene  of  constant  activity  in  the 
spring  and  summer,  for  Putney  is  still  the  head- 
quarters of  boating  men,  and  it  has  for  a  long  spell 
of  years  been  the  starting-point  of  the  world-famous 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  boat-race  witnessed  by 
thousands  of  spectators,  whilst  in  1906  took  place, 
over  the  same  course,  the  contest  between  the  Cam- 
bridge and  Harvard  crews  that  excited,  if  possible, 
an  even  greater  amount  of  interest. 

At  a  very  early  date  Putney  was  included  in  the 
manor  of  Wimbledon,  and  is  referred  to  in  the 
Doomsday  Survey  as  Putenhei,  a  name  supposed  to 
mean  the  landing-place,  that  was  changed  to  Put- 
tenheth  before  it  was  contracted  into  its  present 
form.  A  local  tradition,  however,  explains  the  word 
Putney  in  another  and  somewhat  amusing  fashion. 
The  original  parish  churches  of  Fulham  and  Putney, 
that  greatly  resembled  each  other,  were,  it  is  related, 
built  with  their  own  hands  by  two  sisters  who  had 
but  one  set  of  tools  between  them.  They  therefore 
took  it  in  turns  to  use  them,  flinging  them  across  the 
river  to  each  other,  the  Fulham  builder  crying  out, 
for  instance,  when  she  wanted  the  hammer,  to  heave 
it  full  home,  the  Putney  one,  when  her  turn  came, 
shouting — 'Put  it  nigh.  Whatever  explanation  of 


176    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

its  name  be  adopted  it  seems  certain  that  even 
before  the  Conquest  the  hamlet  of  Putenhei  was  a 
place  of  some  little  importance,  for  the  last  of  the 
Saxon  kings  had  a  fishery  there,  and  also  owned  the 
ferry  that  existed  long  before  the  erection  of  the 
wooden  bridge  alluded  to  above,  and  was  valued  at 
2os.  a  year.  Harold's  immediate  successor  as  holder 
of  the  property  was  Archbishop  Lanfranc  of  Canter- 
bury, who  paid  no  toll  for  crossing  the  river,  but 
later  it  became  customary  for  the  lord  of  the  manor 
to  exact  the  payment  of  several  salmon  from  the 
lessee  of  the  fishery  for  the  right  of  landing  the  spoil 
of  the  river  on  the  Putney  side,  and  up  to  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century  the  three  best  salmon 
in  every  haul  taken  in  March,  April,  and  May  were 
delivered  at  the  manor-house  of  Wimbledon.  About 
1786,  however,  a  money  payment  was  substituted 
for  value  in  kind,  the  amount  varying  from  six  to 
eight  pounds  per  season  until  1786,  when  for  some 
unexplained  reason,  probably  because  of  the  decrease 
in  the  amount  of  fish  taken,  the  landlord  waived  his 
right  to  tolls  of  any  kind.  For  another  thirty  years, 
however,  it  was  compulsory  to  present  to  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  London  all  sturgeons  or  porpoises  caught, 
the  fishermen  receiving  one  guinea  for  each  of  the 
former  and  thirteen  shillings  for  each  of  the  latter. 

The  Putenhei  ferry  continued  to  yield  what  was 
then  considered  a  considerable  revenue  for  many 
centuries,  and  a  fine  of  2s.  6d.  was  inflicted  on  any 
waterman  who  failed  to  exact  a  halfpenny  from 
every  stranger  and  a  farthing  from  every  inhabitant 
of  Putney  who  availed  himself  of  his  services.  In 


PUTNEY  177 

161 1  two  delinquents,  one  hailing  from  Fulham,  the 
other  from  Kingston,  were  summoned  for  carrying 
across  divers  persons  at  and  near  Kingston  and 
Putney  against  the  custom,  and  to  the  annoyance 
and  prejudice  of  the  owners  of  the  common  ferry, 
'and  having  pleaded  guilty  and  expressed  contri- 
tion, they  were,  very  much  to  their  own  surprise,  let 
off  with  a  reprimand.' 

In  1727  the  last  owners  of  the  ferry,  Dr.  Pethward 
and  William  Skelton,  sold  their  rights  to  the  cus- 
todians of  the  new  bridge  for  £7999,  IQS.  I  id.,  the 
latter  giving  a  further  sum  to  the  lady  of  the  manor, 
the  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  for  her  share  in  the 
property,  and  £2  3  to  the  then  Bishop  of  London,  who, 
in  virtue  of  his  office,  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  free 
passage  of  the  river.  Long  before  the  eighteenth 
century,  however,  the  need  of  some  safer  mode  of 
transit  was  felt,  for  as  traffic  increased  many  acci- 
dents took  place,  through  the  upsetting  of  the  ferry 
barges,  collisions,  etc.  About  1629,  for  instance, 
Bishop  Laud,  lately  appointed  to  the  see  of  London, 
was  nearly  drowned  with  his  whole  suite  when  on 
his  way  one  dark  evening  from  Putney  to  his  palace 
at  Fulham,  and  for  this  reason  he  strongly  advocated 
the  building  of  a  bridge,  but  more  pressing  affairs 
prevented  him  from  taking  any  definite  steps  in 
the  matter.  When  in  1642  the  twin  villages  of 
Putney  and  Fulham  were  for  the  first  time  united 
by  the  temporary  bridge  of  boats  thrown  across  the 
river,  after  the  battle  of  Brentford,  by  the  Earl  of 
Essex,  Laud  had  left  his  palace  at  Fulham  for  the 
last  time,  for  he  was  in  the  Tower  awaiting  the 
H 


i;8    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

issue  of  his  protracted  trial.  One  of  the  forts  that 
protected  the  linked  lighters  and  barges,  by  means  of 
which  the  defeated  Parliamentary  army  passed  over 
from  Middlesex  to  Surrey,  eager  to  retrieve  the  disas- 
ter at  Brentford,  is  still  standing,  about  five  hundred 
yards  below  the  present  bridge,  but  the  connection 
between  the  two  banks  was  of  course  destroyed 
as  soon  as  it  had  served  its  purpose,  and  it  was  not 
until  1871  that  a  bill  was  brought  before  Parliament 
for  building  a  bridge  to  replace  the  ancient  Putenhei 
ferry.  It  was,  however,  rejected  by  thirteen  votes, 
and  the  reasons  given  for  their  opposition  by  the 
dissentients  throw  a  singular  light  on  the  ignorance 
and  prejudice  of  men  sufficiently  well  educated  to 
have  secured  election  to  the  national  assembly. 
The  member  for  London,  for  instance,  declared  that 
'  a  bridge  so  far  up  stream  would  not  only  injure  and 
jeopardise  the  great  and  important  city  he  had  the 
honour  to  represent,  and  destroy  its  commerce,  but 
would  actually  annihilate  it  altogether,'  adding  '  not 
even  common  wherries  would  be  able  to  pass  the 
river  at  low  water,  and  would  not  only  affect  the 
interests  of  his  majesty's  government,  but  those  of 
the  nation  at  large.'  This  remarkable  opinion  was 
endorsed  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  who  be- 
lieved '  that  the  piles  of  a  bridge  would  stop  the  tide 
altogether,'  and  by  Sir  William  Thompson,  a  truly 
typical  Conservative,  who  went  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  if  '  the  bridge  were  built  quicksands  and  shelves 
would  be  created  through  the  whole  course  of  the 
river  .  .  .  and  not  a  ship  would  be  able  to  get 
nearer  London  than  Woolwich.  The  limits  of 


PUTNEY  179 

London,'  he  added, '  were  set  by  the  wisdom  of  our 
ancestors,  and  God  forbid  they  should  ever  be 
altered.'  This  remarkable  speech  was  delivered  at 
a  time  when  the  rebuilding  of  the  metropolis,  after 
the  Great  Fire,  was  actively  proceeding,  and  the  most 
casual  observer  could  not  fail  to  realise  how  utterly 
inadequate  to  avert  a  catastrophe  had  been  the 
wisdom  of  those  who  had  set  limits  respected  neither 
by  the  powers  of  nature  nor  by  man.  The  city  was 
indeed  at  that  very  time  in  the  throes  of  a  new 
birth ;  its  old  boundaries  had  been  swept  away,  and 
out  of  the  ashes  of  the  picturesque  but  plague- 
haunted  town  of  the  past  was  rising  up  a  new 
capital  that  was  ere  long  to  send  forth  outshoots  in 
every  direction,  and  eventually  to  absorb  not  only 
reluctant  Putney,  but  many  hamlets  and  villages 
even  further  afield  than  it. 

Another  fifty  years  were  to  pass  away  before 
the  bridge  between  Putney  and  Fulham  was 
actually  built,  and  according  to  tradition  it  was 
George  II.,  when  Prince  of  Wales,  who  brought 
about  what  was  then  considered  an  extraordinary 
innovation,  impelled  thereto  by  the  inconvenience 
to  which  he  was  put  when  hunting  in  the  Surrey 
forests,  an  incidental  illustration  of  the  great  change 
that  has  taken  place  since  the  sites  of  Putney, 
Wimbledon,  Barnes,  and  Richmond  were  the  haunts 
of  wild  animals  that  used  to  go  down  to  the  river 
to  drink,  and  if  sorely  pressed  in  the  chase,  were 
able  to  swim  over  to  the  further  side.  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  father  of  the  more  celebrated  Horace, 
was  entrusted  with  the  onerous  task  of  carrying 


i8o    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

a  bill  through  Parliament  authorising  the  con- 
struction of  the  bridge,  which  was  begun  in  1727 
and  completed  in  1729.  It  very  quickly  justified 
the  predictions  of  its  promoters,  for  in  1731  the 
revenue  yielded  by  the  tolls  amounted  to  ^1500 
a  year,  a  sum  that  was  nearly  doubled  by  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  tolls  were 
not  remitted  until  1880,  by  which  time  the  bridge 
was  already  in  so  lamentable  a  state  of  decay  that 
it  had  to  be  pulled  down.  It  was  replaced  by 
the  present  structure,  which,  though  it  cannot 
be  called  a  work  of  art,  has  nothing  unsightly 
about  it,  a  commendation  that  cannot,  unfor- 
tunately, be  extended  to  the  aqueduct  of  the 
Chelsea  Waterworks  that  spans  the  stream  a  little 
higher  up,  and  has  done  more  to  spoil  the  picturesque 
appearance  of  Fulham  and  Putney  than  anything 
else. 

Connected  with  the  parish  church  of  Putney, 
which,  as  already  stated,  was  rebuilt  in  1836,  is 
a  gem  of  early  sixteenth-century  architecture,  a 
little  chapel  with  a  beautiful  fan  tracery  roof,  built 
by  Bishop  West  of  Ely,  who  was  the  son  of  a  baker 
of  Putney,  and  greatly  loved  his  native  place.  The 
chapel  originally  stood  on  the  south  of  the  chancel, 
but  when  the  restoration  of  the  main  building  took 
place  it  was  carefully  removed  to  its  present 
position,  and  is  still  practically  what  it  was  when 
first  completed,  though  the  ancient  window-frames 
have  been  filled  in  with  modern  stained  glass. 
Unfortunately,  some  of  the  quaint  monuments  that 
were  in  the  old  church  have  been  destroyed,  but  its 


PUTNEY  181 

successor  still  retains  some  interesting  tombs  with 
characteristic  laudatory  inscriptions,  including  those 
of  Richard  Lister,  some  time  Lord  Mayor  of  London, 
and  his  wife  Margaret  Diggs,  and  of  Philadelphia 
Palmer,  whilst  in  the  Bishop's  Chapel  is  a  note- 
worthy brass  to  the  memory  of  John  Welbeck  and 
his  wife. 

Less  than  a  century  ago  Putney  still  owned  many 
an  historic  mansion  standing  in  its  own  grounds, 
including  the  so-called  Palace,  Fairfax  House, 
Essex  House,  Windsor  Lodge,  and  Putney  House, 
but  they  have  all,  alas,  been  demolished,  as  has  also 
the  no  less  interesting  gabled  cottage  by  the  river- 
side in  which  Henry  vill.'s  hated  minister  Thomas 
Cromwell  was  born,  and  the  more  important  Lime 
Grove  House,  standing  well  back  from  the  village  on 
the  road  to  Wimbledon,  in  which  the  great  historian 
Edward  Gibbon  first  saw  the  light.  Fortunately, 
however,  their  sites  can  still  be  identified,  and  are 
even  now,  to  some  extent,  haunted  by  the  memory 
of  the  great  names  associated  with  them.  The 
palace,  built  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  now  represented  by  River  Street  and  River 
Terrace,  was  a  place  of  no  little  note,  and  was 
connected  with  the  one  occupied  by  the  Bishop  of 
London  by  a  subterranean  passage.  Long  the  seat 
of  the  Waldeck  family,  the  palace  was  owned  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  by  Mr.  John  Lacy,  a  wealthy 
cloth-merchant,  who  several  times  entertained  the 
maiden  queen  in  it.  Her  first  visit  took  place  in 
1579,  and  her  last  in  1603,  when  she  was  on  her 
way  to  her  beloved  palace  at  Richmond,  where  she 


i82    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

died  two  months  later.  To  the  Putney  Palace  came 
also  her  successor  James  I,,  just  before  his  corona- 
tion, and  thirty-nine  years  later  it  was  for  a  time  the 
headquarters  of  one  of  his  son's  most  bitter  enemies, 
General  Lord  Fairfax,  who  had  succeeded  the  Earl 
of  Essex  in  command  of  the  Parliamentary  army 
that  was  encamped  at  Putney  during  the  three 
months  of  1647  when  Charles  I.  was  a  prisoner  at 
Hampton  Court.  The  mansion  was  then  the  pro- 
perty of  the  High  Sheriff,  Mr.  Wymonsold,  and  after 
the  Restoration  it  changed  hands  many  times. 
Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  property  was 
thrown  into  Chancery,  and  sold  to  a  gentleman 
whose  name,  fortunately  perhaps  for  his  memory, 
has  not  been  preserved,  for  he  showed  no  appreci- 
ation for  the  associations  connected  with  the 
beautiful  old  house,  but  had  it  pulled  down  to  make 
room  for  totally  uninteresting  buildings.  The  only 
still  existing  relics  of  the  palace  are  the  iron 
entrance-gates,  that  were  often  flung  open  to  admit 
Queen  Elizabeth  and  her  retinue,  which  were  bought 
by  a  brush  manufacturer  of  Putney,  by  whose 
descendants  they  are  prized  as  heirlooms. 

Fairfax  House,  named,  not  as  is  generally  taken 
for  granted,  after  the  Parliamentarian  leader,  but  a 
private  gentleman,  was  until  quite  recently  one  of 
the  most  noteworthy  features  of  the  High  Street, 
and  the  lawn  overshadowed  by  trees,  said  to  have 
been  planted  by  Bishop  Juxon  in  the  happy  days 
before  his  royal  master's  troubles  began,  is  still  in 
existence.  Essex  House,  that  stood  not  far  from 
Fairfax  House,  is  generally  supposed  to  have  been 


PUTNEY  183 

built  by  Queen  Elizabeth's  ill-fated  favourite,  and  he 
may  probably  have  been  living  in  it  when  his  royal 
mistress  was  the  guest  of  Mr.  Lacy  at  Putney 
Palace.  It,  too,  was  destroyed  in  the  iconoclastic 
nineteenth  century,  but  in  a  humble  shop  occupying 
part  of  its  site  is  preserved  a  very  significant  relic 
of  it — a  ceiling  bearing  the  coat  of  arms  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  set  in  a  circlet  representing  the  Prince  of 
Wales's  feathers  and  the  Harp  of  Ireland,  and  with 
the  initials  of  Essex  and  the  queen  worked  into  a 
true-lovers'  knot. 

Of  Windsor  Lodge,  once,  it  is  said,  part  of  a 
convent,  some  remains  were  dug  up  a  short  time  ago 
proving  it  to  have  been  a  fine  building  in  the  Gothic 
style ;  but  of  Putney  House,  in  which  George  III.  was 
often  entertained  by  its  owner,  Mr.  Gerard  Van 
Neck,  the  memory  alone  survives,  for  after  serving 
from  1839  to  1857  as  a  college  for  civil  engineers, 
it  was  pulled  down  and  is  now  replaced  by  a  row 
of  commonplace  villas. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  exactly  where  the 
cottage  stood  in  which  Thomas  Cromwell  was  born, 
but  it  is  well  known  that  his  father,  who  held  a  good 
position  in  Putney  as  a  blacksmith,  brewer,  wool- 
merchant,  and  inn-keeper,  owned  a  considerable 
amount  of  property  under  the  lord  of  the  manor  of 
Wimbledon.  Part  of  his  land  was  by  the  Thames, 
and  was  known  as  the  '  Homestall,'  the  probability 
being  that  the  homestead  in  which  the  family  lived, 
the  brewery,  and  hostelry  were  three  separate  build- 
ings grouped  together  not  far  from  the  parish 
church.  In  any  case,  the  young  Thomas  must  have 


1 84    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

been  very  familiar  with  riverside  Putney  ;  he  often 
helped  to  load  his  father's  barges  with  wool,  to  be 
taken  down  to  the  ships  awaiting  them  below  London 
Bridge,  and  he  attended  a  day-school  close  to  his 
home.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  apprenticed 
to  his  uncle  John  Williams,  who  was  then  overseer 
of  Wimbledon  Manor  and  lived  in  a  homestead 
at  Mortlake,  on  the  site  of  which  is  a  house 
still  named  after  him.  On  the  death  of  his  master 
in  1502,  Thomas  Cromwell  collected  the  Wimbledon 
rents  till  the  appointment  was  given  to  his  father, 
under  whom  he  worked  until  1504,  when  he  fell  into 
disgrace  and  ran  away  from  home.  What  his  crime 
was  is  not  known,  but  his  father  never  forgave  him, 
and  for  many  years  his  native  place  knew  him  no 
more.  Walter  Cromwell,  too,  seems  to  have  lost  the 
good  position  he  had  long  held  in  Putney,  and  he 
would  have  died  in  absolute  want  but  for  the  gener- 
osity of  his  son-in-law  Morgan  Williams,  who  gave 
him  a  little  cottage  on  Wimbledon  Green,  near  to  his 
own  brewery  and  inn,  called  the  Crooked  Billet,  the 
site  of  which  is  now  occupied  by  a  group  of  small 
houses.  In  this  cottage  the  elder  Cromwell  died  in 
1516,  without  having  seen  his  son  again.  By  this 
time,  however,  Thomas  had  returned  to  England 
and  was  already  in  the  service  of  Wolsey,  the 
Crooked  Billet  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  his 
sister  and  her  husband,  and  all  connection  between 
him  and  the  neighbourhood  seemed  to  be  finally 
severed.  Strange  to  say,  however,  some  twenty- 
three  years  later  he  became  lord  of  the  manor  of  the 
very  estate  on  which  he  was  born,  and  owner  of  the 


PUTNEY  185 

princely  income  it  yielded  which  he  had  himself  once 
helped  to  collect  for  another.  No  doubt  he  had  some- 
times in  the  interval  landed  at  the  steps  near  his  old 
home  when  in  attendance  as  secretary  on  Cardinal 
Wolsey,  who  often  halted  at  Putney  on  his  way  up  the 
river  to  Richmond  or  Hampton  Court  before  the  mem- 
orable occasion  in  1529 — ten  years  before  \\\s  protegS 
became  lord  of  the  manor  of  Wimbledon,  when  in 
his  sad  journey  to  Esher  after  the  Great  Seal  had 
been  taken  from  him,  he  eluded  the  malice  of  his 
enemies  by  going  by  land,  attended  only  by  two  or 
three  faithful  servants,  riding  up  the  then  gorse  and 
heather-clad  Putney  Hill  towards  the  heath,  which 
he  intended  to  cross  in  a  westerly  direction.  The 
story  goes  that  the  disgraced  favourite  was  stopped 
before  he  reached  the  summit  of  the  ascent  by  a 
messenger  from  the  king,  no  less  a  personage  than 
the  Lord  Chamberlain,  Sir  John  Norris,  who  gave 
him  a  ring  in  token  that  he  was  once  more  for- 
given. In  his  gratitude  and  surprise  he  is  said  to 
have  hurriedly  dismounted,  to  fall  on  his  knees  in  the 
road,  and  give  earnest  thanks  to  God  for  this  unex- 
pected mercy.  Sir  John  followed  his  example,  their 
escorts  looking  on  in  amazement ;  and  when  the 
two  great  men  rose  up  again,  a  deeply  interesting 
conversation  took  place  between  them,  Wolsey 
declaring  that  the  tidings  were  worth  half  a  king- 
dom, and  bitterly  regretting  that  he  had  nothing  to 
send  to  his  master  to  prove  his  deep  appreciation  of 
his  goodness,  adding,  on  second  thoughts,  '  but  here 
is  my  fool  that  rides  beside  me,  take  him,  I  beseech 
thee,  to  court,  and  give  him  to  his  majesty ;  I 


1 86    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

assure  you  he  is  worth  a  thousand  pounds  for  any 
nobleman's  pleasure.' 

If  there  be  any  truth  in  this  graphic  tale,  it  must 
have  been  with  a  light  heart  that  the  cardinal  pro- 
ceeded on  his  way  ;  but,  as  is  well  known,  the  end 
was  already  close  at  hand:  he  was  shortly  after- 
wards charged  with  high  treason,  and  died  of  a 
broken  heart  at  Leicester  Abbey  on  his  way  to 
London  to  stand  his  trial.  Never  again  did  he  use 
the  long  familiar  landing-stage  at  Putney,  or  make 
a  stately  progress  up  the  river  to  his  palace  at 
Hampton  Court.  As  the  star  of  Wolsey  set,  how- 
ever, another  man,  whose  name  is  also  closely 
associated  with  Putney,  rose  into  prominence,  for 
Edmund  Bonner,  who  owed  much  to  him,  and  lived 
in  a  house  now  destroyed  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  had 
by  that  time  won  the  king's  confidence,  and  in  1540 
was  rewarded  for  his  tactful  zeal  by  being  made 
Bishop  of  London.  His  end,  though  not  quite  so 
dramatic  as  that  of  his  first  patron,  but  for  whom  he 
would  probably  have  remained  an  obscure  lawyer  all 
his  life,  was  sad  enough,  for  he  died  in  poverty  and 
disgrace  in  the  Marshalsea  Prison,  after  his  Putney 
home  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  strangers. 

Fortunately,  in  spite  of  all  the  encroachments  of 
the  builder  in  and  near  the  once  secluded  hamlet  of 
Putney,  the  heath,  named  after  it,  that  is  divided 
only  by  a  road  from  the  scarcely  less  beautiful 
Wimbledon  Common,  and  extends  on  the  other  side 
to  the  charming  park  of  Richmond,  has  been  per- 
manently secured  to  the  public,  and  will  probably 
ever  remain  one  of  the  most  popular  of  the  open-air 


PUTNEY  HEATH  187 

resorts  near  London.  Its  loftier  portions  command 
extensive  views,  and  although  until  quite  recently  it 
had  a  somewhat  sinister  reputation  as  a  favourite 
haunt  of  highwaymen,  it  is  also  associated  with 
many  interesting  historic  memories.  On  it,  for 
instance,  in  1648,  when  the  doom  of  Charles  I.  was 
already  practically  sealed,  the  people  of  Surrey  met 
to  draw  up  a  petition  for  the  re-establishment  of 
Episcopacy,  and  there  soon  after  the  Restoration 
Charles  II.  held  a  grand  review  of  his  army.  In 
1652  a  duel  took  place  on  the  heath  between  Lord 
Chandos  and  Colonel  Henry  Compton,  in  which  the 
latter  was  killed;  in  1798  William  Pitt,  then  Prime 
Minister,  met  William  Tierney,  M.P.  for  Southwark, 
one  of  his  most  determined  political  opponents,  and 
rendered  the  encounter  abortive  by  firing  in  the 
air;  and  in  1809  occurred  the  meeting  between 
the  two  great  statesmen,  George  Canning  and  Lord 
Castlereagh,  the  result  of  a  temporary  estrangement 
only,  in  which  the  former  was  slightly  wounded  in 
the  thigh,  whilst  the  future  Foreign  Secretary,  who 
was  to  do  so  much  to  promote  the  coalition  against 
Napoleon,  escaped  unhurt.  It  is  unfortunately 
impossible  to  identify  exactly  the  scenes  of  these 
various  duels,  but  the  last  is  known  to  have  occurred 
on  what  is  now  the  garden  of  the  private  residence, 
Wildcroft,  near  an  obelisk  that  was  set  up  a  century 
after  the  breaking  out  of  the  Great  Fire  of  London 
to  commemorate  the  discovery  by  David  Hartley  of 
a  means  for  rendering  buildings  fireproof. 

On   the   outskirts   of  Putney    Heath  are  several 
houses  that  have  been  at  one  time  or  another  occu- 


188    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

pied  by  persons  of  note,  of  which  the  most  interesting 
is  perhaps  that  in  which  William  Pitt  lived  for  some 
years  and  died.  It  occupies  the  site  and  retains  the 
name  of  Bowling-Green  House,  a  noted  place  of 
entertainment  to  which  the  fashionable  world  of 
London  used  to  flock  in  the  early  eighteenth  century 
to  meet  their  friends  at  breakfast  or  at  supper,  and 
to  take  part  in  or  watch  the  bowling  matches  that 
took  place  on  the  fine  green  belonging  to  the  inn 
that  is  constantly  referred  to  in  the  contemporary 
press,  and  was  long  considered  the  finest  in  England. 
The  ancient  hostelry  was  pulled  down  about  1760 
and  replaced  a  little  later  by  the  present  Bowling- 
Green  House,  that  was  occupied  for  some  little  time 
by  Admiral  Cornwallis  before  the  more  famous 
William  Pitt  took  possession  of  it,  hoping  to  find  in 
its  quiet  seclusion  exemption  from  the  many  cares 
that  harassed  the  closing  years  of  his  brief  but 
chequered  career.  Already,  before  he  took  up  his 
abode  in  his  new  home,  the  storm  had  broken  that 
led  to  his  resignation  in  1801,  and  even  after  his  return 
to  office  in  1804  nothing  but  disappointment,  aggra- 
vated by  physical  suffering,  awaited  him.  The  dis- 
grace of  his  trusted  friend  Lord  Melville,  who  was 
often  his  guest  at  Putney,  and  with  whom  he  there 
discussed,  after  the  death  of  Nelson,  the  difficult 
question  of  what  should  be  done  for  Lady  Hamilton, 
was  a  bitter  blow  to  him,  and  even  the  victory  of 
Trafalgar  failed  to  restore  to  him  confidence  in  the 
future  of  the  country  he  had  loved  and  served  so 
well.  To  the  very  last,  however,  Pitt  retained  an 
outward  cheerfulness,  and  many  anecdotes  are  told 


BOWLING-GREEN  HOUSE  189 

of  the  interviews  that  took  place  between  him  and 
his  distinguished  visitors  in  Bowling-Green  House. 
Lord  Brougham,  for  instance,  relates  how  he  and 
Lord  Wellesley,  the  latter  fresh  from  his  triumphs 
in  India,  went  together  early  in  January  1806  to  see 
the  great  peace  minister,  who  though  he  was  to  pass 
away  but  a  few  days  later,  welcomed  them  gaily, 
declaring  he  would  soon  be  well  again,  and  showing 
the  greatest  interest  in  all  the  news  they  brought 
him.  Strange  to  say,  in  spite  of  the  devoted  attach- 
ment of  many  friends,  and  the  deep  love  of  his 
gifted  niece  Lady  Hester  Stanhope,  who  lived  with 
him  for  three  years  at  Putney,  Pitt  is  said  to  have 
died  absolutely  alone.  The  story  has  again  and 
again  been  repeated  that  a  messenger  who  called  to 
inquire  for  him  on  the  day  of  his  death,  after  waiting 
a  long  time  at  the  door,  which  stood  open,  went  into 
Bowling-Green  House  unannounced,  and  found  his 
way  to  the  minister's  bedroom,  where  the  man  who, 
a  short  time  before,  had  been  so  popular,  lay  dead, 
unwatched  by  a  single  attendant.  Whatever  truth 
there  may  be  in  this  report,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Pitt  was  deeply  mourned  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  England  ;  a  public  funeral,  and  a  grave  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  were  voted  for  him  by  an 
immense  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
his  memory  was  long  held  dear  in  the  neighbourhood 
in  which  he  breathed  his  last.  Lady  Hester  Stan- 
hope is  said  never  to  have  fully  recovered  from  his 
loss ;  she  indignantly  refused  the  increase  in  the 
annuity  granted  to  her  by  the  king  because  that 
increase  was  suggested  by  Fox,  her  beloved  uncle's 


THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

political  opponent,  and  a  few  years  after  Pitt's 
death  she  left  England,  to  which  she  never  returned, 
to  embark  on  her  extraordinary  career  in  the 
East. 

Not  far  from  Bowling-Green  House  is  a  villa  in 
which  Mrs.  Siddons  and  her  daughters  lived  for  two 
years ;  on  the  hill  is  a  house  in  which  Pitt  resided 
before  his  removal  to  his  last  home  ;  in  another  the 
portrait-painter,  Henry  Fuseli,  died  in  1825  ;  in 
West  Lodge,  facing  the  common,  some  of  Douglas 
Jerrold's  essays  were  written  ;  and  in  the  Pines  still 
lives  the  famous  poet  Algernon  Charles  Swinburne. 
The  neighbouring  hamlet  of  Roehampton,  too,  has 
many  interesting  associations,  for  before  the  beautiful 
park  that  belonged  to  the  manor  was  sold  for  build- 
ing, there  were  many  fine  old  mansions  in  it  that 
were  the  homes  of  distinguished  men.  The  estate 
was  long  the  property  of  the  Crown,  but  it  was  given 
by  Charles  I.  to  Sir  Richard  Weston,  who  added  to 
the  manor-house  a  chapel  (the  site  of  which  is  occu- 
pied by  the  present  church)  that  was  consecrated 
by  Bishop  Laud  in  1632.  Three  years  later  the  new 
owner,  who  had  then  become  Earl  of  Portland,  added 
many  acres  to  his  property,  but  his  son  and  successor 
was  compelled,  in  consequence  of  his  losses  during 
the  Civil  War,  to  sell  his  noble  inheritance.  It  was 
bought  in  1640  by  Sir  Thomas  Lloyd,  from  whom 
it  passed  to  the  famous  beauty,  Christina,  Duchess 
of  Devonshire,  who  kept  up  a  cipher  correspondence 
with  Charles  II.  during  his  exile.  After  the  Restora- 
tion, Roehampton  Park  House  was  the  scene  of 
many  a  brilliant  gathering,  the  king  and  queen 


BARNES  191 

having  often  been  the  guests  of  the  duchess,  but  its 
memories  did  not  save  it  from  being  again  sold  in 
1698,  and  after  changing  hands  several  times  it 
became  the  property  of  Lord  Huntingfield,  who 
pulled  it  down  to  replace  it  by  a  still  standing 
villa  known  as  Roehampton  Grove.  On  part  of 
the  park  was  erected  the  Convent  of  the  Sacred 
Heart,  and  the  remainder  was  divided  amongst 
different  purchasers,  but  some  few  fine  old  mansions 
still  remain  to  bear  witness  to  the  time  when  Roe- 
hampton was  an  aristocratic  suburb,  including  the 
seat  of  the  Earl  of  Leven  and  Melville,  and  Manresa 
House,  now  a  Jesuit  College,  that  was  built 
for  the  Earl  of  Bessborough,  and  long  bore  his 
name. 

Another  village  in  intimate  touch  with  Putney  is 
Barnes,  that  some  fifty  years  ago  was  a  pretty  riverside 
hamlet,  but  is  now  rapidly  growing  into  a  densely 
populated  suburb,  the  pond  on  the  green  fed  by  the 
Beverley  Brook,  and  the  still  unenclosed  common 
alone  preserving  to  it  something  of  its  rural  character. 
The  ancient  church  has  been  so  often  restored  that, 
with  the  exception  of  the  fifteenth-century  tower,  it 
retains  little  of  the  original  structure,  and  most  of 
the  ancestral  homesteads,  that  were  once  a  distinctive 
feature  of  the  neighbourhood,  have  been  pulled  down. 
Within  the  church,  however,  are  preserved  a  few 
interesting  memorials  of  the  long  ago,  such  as  a 
brass  in  memory  of  William  Millebourne,  who  died  in 
1415,  and  a  tablet  bearing  an  inscription  to  Edward 
Rose  of  London,  who  just  before  his  death,  in  1653, 
bequeathed  £20  for  the  purchase  of  an  acre  of  land, 


IQ2    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  proceeds  of  the  cultivation  of  which  were  to  be 
given  to  the  poor  of  Barnes  after  the  deduction  of 
enough  to  keep  his  own  tomb  in  repair,  for  the 
planting  of  more  trees  about  his  grave,  and  the  pre- 
servation from  injury  by  the  erection  of  a  wooden 
paling,  instructions  that  were  literally  obeyed  for  a 
long  spell  of  years.  The  eighteenth-century  mural 
monument  to  Sir  Richard  Hoare  is  also  noteworthy, 
and  in  the  churchyard,  which  with  its  venerable 
trees  has  an  old-world  appearance,  are  several  ancient 
tombs  with  quaint  inscriptions,  besides  the  one  in 
which  rests  Richard  Rose. 

The  history  of  Barnes  can  be  traced  back  to  Saxon 
times,  its  manor  having  been  given  by  King  Athel- 
stan  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  St.  Paul's,  who 
have  held  it  ever  since,  though  it  has  been  leased 
to  many  different  tenants.  The  village  is  probably 
named  after  some  early  occupant  of  the  ancient 
homestead  that  occupied  the  site  of  the  modern 
mansion  known  as  Barn  Elms,  now  the  headquarters 
of  the  popular  Ranelagh  Club,  that  with  a  smaller 
house  connected  with  it  stands  in  well-cultivated 
grounds  sloping  down  to  the  river.  In  the  prede- 
cessor of  the  present  Barn  Elms  Sir  Francis 
Walsingham,  who  rented  it  on  a  long  lease  from 
1579,  often  received  his  exacting  mistress  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  there  possibly  he  may  have  submitted 
to  her  some  of  the  correspondence  between  the 
Queen  of  Scots  and  her  adherents  that  had  been 
intercepted  by  his  spies.  Elizabeth  was  at  Barn 
Elms  in  1588,  the  year  after  Mary's  execution,  when 
Walsingham  had  already  retired  from  office,  and 


BARN  ELMS  193 

was  a  comparatively  poor  man,  but  in  spite  of  this 
the  queen  was  attended  by  her  whole  court,  who 
were  entertained  at  her  host's  expense.  In  fact,  as 
was  the  case  with  many  other  favourites,  the  sove- 
reign's partiality  nearly  ruined  the  ex-minister,  who 
when  he  died  in  1590  left  his  widow  scarcely  enough 
money  to  keep  up  Barn  Elms.  She  was,  however, 
able  to  leave  the  lease  to  her  daughter,  one  of  the 
famous  beauties  of  the  day,  who  was  three  times 
married,  first  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  then  to  the 
Earl  of  Essex,  and  lastly  to  the  Earl  of  Clanricarde. 
As  Countess  of  Essex  she  resided  for  some  time  in 
her  old  home,  but  the  house  was  deserted  after  her 
third  wedding,  and  there  is  a  gap  in  its  history  till 
1663,  when  it  or  the  smaller  house  connected  with 
it  was  occupied  by  the  then  popular  poet  Samuel 
Cowley,  who  was  there  visited,  it  is  said,  by  Milton 
and  other  contemporary  literary  celebrities.  John 
Evelyn,  and  later  Samuel  Pepys,  had  both  a  great 
affection  for  Barn  Elms,  but  the  latter  took  a  dislike 
to  it  after  the  tragedy  that  occurred  in  its  grounds 
in  1678,  when  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  was  mortally 
wounded  in  a  duel  with  Charles  ll.'s  infamous 
favourite  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham. 
The  wife  of  the  former  had  left  him  to  become  the 
mistress  of  the  latter,  and  the  story  goes  that  she 
was  present  at  the  encounter  disguised  as  a  page 
holding  her  lover's  horse. 

During  the  reign  of  George  II.  Barn  Elms  was  the 
scene  of  many  a  merry  entertainment,  in  which  the 
great  musician  Handel  sometimes  took  part,  for  it 
was  tenanted  by  the  famous  Master  of  Revels  at  the 

N 


194    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

English  court,  Count  Heidegger,  who  was  noted 
for  his  skill  in  improvising  startling  effects.  He 
was  succeeded  on  his  death  by  the  wealthy  banker 
Sir  Richard  Hoare,  and  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century  it  was  the  home  of  the  editor  of  the 
Weekly  Political  Register,  William  Cobbett,  who 
was  aptly  called  the  Ishmael  of  politics,  for  his 
hand  was  often  against  every  other  member  of  his 
own  party.  Somewhat  later  Barn  Elms  was 
rented  by  Sir  Lancelot  Shadwell,  Vice-Chancellor 
of  England,  who  was  a  noted  swimmer  and  keenly 
interested  in  river  sports.  At  his  hospitable  table 
were  several  times  entertained  the  crews  of 
the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  boats  on  the  even- 
ings of  the  annual  race,  that  was  rowed  for  the 
first  time  from  Putney  to  Mortlake  in  1848,  the 
earlier  contests  having  taken  place  on  another 
course. 

The  historic  Barn  Elms  house  has  long  since 
ceased  to  be,  but  the  smaller  residence  attached  to 
it,  which  was  known  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  as  Queen  Elizabeth's  Dairy,  is  still  standing. 
In  it  lived  for  many  years,  and  died  in  1735,  the 
eminent  bookseller  Jacob  Tonson,  founder  of  the 
famous  Kit  Cat  Club,  to  which  belonged  all  the 
chief  literary  men  of  the  day,  including  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  Congreve,  Dryden,  Steele,  and  Addison, 
for  whose  accommodation  Tonson  added  a  gallery 
to  his  house  which  was  hung  with  their  portraits, 
painted  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  who  was  then 
court  painter.  On  the  death  of  the  owner  the 
gallery  was  pulled  down,  and  the  portraits  were 


BARNES  195 

removed  to  the  seat  of  his  family  at  Bayfordbury, 
but  the  surroundings  of  the  meeting-place  of  the 
Club  are  even  now  much  what  they  were  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 

The  river  at  Barnes,  that  here  makes  a  sudden 
bend  to  the  north,  is  spanned  by  several  bridges, 
and  its  banks  are  lined  with  good  houses,  some  of 
which  are  associated  with  famous  names.  In  one 
of  those  on  the  Terrace,  for  instance,  resided  the 
French  political  refugees  the  Count  and  Countess 
d'Antraigues,  who  were  assassinated  in  1812  by 
an  Italian  in  their  service ;  and  in  the  mansion 
known  as  St.  Anne's  lived  the  famous  eighteenth- 
century  beauty  Lady  Archer.  In  an  old  house 
overlooking  the  common  Henry  Fielding  wrote 
some  of  his  novels,  Monk  Lewis  composed  his 
Crazy  Jane  in  a  cottage  not  far  off  that  cannot  now 
be  identified  ;  and  amongst  the  rectors  of  the  parish 
were  the  Latin  scholar  Dr.  Hare,  the  eloquent 
preacher  Henry  Melvill,  and  the  well-known  hymn- 
writer,  the  Rev.  John  Ellerton.  At  Barnes,  too,  in 
a  house  now  destroyed,  lived  and  died  the  brother- 
in-law  of  Sir  Francis  Walsingham,  Robert  Beale, 
who  was  perhaps  introduced  to  Queen  Elizabeth 
at  Barn  Elms,  and  who  was  chosen  by  her  for  the 
painful  mission  of  taking  to  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
the  warrant  for  her  execution,  and  in  the  same 
river-side  village  the  zealous  anabaptist  Abrezer 
Coppe  took  refuge  on  his  release  from  Newgate  in 
1651,  where  he  had  been  imprisoned  for  a  year  for 
issuing  his  extraordinary  pamphlet  The  Fiery  Flying 
Roll.  Disguised  as  a  doctor,  and  calling  himself  Hiam, 


196    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

he  divided  his  time  between  preaching  and  pre- 
scribing for  patients,  and  managed  to  escape  further 
persecution,  dying  a  natural  death  in  1692,  when  he 
was  buried  under  his  assumed  name  in  Barnes 
churchyard. 


CHAPTER   IX 

WIMBLEDON,  MERTON,  MITCHAM,  AND  THEIR 
MEMORIES 

SCARCELY  less  interesting  than  the  charming 
»^3  riverside  districts  of  Surrey  described  above  is 
the  neighbouring  parish  of  Wimbledon,  that  stretches 
southwards  from  Wandsworth,  Putney,  Roehampton 
and  Barnes  to  Merton  and'Cheam,  and  westwards 
to  Kingston,  the  river  Wandle  dividing  it  from 
Mitcham  on  the  east.  Long  before  the  Conquest, 
Wimbledon  Common,  that  was  then  but  a  small 
portion  of  vast  unenclosed  wild  lands,  was  the  scene 
of  events  that  had  their  share  in  determining  the  fate 
of  southern  England,  and  since  that  epoch-making 
event  it  has  again  and  again  been  associated  with 
typical  incidents  of  the  national  life.  The  remains  of 
very  extensive  entrenchments  on  its  south-western 
side,  locally  known  as  Bensbury,  that  were  unfortu- 
nately almost  destroyed  in  1880  by  the  owner  of  the 
property,  prove  that  it  was  at  a  very  early  date  the 
scene  of  important  military  operations,  but  whether 
these  entrenchments  were  the  work  of  British,  Roman, 
or  Saxon  hands  there  is  no  evidence  to  prove.  Popu- 
lar opinion,  however,  long  since  decided  that  Caesar 

197 


198    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

was  the  first  occupier  of  the  Rounds,  as  the  earth- 
works were  called,  and  the  few  still  existing  relics 
will  probably  always  be  associated  with  his  name. 
Possibly,  indeed,  he  may  have  halted  on  the  com- 
mon during  the  campaign  of  B.C.  54,  and  even  have 
drank  from  the  spring  of  pure  water  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  his  supposed  camp,  that  is  preserved 
from  defilement  by  a  stone  casing  provided  at  the 
expense  of  Sir  Henry  Peek,  who  was  for  some  time 
owner  of  the  mansion  known  as  Wimbledon  House. 
It  is  as  difficult  to  determine  the  origin  of  the  word 
Wimbledon  as  it  is  to  decide  who  was  the  maker  of 
the  so-called  Csesar's  Camp.  It  is  very  differently 
spelt  by  various  chroniclers,  and  the  probability  is 
that  the  two  first  syllables  preserve  the  name  of  an 
early  Saxon  owner  of  the  manor,  and  that  the  last 
simply  means  hill.  In  the  Saxon  Chronicle  refer- 
ence is  made  to  a  battle  that  took  place  at  Wib- 
bandune,  possibly  near  the  much-discussed  camp, 
between  Ceawlin,  King  of  Wessex,  and  ^Ethel- 
bricht,  King  of  Kent,  in  which  the  latter  was 
defeated,  but  Wimbledon  is  not  mentioned  in 
Doomsday  Book,  it  having  been  one  of  many  sub- 
manors  belonging  to  Mortlake.  It  was  separated 
from  the  latter  by  Henry  VIII.,  to  be  bestowed  upon 
Thomas  Cromwell,  who  was  then  at  the  very  zenith 
of  his  prosperity,  for  he  had  fulfilled  his  promise 
that  he  would  make  his  master  the  richest  monarch 
who  had  ever  ruled  over  England.  He  was  raised 
to  the  peerage  as  Baron  of  Okeham,  and  almost 
immediately  afterwards  created  Earl  of  Essex.  It 
was,  however,  but  for  one  brief  year  that  he  was 


WIMBLEDON  199 

allowed  to  enjoy  his  new  dignities  and  possessions, 
and  it  had  scarcely  ended  before  the  fickle  Henry 
turned  against  him.  The  once  highly  favoured 
minister  was  accused  of  treason,  and  eight  weeks 
after  he  became  an  earl  he  was  beheaded  on  Tower 
Hill.  The  manor  of  Wimbledon  reverted  to  the 
Crown,  and  later  it  was  given  by  the  king  to 
Catherine  Parr  for  her  life.  On  the  death  of  her 
stepmother  in  1547,  Queen  Mary  bestowed  it  on 
Cardinal  Pole,  then  only  a  deacon,  with  whom  it 
was  popularly  believed  she  was  in  love  before 
her  marriage  with  Philip  II.  of  Spain.  Pole,  how- 
ever, never  resided  at  Wimbledon,  and  the  property 
was  taken  from  him  before  his  death,  which  took 
place  the  day  after  that  of  the  queen,  whose  evil 
genius  he  had  been.  Queen  Elizabeth  granted 
the  manor  in  1576  to  Sir  Christopher  Hatton,  from 
whom  it  passed  by  purchase  to  Sir  Thomas  Cecil, 
son  of  the  great  statesman  Sir  William  Cecil,  better 
known  as  Lord  Burghley.  The  new  owner  pulled 
down  the  old  manor-house  and  replaced  it  by  a 
magnificent  structure,  that  until  its  demolition  early 
in  the  eighteenth  century  by  Sir  Theodore  Jansen 
was  considered  the  finest  private  residence  near 
London.  It  was  designed  by  John  Thorpe,  whose 
architectural  drawing  for  it,  bearing  the  inscription, 
'  Wymbledon,  an  house  standing  on  the  edge  of  a 
hie  hill,'  is  preserved  in  the  Soane  Museum.  Queen 
Elizabeth  was  often  the  guest  of  Lord  Burghley 
in  the  house  he  inherited  from  his  father,  the 
approaches  to  which  appear  to  have  been  but  little 
in  keeping  with  its  grandeur,  as  proved  by  an  entry 


200    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

in  the  Kingston  Churchwarden's  book  for  1599  re- 
cording the  payment  of  twenty  pence  for  mending 
the  ways  when  the  queen  went  from  Wimbledon 
to  Nonsuch. 

Lord  Burghley,  who  had  been  created  Earl  of 
Essex,  before  his  death  left  his  Wimbledon  pro- 
perty to  his  youngest  son,  Edward  Cecil,  who 
received  the  title  of  Lord  Wimbledon  in  1626. 
The  latter,  who  was  an  eloquent  writer  as  well  as 
a  distinguished  soldier,  and  is  included  in  Horace 
Walpole's  catalogue  of  royal  and  noble  authors, 
died  in  1638,  at  the  beginning  of  the  acute  stage  of 
the  conflict  between  autocratic  and  constitutional 
government,  and  his  heir  sold  his  Wimbledon  home 
to  Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  who  was  often  there  with 
her  husband  and  children  during  the  few  years  of 
happiness  that  remained  to  them.  Only  a  short 
time  before  the  end  of  his  troubled  career,  Charles  I. 
gave  orders  that  some  melon  seeds  from  Spain 
should  be  planted  in  the  gardens,  but  whether  this 
was  done  or  not  is  not  known.  The  beautiful  house 
and  estate  were  sold  in  1649  by  the  Parliamentary 
Commissioners  to  a  Mr.  Baynes,  from  whom  they 
were  soon  afterwards  purchased  by  General  Lam- 
bert, who  is  said  to  have  found  great  consolation  for 
the  troubles  resulting  from  his  refusal  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Protector  by  cultivating 
flowers,  the  tulips  and  gilliflowers  he  raised  at 
Wimbledon  having  been  the  finest  that  could  be  had 
for  love  or  money. 

After  the  Restoration  Charles  II.  gave  back  the 
Wimbledon    manor-house   to  his  widowed  mother, 


WIMBLEDON  201 

but  it  was  too  full  of  sad  memories  for  her  to  care 
to  live  in  it,  and  she  sold  it  in  1661 — the  year,  by  the 
way,  of  the  trial  of  General  Lambert  for  treason — to 
John  Digby,  Earl  of  Bristol,  who  with  the  aid  of 
the  famous  John  Evelyn  soon  completely  trans- 
formed it  to  suit  his  own  taste.  It  was  in  the  parish 
church  of  Wimbledon  that  the  earl  made  his  famous 
renunciation  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  that 
was  described  by  the  French  ambassador,  who 
happened  to  be  present,  as  an  insolent  and  daring 
act ;  and  it  was  whilst  he  was  living  in  his  half- 
finished  mansion  that  he  narrowly  escaped  arrest 
somewhat  later  when  Charles  II.  sent  messengers 
to  arrest  him.  The  Earl  of  Bristol  died  at  Wimble- 
don in  1676,  and  his  estate,  after  changing  hands 
several  times,  was  bought  in  1717  by  Sir  Theodore 
Jansen,  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  luckless  South 
Sea  scheme,  who,  with  little  reverence  for  the  beauty 
and  historic  associations  of  the  house,  at  once  began 
to  pull  it  down.  Before  he  had  time  to  build  another 
he  and  his  fellow-speculators  were  ruined,  and  the 
Wimbledon  estate  was  sold  by  him  to  Sarah 
Jennings,  the  famous  Duchess  of  Marlborough. 
She  in  her  turn  built  a  new  and  costly  mansion 
which  she  bequeathed,  with  the  rest  of  the  property 
to  her  grandson,  John  Spencer,  to  whose  descendants 
it  belonged — passing,  in  accordance  with  the  custom 
known  as  borough  English,  to  the  youngest,  not  the 
eldest  son — until  1871,  when  it  was  sold  and  broken 
up  into  a  number  of  small  holdings.  The  house 
built  for  the  duchess,  in  which  Hannah  More  was 
the  guest,  in  1786,  of  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  was 


202    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

burned  down  in  1785,  and  the  then  owner  replaced  it 
with  that  still  standing,  known  as  Wimbledon  Park 
House,  that  is  associated  with  the  memory  of  Sir 
William  Paxton,  the  architect  of  the  Crystal  Palace, 
who  began  his  career  as  assistant  to  his  brother,  who 
was  head  gardener  for  many  years  to  the  Cecil 
family. 

At  the  present  time  Wimbledon,  in  spite  of  all  the 
changes  that  have  taken  place  in  its  general  appear- 
ance, is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  London 
suburbs,  and  though  it  has  lost  its  historic  manor- 
house,  it  retains  many  fine  old  mansions  that  bear 
witness  to  its  aristocratic  associations.  Amongst 
these,  perhaps  the  finest  is  Eagle  House,  on  the 
Green,  a  noble  Jacobean  structure,  with  ten  gables, 
built  by  Robert  Bell,  a  wealthy  London  merchant 
in  the  reign  of  James  L,  and  occupied  for  some 
years,  from  1789,  by  the  Right  Honourable  William 
Grenville,  the  relation  and  colleague  of  William  Pitt, 
who  often  visited  him  there,  one  of  the  bedrooms 
being  still  named  after  him.  A  house  not  far  off, 
known  as  Wimbledon  Lodge,  was  at  the  same  time 
the  home  of  the  famous  philanthropist,  William 
Wilberforce,  who  in  his  Journal  makes  many  allu- 
sions to  his  happy  meetings  at  Eagle  House  with 
William  Pitt,  whom  he  sometimes  persuaded  to  go 
to  church  with  him. 

At  Chester  House,  another  fine  old  mansion  that 
faces  the  common,  John  Home  Tooke  spent  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  and  died  in  1812,  leaving  instruc- 
tions in  his  will  that  he  should  be  buried  in  a 
mausoleum,  still  preserved  in  the  garden ;  but  his 


WIMBLEDON  203 

wishes  were  disregarded,  for  he  rests  in  the  church- 
yard of  Ealing.  Near  the  Crooked  Billet,  already 
referred  to  in  connection  with  Thomas  Cromwell, 
lived  John  Murray,  founder  of  the  publishing  house 
named  after  him,  and  amongst  his  neighbours  were 
William  Gifford,  the  first  editor  of  the  Quarterly 
Review,  and  James  Perry,  the  originator  of  the 
Morning  Chronicle.  Melrose  House,  on  West  Hill, 
now  a  home  for  incurables,  was  once  the  seat  of 
the  Duke  of  Sutherland.  Madame  Goldschmidt, 
better  known  as  Jenny  Lind,  lived  for  several  years 
in  Wimbledon  Park,  and  it  was  in  Wresil  Lodge 
that  the  celebrated  Anglo  -  Indian  statesman,  Sir 
Bartle  Frere,  passed  away. 

The  Parsonage  of  Wimbledon  is  a  very  picturesque 
old  homestead,  but  there  is  little  of  interest  about 
the  modern  parish  church,  that  has  had  several  pre- 
decessors, except  the  mortuary  chapel  connected 
with  it  that  was  built  in  the  early  seventeenth  cen- 
tury as  a  family  vault  by  Lord  Wimbledon.  There 
are,  however,  two  or  three  noteworthy  eighteenth- 
century  tombs  in  the  churchyard,  that  also  owns 
a  memorial  to  the  celebrated  American  painter, 
Gilbert  Stuart  Newton,  who  died  at  Chelsea  in  1835. 

The  chief  glory  of  Wimbledon  is  now,  as  it  has 
been  for  centuries,  its  breezy  elevated  common,  that 
is  more  than  a  thousand  acres  in  extent,  and  with 
Putney  Heath,  Richmond  Park,  Ham  and  Sheen 
commons,  form  an  unbroken  stretch  of  varied 
scenery  unrivalled  even  in  the  heart  of  the  country 
for  its  rural  charm.  Peaceful  as  Wimbledon 
Common  now  seems,  however,  it  has  witnessed 


204    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

many  stirring  and  gruesome  incidents,  for  it  was 
long  a  favourite  haunt  of  highwaymen  and  a  noted 
place  for  duels.  The  secluded  Coombe  Wood  on 
its  outskirts,  beloved  of  Constable  and  Stothard, 
where  stands  the  house  occupied  by  Lord  Liverpool 
when  he  was  Prime  Minister,  was  the  chief  lurking- 
place  of  those  lying  in  wait  for  unwary  travellers, 
who  were  often  not  only  robbed  but  murdered  in 
broad  daylight.  It  was  no  unusual  thing  for  the 
bodies  of  criminals  to  be  left  hanging  in  chains  till 
they  rotted  away  near  the  spot  where  their  worst 
deeds  were  done,  and  in  a  contemporary  caricature 
of  the  duel  already  referred  to  between  William 
Pitt  and  William  Tierney,  the  remains  of  the 
notorious  Jerry  Abershaw,  who  suffered  death  at 
Kensington  in  1735,  are  seen  in  the  background 
dangling  from  a  post  close  to  the  Windmill  which 
is  still  such  a  picturesque  feature  of  the  common. 

In  1789  occurred  the  encounter  between  Colonel 
Lennox,  later  Duke  of  Richmond,  and  the  Duke  of 
York,  second  son  of  George  III.,  that  caused  much 
excitement  at  the  time,  for  it  was  unusual  for  a 
commoner  to  challenge  a  prince  of  the  blood, 
though  the  latter  was  in  this  case  undoubtedly  in 
the  wrong,  a  fact  of  which  he  proved  his  sense  by 
refusing  to  fire  at  his  antagonist,  who  had  to  be 
content  with  discharging  one  bullet  only  that 
passed  harmlessly  through  his  adversary's  hair. 
In  1807  a  duel  was  fought  in  Coombe  Woodv  in 
which  both  parties  were  slightly  wounded,  between 
Sir  Francis  Burdett,  the  famous  Conservative  states- 
man, and  Mr.  Paull,  who  had  been  one  of  his  agents 


WIMBLEDON  205 

in  his  successful  candidature  for  Westminster ;  and 
in  1809  a  certain  Mr.  Payne  was  mortally  wounded 
in  a  duel  on  the  common  with  a  Mr.  Clarke,  who 
had  made  dishonourable  proposals  to  his  sister. 
More  celebrated  than  either  of  these  meetings, 
however,  was  that  of  1839,  when  the  Marquis  of 
Londonderry  met  Henry  Grattan,  son  of  the  famous 
Irish  patriot  of  that  name,  and,  after  allowing  his 
opponent  to  fire  at  him,  discharged  his  own  pistol 
in  the  air,  a  quiet  way  of  proving  his  contempt  for 
the  duel  as  a  mode  of  settling  quarrels.  A  year 
later  the  future  Emperor  Napoleon  III.  challenged 
his  fellow-countryman,  Comte  Le"on,  to  a  combat,  on 
Wimbledon  Common,  but  a  dispute  having  arisen 
between  them  when  on  the  ground  as  to  the 
weapons  to  be  used,  so  much  delay  was  caused 
that  the  police  appeared  on  the  scene  and  arrested 
the  whole  party,  who  were  brought  before  the 
magistrate  at  Bow  Street  and  bound  over  to  keep 
the  peace.  Far  more  serious  than  this  fiasco  was 
the  encounter,  in  the  same  year,  between  the  Earl  of 
Cardigan,  later  leader  of  the  famous  charge  of  the 
Light  Brigade  at  Balaclava,  and  Captain  Harvey 
Tuckett,  one  of  his  officers,  whom  he  had  treated 
with  unwarrantable  harshness.  The  latter  was 
seriously  wounded,  and  public  indignation  against 
the  earl  was  very  great,  but  though  he  was  tried  by 
his  peers  in  1841  he  escaped  punishment  through  a 
legal  quibble,  his  counsel  having  pretended  that  it 
was  impossible  to  prove  the  identity  of  the  sufferer 
with  the  Captain  Tuckett  named  in  the  indictment. 
By  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  duelling 


206    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

had  quite  gone  out  of  fashion  in  England ;  and 
although  a  few  hostile  meetings  have  since  taken 
place  on  Wimbledon  Common,  they  have  been 
mere  farces  unworthy  of  serious  consideration. 
The  beautiful  open  space  has  since  then  become 
associated  with  memories  of  a  far  more  ennobling 
kind,  for  it  has  been  the  scene  of  many  a  great 
gathering  of  volunteers,  which  have  made  the  name 
of  Wimbledon  known  throughout  the  civilised  world, 
and  have  done  more,  perhaps,  than  anything  else 
to  make  military  service  popular  in  England. 

It  is  usual  to  date  the  beginning  of  the  great 
volunteer  movement  from  1859,  when  General  Peel, 
then  Minister  of  War,  sanctioned  the  acceptance 
by  the  authorities  of  those  who  offered  themselves 
to  take  part  in  the  national  defence,  but  the  way 
had  been  long  before  prepared  by  the  formation  of 
local  associations,  amongst  which  that  of  Wimble- 
don, founded  in  1799,  was  the  first.  A  corps  of 
cavalry  and  one  of  infantry  were  quickly  formed, 
in  which  all  the  leading  gentlemen  of  the  parish 
were  enrolled.  The  example  thus  set  was  eagerly 
followed,  and  in  1798  George  III.  reviewed  on 
Wimbledon  Common  a  regiment  more  than  six 
hundred  strong.  By  1803  the  volunteers  numbered 
no  less  than  355,307,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  had  Napoleon  realised  the  expectations  of  the 
people  of  England  by  invasion,  the  self-constituted 
army  would  have  proved  itself  fully  equal  to  the 
emergency.  After  the  battle  of  Waterloo  the 
volunteer  force  was  disbanded ;  but  the  spirit 
which  had  animated  it  was  not  extinct,  and  when 


WIMBLEDON  207 

some  years  later  a  new  war  with  France  seemed 
imminent,  a  single  spark  was  all  that  was  needed 
to  kindle  anew  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  the  whole 
nation,  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  new 
volunteer  army,  in  many  respects  superior  to  its 
predecessor.  In  June  1860  Queen  Victoria  reviewed 
that  army  in  Hyde  Park,  and  a  month  later  took 
place  on  Wimbledon  Common  the  inauguration  of 
the  National  Rifle  Association,  Her  Majesty  firing 
the  first  shot.  From  that  time  to  1887,  when  the 
meetings  were  transferred  to  Bisley,  the  volunteers 
encamped  on  the  beautiful  common  every  summer, 
representative  teams  from  every  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom  and  some  of  the  colonies  taking  part  in 
the  various  competitions,  which,  with  the  reviews 
that  terminated  the  operations,  attracted  thousands 
of  spectators.  Wimbledon  Common  is  now  com- 
paratively deserted,  but  the  memory  of  the  volun- 
teers is  kept  green  by  the  fine  flagstaff,  the  loftiest 
in  England,  that  rises  up  a  short  distance  from  the 
windmill,  and  consists  of  the  trunk  of  a  single 
Californian  pine  that  was  towed  across  the  Atlantic 
by  a  liner,  and  was  the  gift  of  a  Canadian  corps 
in  acknowledgment  of  the  hospitality  received 
during  a  visit  to  the  camp.  Now  and  then,  as 
when  in  1906  the  London  companies  of  the  Royal 
Volunteer  Army  Medical  Corps  and  a  party  of 
Electrical  Royal  Engineers  rehearsed  first  aid  to 
the  wounded  after  a  fight  supposed  to  have  taken 
place  in  the  night,  the  common  is  still  turned  to 
account  as  a  practising-ground,  but  it  is  at  present 
chiefly  noted  as  being  the  headquarters  of  the 


208     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

London  and    Scottish  Golf  and   the   All-England 
Lawn  Tennis  and  Croquet  Clubs. 

Within  easy  reach  of  Wimbledon  are  a  number 
of  villages,  including  Merton,  Morden,  Maiden, 
Mitcham,  and  Tooting,  which,  though  they  have 
all  recently  been  promoted  to  the  doubtful  dignity 
of  becoming  suburbs  of  London,  still  retain  some 
few  relics  of  the  days  gone  by  when  they  were 
secluded  woodland  hamlets.  Of  these  the  most 
important  is  Merton — inseparably  connected  with 
the  memory  of  Lord  Nelson  and  Lady  Hamilton — 
the  history  of  which  can  be  traced  back  to  the 
eighth  century,  when  its  site  was  the  scene  of  a 
terrible  tragedy,  for  it  was  there  that  in  784  the 
noble  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  Cynewulf,  who  was 
on  a  visit  to  a  lady  to  whom  he  was  deeply  attached, 
was  treacherously  slain,  with  all  his  attendants,  by 
the  y^theling  Cyneheard,  a  crime  that  was  fearfully 
avenged  the  day  after,  when  the  murderer  and  all 
his  followers  but  one  fell  victims  to  the  rage  of 
Cynewulfs  thanes.  According  to  some  authorities, 
it  was  near  the  Surrey  Merton  that  the  battle  took 
place  between  the  English  and  the  Danes  in  871, 
when  King  ^Ethelred  was  wounded  to  death,  and 
at  which  his  brother,  the  future  King  Alfred,  was 
present ;  but  it  must  be  added  that  the  balance  of 
evidence  is  in  favour  of  that  important  event,  which 
inaugurated  a  new  era  for  England,  having  occurred 
elsewhere.  In  any  case,  however,  it  is  certain  that 
Merton — the  name  of  which  is  supposed  to  signify 
the  town  on  the  mere,  from  its  vicinity  to  the  ponds 
of  the  Wandle — was  a  valuable  manor  at  the  time 


MERTON  209 

of  the  Conquest,  when  it  was  the  property  of  King 
Harold.  It  was  confiscated  by  William  I.,  and  was 
retained  by  the  Crown  until  it  was  bestowed  by 
Henry  I.  on  the  so-called  Gilbert  the  Norman, 
founder  of  the  famous  priory  of  Merton  that  was 
long  the  glory  of  the  neighbourhood. 

Originally  a  humble  community  of  monks  living 
in  a  small  timber -built  house  near  a  Norman 
church,  also  built  by  Gilbert,  the  new  settlement 
quickly  attracted  so  many  novices  that  it  was  soon 
decided  to  transfer  it  to  a  more  extensive  site,  and 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  a  stately  structure,  of 
which,  unfortunately,  but  a  few  scanty  relics  remain, 
rose  up  on  the  banks  of  the  Wandle.  The  first  stone 
was  laid  by  Gilbert  the  Norman  in  1130,  but  he  did 
not  live  to  see  the  completion  of  his  work,  for  he 
died  the  same  year,  after  having  carefully  secured 
the  property  to  the  Augustinians.  From  the  first 
the  priory  enjoyed  many  special  privileges,  including 
that  of  a  seat  in  Parliament  for  its  abbot  and  the 
right  of  sanctuary,  of  which  Hubert  de  Burgh, 
who  had  acted  as  Regent  during  the  minority  of 
Henry  III.,  availed  himself  when  he  was  fleeing  from 
the  wrath  of  his  ungrateful  master  in  1234.  It  was 
in  the  spacious  hall  of  the  priory  that  met,  two 
years  later,  the  great  council  of  the  nation  that 
defeated  the  attempt  of  the  king  and  pope,  who 
were  for  once  inspired  by  a  common  ambition,  to 
force  upon  the  people  what  was  known  as  the  '  Rule 
of  the  Canon  Law  for  the  legitimisation  of  children 
born  before  the  wedlock  of  their  parents.'  Earls 
and  barons  alike  stood  firm,  declaring  that  nothing 


210    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

would  induce  them  to  change  the  established  laws 
of  England  ;  and  it  was  not  until  several  centuries 
later  that  what  became  known  as  the  Statute  of 
Merton  was  to  a  great  extent  nullified  by  the 
passing  of  the  Legitimacy  Act  of  1858. 

As  time  went  on  Merton  Priory  became  a  cele- 
brated place  of  education,  numbering  amongst  its 
pupils  many  boys  who  later  rose  to  eminence,  in- 
cluding Thomas  a  Becket,  who  was  there  for  some 
time  before  he  was  sent  to  Pevensey  Castle  for  his  • 
military  training,  and  Walter  de  Merton,  who 
became  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England  in  1261, 
and  founded  in  1264  at  the  neighbouring  village  of 
Maiden  the  college  of  Merton,  that  was  transferred 
in  1274  to  Oxford,  and  enjoys  the  distinction  of 
having  been  the  first  institution  in  that  city  that 
was  organised  on  collegiate  lines. 

Within  easy  distance  of  London,  Merton  was 
often  visited  by  the  reigning  sovereigns,  who  repaid 
the  hospitality  they  received  from  the  abbot  with 
constant  gifts  of  land  or  money,  so  that  by  the  time 
of  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries  the  abbey 
grounds,  that  were  enclosed  by  a  wall,  a  few  portions 
of  which  are  still  standing,  were  no  less  than  sixty 
acres  in  extent,  and  its  revenues  amounted  to  more 
than  a  thousand  pounds  a  year.  In  addition  to 
this,  the  priory  owned  many  estates  in  other  parts 
of  the  country,  with  the  advowsons  of  several 
churches,  but  all  its  property  was  snatched  away 
by  Henry  VIII.,  who  let  the  abbey  on  lease,  but 
retained  the  manor  of  Merton,  which  remained  the 
property  of  the  Crown  until  1610,  when  it  was  sold 


MERTON  211 

by  James  I.  to  a  certain  Thomas  Hunt,  since  which 
time  it  changed  hands  again  and  again  before  its 
lands  were  broken  up  into  small  holdings  and  built 
upon.  Of  the  ancient  manor-house  not  a  trace  is 
left,  though  possibly  the  so-called  manor  farm  may 
occupy  its  site,  but  the  abbey  remained  uninjured 
for  some  time  longer.  It  had  been  given  by  Queen 
Mary  just  before  her  death  to  the  monastery  of 
Sheen,  but  was  reclaimed  by  her  successor,  who 
granted  a  long  lease  of  it  to  the  cofferer  of  the  royal 
household,  Gregory  Lovell,  who  died  at  Merton  in 
1597,  and  was  buried  in  the  parish  church.  In  1610 
the  historic  building  was  sold  to  a  certain  Thomas 
Hunt,  who  passed  it  on  to  his  heirs  in  good  pre- 
servation, as  proved  by  the  fact  that  it  was  one  of 
the  strong  places  fortified  during  the  Civil  War. 
In  1668  it  became  the  property  of  a  member  of  the 
Pepys  family,  and  its  purchase  by  his  '  Cosen  Tom ' 
is  referred  to  by  Samuel  Pepys  in  his  Diary  for  that 
year.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  priory  and  chapel  were  still  beautiful  buildings, 
but  long  before  the  end  they  had  been  despoiled 
and  converted  into  a  calico-printing  factory.  Part 
of  the  materials  were  used  to  build  a  mansion  that 
occupied  the  site  of  the  modern  house  now  called 
Merton  Abbey,  and  a  single  Norman  arch  incor- 
porated in  the  factory  is  all  that  remains  to  bear 
witness  to  the  glory  of  the  monastery  founded  by 
Gilbert  the  Norman.  The  railway  connecting 
Wimbledon  and  Tooting  runs  right  across  what 
were  once  the  abbey  grounds ;  but  in  the  portion 
belonging  to  the  house  referred  to  above  are 


212    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

some  fish-ponds  that  were  probably  used  by  the 
monks. 

Fortunately  the  parish  church  of  Merton,  in  which 
Lord  Nelson,  Sir  William  and  Lady  Hamilton  often 
worshipped,  with  its  tiled  roof,  squat  timber  tower, 
and  octagonal  spire,  its  Norman  arch  at  the  northern 
end  and  Early  English  pillars  in  the  nave,  retains,  in 
spite  of  frequent  restoration,  very  much  the  appear- 
ance that  it  did  when  first  completed  early  in  the 
twelfth  century.  Two  of  the  ancient  lancet  windows 
remain,  the  arms  of  the  priory  in  old  stained  glass 
have  been  worked  into  the  modern  east  window,  on 
the  south  wall  is  a  mural  monument,  with  kneeling 
effigies,  to  the  memory  of  Gregory  Lovell,  his  wife, 
and  their  eight  children,  and  in  the  nave  are  the 
hatchments  of  the  great  families  who  at  different 
times  owned  the  manor  of  Merton,  and  also  one 
bearing  the  arms  of  Lord  Nelson  that  was  presented 
after  his  death  by  Lady  Hamilton.  In  the  vestry 
is  preserved  the  pew  in  which  the  lovers  used  to  sit, 
and  in  the  churchyard  are  several  quaint  old  tombs, 
including  that  of  the  second  wife  of  the  famous 
bookseller,  James  Luckington,  who  lived  for  some 
years  at  Merton. 

Opposite  to  the  church  is  an  interesting  Eliza- 
bethan mansion  standing  well  back  from  the  road 
in  extensive  grounds,  with  fine  entrance-gates  of 
wrought  iron,  that  was  long  erroneously  supposed  to 
have  been  the  original  nanor-house  of  Merton,  and 
close  to  the  gates  is  a  flight  of  stone  steps  that  are 
said  to  have  been  used  by  Lord  Nelson  for  mount- 
ing and  dismounting  when  he  rode  to  church  from 


MALDEN  213 

his  beloved  home  on  the  Wandle,  known  as  Merton 
Place,  where  he  spent  the  happiest  years  of  his  life, 
and  from  which  he  went  forth  never  to  return  five 
weeks  before  the  battle  of  Trafalgar,  in  which  he 
lost  his  life. 

Unfortunately,  absolutely  no  trace  is  now  left  of 
Merton  Place,  for  it  was  sold  in  1808  by  Lady 
Hamilton,  to  whom  it  had  been  bequeathed,  and  its 
site  is  now  occupied  by  a  street  of  commonplace 
villas,  the  names  of  Nelson  Place  and  the  Nelson 
Arms  alone  recalling  the  days  when  the  great  naval 
hero  was  a  familiar  figure  in  the  village.  Opposite 
the  railway  station,  however,  is  a  ruined  castellated 
gate  overgrown  with  ivy  that  once  gave  access  to  the 
estate  which  Nelson  and  his  beloved  Emma  called 
Paradise  Merton,  which  witnessed  the  closing  scenes 
of  a  romance  without  a  parallel  in  history  or  fiction. 
On  the  improvement  of  that  estate  large  sums  of 
money  were  expended,  and  after  the  credulous  or 
wilfully  blind  Sir  William  Hamilton  had  passed 
away,  the  long  disowned  but  deeply  loved  Horatia 
was  brought  to  live  with  her  mother,  her  absent 
father  betraying  in  his  letters  a  deep  solicitude  for 
her  welfare,  as  when  he  begs  that  '  a  strong  netting 
about  three  feet  high  may  be  placed  round  the  Nile,' 
as  he  called  the  stream  running  through  the  grounds, 
'that  the  little  thing  may  not  tumble  in.' 

Maiden,  the  Anglo-Saxon  name  of  which  signifies 
the  Hill  of  the  Cross,  has  now  even  less  that  is 
distinctive  about  it  than  Merton,  but  it  is  noteworthy 
as  having  been  the  first  site  of  the  college  referred 
to  above,  founded  in  1240  by  Walter  de  Merton, 


2i4    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

who  at  that  date  bought  Maiden  Manor,  the  history 
of  which  can  be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  the 
Doomsday  Survey,  when  with  that  of  the  neighbour- 
ing Chessington  it  was  the  property  of  Richard  de 
Tonbridge.  Merton  College  retained  its  estate  at 
Mitcham  until  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries, 
when  Henry  vili.  took  120  acres  of  it — now  part  of 
the  populous  suburb  known  as  Worcester  Park — to 
add  them  to  the  grounds  of  Nonsuch  Palace.  Later 
Queen  Elizabeth  confiscated  the  manors  of  Maiden 
and  Chessington  with  the  advowsons  of  both  livings 
for  a  term  of  no  less  than  five  hundred  years,  salving 
her  conscience  by  paying  a  nominal  rent  of  forty 
pounds,  but  in  the  reign  of  her  successor  the 
members  of  the  college  succeeded  in  bringing  about 
a  compromise,  by  the  terms  of  which  the  then  owner 
of  the  lease  and  his  heirs  were  allowed  to  retain  it 
for  another  eighty  years. 

The  parish  church  of  Maiden,  though  it  has  been 
again  and  again  restored,  still  retains  traces  of  Saxon 
work  in  the  walls  of  the  chancel,  that  now  serves  as 
an  aisle  of  the  greatly  enlarged  building,  and  in  the 
east  window  are  the  arms  of  Walter  de  Merton  and 
of  Bishop  Ravis,  who  occupied  the  see  of  London  in 
the  early  nineteenth  century,  whilst  the  position 
occupied  by  the  altar  in  the  first  chapel  is  marked 
by  a  stone  slab  bearing  the  inscription  :  Here  stood 
the  Lord's  Table  on  Maeldune,  the  Hill  of  the  Cross 
for  nigh  a  thousand  years.' 

Some  two  miles  from  Merton  is  the  still  secluded 
village  of  Morden,  or  the  settlement  on  the  great 
hill,  the  manor  of  which  belonged  at  the  time  of  the 


MITCHAM  215 

Conquest  to  the  abbey  of  Westminster,  and  became 
the  property  of  the  Crown  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
monasteries.  It  was  granted  by  Edward  VI.  to 
Edward  Whitchurch  and  Lionel  Ducket,  and  since 
then  has  changed  hands  many  times.  Its  ancient 
manor-house  is  still  represented  by  a  mansion  known 
as  Morden  Hall,  and  its  parish  church  retains  the 
tower  of  a  much  earlier  building,  whilst  on  its  walls 
hang  many  fine  old  brasses  and  a  number  of  hatch- 
ments of  great  antiquarian  interest. 

The  extensive  parish  of  Mitcham,  that  stretches 
away  from  Merton  and  Morden  to  Beddington, 
Carshalton,  and  Croydon  on  the  south,  and  on  the 
east  to  Streatham  and  Norwood  includes  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  commons  near  London,  set  in  a 
border  of  fields  planted  with  lavender  bushes  and 
sweet-smelling  herbs.  It  is  associated,  moreover,  with 
many  interesting  memories,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Conquest  was  an  extremely  valuable  property, 
including  no  less  than  five  manors  that  were  later 
reduced  to  three,  which  changed  hands  so  often  that 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  trace  their  history.  It  is 
enough  to  add  that  Thomas  Cranmer,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  owned  a  house  at  Mitcham  that  still 
bears  his  name,  that  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  occupied 
another  for  some  time  that  belonged  to  his  wife, 
Elizabeth  Throckmorton,  and  that  in  a  mansion 
now  pulled  down  Sir  Julius  Caesar  received  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  1598,  an  honour  that  according  to  his 
own  account  cost  him  considerably  more  than  £700. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Wandle,  in  a  villa  known  as 
Grove  House,  lived  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  two 


216    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

centuries  later  it  was  the  home  of  a  man  of  a  very 
different  type,  Lord  Clive,  who  in  1774,  just  before 
he  took  his  own  life,  gave  it  to  the  great  lawyer 
Alexander  Wedderburn,  the  future  Lord  Chancellor 
of  England,  who  had  defended  him  at  his  trial.  In 
1789  Grove  House  was  bought  by  the  London  banker 
Sir  Samuel  Hoare,  who  often  showed  hospitality  in 
it  to  Hannah  More,  the  Wilberforces  and  the 
Macaulays.  Dr.  Donne,  the  famous  Dean  of  St.  Paul, 
who  died  in  1631,  was  also  at  one  time  a  resident 
at  Mitcham  ;  Charles  Mathews,  who  was  to  make 
such  a  great  reputation  as  a  comedian,  used  to  ride 
over  on  his  pony  for  a  gallop  on  Mitcham  Common 
when  he  was  at  school  at  Clapham  ;  and  Dr.  Johnson 
was  fond  of  dining  in  the  neighbourhood  when  he 
was  the  guest  of  Mrs.  Thrale  at  Streatham. 

The  original  village  of  Mitcham,  picturesquely 
situated  on  the  Wandle,  that  here  works  several 
mills,  is  now  but  the  nucleus  of  a  rapidly  growing 
town ;  and  it  is  very  much  the  same  with  its  neigh- 
bour Tooting,  that  retains  little  except  the  common, 
which  is  now  its  chief  distinction,  to  recall  the  days 
when  Queen  Elizabeth  was  the  guest  of  the  lord 
of  the  manor,  Lord  Burghley,  or  those  a  century 
later,  when  the  author  of  Robinson  Crusoe  lived  in  a 
little  house  on  the  road  that  still  bears  his  name, 
and  founded  the  conventicle  now  replaced  by  the 
Defoe  Presbyterian  chapel.  The  ancient  parish 
church  of  Tooting,  of  which  that  conventicle  soon 
became  a  serious  rival,  was  pulled  down  some  eighty 
years  ago  to  make  room  for  a  modern  successor ;  of 
the  beautiful  convent  of  the  Holy  Cross,  that  once 


MITCHAM  217 

stood  just  without  the  village,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  connected  with  the  church  by  a  subterranean 
passage,  not  a  trace  remains ;  whilst  a  few  dignified- 
looking  mansions  with  wrought-iron  entrance-gates, 
and  the  two  inns  known  as  the  Castle  and  the 
Angel,  are  the  only  houses  with  any  claim  to 
antiquity. 


CHAPTER    X 

RIVERSIDE   SURVEY  FROM   MORTLAKE  TO 
RICHMOND 

FEW  villages  near  London  have  undergone  such 
vicissitudes  of  fortune  as  Mortlake,  of  which 
Wimbledon,  Putney,  and  Barnes  were  once  depen- 
dencies, but  which  is  now  a  somewhat  uninteresting 
suburb,  redeemed  from  the  commonplace  by  its 
situation  on  the  river  alone,  and  but  for  the  one  day 
in  the  year,  when  the  University  boat-race  is  run,  and 
it  is  crowded  with  those  interested  in  the  contest, 
deserted  by  all  but  its  residents.  A  great  brewery 
and  numerous  malt-kilns  replace  the  palace  that 
was  long  a  private  residence  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  of  the  famous  tapestry  manufactory, 
founded  in  1619  by  Sir  Thomas  Crane,  in  which, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Italian  Verrio,  work  equal 
to  that  done  in  France  was  produced,  not  a  trace 
remains.  Gone,  too,  is  the  mansion  by  the  water 
where  lived  the  famous  astrologer  Dr.  Dee,  who  was 
there  often  visited  by  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  who,  in 
spite  of  the  great  reputation  he  long  enjoyed,  died  in 
absolute  poverty  in  1608;  and  it  is  impossible  to 
identify  the  sites  of  the  houses  that  are  known  to 

218 


MORTLAKE  219 

have  been  occupied  by  Sir  Philip  Francis,  the  bitter 
enemy  of  Warren  Hastings,  Henry  Addington,  the 
first  Lord  Sid  mouth,  prime  minister  when  the  Peace 
of  Amiens  was  signed,  Sir  John  Barnard,  whom  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  called  the  one  incorruptible  member 
of  Parliament,  all  of  whom,  as  well  as  Dr.  Dee,  are 
buried  in  Mortlake  church,  and  commemorated  by 
monuments  or  tablets  in  it.  The  pottery  works,  too, 
which  to  a  certain  extent  made  up  for  the  loss  of 
the  tapestry  manufactory  when  the  latter  was  removed 
to  Windsor,  though  they  flourished  for  nearly  a 
century,  were  abandoned  about  1800,  and  it  is  only 
the  expert  collector  who  now  remembers  that  the 
quaint  Toby  Philpot  jugs  were  first  made  in  them, 
and  that  a  peculiar  kind  of  white  stoneware  was 
produced  in  a  rival  factory  hard  by. 

The  church  of  Mortlake  was  founded  as  early  as 
1348,  when  the  parish  was  first  cut  off  from  that  of 
Wimbledon,  but  it  has  been  so  often  restored  that, 
but  for  the  lower  portion  of  the  tower,  it  retains 
scarcely  anything  of  its  original  structure.  Above 
its  western  entrance  is  the  unusual  inscription, 'Vivat 
Rex  Henricus  VIII.,'  and  on  an  oaken  screen  in  the 
chancel  is  an  interesting  painting  representing  the 
Entombment,  by  the  Dutch  artist  Van  der  Gutch, 
who  lived  for  some  little  time  at  Mortlake  during  the 
last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  the  Roman 
Catholic  cemetery  that  adjoins  the  Protestant  church- 
yard rest  the  remains  of  the  famous  Oriental  scholar 
and  traveller,  Sir  Richard  Burton,  and  his  devoted 
wife,  in  an  ornate  tomb,  representing  an  Arab  tent, 
that  was  erected  before  her  death  at  the  expense  of 


220    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Lady  Burton,  who,  in  spite  of  her  husband's  well- 
known  heterodox  opinions,  was  determined  that  the 
world  should  believe  him  to  have  died  in  what  she 
considered  the  only  true  faith. 

Pleasantly  situated  at  a  bend  of  the  river  between 
Mortlake  and  Kew,  opposite  to  Chiswick  and  Isle- 
worth,  which  present  a  very  picturesque  appearance 
from  the  towing-path  on  the  Surrey  side,  and  owning 
a  green  some  twelve  acres  in  extent,  the  ancient 
village  of  Kew  still  retains,  in  spite  of  the  great 
number  of  modern  houses  in  its  parish,  something 
of  the  rural  charm  that  distinguished  it  before  the 
beautiful  gardens  with  which  its  name  is  now  chiefly 
associated  were  laid  out. 

The  original  meaning  of  the  word  Kew,  that  used 
to  be  very  variously  spelt,  Kayhoo,  Kayburgh,  and 
Kayo  being  some  of  the  forms,  has  not  been  deter- 
mined, but  the  settlement  is  supposed  to  date  from 
very  ancient  times,  bronze  spear-heads  and  frag- 
ments of  British  pottery  having  been  recently  found 
in  the  bed  of  the  river,  near  some  piles  that  had 
probably  served  as  the  foundations  of  huts,  a  little 
above  the  old  bridge  that  was  replaced  in  1903  by 
that  known  as  King  Edward  Vll.'s,  it  having  been 
opened  by  him  in  1904.  The  first  actual  reference 
to  Kew,  however,  occurs  in  a  thirteenth-century  roll 
of  the  royal  manor  of  Richmond,  in  which  it  was 
then  included,  although,  strictly  speaking,  it  remained 
a  hamlet  of  Kingston  until  1769,  when  it  became  a 
separate  parish. 

There  appears  to  have  been  a  small  chapel  of  ease 
at  Kew,  the  site  of  which  is  unknown,  as  early  as 


KEW  221 

1532,  and  in  it  may  sometimes  have  worshipped  the 
Princess  Mary,  sister  of  Henry  VIII.  and  widow  of 
Louis  xii.  of  France,  with  her  second  husband, 
Charles  Brandon,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  who  owned  a 
mansion  near  by,  as  did  also  Charles  Somerset,  Earl 
of  Worcester,  ancestor  of  the  inventor  of  the  steam 
engine.  Later,  Kew  was  the  home  for  a  short  time 
of  Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leicester,  who  had  been 
sentenced  to  death,  as  well  as  his  father,  for  his  share 
in  the  conspiracy  to  place  Lady  Jane  Grey  on  the 
throne,  yet  for  all  that  rose  into  high  favour  with 
Queen  Elizabeth,  to  whom  he  paid  assiduous  court, 
though  he  was  already  married  to  the  unfortunate 
Amy  Robsart  Whether  the  maiden  queen  was 
ever  his  guest  at  Kew  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but 
after  his  death  she  paid  several  visits  to  Sir  John 
Pickering,  Lord  Keeper  of  the  Privy  Seal,  who 
owned  a  mansion  near  the  green,  now  pulled  down, 
and  spent  large  sums  on  her  entertainment  in  1594 
and  1595.  The  house  that  belonged  to  Robert 
Dudley  was  sold  by  him  to  Sir  Hugh  Portman,  a 
merchant  of  Holland,  for  which  reason  it  was  long 
called  the  Dutch  House,  and  is  still  standing  just 
inside  the  chief  gates  of  Kew  Gardens.  It  is  now 
known  as  the  Palace,  a  very  misleading  name,  that 
more  rightly  belonged  to  a  much  larger  building 
that  was  opposite  to  it,  and  was  called  Kew  House. 
The  latter  belonged  in  the  early  seventeenth  century 
to  a  Mr.  Bennett,  and  passed,  as  part  of  the  marriage 
portion  of  his  daughter,  to  her  husband  Sir  Henry, 
later  Lord  Capel,  who  was  the  first  founder  of  the 
famous  gardens,  that  were  referred  to  by  Rowland 


222    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Whyte  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Sydney,  dated 
August  27,  1678,  '  as  containing  the  choicest  fruit 
of  any  plantation  in  England.'  Lord  Capel  became, 
many  years  later,  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and 
never  returned  to  his  Kew  home,  but  his  widow 
resided  in  it  until  her  death  in  1721,  when  she  was 
buried  in  Kew  church.  The  property  then  passed  to 
Lady  Elizabeth,  grand-niece  of  Lord  Capel,  who  had 
married  Mr.  Molyneux,  private  secretary  to  the  then 
Prince  of  Wales.  Molyneux  was  devoted  to  astro- 
nomical science,  and  whilst  he  was  living  at  Kew  he 
and  the  more  celebrated  James  Bradley  made  a  very 
important  discovery  in  connection  with  the  aberra- 
tion of  the  fixed  stars  with  the  aid  of  a  large  zenith- 
sector,  the  spot  in  Kew  Gardens  where  it  used  to 
stand  being  marked  by  a  sundial,  the  gift,  in  1830, 
of  William  IV. 

In  1728  Lady  Elizabeth  Molyneux  was  left  a 
widow,  and  in  1730  the  Prince  of  Wales  obtained 
from  her  a  long  lease  of  Kew  House,  which  he  did 
not  live  to  profit  by.  On  his  untimely  death,  how- 
ever, the  Princess  of  Wales  remained  in  it,  and  con- 
tinued the  work  on  the  grounds  begun  by  Lord 
Capel,  entrusting  the  superintendence  of  the  altera- 
tions to  Sir  William  Chambers,  then  considered  the 
leading  architect  of  the  day,  who  designed  the  lofty 
pagoda,  the  great  orangery,  and  the  various  semi- 
classical  buildings  in  the  gardens,  whilst  Sir  William 
Aston,  a  noted  horticulturist,  was  chosen  as  advisory 
botanist.  Before  the  Princess  of  Wales  died  in 
1772  the  appearance  of  the  Kew  estate  was  com- 
pletely transformed,  and  when  her  son,  George  III., 


KEW  223 

took  possession  of  it,  his  wife  Queen  Charlotte  con- 
tinued constantly  to  add  to  the  rare  plants  in  its 
hothouses.  So  enamoured  did  the  king  become  of 
Kew  House  that,  a  few  years  later,  he  bought  the 
property  from  the  then  representative  of  the  Capel 
family,  retiring  to  it  whenever  possible  to  amuse 
himself  with  gardening  and  farming.  He  added 
several  acres  in  Mortlake  parish  and  part  of  the  Old 
Deer  Park  of  Richmond  to  the  already  extensive 
grounds,  a  considerable  portion  of  which  he  converted 
into  grazing  land  for  a  fine  flock  of  merino  sheep,  in 
which  he  took  a  great  pride.  The  house,  a  pictur- 
esque half-timbered  building,  soon  became  too  small 
for  its  owner's  ambitious  schemes,  and  shortly  before 
his  first  attack  of  insanity  he  had  it  pulled  down  to 
make  way  for  a  huge  mansion,  which,  had  it  been 
completed,  would  have  been  more  like  a  mediaeval 
stronghold  than  a  residential  palace.  It  was  scarcely 
begun,  however,  before  the  king's  strange  malady 
increased  upon  him,  and  after  his  death  his  son 
George  IV.,  who  hated  Kew,  which  was  associated 
with  many  sad  memories  for  him,  decided  not  to 
have  it  completed.  In  1827  all  that  was  left  of  it 
was  cleared  away,  and  its  very  site  is  now  practically 
forgotten. 

Meanwhile  the  Dutch  House  had  become  even 
more  closely  associated  with  the  royal  family  than 
its  opposite  neighbour.  It  was  occupied  for  some 
time  by  Queen  Caroline,  consort  of  George  II.,  and 
in  1781  was  bought  by  George  III.  for  Queen  Char- 
lotte, who  brought  up  her  large  family  in  it,  for 
which  reason  it  became  known,  first,  as  the  Royal 


224    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Nursery,  and  later  as  the  Princes'  House.  It  was  in 
it  that  the  unfortunate  king  was  shut  up  when  he 
lost  his  reason,  whilst  his  wife  and  children  resided 
in  Kew  House,  and  when  the  latter  was  pulled  down 
the  Dutch  House  became  the  chief  suburban  residence 
of  the  royal  family.  In  its  drawing-room,  fitted 
up  for  the  occasion  as  a  chapel,  were  married,  on 
July  n,  1818,  the  royal  brothers,  the  Dukes  of 
Clarence  and  Kent,  the  latter  the  future  father  of 
Queen  Victoria,  who  was  born  in  1819  in  Kensington 
Palace.  In  it,  too,  on  November  1818,  Queen  Char- 
lotte died,  and  from  that  time  the  house  was  com- 
paratively neglected.  It  is  still  the  property  of  the 
Crown,  is  kept  in  good  repair,  and  remains  a  note- 
worthy example  of  sixteenth-century  domestic  archi- 
tecture, but  it  is  never  likely  to  be  again  used  as  a 
royal  residence.  On  the  other  hand  the  gardens 
connected  with  it  have  become  even  more  beautiful 
than  they  were  in  the  time  of  the  Georges.  They 
were  given  to  the  nation  by  Queen  Victoria  in  1841, 
and  since  then,  under  the  able  direction  of  the  dis- 
tinguished botanists  Sir  William  Hooker,  his  son 
Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  Sir  W.  Thisselton  Dyer,  and 
their  successors,  they  have  become  not  only  an  end- 
less source  of  delight  to  thousands  of  sightseers,  but 
also  a  centre  of  scientific  research.  In  the  museums 
are  preserved  examples  of  a  vast  number  of  vegetable 
products,  so  that  they  form,  with  the  infinite  variety 
of  growing  plants  in  the  grounds  and  houses,  an  all 
but  perfect  epitome  of  botany.  Moreover,  until 
quite  recently,  the  Observatory,  situated  on  the  land 
filched  for  a  time  by  George  III.  from  the  Richmond 


KEW  225 

Deer  Park,  was  for  many  years  noted  for  the  good 
astronomical  work  done  in  it,  but  unfortunately, 
though  the  building  is  still  standing,  the  savants, 
who  for  so  long  studied  the  heavenly  bodies  from  it, 
have  been  driven  away  by  the  electric  trams  running 
between  Brentford  and  Twickenham,  that  caused 
such  an  oscillation  of  the  delicate  instruments  in  use 
that  the  accuracy  of  the  observations  taken  was 
destroyed.  Kew  now  knows  the  astronomers  no 
more ;  they  have  taken  refuge  in  a  remote  district 
in  Dumfriesshire,  where  as  yet  no  tramways  disturb 
their  peace,  their  departure  marking  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era  for  the  neighbourhood  in  which  they 
worked  so  long,  and  where  commercial  enterprise 
has  won  a  complete,  though  somewhat  inglorious, 
victory  over  science. 

The  parish  church  of  Kew,  that  is  still  a  royal 
chapel,  rises  from  the  green,  on  land  presented  by 
Queen  Anne  to  the  people,  and  dedicated  in  com- 
pliment to  her  to  her  namesake,  the  mother  of  the 
Virgin.  It  was  completed  in  1714,  and  is  a  fairly 
good  example  of  early  eighteenth-century  ecclesias- 
tical architecture,  for  though  it  has  been  considerably 
enlarged,  the  original  style  has  been  preserved.  The 
great  gallery  at  the  western  end  was  added  by 
George  III.  for  the  use  of  his  large  family,  and  a 
supplementary  chancel,  with  the  mortuary  chapel  in 
which  rest  the  remains  of  the  Duke  of  Cambridge, 
youngest  son  of  that  monarch,  was  completed  in 
1833.  According  to  popular  tradition  George  III. 
was  married  in  Kew  Church  to  the  beautiful 
Quakeress  Hannah  Lightfoot,  whom  he  had  wooed 


226    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

and  won  long  before  he  saw  his  future  consort,  who, 
it  is  said,  insisted  on  going  through  the  ceremony  of 
wedlock  again  in  the  same  building,  after  the  story 
of  her  husband's  relations  with  her  predecessor  came 
to  her  ears.  However  that  may  be,  the  old  place  of 
worship  is  full  of  memories  of  the  royal  family ;  in 
it  the  blind  King  George  of  Hanover,  who  was  born 
in  a  house  now  used  as  one  of  the  Herbariums  of  the 
Botanic  Gardens,  was  baptized,  and  there,  many 
years  later,  the  Duchess  of  Teck,  who  resided  for  a 
long  time  in  Cambridge  Cottage,  still  standing  on 
the  green,  was  married  to  the  father  of  the  present 
Princess  of  Wales.  A  stained-glass  window  com- 
memorates the  duchess,  and  amongst  th^  hatchments 
on  the  walls  are  two  unpretending  tablets,  one  in 
honour  of  the  portrait  painter  Johann  Zoffany,  the 
other  of  the  more  famous  Thomas  Gainsborough, 
both  of  whom  are  buried  in  the  churchyard,  the  latter, 
in  accordance  with  his  own  instructions,  near  his 
old  friend  Joshua  Kirby,  who  was  one  of  his  first 
patrons. 

Full  of  interest  as  is  the  history  of  Kew,  it  is 
surpassed  in  fascination  by  that  of  the  neighbouring 
royal  borough  of  Richmond,  so  varied  have  been 
the  vicissitudes  through  which  it  has  passed,  and 
so  many  are  the  great  names  associated  with  it. 
Originally  known  as  Syenes,  and  later  as  Sheen, 
Richmond  was  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest  included 
in  the  manor  of  Kingston,  when  it  was  but  one  of 
many  riverside  hamlets  tenanted  chiefly  by  fisher- 
men. The  Anglo-Saxon  form  of  the  word  Sheen 
signifies  gleaming  or  beautiful,  and  certain  lovers  of 


SHEEN  227 

Richmond  have  assumed  that  it  was  from  the  first 
distinguished  above  its  fellows  by  its  charm,  but 
this  is  scarcely  borne  out  by  evidence,  for  the  name 
was  in  use  when  the  sites  of  the  future  monasteries, 
palace,  and  town  were  still  mere  waste  lands,  often 
under  water,  and  differing  but  little  if  at  all  from 
the  adjoining  districts  up  and  down  stream. 

It  seems  certain  that  there  was  a  manor-house  at 
Sheen  as  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century,  and  in  it  Henry  I.  resided  for  a  short  time, 
probably  welcoming  there  his  widowed  daughter, 
Matilda,  who  on  the  death  of  her  husband,  Henry  v. 
of  Germany  in  1126,  returned  to  England  to  be 
accepted  at  the  following  meeting  of  the  Witan  as 
heiress-apparent  of  her  father's  kingdom.  The  Sheen 
estate  was  given  later  by  Henry  I.  to  a  butler  in 
his  service  named  Michael  Belet,  but  it  was  not  long 
before  it  reverted  to  the  Crown,  to  which  it  has  ever 
since  belonged.  Edward  I.  was  several  times  at  Sheen, 
receiving  the  Scottish  commissioners  there  in  1300, 
but  the  house  he  occupied  was  practically  rebuilt 
and  converted  into  a  palace  by  Edward  III.,  who 
often  held  his  court  in  it,  showing  princely  hospi- 
tality to  many  distinguished  guests  before  the  news 
of  the  death  of  his  beloved  son,  the  Black  Prince, 
broke  his  heart.  In  it,  deserted  it  is  said  by  all  his 
courtiers,  and  attended  only  by  a  single  priest,  the 
once  powerful  monarch  died  in  1377,  his  unworthy 
mistress,  Alice  Ferrers,  having,  when  she  saw  the 
end  was  near,  absconded  with  all  the  valuables  she 
could  carry  away,  including  several  valuable  rings 
which  she  had  torn  off  the  fingers  of  her  dying  lover. 


228    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

When  the  news  of  Edward's  death  reached 
London,  his  four  surviving  sons  hastened  down  to 
the  palace  at  Sheen  to  pay  to  their  dead  father  the 
honours  they  had  withheld  from  him  during  the 
closing  years  of  his  life  ;  but  whether  the  body  was 
taken  to  Westminster  for  interment  by  road  or  by 
river  history  does  not  say.  Soon  after  the  funeral 
Richard  II.,  then  a  boy  of  ten  years  old,  received  the 
formal  announcement  of  his  succession  to  the  throne 
from  a  deputation  of  leading  London  citizens,  who 
were  received  by  him  and  his  brother  in  the 
great  hall,  when  the  young  king  became  so  excited 
that  he  could  not  restrain  his  emotion,  but  kissed  his 
guests  all  round  on  both  cheeks.  The  next  day  he 
left  his  early  home  mounted  on  a  white  horse  and 
robed  in  white,  attended  by  all  his  great  nobles,  who 
also  wore  white  in  honour  of  the  occasion,  to  make 
his  public  entry  into  his  capital.  A  few  years  later 
he  brought  home  to  Sheen  his  beloved  bride,  Anne 
of  Bohemia,  and  until  her  early  death  he  was  often 
there  with  her,  holding  regal  state  and  entertaining 
hundreds  of  guests  every  day. 

Considerable  additions  were  made  to  the  royal 
residence  at  Sheen  by  Richard's  orders,  and  the 
superintendence  of  the  works  was  entrusted  to  the 
poet,  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  who  had  been  held  in  high 
esteem  by  Edward  ill.,  that  monarch  having  granted 
him  a  pension  in  1367,  calling  him  in  the  deed  of 
gift  'our  beloved  yeoman.'  Chaucer  became  deeply 
attached  to  Sheen,  but  his  connection  with  it  was 
not  a  long  one,  for  he  presently  fell  into  disgrace 
with  his  employer,  who  took  away  all  his  official 


SHEEN  229 

appointments,  and  though  later  he  was  to  some 
extent  restored  to  favour,  the  king's  love  for  his  river- 
side home  had  by  that  time  been  turned  to  hatred. 
In  1394  Queen  Anne  died  at  Sheen,  and  so  great 
was  the  grief  of  her  husband,  who,  for  all  that,  soon 
married  again,  that  he  ordered  the  palace  to  be 
razed  to  the  ground  immediately  after  the  funeral,  a 
grand  and  imposing  ceremony  in  which  all  the  chief 
nobles  of  England  took  part.  Fortunately  the  royal 
commands  were  not  fully  carried  out,  for  much  of 
the  interesting  old  building  was  left  standing,  and 
although  it  was  neglected  throughout  the  remainder 
of  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  it  was  sufficiently  habit- 
able in  that  of  Henry  IV.  to  be  used  as  a  residence 
by  his  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Indeed  Henry  V. 
was  from  the  first  very  fond  of  Sheen,  and  soon  after 
his  succession  to  the  throne  he  restored  and  added 
to  the  palace,  converting  it  into  what  his  biographer, 
Thomas  Elmham,  called  'a  delightful  mansion  of 
curious  and  costly  workmanship  befitting  the  character 
and  condition  of  a  king.'  Henry  VI.,  who  was  but 
nine  months  old  when  his  father  died,  may  possibly 
have  been  at  Sheen  as  a  child,  but  the  first  well- 
authenticated  visit  paid  by  him  to  the  palace  was  in 
1441,  when  he  issued  a  warrant  from  it  to  the  sheriffs 
of  the  counties  through  which  his  aunt,  Eleanor, 
Duchess  of  Gloucester,  whose  husband  had  been 
Protector  of  England  during  his  minority,  was 
expected  to  pass,  giving  instructions  for  her  recep- 
tion. In  1445,  the  year  of  Henry's  marriage  to 
Margaret  of  Anjou,  Sheen  Palace  was  the  scene  of 
many  a  costly  festivity,  and  ten  years  later  it  was  to 


230    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

it  that  the  unfortunate  monarch  was  taken  when  his 
constitutional  weakness  had  developed  into  positive 
insanity.  Thence,  after  his  recovery,  he  went  forth 
to  the  fatal  battle  of  St.  Albans,  at  which  he  was 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by  the  Yorkists,  and 
there  he  returned  in  1456,  when  his  mind  was  again 
unhinged,  whilst  his  wife,  with  her  beloved  son,  with- 
drew to  Chester.  Once  more  restored  to  mental 
health,  Henry  made  a  gallant  effort  to  regain  the  reins 
of  power,  but  he  never  again  was  king  in  anything 
but  name,  his  palace  at  Sheen  knew  him  no  more, 
but  before  his  tragic  death  in  the  Tower  in  1471  it 
was  twice  tenanted  by  his  hated  rival  Edward  IV. 
The  latter  was  there  for  a  short  time  in  the  first  year 
of  his  reign,  and  in  1465  he  held  a  brilliant  court  in 
the  palace,  hoping  by  his  lavish  hospitality  to  recon- 
cile the  nobles  to  his  secret  marriage  with  Elizabeth 
Woodville,  the  discovery  of  which  so  alienated  the 
kingmaker,  the  mighty  Earl  of  Warwick,  that  he 
reverted  to  the  Lancastrian  side.  At  Sheen  the 
queen's  relations  were  very  much  in  evidence,  and  it 
is  said  to  have  been  there  that  her  ladies  paid  her 
brother,  Anthony  Woodville,  the  compliment  of  pre- 
senting him  with  a  golden  garter  embroidered  with 
forget-me-nots.  In  1467  the  king  gave  the  Sheen 
Palace  to  his  wife,  and  she  often  resided  in  it  during 
her  husband's  lifetime,  possibly  also  occasionally  in 
the  brief  reign  of  Richard  III.,  and  she  probably 
hoped,  after  the  murder  of  her  sons,  to  be  allowed  to 
spend  her  remaining  years  there,  especially  as  the 
new  king  was  her  son-in-law,  but  in  this  she  was  dis- 
appointed. Henry  VII.  liked  the  riverside  home 


RICHMOND  231 

too  much  himself,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  confiscating 
it,  ordering  the  widowed  queen  to  retire  to  a  convent 
at  Bermondsey,  where  she  died  not  long  afterwards. 
Now  began  a  new  era  of  glory  for  Sheen,  the  name 
of  which  the  king  changed  to  Richmond,  he  having 
been  Earl  of  Richmond  in  Yorkshire  before  he  was 
called  to  the  English  throne.  What  had  hitherto 
been  really  more  like  a  fortress  than  a  palace  was 
greatly  enlarged,  the  moat  which  had  surrounded  it 
was  filled  in  to  make  room  for  the  various  extensions, 
and  the  new  buildings  were  lavishly  decorated.  When 
the  insurrection  headed  by  Lambert  Simnel,  the  son 
of  an  Oxford  carpenter,  who  claimed  to  be  the  heir 
of  the  murdered  Duke  of  Clarence,  broke  out  in 
Ireland  in  1487,  Henry  called  a  council  of  war 
together  at  Richmond,  and  the  following  year  the 
Princess  Anne  of  York,  fifth  daughter  of  Edward  IV., 
was  the  guest  of  the  king  in  the  palace.  In  1492, 
after  the  termination  of  the  war  with  France,  a  grand 
tournament  was  held  partly  in  the  grounds  of  the 
royal  residence  and  partly  on  the  green  between  it 
and  the  river,  '  in  the  which  space,'  says  the 
chronicler  John  Stow,  writing  about  a  century  later, 
'  a  combat  was  holden  and  doone  betwixt  Sir  James 
Parker,  knight,  and  Hugh  Vaughan,  gentleman 
usher,  upon  controversie  for  the  arms  that  garter 
gave  to  the  sayde  Henry  Vaughan  .  .  .  and  Sir 
James  was  killed  incontinently  at  the  first  course,  in 
consequence/  in  the  writer's  opinion,  '  of  his  having 
worn  a  false  helmet,'  an  incident  proving  how  real 
were  the  dangers  attending  the  warlike  pageants  in 
which  the  Tudor  sovereigns  so  greatly  delighted. 


232    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

In  1497  or  1498  a  serious  fire  broke  out  in  Rich- 
mond Palace,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  older 
portion  of  the  building  was  destroyed,  but  the  king 
at  once  set  a  whole  army  of  workmen  to  repair  the 
mischief,  and  in  1501  he  was  back  again  in  his 
favourite  residence.  There,  in  the  early  autumn  of 
that  year,  took  place  the  betrothal  of  his  eldest  son, 
Prince  Arthur,  with  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  Katharine  of  Aragon,  and  there,  too,  in 
January  1502,  was  signed  the  contract  of  marriage 
between  the  Princess  Margaret  of  England  and 
James  IV.  of  Scotland  that  eventually  resulted  in  the 
union  of  the  two  countries.  Prince  Arthur  died  five 
months  after  the  wedding,  and  the  king  with  unex- 
pected generosity  gave  up  the  Richmond  Palace  to 
his  widowed  daughter-in-law,  who,  on  June  25,  1503, 
was  affianced  to  his  second  son,  Henry,  heir-apparent 
of  the  English  throne,  who  was  then  only  eleven  years 
old.  Henry  vii.  appears  to  have  taken  possession 
of  the  palace  again  very  soon,  for  in  1503  he  received 
in  it  Philip  I.  of  Spain,  who  had  been  shipwrecked 
off  the  coast  of  England,  holding  great  festivities  in 
his  honour.  In  1506  another  fire  occurred,  breaking 
out  this  time  in  the  king's  own  bedroom,  and  he 
narrowly  escaped  a  serious  accident,  for  a  gallery 
through  which  he  had  passed  with  the  young  Prince 
Henry  collapsed  just  as  he  was  leaving  it.  In  this 
case,  fortunately,  the  damage  done  was  slight,  and 
Henry  spent  much  of  the  remainder  of  his  life  at 
Richmond,  where  he  died  in  1509,  leaving  behind 
him,  it  is  said,  a  vast  accumulation  of  treasure  hidden 
away  in  secret  chambers  and  cellars.  After  solemn 


RICHMOND  233 

services  had  been  held  in  the  private  chapel  of  the 
palace,  the  body  was  taken  by  road  with  great  pomp 
to  be  laid  to  rest  in  the  beautiful  but  still  unfinished 
chapel  in  Westminster  Abbey,  on  which  the  king 
had  spent  fabulous  sums  during  his  lifetime,  and  for 
the  completion  of  which  he  left  .£1000  in  his  will 
that  he  made  at  Richmond  three  weeks  before  his 
death. 

Henry  vili.  seems  to  have  been  at  first  as  much 
attached  to  the  Richmond  Palace  as  his  father  had 
been.  He  spent  the  first  Christmas  after  his  acces- 
sion there,  and  it  was  in  it,  on  New  Year's  Day  1511, 
that  his  wife,  Katharine  of  Aragon,  gave  birth  to  a 
son,  whose  advent  was  celebrated  throughout  the 
kingdom  with  extraordinary  rejoicings.  The  infant 
on  whom  so  much  depended  lived,  however,  but 
for  six  weeks,  and  his  father  is  said  to  have  looked 
upon  his  untimely  death  as  a  judgment  on  himself 
for  having  married  his  brother's  widow.  After  the 
tragic  event  the  king  paid  but  a  few  short  visits  to 
Richmond,  lending  the  palace  there  between  whiles 
to  distinguished  guests,  amongst  whom  was  the 
Emperor  Charles  v.  of  Germany,  who  had  come  to 
England,  in  1523,  for  his  betrothal  to  the  Princess 
Mary,  then  only  four  years  old.  That  same  year 
Henry  leased  the  Richmond  estate  to  Massey 
Villiard  and  Thomas  Brampton  for  a  term  of  thirty 
years  at  an  annual  rental  of  £23,  8s.,  but  he  evidently 
considered  it  still  his  own  private  property,  for  he 
made  use  of  the  palace  whenever  it  suited  his 
convenience.  In  1526,  for  instance,  when  he  had 
compelled  Wolsey  to  give  up  to  him  the  newly 


234    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

completed  mansion  at  Hampton  Court,  he  told  the 
chagrined  donor  that  he  could  live  in  his  house  at 
Richmond  instead,  a  privilege  of  which  the  cardinal 
availed  himself  but  seldom,  so  great  was  his  un- 
popularity in  the  neighbourhood,  the  common  people, 
especially  those  who  had  been  in  the  service  of 
Henry  VII.,  bitterly  resenting  that  what  they 
irreverently  called  'a  bocher's  dogge  should  be  in 
the  royall  manor  of  Richmond.'  For  all  that,  how- 
ever, Wolsey  received  Henry  VIII.  as  his  guest  in  it 
in  1528,  when  the  feast  of  the  patron-saint  of 
England  was  celebrated  with  great  solemnity  in 
the  chapel,  all  the  companions  of  the  Order  of  the 
Garter  having  been  present.  After  his  final  disgrace 
the  broken-hearted  minister  paid  a  last  visit  to 
'  Richmond,  taking  up  his  abode  on  his  arrival  as 
usual  at  the  palace,  but  he  soon  received  a  peremp- 
tory message  from  his  angry  master  telling  him  to 
withdraw  to  the  Lodge  in  the  Old  Deer  Park,  the 
history  of  which  is  related  below. 

In  1535  Anne  Boleyn,  whose  doom  was  already 
practically  sealed,  was  for  a  short  time  at  Richmond 
Palace,  and,  according  to  some  authorities,  it  was  in 
a  house  near  by,  then  owned  by  Sir  George  and 
Lady  Carew,  that  her  successor  in  the  king's  affec- 
tion, Jane  Seymour,  awaited,  on  the  fatal  I9th  of 
May  1536,  the  arrival  of  her  royal  lover,  to  whom 
she  had  been  married  the  day  before. 

It  was  at  Richmond  that  Anne  of  Cleves  resided 
whilst  the  negotiations  were  proceeding  for  her 
divorce  from  the  fickle  king,  and  when  they  were 
concluded  Henry,  in  his  relief  at  getting  rid  of  the 


RICHMOND  235 

'Dutch  cow,'  as  he  irreverently  called  her,  gave  her  the 
estate  for  her  life.  She  became  much  attached  to  the 
palace,  and  the  story  goes  that  the  once  hated  wife 
several  times  entertained  the  king  in  it  with  such 
charming  hospitality  that  he  nearly  fell  in  love  with 
her.  There  was  even  at  one  time  a  rumour  that  she 
had  become  the  mother  of  a  son  whose  father  was 
her  divorced  husband,  and  it  was  not  until  some  of 
the  scandalmongers  had  been  publicly  tried  and 
severely  punished  that  gossiping  tongues  ceased  to 
wag  on  the  subject.  That  Anne  did  cherish  a  hope, 
when  Catherine  Howard's  influence  was  waning,  of 
regaining  her  position  as  queen  appears  certain, 
but  she  had  the  sense  soon  to  recognise  that  she 
had  no  chance  of  success,  and  she  lived  quietly  on 
in  her  luxurious  home  until  the  death  of  Henry, 
when  she  had  to  resign  it  to  Edward  vi.  The 
latter  preferred  Richmond  Palace  to  any  of  his 
other  residences,  and  spent  as  much  of  his  time 
there  as  his  physicians  would  allow ;  but  they  con- 
sidered Hampton  Court  healthier,  and  insisted  on 
his  removal  there  when  his  health  began  to  fail.  It 
was  at  Richmond  that  took  place,  in  the  young 
king's  presence,  in  the  summer  of  1550 — some  say 
in  his  private  chapel,  others  in  that  of  the  neigh- 
bouring Carthusian  monastery  of  Jesus  of  Bethlehem, 
of  which  an  account  is  given  below — the  marriage 
of  Lord  Lisle  to  Lady  Anne  Seymour  and  that  of 
Robert  Dudley,  later  Earl  of  Leicester,  to  the  ill- 
fated  Amy  Robsart,  who  was  to  pay  so  dearly  for 
standing  in  the  way  of  her  husband's  courtship  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  That  same  year  Edward  VI. 


236    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

received  in  the  great  hall  of  the  palace  the  French 
ambassador,  Marshal  St.  Andre,  who  had  come  from 
France  to  invest  him  with  the  order  of  St.  Michael, 
on  which  occasion  the  courtly  manners  and  generosity 
of  the  king  completely  won  the  hearts  of  all  his 
guests. 

Queen  Mary  was  at  the  palace  in  1553,  and  there 
received  the  news  of  the  rebellion  headed  by  Wyatt, 
which  caused  her  to  hasten  to  London,  where  her 
prompt  action  saved  the  situation.  She  returned  to 
Richmond  in  triumph,  and  summoned  her  council 
to  meet  her  there  to  discuss  the  arrangements  for 
her  marriage  with  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  on  which  she 
was  determined  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  her 
subjects.  Her  happiest  days  were  spent  in  the  old 
palace  on  the  green  before  she  realised  how  vain 
were  her  hopes  of  winning  her  husband's  affections 
and  becoming  the  mother  of  an  heir  to  the  throne ; 
but  after  her  husband's  return  to  Spain  she  took  a 
dislike  to  Richmond.  When  the  Princess  Elizabeth 
was  suspected  of  a  plot  against  her  sister's  life  she 
was  sent  from  her  prison  in  the  Tower  to  Richmond 
Palace  under  the  care  of  the  stern  Sir  Henry 
Bedingfield,  and  she  was  so  much  pleased  with  her 
new  place  of  confinement  that  she  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  remain  there.  It  was  whilst  she  was  at 
Richmond  that  she  was  offered  a  free  pardon  if  she 
would  renounce  her  claim  to  the  throne  and  marry 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  but  she  firmly  refused,  and  was 
therefore  removed  to  Woodstock,  where  she  was 
kept  in  close  confinement,  only  escaping  condemna- 
tion to  death  by  pretending  that  she  had  been 


RICHMOND  237 

converted  to  Roman  Catholicism.  Later,  when 
Mary's  fears  of  her  sister's  disloyalty  were  allayed, 
and  her  beloved  Philip  was  once  more  with  her,  a 
grand  entertainment  was  given  at  Richmond,  at 
which  Elizabeth  was  present,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1558  the  queen  paid  her  last  visit  to  the  palace, 
contracting  there,  it  was  said,  the  chill  which  caused 
her  death,  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  had  long 
been  in  a  critical  condition  of  health. 

With  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  a  fresh  era  of 
prosperity  began  for  Richmond,  which  was  one  of 
the  new  queen's  favourite  places  of  residence,  and 
to  which  she  often  went  by  water,  her  magnificent 
state  barge  escorted  by  a  whole  fleet  of  richly 
decorated  boats  bearing  her  retinue.  In  Richmond 
Palace  Elizabeth  received  many  of  the  suitors  for 
her  hand,  including  the  young  Eric  IV.,  King  of 
Sweden,  whom  she  admitted  to  some  little  intimacy, 
even  introducing  him  to  her  favourite  astrologer, 
Dr.  Dee  of  Mortlake,  though  she  never  had  the 
slightest  intention  of  accepting  him  ;  and  there,  too, 
she  carried  on  a  simultaneous  flirtation  with  the 
Earls  of  Leicester  and  Essex,  to  the  latter  of  whom 
she  seems  to  have  been  really  deeply  attached. 
Even  after  both  had  passed  away  she  kept  up  the 
old  traditions,  making  a  gallant  attempt  to  hide 
the  fact  that  her  heart  was  broken,  for  she  wrote 
love-letters,  some  of  them  from  Richmond,  to  the 
young  Lord  Mountjoy  ;  and  on  one  occasion  is  said 
to  have  rewarded  a  commoner,  Mr.  William  Sydney, 
with  a  kiss  as  a  reward  for  his  sprightly  dancing  of 
a  coranto  in  her  presence  in  the  great  hall  of  the 


238     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

palace.  To  the  last  Elizabeth  loved  her  Richmond 
home ;  and  it  was  in  its  chapel  that  she  listened,  not 
long  before  her  death,  to  a  sermon  from  Dr.  Rudd, 
Bishop  of  St.  David's,  on  the  realistic  description  of 
old  age  in  the  I2th  chapter  of  Ecclesiastes,  remain- 
ing, it  is  related,  apparently  unmoved  even  when 
the  preacher,  with  extraordinary  want  of  tact, 
referred  to  her  own  wrinkles  as  an  example  of  the 
ravages  of  time.  The  discourse  over,  however,  the 
queen  rose,  opened  a  window  with  her  own  hands 
as  if  to  mark  her  displeasure,  and  turning  to  the 
doctor  told  him  he  could  in  future  keep  his  dis- 
paraging observations  to  himself,  adding,  '  I  see 
that  some  wise  men  are  as  big  fools  as  the  rest.' 

According  to  some  authorities  it  was  at  Richmond 
that  the  aged  sovereign  received  the  news  that  her 
beloved  Earl  of  Essex  had  been  executed,  a  tragedy 
she  had  hoped  to  have  prevented,  though  she  had 
signed  his  death-warrant,  by  her  promise  that  she 
would  pardon  him  at  the  last  moment,  however  great 
his  crime,  if  he  sent  back  to  her  a  ring  she  had  given 
him.  Unfortunately  there  is  no  reliable  historical 
proof  of  the  truth  of  the  touching  story  that  he  did 
entrust  the  ring  to  be  given  to  the  queen  to  the 
Countess  of  Nottingham,  who  kept  it  back,  only 
confessing  the  truth  on  her  death-bed  to  Elizabeth, 
who  shook  her  violently,  declaring  that  God  might 
forgive  her,  though  she  never  would  ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  tragic  end  of  the  earl  hastened  her 
own  death.  She  knew  full  well  that  she  was  doomed 
soon  to  follow  her  favourite  to  the  grave,  and  often 
made  covert  allusions  to  her  conviction,  as  when  she 


RICHMOND  239 

said  to  Lord  Howard,  '  I  am  tied  with  a  chain  of 
iron  round  my  neck,  all  is  changed  with  me  now.' 
The  last  few  months  of  her  life  were  spent  at  Rich- 
mond, and  she  passed  peacefully  away,  after  declar- 
ing she  had  no  wish  to  live  longer,  on  March  24, 
1603,  according  to  tradition,  for  which  there  seems, 
however,  to  be  no  convincing  evidence,  in  a  small 
room  still  in  existence  above  one  of  the  entrance- 
gates  of  the  palace.  Her  body  was  taken  down  the 
river  to  Whitehall  in  the  very  barge  she  had  so 
often  used  in  life,  and  never  again  was  Richmond 
the  scene  of  a  great  historic  pageant.  James  I.  cared 
little  for  his  property  there,  and  gave  it  to  his  eldest 
son,  Henry,  of  whom,  as  is  well  known,  he  was 
extremely  jealous,  preferring  that  he  should  not 
reside  at  court. 

Prince  Henry  lived  much  at  Richmond,  receiving 
there,  in  1606,  the  French  and  Spanish  ambassadors, 
who  were  both  eager  to  secure  for  their  respective 
sovereigns  an  alliance  with  him,  and  during  the  last 
few  years  of  his  life  he  began  to  form  the  famous 
collection  of  pictures  which  is  still,  after  going 
through  many  vicissitudes,  one  of  the  most  valued 
possessions  of  the  English  royal  family.  He  was 
resident  at  the  palace  during  the  whole  of  the 
summer  before  his  untimely  death,  which  took  place 
at  St.  James's  Palace  in  1612,  and  was,  according  to 
his  doctors,  the  result  of  over-indulgence  in  bathing 
in  the  Thames.  He  was  deeply  mourned  by  the 
people  of  Richmond,  with  whom  he  was  extremely 
popular,  on  account  of  his  genial  unassuming  manners. 
He  left  his  pictures  to  his  brother  Charles,  to  whom 


240    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  Richmond  estate  was  transferred  by  their  father 
in  1617.  The  new  owner  was  often  at  the  palace 
before  his  accession  to  the  throne,  constantly  adding 
to  the  art  treasures  in  it,  and  his  beloved  Steenie 
was  often  his  guest  there.  It  was  from  it  that  the 
two  inseparable  friends  started  in  1623  on  their  wild 
expedition  to  Spain,  Charles  intending  to  woo  the 
Infanta  incognito  before  committing  himself  to  an 
engagement.  Two  months  after  Charles  became 
king  he  was  welcoming  a  very  different  bride,  Hen- 
rietta Maria  of  France,  on  whom  he  bestowed  the 
Richmond  Palace  as  part  of  her  marriage  portion ; 
and  although  they  both  preferred  Whitehall  and 
Buckingham  Palace,  the  young  couple  were  several 
times  in  residence  there  before  their  troubles  began. 
The  Richmond  home  was  also  turned  to  account  as 
a  place  of  education  for  their  children,  the  princesses 
Elizabeth,  Mary,  and  Anne  were  there  for  some 
years  under  the  care  of  the  Countess  of  Roxburgh, 
and  there  Anne  died  in  1640,  from  what  her  doctor 
called  a  '  suffocating  cataar.'  A  year  later  her  brother 
Charles  was  sent  to  Richmond  with  his  tutor,  Bishop 
Duppa,  by  the  Parliament  that  was  already  at 
daggers  drawn  with  his  father,  and  there  he  enjoyed 
a  time  of  comparative  security  and  happiness  before 
he  became  involved  in  the  doom  that  overtook  his 
parents,  and  started  on  his  weary  wanderings  as  the 
disinherited  heir  of  a  murdered  father.  During  the 
four  years'  Civil  War  Richmond  Palace  was  practi- 
cally deserted,  and  in  1647  the  pictures  in  it  were 
taken  down,  those  likely  to  spread  papal  doctrines 
being  burned,  and  the  others  dispersed.  In  1649  a 


RICHMOND  241 

survey  of  the  property  was  made  by  order  of  Crom- 
well, when  its  value  was  assessed  at  ^"10,782,  ros.  2d., 
and  shortly  afterwards  it  was  sold  to  aid  in  raising 
money  to  pay  the  arrears  due  to  the  soldiers  of  the 
Parliamentary  army.  The  greater  part  of  the  historic 
building  was  pulled  down,  and  in  1650  what  was  left 
of  it  was  bought  by  Sir  Gregory  Norton,  who  had 
been  one  of  the  king's  judges,  and  had  signed  the 
warrant  for  his  execution.  According  to  some 
authorities  Sir  Gregory  resided  in  the  dismantled 
mansion  until  his  death,  which  took  place  in  1652, 
whilst  others  assert  that  he  was  turned  out  of  it  at 
the  Restoration,  when  he  narrowly  escaped  sharing 
the  fate  of  the  other  regicides.  However  that  may 
be,  the  palace,  hallowed  by  so  many  memories,  was 
certainly  occupied  for  a  short  time  by  the  widowed 
queen  Henrietta  Maria,  who  actually  received  in  it, 
as  her  guest,  the  notorious  Lady  Castlemaine,  one 
of  Charles  ll.'s  many  mistresses,  who  had  left  him  in 
a  fit  of  temper  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  story 
goes  that  the  king  joined  her  at  Richmond  the  next 
morning,  in  the  hope  of  patching  up  a  reconciliation, 
when  he  probably  had  a  stormy  interview  with  his 
mother,  who  must  indeed  have  mourned  over  his 
many  iniquities,  and  wondered  that  all  his  troubles 
should  have  taught  him  so  little. 

The  Queen  Dowager  left  Richmond  for  France, 
never  to  return,  in  1665,  giving  over  the  palace  to  Sir 
Edward  Villiers,  who  two  years  later  either  lent  or 
rented  it  to  a  relative  of  his,  Lady  Frances  Villiers, 
who  had  charge  of  the  three  young  children  of  the 
Duke  of  York,  the  future  James  II.,  two  of  whom, 
Q 


242    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  Dukes  of  Kendal  and  Cambridge,  died  in  1667. 
On  the  accession  of  James  n.,  Richmond  Palace  was 
given  back  to  the  Crown,  but  the  new  king  never 
lived  in  it,  though  he  sent  his  infant  son,  who  was  to 
have  such  a  melancholy  career  as  the  Pretender,  to 
be  cared  for  there.  The  child,  who  was  so  delicate 
that  he  had  not  been  expected  to  live,  throve  in  his 
new  surroundings,  and  was  taken  back  to  Windsor 
in  time  to  share  his  parents'  flight  on  the  landing  of 
the  Prince  of  Orange.  After  the  new  revolution  the 
royal  demesne  at  Richmond  was  long  deserted, 
William  III.  and  his  consort  having  paid  only  flying 
visits  to  it.  The  Princess  Anne,  daughter  of  James  II. 
by  his  first  wife,  who  had  been  very  happy  there 
with  her  little  brothers  before  their  untimely  death, 
begged  hard  to  be  allowed  to  live  in  it,  but  permission 
was  refused,  and  it  was  not  until  the  accession  of 
George  II.  that  it  was  again  used  as  a  royal  resi- 
dence. The  palace  was  given  by  him  to  his  wife, 
Queen  Caroline,  who  built  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  ladies  of  her  court  the  four  substantial  man- 
sions on  the  west  side  of  the  green  that  are  still 
known  as  Maids  of  Honour  Row.  In  1770  Richmond 
Palace  was  for  a  few  months  the  home  of  Queen 
Charlotte,  who,  as  already  stated  in  connection  with 
Kew,  had  a  great  love  for  the  whole  neighbourhood. 
Since  then,  unfortunately,  further  portions  of  the 
grand  old  mansion,  that  at  one  time  with  its  de- 
pendencies occupied  ten  and  a  half  acres  of  ground, 
have  been  pulled  down,  and  all  that  is  now  left  are 
the  entrance  gateway — on  which,  carved  in  stone, 
is  the  coat  of  arms  of  Henry  VII. — of  what  is  still 


RICHMOND  243 

known  as  the  Wardrobe  Court,  and  a  portion  of  the 
buildings  that  once  surrounded  the  latter,  which  are 
leased  by  the  Crown  to  different  tenants,  and  still 
bear  witness  with  their  ornate  internal  decoration, 
their  quaint  nooks  and  corners,  and  their  secret 
passages,  to  the  good  old  days  gone  by,  when  they 
were  but  a  small  part  of  a  stately  palace,  capable  of 
accommodating  hundreds  of  distinguished  guests, 
that  was  the  scene  of  many  a  courtly  pageant  and 
many  an  exciting  intrigue. 


CHAPTER    XI 

RICHMOND  TOWN   AND  PARK,  WITH   PETERSHAM, 
HAM  HOUSE,  AND  KINGSTON 

IN  addition  to  the  many  interesting  historic 
memories  connected  with  its  palace,  Rich- 
mond has  associations  with  a  number  of  important 
religious  houses,  of  which,  unfortunately,  no  actual 
trace  now  remains,  though  their  names  are  preserved 
in  those  of  certain  modern  roads. 

Henry  V.,  soon  after  his  accession,  founded  in  the 
Old  Deer  Park,  near  the  site  of  the  present  Obser- 
vatory of  Kew,  a  Carthusian  monastery,  which 
he  called  the  House  of  Jesus  of  Bethlehem,  one  of 
several  endowed  by  him  in  expiation  for  his  father's 
usurpation  of  the  throne,  which  may  possibly  have 
been  in  Shakespeare's  mind  when  in  his  Henry  V. 
he  made  that  monarch  say,  '  And  I  have  built  two 
chantries  where  the  sad  and  solemn  priests  still 
pray  for  Richard's  soul.' 

The  monastery  of  Jesus  of  Bethlehem  seems  to 
have  been  a  very  imposing  group  of  buildings, 
covering  several  acres  of  ground,  round  about  which 
soon  gathered  a  considerable  hamlet  that  was  known 

as  West  Sheen.     In  the  chapel  connected  with  it 
Ml 


SHEEN  MONASTERY  245 

continual  prayers  were  offered  up  day  and  night 
for  the  soul  of  King  Richard,  and  within  its  pre- 
cincts was  a  hermitage  called  the  Anchorites'  cell, 
where  dwelt  the  chaplain,  whose  stipend  was  fixed 
at  twenty  marks  a  year.  The  new  community 
quickly  gained  a  great  reputation  for  sanctity,  and 
its  priors  were  all  men  chosen  on  account  of  their 
exceptional  holiness,  amongst  whom  the  last,  Henry 
Man,  who  died  in  1536,  was  specially  noted  for  his 
earnest  faith,  or  what  would  at  the  present  day  be 
considered  his  credulity,  for  he  firmly  believed  in 
the  divine  mission  of  the  Holy  Maid  of  Kent,  who 
had  during  his  term  of  office  a  great  following  of 
converts,  and  paid  by  her  terrible  death  at  Tyburn 
for  her  boldnes-s  in  predicting  the  punishment  of  the 
king  for  his  divorce  of  Katharine  of  Aragon. 

To  Sheen  Monastery  came  Edward  IV.  and  his 
wife  Elizabeth  in  1472,  to  take  part  in  what  was 
called  the  '  Great  Pardon,'  a  special  dispensation 
granted  to  all  who  had  contributed  to  the  expense 
of  restoring  the  buildings,  and  to  it  some  thirty 
years  later  fled  Perkin  Warbeck  in  the  vain  hope 
of  obtaining  sanctuary,  for  he  was  dragged  from 
his  refuge  by  the  king's  emissaries,  by  whom  he 
was  taken  to  London  to  be  set  in  the  stocks,  first 
at  Westminster  and  at  Cheapside,  before  he  was 
sent  to  the  Tower,  where  his  fellow-conspirator,  the 
young  Earl  of  Warwick,  was  already  imprisoned. 

It  was  at  Sheen  that  the  education  of  the  future 
Cardinal  Pole  was  begun,  he  having  been  sent  there 
at  the  early  age  of  seven.  He  remained  under  the 
care  of  the  monks  for  five  years,  and  returned  to 


246    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

them  in  1525  for  two  years  of  prayerful  seclusion 
before  the  beginning  of  his  long  struggle  with 
Thomas  Cromwell  over  the  question  of  the  king's 
divorce.  The  memory  of  the  saintly  Dean  Colet 
is  also  inseparably  connected  with  the  House  of 
Jesus  of  Bethlehem,  for  some  little  time  after  his 
foundation  of  St.  Paul's  School,  he  built  for  himself 
a  house  on  land  acquired  from  the  brethren,  to  which 
he  withdrew  when  he  felt  his  end  approaching,  pass- 
ing peacefully  away  in  it  in  1519. 

According  to  an  old  but  not  well-authenticated 
tradition,  the  dead  body  of  James  IV.  of  Scotland 
was  brought  to  Sheen  for  interment  after  the  fatal 
battle  of  Flodden  Field,  remaining  in  the  monastery, 
however,  unhouselled  and  unassoilcd,  though  pro- 
tected from  decay  by  being  wrapt  in  lead  amongst 
a  quantity  of  lumber  in  an  upper  chamber  until 
1552 — a  date,  by  the  way,  long  after  the  dissolution 
of  the  religious  houses — when  it  was  found  by  some 
workpeople,  who  cut  off  the  head  to  give  it  to  a 
glazier  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  employ,  and  buried  the 
rest  of  the  remains.  In  1539  the  monks  of  Sheen 
wisely  evaded  the  penalties  of  resistance  to  the  high- 
handed proceedings  of  Henry  VIII.  by  voluntarily 
surrendering  their  property  to  him,  and  although 
later  Queen  Mary  reinstated  them  in  their  old 
home,  they  were  again  banished  by  her  successor. 
Meanwhile  the  monastery  had  been  occupied,  first 
by  Edward,  Earl  of  Hertford,  brother  of  Jane 
Seymour,  to  whom  the  estate  had  been  granted 
by  her  husband,  and  later  by  the  father  of  Lady 
Jane  Grey,  Henry,  Duke  of  Suffolk,  after  whose 


SHEEN  MONASTERY  247 

death  on  the  scaffold  in  1554  it  reverted  to  the 
Crown,  by  whom  it  was  leased  to  successive  tenants, 
passing  in  1675  to  Lord  Brouncker  and  the  more 
celebrated  diplomatist  and  historian,  Sir  William 
Temple,  the  former  taking  possession  of  the  Priory, 
the  latter  of  a  smaller  house  near  by.  It  was  to 
Sir  William  Temple  that  were  addressed  the  famous 
love-letters  of  Dorothy  Osborne,  who  when  she 
became  his  wife  lived  with  him  in  what  he  called 
his  '  little  corner  at  Sheen,'  sharing  his  interest  in  the 
cultivation  of  his  gardens,  which  became  celebrated 
far  and  near  for  the  vegetables  and  fruit  grown  in 
them. 

It  was  at  Sheen  that  Jonathan  Swift,  who  was  for 
some  years  secretary  to  Sir  William  Temple,  first 
met  his  beloved  '  Stella,'  Hester  Johnston,  who  was 
born  on  the  estate,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the 
daughter  of  its  owner.  Whether  this  be  true  or 
not,  her  education  was  entrusted  by  Sir  William  to 
Swift,  and  it  was  to  her  that  the  latter  addressed 
the  Journal,  which  is  considered  one  of  his  most 
remarkable  works.  Soon  after  his  accession  to  the 
English  throne,  William  III.,  who  had  seen  a  good 
deal  of  Sir  William  Temple  when  the  owner  of  the 
'  little  corner  at  Sheen '  was  ambassador  at  the 
Hague,  offered  him  the  post  of  Secretary  of  State, 
and  though  the  appointment  was  declined,  the 
king  used  often  to  ride  over  from  Hampton  Court 
to  stroll  about  in  the  Sheen  gardens,  when  he 
and  his  host  would  discuss  together,  now  affairs  of 
vital  importance  to  the  kingdom,  now  the  best  soil 
in  which  to  grow  different  varieties  of  fruit.  Swift 


248    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

was  generally  in  attendance  at  these  meetings,  and 
is  said  to  have  been  taught  by  the  royal  guest  how 
to  cook  vegetables  in  the  Dutch  style.  Possibly 
little  Hester,  still  a  mere  child,  may  have  shared 
the  royal  instructions,  that  were  continued  at  Moor 
Park,  to  which  her  reputed  father  withdrew  in  1689, 
giving  over  the  Sheen  home  to  his  only  surviving 
son,  John  Temple.  After  the  death  of  the  new 
tenant,  who  had  been  made  Secretary  for  War,  but 
committed  suicide  four  days  afterwards  in  despair 
of  being  able  to  cope  with  the  onerous  duties  of 
his  office,  Sir  William  took  a  great  dislike  to  his 
once  beloved  property,  and  never  again  visited  it. 
Meanwhile  Lord  Brouncker  had  passed  away,  and 
after  changing  hands  many  times,  the  monastery 
buildings,  as  well  as  the  house  that  had  been  owned 
by  Sir  William  Temple,  were  pulled  down  in  the 
early  eighteenth  century,  with  the  exception  of  one 
gateway  belonging  to  the  former,  which  was  still 
standing  in  1769,  when  it  too  was  removed,  because 
it  interfered  with  the  so-called  improvements  being 
made  by  George  III.  on  his  Kew  estate.  The 
hamlet,  that  owed  its  existence  to  the  monastery, 
was  also  swept  away,  but  its  name  is  preserved 
in  those  of  the  suburb  of  East  Sheen,  the  road  lead- 
ing to  it  and  one  of  the  gates  of  Richmond  Park, 
near  to  which,  amongst  the  many  modern  villas 
that  have  recently  sprung  up,  still  remain  some  few 
stately  old  mansions,  notably  that  known  as  Temple 
Grove,  that  was  once  the  home  of  Sir  John,  brother 
of  Sir  William  Temple. 

The  House  of  Jesus  of  Bethlehem  was  not  the 


RICHMOND  LODGE  249 

only  monastery  founded  at  Sheen  by  Henry  V.,  for 
he  also  endowed  a  home  for  some  French  monks  of 
the  Celestine  order,  but  it  was  hardly  completed 
before  he  sent  the  inmates  back  to  their  own  land 
and  confiscated  the  property,  because  he  discovered 
on  a  surprise  visit  he  paid  them  that  his  name  was 
not  mentioned  in  their  prayers.  Later,  Edward  II. 
built  a  convent  at  Sheen  for  Carmelite,  and  Henry 
VII.  one  for  Observant  friars,  but  the  career  of 
both  was  short,  for  the  former  was  soon  removed 
to  Oxford  and  the  latter  was  suppressed  in  1534, 
though  a  building  near  the  palace  was  long  known 
as  the  Friary,  whilst  the  memory  of  what  must  have 
been  a  very  important  community  is  still  preserved 
in  the  names  of  Friars'  Lane,  leading  down  to  the 
river,  and  Friar  Stile  Road  in  Upper  Richmond. 

The  house  in  which  Dean  Colet  passed  away,  that 
was  confiscated  with  the  rest  of  the  monastery 
estate  by  Henry  VIII.,  became  known  as  the  Lodge, 
and  it  was  to  it  that  Cardinal  Wolsey  was  ordered 
to  withdraw,  as  related  above,  on  his  last  sad  visit 
to  Richmond.  It  was  later  successively  leased  to 
various  tenants,  and  granted  in  the  early  eighteenth 
century  to  James,  Duke  of  Ormond,  who  rebuilt  or 
greatly  added  to  it,  residing  in  it  till  his  impeach- 
ment in  1715,  when  it  passed  to  his  brother,  the 
Earl  of  Arran,  who  sold  it  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
later  George  II.,  who  was  living  in  it  with  his  wife, 
the  Princess  Caroline,  when  in  1727  the  news  of  the 
death  of  his  father  was  brought  to  him  by  Sir  Robert 
Walpole.  The  new  king  gave  the  Lodge  to  the 
queen,  who  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  on  it, 


250    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

laying  out  the  grounds  in  a  lavish  fashion,  and 
causing  many  extraordinary  buildings  to  be  erected 
in  them,  including  a  fantastic  structure  known  as 
Merlin's  Cave,  a  hermitage,  a  grotto,  and  a  dairy. 
It  was  in  this  beloved  retreat  that  Sir  Walter  Scott 
in  his  Heart  of  Midlothian  laid  the  scene  of  the 
interview  between  Jeanie  Deans  and  Queen  Caroline 
that  he  prefaces  with  an  eloquent  description  of 
Richmond  Hill  as  it  then  was,  and  the  inimitable 
view  from  it.  After  the  death  of  Queen  Caroline 
the  Lodge  was  deserted  for  some  little  time,  and 
in  1760  her  grandson,  George  III.,  pulled  it  down, 
destroyed  the  beautiful  terrace  overlooking  the  river, 
and  had  the  grounds  ploughed  up  to  add  them  to 
the  grazing-grounds  of  his  sheep  and  cattle,  leaving 
not  a  trace  of  a  home  that  was  once  as  favourite 
a  royal  residence  as  the  palaces  of  Richmond  and 
Kew,  though  the  Old  Deer  Park  in  which  it  stood, 
where  archery,  hockey,  and  other  open-air  competi- 
tions are  now  held,  still  seems  to  be  haunted  by 
the  spirits  of  those  who  lived  in  it. 

Of  the  many  other  fine  old  mansions  that  were 
long  the  pride  of  Richmond,  few,  alas,  now  remain. 
Gone,  for  instance,  is  Fitzvvilliam  House  that  fronted 
the  green,  in  which  George  II.  was  the  guest  of  Sir 
Matthew  Decker  on  the  day  when  he  was  pro- 
claimed king,  and  where  its  noble  former  owner 
formed  the  priceless  collection  of  rare  books,  illumi- 
nated missals,  etc.,  bequeathed  by  him  to  Cambridge 
and  preserved  in  the  Fitzwilliam  Museum.  Vanished, 
too,  is  the  famous  '  High  walk '  or  '  terras  on 
arches  '  that  stretched  from  where  the  Vicarage  now 


RICHMOND  TOWN  251 

stands  to  one  of  the  entrances  to  the  grounds  of 
the  Lodge,  and  was  a  favourite  promenade  of  the 
frequenters  of  the  Richmond  spa,  which  enjoyed  a 
brief  popularity  in  the  early  eighteenth  century, 
as  is  also  the  humble  group  of  houses  known  as 
Poverty  Court,  that  were  at  one  time  occupied  by 
some  of  the  poorer  members  of  the  nobility.  The 
great  block  of  buildings  erected  in  1798  on  part 
of  the  site  of  the  old  palace  by  the  Earl  of 
Cholmondeley,  that  later  became  associated  with  the 
notorious  Earl  of  Queensberry,  familiarly  called  '  Old 
Q.,'  in  which  the  Prince  of  Wales,  later  George  IV., 
and  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  later 
William  IV.,  and  Horace  Walpole  were  amongst  the 
many  distinguished  guests,  was  pulled  down  in 
1830  and  replaced  by  the  modern  villa  that  bears 
its  name,  though  it  is  but  a  poor  representative  of  its 
predecessor.  Fortunately,  however,  between  the  fine 
bridge  that  replaced  the  ancient  ferry  in  1774  and 
Petersham,  still  stand  facing  the  river  and  preserv- 
ing much  of  the  character  of  days  gone  by,  several 
noteworthy  survivals  of  the  royal  borough's  palmy 
days,  including  the  picturesque  Bridge-House  built 
by  Sir  Robert  Taylor  in  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  the  so-called  Trumpeter's  House, 
also  known  as  the  '  Old  Palace,'  a  characteristic 
Queen  Anne  building  with  a  pretentious  porch,  that 
owes  its  singular  name  to  two  figures  of  trumpeters 
that  used  to  stand  on  either  side  of  the  entrance, 
Ivy  Hall,  the  residence  of  William  IV.  when  Duke 
of  Clarence ;  Gothic  House,  long  the  home  of 
the  cultivated  Madame  de  Stael-Holstein,  daughter 


252    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  the  astute  French  minister  Necker ;  and  Buccleuch 
House,  where  Queen  Victoria  and  Prince  Albert, 
with  many  other  members  of  the  royal  family, 
were  the  guests  of  the  then  owner  in  June  1844 
at  an  open-air  fete,  when  the  river  presented  a  scene 
almost  as  brilliant  as  in  the  days  of  Henry  vill.  or 
Elizabeth. 

Fortunately,  the  general  aspect  of  Richmond 
Green,  that  when  the  palace  was  occupied  by 
royalty  was  the  scene  of  many  a  brilliant  pageant, 
and  later  of  many  a  hotly  contested  game  of  cricket, 
in  which  the  chief  experts  of  the  day  took  part, 
is  but  little  changed  from  what  it  was  two  centuries 
ago.  Its  wooden  palings  have  been  replaced  by 
iron  ones  bearing  the  monogram  of  William  IV., 
and  the  old  sundial  that  long  occupied  its  centre 
has  been  removed,  but  its  limits  have  not  been 
curtailed.  It  has  a  delightful  old-world  look  about 
it,  and  there  is  nothing  incongruous  with  it  in  the 
new  buildings  of  the  Free  Library,  or  in  the  modern 
theatre  associated  with  the  name  of  Edmund  Kean, 
who  was  at  one  time  its  lessee,  that  replaces,  though 
on  another  site,  the  eighteenth-century  building  in 
which  David  Garrick  and  Mrs.  Siddons  are  said  to 
have  acted,  and  that  was  the  successor  of  a  yet 
earlier  one  founded  by  the  poet-laureate  Colley 
Gibber.  The  narrow  alleys  leading  from  the  town 
to  the  time-honoured  Green  are  also  thoroughly  in 
keeping  with  it,  and  here  and  there  a  venerable 
red-brick  mansion  amongst  the  more  modern  build- 
ings surrounding  it  redeems  the  ancient  borough  from 
the  commonplace.  The  parish  school  and  dust-bin, 


RICHMOND  TOWN  253 

with  the  open  refuse-heap  that  long  occupied  the  site 
of  the  present  crescent ;  the  old  watch-house  that 
looked  down  upon  them,  with  the  adjacent  pound  and 
stocks,  have  all  been  improved  away  ;  but  the  houses 
of  Heron,  originally  Herring  Court,  named  probably 
after  a  former  owner,  in  one  of  which  Lord  Lytton 
was  often  the  guest  of  his  brother,  those  in  Ormond 
Road  where  dwelt  the  poetess  Mrs.  Hofland,  Lich- 
field  House,  now  the  residence  of  the  novelist 
Mrs.  Maxwell  (Miss  Braddon),  and  Egerton  House 
opposite  to  it,  still  strike  the  note  of  the  past, 
that  echoes  also  in  the  poetic  name  of  the  district 
known  as  the  Vineyard,  recalling  the  days  when 
vines  flourished  on  the  slopes  of  Richmond  Hill, 
and  the  almshouses  of  Sir  Richard  Wright  and 
Bishop  Duppa — both  founded  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  though  the  latter  was  only  transferred  to 
its  present  site  in  1852  —  received  their  first  in- 
mates. No  longer  do  the  shouts  of  the  bargemen, 
who  used  to  be  harnessed  to  their  crafts  in  groups 
of  eight,  tout  for  hire  in  Water  Lane,  and  the 
quaint  cry  '  Man  to  horse  ! '  by  which  their  customers 
hailed  them,  clash  with  the  shrill  horn  of  the  stage- 
coach that  started  for  London  twice  a  day,  but  at 
the  junction  of  the  Lane  with  King  Street  still 
stands  part  of  the  ancient  Feather's  Inn,  once  a 
noted  place  of  resort  of  the  beau  monde,  and  not  far 
from  it  is  the  little  old-fashioned  shop  known  as 
the  Maid  of  Honour,  because  in  it  were  sold  the 
celebrated  cakes  bearing  that  name.  Passed  away, 
leaving  no  trace,  however,  are  the  Blue  Anchor, 
Black  Boy,  and  Queen  Anne's  inns,  but  near  the 


254    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

summit  of  the  famous  hill,  looking  down  upon  the 
river,  is  the  fine  residence  called  Cardigan  House, 
once  the  property  of  the  earl  whose  name  it  bears, 
in  the  grounds  of  which  is  the  medicinal  spring 
near  to  which  was  erected  in  1696  a  place  of  enter- 
tainment called  Richmond  Wells,  that  was  very 
much  frequented  until  in  1696  the  property  was 
bought  by  two  straight-laced  maiden  ladies  named 
Houblin,  who  quickly  put  a  stop  to  the  gay  gather- 
ings that  used  to  assemble  in  the  theatre  by  having 
it  pulled  down. 

Beyond  Cardigan  House  are  the  beautiful  public 
gardens  occupying  the  site  of  Lansdowne  House 
and  part  of  the  Buccleuch  estate  that  were  laid  out 
after  the  designs  of  Sir  Frederick,  later  Lord 
Leighton,  and  were  opened  in  1866,  and  a  little 
higher  up  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  is  the  world- 
famous  terrace,  the  view  from  which  has  been 
eloquently  described  again  and  again  in  poetry  and 
prose,  and  has  been  made  the  subject  of  many  a 
well-known  painting.  With  Petersham  Wood  and 
village  and  the  winding  river  in  the  foreground, 
it  embraces  the  valley  of  the  Thames  as  far  as 
Windsor  Castle,  that  can  be  distinctly  seen  on  a 
clear  day,  and  the  distant  Surrey  hills  varying  in 
character  with  the  season  of  the  year,  but  ever  full 
of  fascination  and  inspiration  to  those  who  are 
able  to  appreciate  its  charm.  Again  and  again  the 
public  have  been  threatened  with  the  loss  of  the 
unique  privilege  of  enjoying  this  unrivalled  prospect, 
now  one,  now  another  of  its  exquisite  details  that 
has  fallen  into  the  market  having  been  marked  for 


RICHMOND  HILL  255 

destruction  by  the  speculative  builder,  but  in  almost 
every  case  rescue  has  come  sometimes  at  the  very 
last  moment  by  the  intervention  of  some  generous 
individual  who  has  snatched  the  prey  from  the 
destroyer,  as  when  in  1900  Sir  Max  Waechter 
bought  the  beautiful  Petersham  Ait  or  Glovers 
Islet  and  presented  it  to  the  Richmond  Corporation. 
On  the  river  side  of  the  famous  terrace  are  two 
massive-looking  eighteenth-century  mansions  that, 
but  for  the  memories  associated  with  them,  would 
be  better  away,  known  as  the  Wick,  occupying  the 
site  of  the  Bull's  Head  Tavern  and  Wick  House, 
the  latter,  though  now  considerably  altered,  origin- 
ally designed  by  Sir  William  Chambers  for  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  who  lived  in  it  for  some  years, 
receiving  there  many  of  his  celebrated  sitters,  and 
more  than  once  painting  the  view  from  its  windows. 
At  the  end  of  the  terrace — nearly  opposite  the 
entrance  to  Queen's  Road,  named  after  Queen 
Caroline,  that  was  a  century  ago  a  mere  muddy 
thoroughfare  called  Black  Horse  Lane — is  the 
famous  Star  and  Garter  Hotel,  that  occupies  the 
site  of  several  earlier  buildings,  two  of  which  were 
destroyed  by  fire.  The  first  inn  of  the  name — that 
commemorates  the  Earl  of  Dysart,  a  knight  of  the 
noble  Order  of  Chivalry  founded  by  Edward  III., 
who  owned  the  ground  on  which  it  stood — was 
built  in  1738,  and  was  but  one  of  several  hostelries 
dotted  about  near  what  was  then  known  as  the 
High  Walk  on  the  Green,  amongst  which  was 
possibly  a  predecessor  of  the  one  opposite  the 
picturesque  modern  Wesleyan  College,  named  after 


256    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  Lass  o'  Richmond  Hill,  about  whom  there  has 
been  so  much  amusing  controversy,  but  whose 
identity  has  never  yet  been  satisfactorily  deter- 
mined, some  saying  that  she  was  Mrs.  Fitzherbert, 
who  at  one  time  lived  on  the  terrace,  others  that 
she  was  Lady  Sarah  Lennox,  one  of  several  ladies 
to  whom  George  III.  paid  court  before  he  married 
Queen  Charlotte,  whilst  a  few  north-country  sceptics 
declare  that  she  was  a  rustic  beauty  of  the  York- 
shire Richmond. 

It  was  not  until  the  early  nineteenth  century 
that  the  Star  and  Garter  began  to  gain  the  ex- 
ceptional celebrity  it  still  enjoys,  but  since  1838, 
when  it  was  occupied  by  Louis  Philippe,  who  was 
visited  in  it  by  the  young  Queen  Victoria,  it  has 
been  associated  with  the  names  of  many  illustrious 
guests,  including  the  Princess  Lieven,  the  widowed 
Queen  Amelia,  the  ill-fated  Archduke  Maximilian, 
and  the  Due  d'Aumale. 

Opposite  to  the  Star  and  Garter  is  Ancaster 
House,  soon,  alas,  to  be  replaced  by  residential  flats, 
named  after  the  Duke  of  Ancaster,  from  whom  it 
was  purchased  by  Sir  Lionel  Darrell,  the  favourite 
of  George  ill.,  who  gave  to  him  a  portion  of  the 
park,  marking  it  off  himself  with  his  riding-whip, 
when  he  complained  that  he  had  not  room  for  the 
hothouses  he  wished  to  build.  In  one  of  the  large 
mansions  facing  the  famous  view  lives  Sir  Frederick 
Cook,  who  owns  a  fine  collection  of  paintings  of  the 
old  masters,  and  a  house  in  the  adjacent  Downe 
Terrace  occupying  part  of  the  site  of  Bishop 
Duppa's  almshouses  referred  to  above,  was  the 


RICHMOND  TOWN  257 

home  at  one  time  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  and 
later  of  Mrs.  Ewing,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Gatty. 

The  parish  church  of  Richmond,  dedicated  to 
St.  Mary  Magdalene,  replaces  one  of  four  ancient 
chapels  that  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  Merton. 
Its  tower,  a  massive  square  structure,  that  has  been 
again  and  again  restored,  is  of  much  earlier  date 
than  the  rest  of  the  building,  which  has  been  several 
times  added  to.  The  general  effect  is  not,  however, 
inharmonious,  and  there  is  a  simple  dignity  about 
the  interior,  that  contains  a  number  of  interesting 
memorials  of  noted  inhabitants  of  the  royal  borough, 
including  a  sixteenth  -  century  brass  to  Robert 
Cotton,  who  was  in  the  service  of  Queen  Mary 
and  Elizabeth,  and  one  to  Lady  Dorothy  Wright, 
who  died  in  1631.  In  the  chancel  is  a  monument 
to  Lord  Brouncker,  who  was  cofferer  to  Charles  II., 
and  on  the  walls  of  one  of  the  aisles  are  sculptures 
by  Flaxman  to  the  memory  of  the  Rev.  Mark  Dela- 
fosse  and  the  Honourable  Barbara  Lowther.  The 
inscriptions  to  Mrs.  Yates  the  great  tragic  actress, 
Lady  Diana  Beauclerck,  the  Rev.  George  Wake- 
field,  Mrs.  Hofland,  and  Edmund  Kean,  all  of  whom 
rest  in  the  churchyard,  are  also  noteworthy,  but 
they  are  all  surpassed  in  interest  by  the  tablet 
commemorating  the  famous  poet  James  Thomson, 
who  lived  for  many  years  and  died  in  1748  in  a 
cottage  known  as  Rosedale,  in  the  Kew  Foot  Road, 
that  was  later  enlarged  and  now  forms  part  of  the 
Richmond  Hospital,  it  having  been  bought  by  the 
Corporation  in  1869.  As  is  well  known,  Thomson 
greatly  loved  the  scenery  near  his  home,  often 

R 


258     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

referring  to  its  charms  in  his  poems ;  he  wrote  the 
Seasons  in  his  garden,  in  a  summer-house  now 
destroyed,  where  he  often  received  his  fellow-poets 
Leigh  Hunt  and  Pope,  and  the  actor  Samuel  Quin, 
who  once  rescued  him  from  a  sponging-house  into 
which  he  had  drifted  through  his  carelessness  in 
money  matters.  Thomson  was  buried  in  the 
churchyard  of  the  parish  church,  but  when  the 
latter  was  enlarged  the  new  wall  passed  over  his 
resting-place,  which  is  near  the  brass  tablet  put  up 
to  his  memory  by  Lord  Buchan,  at  the  west  end  of 
the  north  aisle,  that  bears  the  following  inscription  : 
'  In  the  earth  below  this  tablet  are  the  remains  of 
James  Thomson,  author  of  the  beautiful  poems 
entitled  the  Seasons,  the  Castle  of  Indolence,  etc., 
who  died  at  Richmond,  August  27,  and  was 
buried  here  August  29,  1748,  O.S.  The  Earl 
of  Buchan,  unwilling  that  so  good  a  man  and  so 
sweet  a  poet  should  be  without  a  memorial,  has 
denoted  the  place  of  his  interment  for  the  satisfac- 
tion of  his  admirers  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1792.' 

Beneath  this  sentence,  that  naively  couples  the 
name  of  its  author  with  that  of  a  man  far  greater 
than  himself,  is  a  quotation  from  Thomson's  ex- 
quisite Winter  that  may  well  be  given  here,  so 
typical  is  it  of  its  writer's  deeply  reverent  spirit : — 

4  Father  of  Light  and  Life  !     Thou  God  supreme, 
O  teach  me  what  is  good,  teach  me  Thyself! 
Save  me  from  folly,  vanity,  and  vice, 
From  every  low  pursuit,  and  feed  my  soul 
With  knowledge,  conscious  Peace  and  Virtue  prove 
Sacred,  substantial,  never-fading  Bliss  !' 


RICHMOND  PARK  259 

Next  to  its  fine  position  on  a  very  beautiful  reach 
of  the  Thames,  the  chief  glory  of  Richmond — a 
glory  shared,  however,  by  five  other  parishes, 
Petersham,  Ham,  Kingston,  Putney,  and  Mortlake 
— is  its  noble  park,  known  as  the  New  or  Great 
Park,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  one  that  was 
connected  with  the  palace.  It  comprises  two 
thousand  acres  of  charming  undulating  scenery, 
grand  oak  woods  and  plantations  of  other  trees 
alternating  with  fern-clad  dells  and  dales,  in  the 
midst  of  which  are  the  picturesque  Pen  Ponds,  so 
called  because  they  are  near  the  enclosures  for  the 
deer.  From  certain  points,  especially  from  the 
terrace  between  the  Richmond  Hill  gate  and  the 
entrance  to  the  grounds  of  Pembroke  Lodge,  just 
within  which  is  a  memorial  to  Thomson,  grand 
views  are  obtained  of  the  Thames  valley  with  the 
river  winding  through  it,  whilst  from  the  rising 
ground  on  the  other  side  of  the  park  the  buildings 
of  London  and  the  twin  heights  of  Highgate  and 
Hampstead  can  be  distinctly  seen. 

Originally  part  of  a  vast  tract  of  uncultivated 
land  known  as  Sheen  Chase,  of  which  Ham  and 
Sheen  Commons  are  relics,  the  Great  Park  was 
first  enclosed  in  1637  by  Charles  I.,  who  had  a  lofty 
wall,  ten  miles  in  circumference,  built  round  it,  and 
stocked  it  with  the  red  and  fallow  deer  the  descen- 
dants of  which  add  so  greatly  to  its  attractions, 
thus  converting  it  without  any  legal  justification 
into  a  new  hunting-ground  for  his  own  pleasure. 
This  high-handed  proceeding,  involving  as  it  did 
the  appropriation  of  much  private  property,  aroused 


260    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

bitter  opposition  at  the  time,  not  only  from 
the  actual  owners  of  the  confiscated  estates,  but 
also  from  Archbishop  Laud,  Bishop  Juxon,  and 
Lord  Cottington,  then  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
who  espoused  the  cause  of  the  common  people,  their 
privileges  of  collecting  firewood  and  turning  their 
cattle  out  to  graze  having  been  interfered  with. 
The  result  of  the  remonstrances  of  this  powerful 
trio  was  that  the  king,  though  he  would  not  yield 
up  a  yard  of  the  ground  he  had  so  unfairly  seized, 
ordered  the  provision,  for  the  use  of  foot-passengers, 
of  small  gates  and  step-ladders,  the  latter  of  which 
was  situated  where  the  Coombe  entrance,  still  known 
as  the  Ladder  Gate,  now  is.  Moreover,  Charles 
granted  to  his  ranger,  in  addition  to  the  use  of  a 
house  called  Harleton  Lodge,  the  site  of  which 
has  not  been  identified,  the  right  of  pasturage  for 
four  horses,  and  allowed  owners  of  carriages  to 
drive  through  the  park  on  payment  of  certain 
fees. 

After  the  execution  of  the  king,  Parliament 
granted  the  park  to  the  City  of  London,  but  on 
the  Restoration  it  reverted  to  the  Crown,  to  which 
it  has  ever  since  belonged.  The  rangership  became 
a  much  coveted  office  that  was  held  at  different 
times  by  distinguished  statesmen,  including  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  who  did  much  to  improve  the 
property,  and  built  the  famous  old  lodge  that  was 
pulled  down  in  1837.  In  1751  the  appointment  of 
ranger  was  given  to  the  Princess  Amelia,  who  made 
a  very  bad  stewardess,  for  she  treated  the  estate  as 
her  own  private  property,  shutting  out  the  public 


RICHMOND  PARK  261 

entirely,  and  rendering  herself  so  obnoxious  that 
she  was  at  last  compelled  to  resign.  She  was 
succeeded  by  the  Earl  of  Bute,  and  since  his  time 
the  various  restrictions  to  the  enjoyment  by  out- 
siders of  the  beautiful  park  have  been  gradually 
removed,  so  that  now  all  are  free  to  wander  at 
will  amongst  the  woods  and  vales,  or  along  the 
meandering  Beverley  Brook,  to  watch  the  grazing 
deer,  that  are  no  longer  hunted,  and  to  listen  in 
the  early  spring  to  the  songs  of  the  nightingales 
or  the  harsh  cry  of  the  herons  as  they  sweep  down 
from  their  lofty  nests  to  fish  in  the  Thames.  There 
are  now  six  public  carriage  entrances  to  the  park, 
and  within  its  precincts  are  several  old  mansions 
standing  in  private  grounds  that  are  associated 
with  interesting  memories,  amongst  which  the 
most  famous  is  White  Lodge,  built  by  George  II., 
and  added  to  by  the  Princess  Amelia,  that  was  long 
the  home  of  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  mother  of  Queen 
Victoria,  and  later  that  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess 
of  Teck,  parents  of  the  present  Princess  of  Wales, 
whose  eldest  son,  the  heir  after  his  father  to  the 
English  throne,  was  born  in  it.  Close  to  Sheen 
Gate  is  a  cottage  once  occupied  by  the  famous 
naturalist  Sir  Richard  Owen,  and  in  Pembroke 
Lodge,  once  known  as  the  Mole-Catchers,  that  was 
lent  by  George  II.  to  the  Countess  of  Pembroke, 
after  whom  it  is  named,  the  famous  Prime  Minister 
Earl  Russell  lived  for  some  years  and  died.  In  the 
grounds  of  the  Lodge  are  two  mounds,  one  now 
called  Henry  the  Eighth's,  and  marked  in  the  old- 
est extant  map  of  the  park  as  the  King's  Standinge, 


262    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

because  the  much-married  monarch  was  long  erron- 
eously supposed  to  have  watched  from  it  for  the 
signal  that  Anne  Boleyn's  head  had  fallen ;  the 
other  known  as  Oliver's  Mount,  because  of  the 
equally  unfounded  tradition  that  Cromwell  looked 
down  from  it  on  a  battle  between  the  king's  forces 
and  his  own,  though  exactly  where  the  apocryphal 
battle  took  place  is  not  suggested. 

Between  Richmond  and  Kingston  is  the  still 
charmingly  rural-looking  village  of  Petersham,  set 
down  in  beautiful  scenery,  for  it  is  protected  on  the 
north  and  east  by  the  park  named  after  it  and 
Ham  Common,  and  is  divided  from  the  river  by 
the  famous  meadows,  that  will  never  be  built  over, 
known  as  Ham  Walks,  beloved  of  the  poet  Gay 
and  of  his  patroness  the  old  Duchess  of  Queens- 
berry,  the  '  Kitty '  whose  praises  were  sung  by  him 
and  by  Pope  and  Swift,  and  who  lived  in  a  river- 
side mansion  that  was  later  occupied  by  Lady 
Douglas. 

Referred  to  as  Patriceham  or  Peter's  Dwelling 
in  Doomsday  Book,  the  hamlet  of  Petersham  was 
for  several  centuries  a  dependency  of  St.  Peter's 
Abbey  at  Chertsey,  and  its  quaint  little  sixteenth- 
century  church,  that  has  a  picturesque  turret  sur- 
mounted by  a  low  spire,  probably  occupies  the  site 
of  a  much  earlier  building,  relics  of  which  may 
possibly  have  been  incorporated  in  the  chancel  that 
is  much  older  than  the  nave.  In  the  little  sanctuary, 
that  can  only  hold  three  hundred  worshippers,  and 
is  soon  to  be  supplemented  by  a  far  more  imposing- 
looking  building  now  (1907)  nearing  completion, 


PETERSHAM  263 

rest  the  remains  of  George  Cole  and  his  wife,  whose 
house  and  grounds  were  amongst  the  properties 
confiscated  by  Charles  I.  for  enclosure  in  the  Great 
Park,  and  the  church  also  contains  a  monument 
to  the  great  navigator  Captain  George  Vancouver, 
who  is  buried  in  the  churchyard.  There,  too,  rest 
Theodora  Jane  Cowper,  the  'Delia'  immortalised 
by  her  famous  poet  cousin,  and  the  Misses  Berry, 
the  friends  of  Horace  Walpole,  who  in  their  life- 
time enjoyed  some  little  reputation  as  authoresses, 
and  resided  in  the  neighbouring  Devonshire  House, 
that  was  also  at  one  time  the  home  of  Lady  Diana 
Beauclerck. 

Adjoining  Petersham  is  the  little  village  of 
Ham,  the  history  of  which,  though  it  is  not  men- 
tioned in  Doomsday  Book,  can  be  traced  back 
to  before  the  Conquest,  its  manor  having  been 
given  by  King  Athelstan  to  his  chief  aelderman, 
Wulgar.  Until  quite  recently  a  mere  hamlet  of 
scattered  cottages,  Ham  is  now  growing  into  a 
populous  suburb,  but  it  still  owes  its  chief  distinc- 
tion to  its  association  with  the  celebrated  Ham 
House,  which  is,  however,  really  in  Petersham 
parish,  and  represents  the  home  of  the  Saxon  thane 
Wulgar. 

A  characteristic  Jacobean  mansion,  with  fine 
avenues  of  trees  leading  up  to  the  Petersham  and 
riverside  entrances,  Ham  House  was  built  in  1610 
by  Sir  Thomas  Vavasour,  and  after  changing  hands 
several  times  it  became  the  property  of  the  noble 
Dysart  family.  It  was  long  the  home  of  Elizabeth, 
Countess  of  Dysart,  in  her  own  right,  who  was  one 


264     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  the  most  beautiful  and  accomplished  women  of 
her  time,  and  played  an  important  part  in  the  Civil 
War.  Twice  married,  the  second  time  to  the  Duke 
of  Lauderdale,  she  is  said  to  have  won  all  hearts, 
even  that  of  the  stern,  unbending  Cromwell,  and 
when  her  husband  was  taken  prisoner  after  the 
battle  of  Worcester  she  went  herself  to  plead  his 
cause  with  the  victorious  general.  Later,  when  the 
duke  had  become  the  leading  spirit  of  the  Cabal 
Ministry,  Ham  House  was  the  scene  of  many  of  its 
meetings,  and  allusions  to  it  are  frequent  in  the 
contemporary  press,  notably  in  the  journal  of  John 
Evelyn,  who  under  date  2/th  August  1678  penned 
an  enthusiastic  eulogy  on  it.  In  the  autumn  of 
that  year  John  Campbell,  grandson  of  the  lovely 
Countess  of  Dysart,  who  was  to  become  known  as 
the  great  Duke  of  Argyll,  was  born  in  it,  and 
throughout  his  chequered  career  he  retained  a 
great  affection  for  it.  He  died  in  1743  in  the 
neighbouring  Sudbrook  House  (now  a  hydropathic 
establishment),  that  was  his  favourite  residence  when 
he  was  in  England. 

Charles  II.  is  said  to  have  taken  refuge  in  Ham 
House  on  one  occasion  when  fleeing  for  his  life 
from  his  enemies,  narrowly  escaping  capture,  and 
his  brother  James  II.  was  to  have  been  sent  there 
after  his  deposition  in  1688,  but  he  pleaded  so 
earnestly  against  it,  declaring  it  to  be  a  cold  and 
comfortless  place  in  the  winter,  that  he  was  allowed 
to  go  to  Rochester.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the 
reputation  of  Ham  House  as  one  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful seats  near  London  was  fully  maintained,  in  spite 


KINGSTON  265 

of  the  carping  criticism  to  which  it  was  subjected  by 
Horace  Walpole,  one  of  whose  nieces  had  married 
its  owner,  the  Earl  of  Dysart.  Queen  Charlotte  was 
a  frequent  visitor  there,  and  later  William  IV.  was 
often  the  guest  of  the  famous  Lady  Dysart,  who 
died  at  a  great  age  in  1840.  Since  then  the  time- 
honoured  building  has  been  little  altered,  and  to  the 
art  treasures  accumulated  by  its  early  owners  have 
been  added  many  fine  paintings  by  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds,  Hoppner,  Vandyck,  and  other  great 
masters.  It  remains  one  of  the  very  few  historic 
mansions  on  the  Thames  that  have  escaped  destruc- 
tion, and  those  who  now  own  it  have  given  many 
proofs  of  their  respect  for  its  traditions. 

To  pass  from  Richmond,  Petersham,  and  Ham, 
that  still  bear  the  unmistakable  impress  of  the  past, 
to  modern  Kingston  and  its  suburbs  Surbiton  and 
Norbiton,  is  to  enter  a  different  world,  so  com- 
pletely has  the  ancient  city,  which  is  referred  to 
in  a  charter  of  King  Edred  bearing  date  946  as  the 
'  royal  town  where  kings  are  hallowed,'  been  trans- 
formed since  the  days  when  the  Saxon  kings  were 
crowned  in  it,  sitting  on  the  stone  still  preserved 
in  a  railed-in  space  opposite  the  Courthouse.  There, 
as  inscribed  upon  the  venerable  relic,  Athelstan, 
Edmund,  Edred,  Edgar,  Edward  the  Martyr, 
Ethelred  II.,  and  Edmund  received  their  crowns ; 
there  the  national  councils  assembled  ;  and  there 
took  place  the  tragic  scenes  between  Dunstan  and 
the  young  king  Edwy,  whom  the  archbishop  dared 
to  follow  to  the  chamber  of  his  bride,  CElgifa,  an 
intrusion  the  newly  wedded  wife  never  forgave,  and 


266    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

that  had  much  to  do  with  her  bitter  hostility  to 
her  husband's  adviser.  In  1200  the  reluctant  King 
John  was  compelled  to  give  the  citizens  of  Kingston 
their  first  charter,  and  in  the  royal  town  Henry  III. 
was  defied  in  1264  by  the  turbulent  barons  in 
the  once  formidable  castle,  the  very  site  of  which 
cannot  now  be  determined.  Into  Kingston,  in  1472, 
marched  Falconbridge  with  fifty  thousand  men  in 
pursuit  of  Edward  IV.,  whose  tenure  of  the  throne 
was  still  insecure,  to  find  the  bridge,  the  only  one 
that  then  spanned  the  river  above  the  City  of 
London,  broken  down,  so  that  he  was  obliged  to 
return  by  the  way  that  he  had  come ;  and  at 
Kingston  many  years  afterwards,  the  ill-fated 
Katharine  of  Aragon,  then  a  happy-hearted  girl 
of  sixteen,  halted  for  a  night  on  her  way  to  be 
married  to  Prince  Arthur,  elder  brother  of  the 
second  husband  who  was  to  treat  her  so  cruelly. 
In  1554  the  doomed  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  in  arms 
against  Queen  Mary,  secured  a  temporary  success 
by  crossing  the  river  at  Kingston  on  a  bridge  of 
boats,  and  in  1647  the  old  town  was  for  some 
months  the  headquarters  of  General  Fairfax  in 
command  of  the  Parliamentarian  troops.  There 
a  year  later  the  last  stand  was  made  under  the 
Earl  of  Holland  of  the  Royalists,  who  were  cut  to 
pieces,  their  leader  falling  after  a  desperate  resist- 
ance against  fearful  odds.  Since  then  Kingston 
has  enjoyed  a  long  spell  of  peace  and  security, 
but  it  has  lost  the  distinction  that  belonged  to  it 
in  those  days  of  unrest,  retaining  but  very  few 
survivals  of  the  past.  Its  parish  church,  one  of 


KINGSTON  267 

the  largest  in  England,  was  founded  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century,  but  it  has  been  almost  com- 
pletely modernised,  part  of  its  tower  and  the 
southern  aisle  of  the  chancel  being  all  that  are 
left  of  the  original  structure.  It  contains,  however, 
some  interesting  monuments,  notably  the  altar- 
tomb  of  Sir  Anthony  Benn,  who  died  in  1618,  and 
a  seated  marble  statue  of  the  Countess  of  Liver- 
pool by  Chantrey,  with  several  fine  brasses,  includ- 
ing that  to  Robert  Skern  and  his  wife  Joan, 
daughter  of  Alice  Ferrers,  and  according  to  tradi- 
tion of  Edward  III.,  and  that  to  John  Hertcombe 
and  his  wife,  who  died  in  1477  and  1478. 

A  few  old  houses  in  the  market-place  are  all 
that  now  remain  of  the  many  mansions  that 
were  once  the  pride  of  royal  Kingston,  but  its  fine 
situation  on  the  Thames  preserves  to  it  something 
of  the  distinction  it  enjoyed  for  so  long.  It  is,  more- 
over, in  touch  with  much  beautiful  Surrey  scenery 
and  within  easy  reach  by  water  of  many  picturesque 
riverside  villages,  such  as  Thames  Ditton,  much 
frequented  by  boating  men  and  anglers,  and  East 
Molesey  on  the  junction  of  the  Mole  with  the 
Thames  opposite  Hampton  Court,  a  favourite  resort 
of  holiday-makers  in  the  summer,  when  the  towing- 
path  is  lined  with  gaily  decorated  house-boats  and 
pleasure-crafts  of  great  variety  are  constantly  pass- 
ing up  and  down  stream. 


CHAPTER    XII 

RIVERSIDE   MIDDLESEX  FROM   FULHAM  TO 
HAMPTON  COURT 

A  LTHOUGH  unfortunately  much  of  the  roman- 
2\.  tic  beauty  that  for  centuries  distinguished 
riverside  Middlesex  has  gone  for  ever,  there  still  re- 
main here  and  there  picturesque  survivals  of  the  long- 
ago,  recalling  the  days  when  it  rivalled  its  opposite 
neighbour,  Surrey,  in  rural  charm.  Some  fifty  years 
ago  indeed,  even  Fulham,  now  indissolubly  linked 
with  London,  was  a  country  place,  with  market 
gardens  sloping  down  to  the  Thames,  and  fisher- 
men's cottages  dotted  here  and  there  upon  its  banks. 
The  manor  of  Fulham  was  given  in  the  seventh 
century  by  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  to  whom  it  then 
belonged,  to  the  holy  St.  Erkenwald,  Bishop  of 
London,  and  its  history  has  ever  since  been  in- 
timately bound  up  with  that  of  the  Church  in 
southern  England.  The  ancient  manor-house,  that 
was  long  the  favourite  residence  of  St.  Erkenwald's 
successors,  is  now  represented  by  the  palace,  the 
older  portion  of  which  dates  from  the  fifteenth 
century,  it  having  been  built  by  Bishop  Fitzjames, 
whose  arms  surmount  the  gateway.  In  it  lived  for 
some  time  Bishop  Ridley,  who,  with  the  equally 

368 


FULHAM  269 

famous  Hugh  Latimer,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 
suffered  death  at  the  stake  at  Oxford  in  1554,  for 
their  heretical  opinions,  and  the  no  less  steadfast 
Bishop  Bonner,  who  was  deprived  of  his  see  for 
refusing  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy  that  meant 
the  recognition  of  Queen  Elizabeth  as  the  head 
of  the  Church.  To  Fitzjames's  building  Bishop 
Fletcher,  father  of  the  famous  dramatist,  made 
considerable  additions,  including  the  present  library, 
at  one  time  used  as  a  chapel,  that  contains  with 
many  valuable  manuscripts  and  books  a  number  of 
interesting  portraits,  such  as  those  of  Archbishop 
Sandys  and  Bishops  Ridley  and  Juxon. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  greater  part 
of  the  palace  at  Fulham  was  pulled  down,  and  it 
was  not  until  1764  that  the  river  front  was  rebuilt. 
The  present  chapel  was  added  in  1869  by  Bishop 
Tait,  later  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  from 
time  to  time  minor  alterations  have  been  made, 
the  new  and  the  old  having,  however,  been  so 
skilfully  dovetailed  together  that  the  group  of 
buildings  with  their  encircling  moat  present  a  very 
harmonious  general  appearance.  The  ancient  parish 
church,  the  date  of  the  foundation  of  which  is 
unknown,  to  which  the  charming  Bishop's  Walk 
leads  from  the  palace,  has  also  been  reverently 
treated,  the  necessary  restorations  having  been 
made  with  considerable  care.  In  the  well  -  kept 
churchyard  rest  many  bishops  and  other  cele- 
brities, including  Theodore  Hook,  the  talented  but 
dissipated  novelist,  who  died  in  poverty  and  debt 
in  1841 ;  and  here  and  there  amongst  the  sea 


2/0     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  modern  villas  and  rows  of  shops  that  make  up 
the  Fulham  of  to-day  are  a  few  old  homesteads 
that  still  serve  to.  keep  the  past  in  some  slight 
degree  in  touch  with  the  present.  This  is  espe- 
cially the  case  in  the  district  of  North  End,  where 
in  a  mansion  now  divided  into  two  houses  Samuel 
Richardson  wrote  Clarissa  Harlowe  and  part  of 
Sir  Charles's  Grandson,  and  where  in  residences 
that  cannot  now  be  identified  lived  at  different 
times  W.  Wynne  Ryland,  the  famous  line-engraver 
who  was  hanged  for  forgery  in  1783,  Dr.  Crotch,  the 
musical  composer,  Edmund  Kean,  Mrs.  Delaney, 
Jonathan  Swift,  and  Jacob  Tonson. 

Even  more  Londonised  than  Fulham  is  its  neigh- 
bour Hammersmith,  the  situation  of  which,  how- 
ever, on  a  picturesque  reach  of  the  Thames,  that 
is  here  spanned  by  a  suspension  bridge,  still 
preserves  to  it  a  certain  charm.  The  seventeenth- 
century  church,  if  not  architecturally  beautiful,  is 
in  harmony  with  its  surroundings,  and  though 
the  famous  Brandenburg  House,  in  which  Queen 
Caroline  passed  away,  and  the  ancient  manor-house 
of  Pullenswick,  later  known  as  Ravenscroft,  at 
one  time  the  home  of  Alice  Ferrers,  the  heartless 
mistress  of  Edward  III.,  have  both  been  pulled 
down,  the  Dove  Coffee-house,  in  which,  in  a 
room  overlooking  the  river,  Thomson  wrote  his 
beautiful  poem  of  Winter,  remains  much  what  it 
was  when  it  was  one  of  the  favourite  haunts  of  the 
poet  and  his  kindred  spirits,  Leigh  Hunt,  who 
lived  in  a  little  cottage  hard  by,  and  Pope,  who 
often  came  down  from  his  villa  at  Twickenham  for 


HAMMERSMITH  271 

a  friendly  chat.  On  what  is  known  as  the  Lower 
Mall  lived  many  celebrities  when  it  was  the 
fashionable  quarter  of  Hammersmith,  including  the 
clever  engineer  Sir  Samuel  Morland,  the  trusted 
friend  of  Charles  II. ;  Arthur  Murphy  the  drama- 
tist, Philip  de  Loutherbourg  the  artist,  Charles 
Burney  the  Greek  scholar,  and  greater  than  them 
all,  the  poet  Coleridge ;  whilst  in  the  adjoining 
Upper  Mall,  now  destroyed,  Queen  Catherine,  the 
neglected  wife  of  Charles  II.,  resided  for  some  years 
after  the  death  of  her  fickle  husband.  Later  the 
celebrated  Dr.  Ratcliffe,  who  attended  Queen  Anne, 
had  a  house  near  by,  next  door  to  which  lived  the 
scarcely  less  noted  non-juring  Bishop  Lloyd  of 
Norwich.  Long  a  centre  of  Roman  Catholicism, 
Hammersmith  at  one  time  owned  an  important 
Benedictine  convent,  in  which  during  the  French 
Revolution  many  fugitive  nuns  from  France  took 
refuge,  and  part  of  the  ancient  buildings  are  now 
used  as  a  college  for  priests ;  whilst  the  nunnery 
itself  may  be  said  to  be  represented  by  the  modern 
Nazareth  House,  the  headquarters  of  the  devoted 
Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor. 

Strange  to  say,  though  Hammersmith  has  all 
but  lost  in  the  rush  and  hurry  of  the  present  the 
impress  of  the  past,  its  neighbour  Chiswick  has  to 
a  great  extent  retained  its  old-fashioned  character. 
True,  it  has  lost  many  of  its  ancient  mansions, 
such  as  Chiswick  Hall,  long  a  favourite  summer 
residence  of  the  masters  of  Westminster  School, 
and  the  quaint  Red  Lion  Inn  with  the  whetstone 
chained  to  the  lintel  of  the  door,  beloved  of  artists 


272     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

and  poets,  has  been  improved  away;  but  fortunately 
the  house  in  which  Hogarth  lived  for  some  years 
and  died  has  been  preserved,  and  Chiswick  House, 
long  the  seat  of  the  Dukes  of  Devonshire,  now  a 
private  lunatic  asylum,  is  still  much  what  it  was 
more  than  a  century  ago.  The  venerable  cedar- 
trees  and  antique  statues  in  its  grounds,  with  the 
noble  entrance  gateway  designed  in  1625  by  Inigo 
Jones  for  Beaufort  House,  and  given  by  Sir  Hans 
Sloane  to  the  owner  of  the  estate  in  1738,  preserve 
to  it  even  at  this  late  day  something  of  a  classic 
and  aristocratic  character.  Built  between  1730  and 
!736,  on  the  site  of  an  earlier  Jacobean  mansion, 
by  the  last  Earl  of  Burlington,  who  enjoyed  some 
little  reputation  as  an  architect  during  his  lifetime, 
Chiswick  House  was  greatly  enlarged  by  his  suc- 
cessor, who  was  fond  of  holding  open-air  fetes  in 
its  gardens,  which  were  almost  as  celebrated  as 
those  at  Kew,  and  were  for  some  years  under  the 
care  of  the  distinguished  botanist,  Sir  Joseph 
Paxton  ;  but  the  mansion  itself  is  now  chiefly  cele- 
brated for  the  fact  that  in  it  the  two  great  states- 
men, Charles  James  Fox  and  George  Canning, 
passed  away,  strange  to  say,  in  the  same  room,  the 
former  in  1806  the  latter  in  1827. 

The  Chiswick  Mall,  practically  a  continuation  of 
that  of  Hammersmith  though  divided  from  it  by 
coal  wharves,  etc.,  with  its  charming  views  up  and 
down  stream,  a  picturesque  eyot  rising  from  the 
middle  of  the  river  opposite  to  it,  and  the  tower  of 
the  venerable  parish  church  looking  down  upon  it, 
is  still  one  of  the  most  delightful  promenades  on  the 


STRAND-ON-THE-GREEN  273 

Middlesex  side  of  the  Thames.  The  church,  fitly 
dedicated  to  St.  Nicolas,  the  patron-saint  of  fisher- 
men, who  still  form  a  notable  portion  of  the  congrega- 
tion, is  a  somewhat  uninteresting  modern  successor 
of  a  very  ancient  foundation,  but  it  fortunately 
retains,  in  addition  to  the  tower,  a  few  relics  of  the 
original  nave  and  chancel,  with  several  noteworthy 
monuments,  including  one  to  Charles  Holland,  the 
actor,  erected  by  his  friend  David  Garrick,  and 
many  inscriptions  to  the  memory  of  celebrities  who 
once  lived  in  Chiswick,  such  as  Mary,  Countess  of 
Falconbridge,  and  her  sister  Frances,  daughters  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  and  the  famous  beauties,  Barbara, 
Duchess  of  Cleveland,  and  Margaret  Cecil,  Countess 
of  Ranelagh ;  whilst  in  the  churchyard  rest  the 
artists  Hogarth,  Philip  Loutherbourg,  and  James 
M'Neill  Whistler,  whose  mother  is  buried  beside 
him ;  the  engravers  William  Sharp  and  James 
Fittler,  the  diplomatist  Lord  Macartney,  and  the 
Italian  patriot  Ugo  Foscolo. 

Connecting  Chiswick  with  Brentford,  and  keeping 
up,  as  it  were,  the  continuity  of  the  traditions  of  the 
past,  is  the  picturesque  terrace  of  quaint  old  houses 
known  as  Strand-on-the-Green,  extending  for  about 
half  a  mile  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  which  at 
high  tide  often  invades  it,  washing  over  the  defences 
that  have  been  from  time  to  time  put  up  against  it. 
Until  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Strand-on-the-Green  was  but  part  of  a  fishing 
hamlet,  but  it  gradually  became  transformed  into  a 
fashionable  quarter,  stately,  well-built  houses — in 
one  of  which  lived  the  poet  David  Mallet,  in  another 
s 


274    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  artist  Zoffany,  and  in  another  Joe  Miller  the 
jester — contrasting  with  picturesque  cottages,  such 
as  the  charming  group  still  standing  that  were  given 
to  the  poor  in  1724  by  a  generous  citizen,  and 
rubbing  shoulders  with  ancient  inns,  some  of  which 
are  but  little  altered  even  now,  and  are  frequented 
as  of  yore  by  fishermen  and  boatmen. 

From  Strand-on-the-Green  the  view  of  the  Thames 
is  no  less  fascinating  than  that  from  Hammersmith 
and  Chiswick  Malls,  for  even  at  low  tide,  when 
gleaming  stretches  of  mud  Ime  the  banks  on  either 
side,  the  colour  effects  are  charming.  Higher  up, 
too,  where  the  little  river  Brent — that  with  the 
Brentford  Canal  forms  part  of  a  great  system  of 
inland  waterways — flows  into  the  Thames,  a  touch 
of  poetry  still  lingers,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
once  beautiful  village  named  after  the  ancient  ford 
has  become  one  of  the  most  prosaic  of  the  Middlesex 
suburbs.  The  three -arched  bridge  that  spanned 
the  Brent  a  little  above  its  mouth,  at  which  a  toll 
used  to  be  levied  on  all  cattle  and  merchandise 
and  all  Jews  and  Jewesses  crossing  it  on  foot  or  on 
horseback,  though  Christians  were  allowed  to  pass 
over  free,  is  replaced  by  a  modern  one  with  but  one 
arch ;  the  house  in  which  the  notorious  Noy,  chan- 
cellor to  Charles  il.,  decided  on  the  re-imposition  of 
the  hated  ship-tax  has  been  pulled  down ;  the 
ancient  market-hall,  with  its  high-pitched  roof,  that 
had  been  the  scene  of  many  a  hotly  contested 
election,  and  in  which  resounded  during  the  riots 
of  1769  the  cry  of  '  Wilkes  and  Liberty!'  was 
pulled  down  in  1850  to  make  way  for  the  present 


BRENTFORD  275 

town-hall,  and  a  little  later  its  fate  was  shared  by 
the  famous  half-timbered  hostelry  of  the  Three 
Pigeons,  that  may  possibly  have  been  visited  by 
Shakespeare  when  it  was  tenanted  by  one  of  the 
actors  in  his  company,  John  Lowen.  Vanished,  too, 
is  the  house  in  which  John  Bunyan  lived  at  the 
beginning  of  his  crusade  against  vice  in  high  places  ; 
but  here  and  there,  in  what  is  still  known  as  the 
Half  Acre  district,  that  is  intimately  associated  with 
the  memory  of  the  author  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
and  also  in  the  modern  High  Street,  a  few  ancient 
tenements,  with  lofty,  many-gabled  roofs,  survive  to 
bear  witness  to  olden  times.  Moreover,  about  half 
a  mile  from  what  is  now  known  as  New  Brentford, 
though  it  is  really  more  venerable  than  the  rest  of 
the  town,  is  another  link  with  the  past :  Burton 
House,  a  mansion  occupying  the  site  of  the  manor- 
house  of  Burston,  or  Budeston,  that  belonged  before 
the  suppression  of  the  monasteries  to  St.  Helen's, 
Bishopsgate,  and  was  later  owned  by  Robert  Dudley, 
Earl  of  Leicester. 

Brentford  has  more  than  once  figured  conspicu- 
ously in  the  history  of  England.  Near  to  it,  for 
instance,  King  Edmund  Ironsides  defeated  the 
Danes  in  1016,  and  in  it  a  few  days  after  the  victory 
the  gallant  Saxon  king  was  treacherously  murdered. 
More  than  six  hundred  years  later  the  town,  then 
at  the  zenith  of  its  prosperity,  was  besieged  by 
Prince  Rupert,  and  the  parliamentary  garrison 
driven  out  with  great  loss ;  but  all  too  soon,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  inhabitants,  who  were  staunch 
partisans  of  the  king,  the  tide  turned  again.  Rein- 


276    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

forcements  arrived  from  London  and  encamped  on 
the  then  open  space  of  Turnham  Green ;  Charles, 
who  had  started  from  Kingston  to  join  Prince 
Rupert,  was  compelled  to  draw  back,  and  presently 
Oliver  Cromwell  himself,  fresh  from  victory,  marched 
through  Brentford  in  triumph. 

After  the  Restoration  Charles  II.  was  several  times 
in  Brentford.  Nell  Gvvynn  is  said  to  have  lived 
there  for  some  little  time,  as  did  also  George  Villiers, 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  a  member  of  the  infamous 
Cabal  Ministry,  who  was  the  first  to  celebrate  in 
literature  the  two  kings  of  Brentford,  whom  he 
introduced  in  his  comedy  of  the  Rehearsal,  a  parody 
on  one  of  Dryden's  tragedies  written  in  1671.  Who 
these  kings  were  when  they  lived,  or  even  if  they  ever 
existed,  neither  tradition  nor  history  has  attempted 
to  prove,  but  in  the  Rehearsal  they  figure  as  close 
friends,  who  appear  on  the  stage  hand  in  hand,  and 
reign  amicably  together  till  they  are  deposed  by 
two  equally  united  usurpers. 

Brentford  owns  two  important  churches,  one 
dedicated  to  St.  George,  founded  in  1770,  with 
nothing  very  distinctive  about  it  but  containing  a 
painting  of  the  Last  Supper  by  Zoffany,  presented 
by  the  artist ;  the  other,  named  after  St.  Lawrence, 
built  in  the  eighteenth  century  on  to  the  tower  of  a 
much  earlier  place  of  worship.  Chancellor  Noy, 
whose  house  was  close  by,  is  buried  in  it,  and  it  is 
associated  with  the  memory  of  John  Home  Tooke, 
who  was  curate  of  it  from  1760  to  1773,  before  his 
meeting  with  John  Wilkes  led  to  his  abandonment 
of  the  clerical  profession. 


GREENFORD  PARVA  277 

As  the  chief  marketing-place  of  the  barge  popula- 
tion, whose  women,  in  their  picturesque  sun-bonnets 
and  rough-and-ready  costumes,  may  often  be  seen 
hurrying  through  its  streets,  the  old  town  on  the 
Brent  is  still  to  some  extent  in  touch  with  rural 
England  ;  but  from  the  adjacent  Ealing,  that  is  its 
parent  parish,  and  from  its  dependencies  Acton  and 
Gunnersbury,  all  individual  character  seems  to  have 
been  eliminated,  little  remaining  to  recall  the  days 
when  the  manor-house  of  Ealing  was  one  of  the 
outlying  residences  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  and 
the  whole  neighbourhood  was  dotted  with  the 
country  seats  of  the  great  nobles.  Acton,  the 
name  of  which  signifies  the  oak -town,  now  a 
singular  misnomer,  was  once  the  proud  owner  of  a 
fashionable  spa,  but  is  now  chiefly  given  over  to 
washerwomen ;  and  Gunnersbury,  the  history  of 
which  can  be  traced  back  to  Saxon  times,  for  it  is 
named  after  Gunyld,  a  niece  of  King  Canute,  has 
lost  nearly  all  its  historic  landmarks,  though  the 
modern  Gunnersbury  House,  on  the  site  of  a 
mansion  designed  by  Inigo  Jones,  once  occupied 
by  Princess  Amelia,  preserves  to  it  a  certain  dis- 
tinction. 

Very  different  from  Brentford,  Ealing,  Acton,  or 
Gunnersbury  is  the  not  distant  Greenford  Parva, 
that,  though  it  is  scarcely  more  than  eight  miles 
from  Hyde  Park  Corner,  is  still,  and  seems  likely  to 
remain,  one  of  the  most  secluded-looking  spots  in 
suburban  Middlesex.  Romantically  situated  in  the 
valley  of  the  Brent  in  the  midst  of  beautiful 
meadows,  the  hamlet  of  Greenford  Parva,  the  name 


of  which,  now  condensed  into  Perivale,  is  said  to 
signify  the  green  ford  in  the  pure  vale,  consists  of 
but  a  few  farms  and  cottages,  but  it  prides  itself  on 
the  possession  of  a  church  of  its  own,  a  quaint  little 
building  of  unknown  dedication,  uncertain  date, 
and  doubtful  style,  with  a  narrow  nave,  a  yet 
smaller  chancel,  in  the  south-west  corner  of  which 
is  a  tiny  hagioscope,  and  a  square  wooden  tower, 
surmounted  by  a  low  spire.  Within  this  primitive 
structure,  one  of  the  smallest  places  of  worship  in 
England,  is  an  old  font,. the  lid  of  which  bears  the 
date  1665,  and  some  very  ancient  stained  glass  has 
been  skilfully  dovetailed  into  the  comparatively 
modern  windows. 

About  two  miles  away  from  Perivale,  in  the  same 
valley,  is  the  scarcely  less  interesting  Greenford 
Magna,  also  named  after  a  ford  on  the  Brent. 
Given  by  King  Ethelred  to  the  monks  of  the 
ancient  monastery  that  preceded  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor's foundation  at  Westminster,  the  manor  of 
Greenford  Magna  remained  the  property  of  the 
latter  until  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  when 
it  was  confiscated  by  Henry  VIII.,  by  whom  it  was 
given  somewhat  later  to  the  see  of  London,  to 
which  it  still  belongs.  Its  fourteenth  -  century 
church,  dedicated  to  the  Holy  Cross,  occupies  the 
site  of  a  Saxon  chapel,  and  greatly  resembles  that 
of  Perivale  in  style.  It  was  well  restored  in  1871, 
when  some  of  the  fifteenth  -  century  glass  was 
successfully  incorporated  in  the  new  windows,  and 
it  contains  several  well  -  preserved  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  century  brasses. 


WEST  TWYFORD  279 

Rivalling  the  two  Greenfords  in  the  romantic 
beauty  of  its  situation  is  the  little  hamlet  of  West 
Twyford  (so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  the  com- 
paratively commonplace  village  of  East  Twyford 
in  the  neighbouring  parish  of  Willesden),  situated 
partly  on  the  Brent  and  partly  on  the  Paddington 
Canal,  at  a  spot  where  the  river  makes  a  very 
sudden  bend.  As  its  name  implies,  there  were  in 
ancient  times  two  fords  across  the  Brent  that, 
according  to  tradition,  were  much  used  by  the 
monks  of  the  monastery  that  occupied  the  site  of 
the  mansion  now  known  as  Twyford  Abbey,  though 
there  is  absolutely  no  historic  proof  that  any  reli- 
gious house  ever  existed  there.  A  moated  manor- 
house  there  certainly  was,  however,  which  was 
pulled  down  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
there  seems  little  doubt  that  on  the  site  of  the  barn- 
like  church  of  uncertain  date  was  a  much  earlier 
chapel  —  possibly  Norman  —  the  property  having 
been  held  in  the  eleventh  century  by  the  Dean  and 
Chapter  of  St.  Paul's,  who  may  have  owned  a 
clergy-house  for  the  officiating  priests.  Strange 
to  say,  the  little  sanctuary,  now  included  in  the 
see  of  London,  after  changing  hands  with  the 
manor  to  which  it  was  attached  again  and  again, 
long  occupied  the  position  of  belonging  to  no 
parish.  It  was  apparently  overlooked  when  the 
new  ecclesiastical  survey  was  made,  and  until  quite 
recently  it  had  no  incumbent,  the  owner  of  Twyford 
Abbey  paying  for  the  services  held  in  it,  and  when 
he  let  his  house  stipulating  that  his  tenant  should 
provide  a  clergyman  for  six  Sundays  in  the  year. 


280    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Within  easy  reach  of  Brentford,  in  the  neighbour- 
ing parish  of  Keston,  is  Oesterley  Park,  with  the 
famous  mansion  named  after  it  built  by  Sir  Thomas 
Gresham,  founder  of  the  Royal  Exchange,  who 
more  than  once  entertained  Queen  Elizabeth  in  it, 
and  which  was  later  owned  by  the  wealthy  London 
merchant,  Sir  Thomas  Child,  whose  son  Robert 
added  two  sumptuously  decorated  wings  to  it,  and 
formed  the  nucleus  of  a  fine  collection  of  pictures 
by  the  old  masters.  More  interesting  than  Oesterley 
House  is  the  celebrated  Syon  or  Sion  House,  stand- 
ing in  a  charming  park  between  Brentford  and 
Isleworth,  and  occupying  the  site  of  a  convent  of 
the  same  name  that  belonged  to  a  community  of 
Brigittines,  a  branch  of  the  Augustinian  Order 
founded  by  St.  Bridget  of  Sweden.  This  was  one 
of  the  religious  houses  endowed,  as  already  related 
in  connection  with  Richmond,  by  Henry  V.  in  ex- 
piation of  his  father's  usurpation  of  the  English 
throne,  the  foundation-stone  having  been  laid  by 
the  king  himself  in  1431.  It  was  originally  situated 
in  Twickenham,  but  soon  became  far  too  small  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  many  holy  women  who 
craved  admission,  and  Henry  VI.  sanctioned  the 
removal  of  the  nuns  to  a  larger  house  in  Isleworth 
parish,  the  possession  of  which  was  secured  to  them 
by  Act  of  Parliament.  When  or  by  whom  the  pre 
decessor  of  the  present  Sion  House  was  built  is  not 
known,  but  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  erected  at 
the  expense  of  the  Brigittines  themselves,  who  had 
been  joined  by  many  wealthy  ladies,  and  it  even- 
tually became  one  of  the  richest  religious  com- 


SIGN  HOUSE  281 

munities  of  southern  England.  Many  stories  are 
told  of  the  devotion  of  the  sisters,  and  also,  alas !  of 
the  decline  of  piety  amongst  them  as  time  went  on, 
rumours  having  even  been  circulated  of  gross  mis- 
conduct amongst  them.  These  were  probably,  how- 
ever, mere  idle  tales  purposely  spread  about  by 
enemies ;  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  downfall 
of  the  community  was  hastened  by  its  abbess's 
espousal  of  the  cause  of  the  so-called  Holy  Maid  of 
Kent,  against  whom  Henry  vill.  was  bitterly  in- 
censed. In  any  case,  Syon  Monastery  was  one  of 
the  first  of  the  great  religious  houses  to  be  sup- 
pressed, and  it  was  turned  to  account  by  the  king 
in  1541  as  a  prison  for  Catherine  Howard  whilst  her 
mock  trial  was  going  on.  By  a  strange  irony  of 
fate  her  husband's  body  rested  in  the  chapel — in 
which  she  had  often  prayed  during  the  last  few  days 
of  her  life — on  its  way  to  be  interred  at  Windsor, 
and,  according  to  a  gruesome  tradition,  blood 
suddenly  flowed  from  it,  a  proof  in  popular  belief 
that  the  queen  had  been  unjustly  condemned,  and 
that  Henry  was  indeed  her  murderer. 

The  nunnery  of  Sion  and  the  manor  of  Isleworth 
were  given  by  Edward  VI.  to  the  Protector  Somerset, 
who  at  once  pulled  down  the  conventual  buildings, 
using  the  materials  for  the  foundation  of  the  present 
mansion,  that  was  still  uncompleted  when  its  owner's 
career  was  cut  short  by  his  attainder  for  high  treason. 
The  property  then  reverted  to  the  Crown,  and  in 
1553  it  was  given  by  the  young  king  to  John  Dudley, 
Duke  of  Northumberland,  who  had  been  mainly 
responsible  for  the  downfall  of  the  Protector.  The 


282     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

duke  seems  to  have  finished  the  work  of  his  prede- 
cessor, for  soon  after  he  took  possession  of  Sion 
House  his  son,  Lord  Robert  Dudley,  brought  home 
to  it  his  bride,  the  ill-fated  Lady  Jane  Grey  ;  and  it 
was  there  that  the  crown  was  offered  to  her  on  the 
death  of  Edward  VI.  Thence  the  nine  days'  queen 
started  by  river  in  a  state  barge,  attended  only  by  a 
few  adherents,  on  her  fatal  journey  to  the  Tower, 
whence  four  months  later  she  was  led  forth  to 
execution,  after  having  looked  down  from  her  win- 
dow on  the  mangled  remains  of  her  husband  as  they 
were  being  carried  away  to  their  last  resting-place. 

After  the  death  on  the  scaffold  of  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland  Sion  House  once  more  reverted  to 
the  Crown,  and  Queen  Mary  gave  it  back  to  the 
Brigittines,  but  few  of  them  cared  to  return  to  their 
transformed  old  home ;  and  two  years  later  even 
those  few  were  driven  forth  again  by  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, who  lent  the  house  first  to  one  and  then 
another  of  her  favourites.  In  1604  the  estate  was 
granted  by  James  I.  to  Henry  Percy,  Earl  of  Nor- 
thumberland, who  nearly  lost  it  through  his  compli- 
city in  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  for  which  he  suffered 
many  years'  imprisonment  and  had  to  pay  a  fine  of 
;£n,ooo.  He  returned  to  Sion  House  only  a  short 
time  before  his  death,  bequeathing  it  to  his  son, 
Algernon  Percy,  who  was  made  guardian  of  the 
children  of  Charles  L,  the  Dukes  of  York  and 
Gloucester  and  the  little  Princess  Elizabeth,  who 
died  the  year  of  her  father's  execution.  The  royal 
prisoners,  for  such  they  were,  appear  to  have  been 
very  happy  in  their  Isleworth  retreat,  for  they  were 


SION  HOUSE  283 

often  allowed  to  go  and  see  their  father  at  Hampton 
Court,  and  it  was  not  until  they  were  taken  to 
London  to  bid  him  farewell,  just  before  his  death, 
that  they  realised  how  terrible  was  their  own 
position. 

By  the  marriage  between  Lady  Elizabeth  Percy 
and  Charles  Seymour,  Duke  of  Somerset,  Sion  House 
became  the  property  of  the  latter,  and  during  his 
ownership  it  was  lent  for  a  time  to  the  Princess 
Anne,  later  Queen  of  England,  who  there  gave  birth 
to  a  son  who  lived  for  an  hour  only,  one  of  her 
seventeen  children,  none  of  whom  grew  up.  The 
son  of  Charles  Seymour  gave  Sion  House  to  his 
daughter  Elizabeth  in  1748,  and  her  husband,  Sir 
Hugh  Smithson,  having  been  created  Duke  of  North- 
umberland, it  passed  back  to  the  old  earldom,  and 
has  ever  since  remained  in  the  same  family.  It  was 
the  new  duke  who  gave  to  the  historic  mansion  the 
character  that  now  distinguishes  it,  for  he  made 
considerable  alterations  and  additions,  entrusting 
the  work  to  the  then  renowned  architect,  Robert 
Adam,  who  is  said  to  have  consulted  Sir  Horace 
Walpole,  then  living  at  Twickenham,  on  the  subject 
of  the  internal  decorations.  The  gardens,  originally 
laid  out  by  the  Protector  Somerset,  and  greatly 
improved  by  later  owners,  were  still  further  enriched 
with  rare  plants ;  hothouses  and  conservatories  were 
built,  and  the  estate  was  converted  into  one  of  the 
most  charming  on  the  Thames,  beautiful  lawns, 
shaded  by  venerable  trees,  sloping  down  to  the 
waterside.  The  massive  quadrangular  mansion, 
with  a  square  tower  at  each  corner,  and  a  noble 


284    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

parapet,  the  eastern  front  surmounted  by  the  vener- 
able stone  lion,  the  badge  of  the  Percy  family,  that 
was  long  a  familiar  figure  on  the  Strand  front  of  the 
now  demolished  Northumberland  House,  rises  up 
in  quiet  dignity  from  the  park  which,  though  it  has 
none  of  the  varied  scenery  of  its  rival  at  Richmond, 
is  full  of  quiet  charm. 

In  addition  to  Sion  House  Isleworth  still  owns 
a  few  historic  mansions,  including  Gumley  House, 
named  after  a  seventeenth-century  owner ;  Shrews- 
bury House,  once  the  home  of  Charles  Talbot,  Duke 
of  Shrewsbury,  both  now  convent  schools ;  and 
Kendal  House,  long  a  noted  place  of  entertainment, 
the  last  some  little  distance  from  the  river,  on  the 
road  to  Twickenham.  The  church,  said  to  have  been 
designed  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  though  his  plans 
were  modified  to  save  expense,  is  finely  situated  on 
a  terrace  looking  down  upon  the  Thames,  and  a 
wooded  islet,  presenting  quite  a  picturesque  ap- 
pearance, especially  when  barges  and  other  craft  are 
waiting  to  be  taken  up  or  down  stream  by  the  tide. 
A  little  above  Isleworth  is  the  half-lock  that  has 
added  so  greatly  to  the  usefulness  of  the  upper  river 
as  a  highway  of  traffic,  and  also  to  the  healthiness 
of  the  districts  on  either  side  by  keeping  the  mud 
constantly  under  water.  Looking  down  upon  it  on 
the  Middlesex  side  is  the  somewhat  uninteresting 
suburb  of  St.  Margaret's,  occupying  the  site  of  the 
seat  of  the  Marquis  of  Ailsa ;  and  a  little  higher  up 
stream  is  the  beautiful  park  called  Marble  Hill,  after 
the  mansion  still  standing  on  it,  that  was  bought 
in  1903  for  the  use  of  the  public  by  the  London 


MARBLE  HILL  285 

County  Council,  aided  by  many  private  subscribers, 
including  Sir  Max  Waechter,  already  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  purchase  of  Petersham  Ait. 
Marble  Hill  mansion  is  supposed  to  have  been 
built  in  1723  by  Mrs.  Howard,  one  of  Queen 
Caroline's  ladies-in-waiting,  later  Countess  of  Suffolk, 
after  the  designs  of  Lord  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
on  a  portion  of  the  grounds  of  the  neighbouring 
Orleans  House,  half  the  expense  having  been  borne 
by  George  II.  when  he  was  still  Prince  of  Wales. 
In  laying  out  the  grounds  the  owner  had  the  benefit 
of  the  advice  of  Pope,  then  living  at  Twickenham, 
and  also  of  Dean  Swift,  at  that  time  in  the  service 
of  Sir  William  Temple  at  Sheen,  who  is  said  to  have 
prophesied  that  Mrs.  Howard  would  certainly  be 
ruined<  by  her  lavish  outlay.  That  she  was  not  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  she  died  at  Marble  Hill, 
leaving  a  fortune  behind  her ;  and  later  her  old 
home  was  occupied  by  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  is 
said  by  some  authorities  to  have  been  married  in  it 
to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  later  George  IV.,  though 
others  assert  that  the  ceremony  took  place  in  her 
house  in  Park  Lane.  However  that  may  be,  she 
was  certainly  at  her  riverside  home  in  1795  when 
the  wedding  of  her  lover  with  the  Princess  Caroline 
of  Brunswick  took  place,  and  she  there  held  a  little 
court  of  those  loyal  friends  who  believed  in  the 
legality  of  her  union  to  the  king. 

Most  picturesquely  situated  opposite  the  famous 
Petersham  meadows  and  the  no  less  celebrated 
Eel  Pie  Island,  the  resort  on  summer  evenings  of 
hundreds  of  pleasure  -  seekers,  Twickenham,  the 


286    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

name  of  which  is  supposed  to  have  reference  to  the 
two  streams  that  here  flow  into  the  Thames,  was 
originally  a  hamlet  of  Isleworth  that  belonged,  be- 
fore the  Conquest,  partly  to  a  monastery  at  Houns- 
low,  and  partly  to  the  monks  of  Christchurch  Abbey, 
Canterbury.  On  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries 
the  property  was  added  by  Henry  vill.  to  the 
Hampton  Court  demesne  ;  and  later  Charles  I.  gave 
the  manor  to  Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  to  whom, 
after  its  temporary  alienation  by  Parliament,  it  was 
restored  on  the  accession  of  Charles  II.  The  so- 
called  manor-house  of  Twickenham,  also  known  as 
Aragon  Tower,  occupies  the  site  of  an  earlier  build- 
ing in  which,  according  to  tradition,  Katharine  of 
Aragon  resided  after  her  divorce ;  but  the  home 
of  the  Saxon  owners  of  the  property  is  supposed  to 
have  been  in  Twickenham  Park,  now  built  over,  some 
authorities  asserting  that  William  the  Conqueror 
himself  lived  in  it  for  a  short  time.  Whether  this 
be  true  or  not,  there  was  not  far  from  the  first  Sion 
House  a  mansion  that  belonged  in  the  later  sixteenth 
century  to  Lord  Bacon,  who  entertained  Queen 
Elizabeth  in  it  in  1592.  The  brilliant  prose  writer 
was  deeply  attached  to  his  Twickenham  home,  and 
grieved  greatly  when  in  1601  he  was  compelled  to 
sell  it  to  meet  his  pressing  necessities,  receiving, 
it  is  said,  only  £"1800  for  it.  During  the  next 
three  centuries  it  changed  hands  again  and  again, 
and  in  1803  its  owner  had  it  pulled  down  and  sold 
the  estate  in  plots  for  building.  Its  fate  was 
later  shared  by  many  another  historic  home,  but 
Cambridge  House,  named  after  the  poet  Richard 


STRAWBERRY  HILL  287 

Owen  Cambridge,  who  occupied  it  for  some  years 
in  the  early  nineteenth  century,  Orleans  and  York 
Houses  still  remain  to  bear  witness  to  the  days 
when  Twickenham  was  an  aristocratic  suburb. 
The  former  is  named  after  Louis  -  Philippe,  who 
occupied  it  for  some  time  when  he  was  Duke  of 
Orleans ;  the  latter  was  for  some  time  the  property 
of  Lord  Clarendon,  who  settled  it  on  his  daughter, 
Anne  Hyde,  when  she  became  the  wife  of  James, 
Duke  of  York  ;  and  in  it  were  born  the  Princesses 
Mary  and  Anne,  who  were  both  to  become  Queens 
of  England. 

A  little  higher  up  stream  is  a  modern  villa 
popularly  known  as  Pope's,  though  as  a  matter  of 
fact  the  house  beloved  of  the  poet,  on  which  he 
lavished  a  fortune,  was  pulled  down  in  1807,  and  all 
that  now  remains  to  recall  the  time  of  his  ownership 
is  the  subterranean  passage  leading  from  its  grounds 
to  the  Teddington  Road,  that  was  once  lined  with 
an  ornate  shell  grotto.  It  is  fortunately  far  other- 
wise with  the  equally  celebrated  home  of  Horace 
Walpole,  known  as  Strawberry  Hill,  that  stands  a 
little  back  from  the  river  between  Twickenham  and 
Teddington,  for  though  certain  details  have  been 
modified  it  still  retains  the  general  appearance  it 
presented  when  first  completed  by  its  owner. 
Originally  a  mere  cottage,  the  future  Strawberry 
Hill  was  bought  by  Walpole  in  1747  from  a  certain 
Mrs.  Chevenix,  and  the  best  years  of  the  famous 
letter  writer's  life  were  spent  in  superintending  its 
adornment.  The  guests  he  received  at  Twickenham 
included  pretty  well  all  the  celebrities  of  the  day, 


288    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

and  his  most  important  publications  were  issued 
from  his  private  printing-press  there.  When  on  the 
death,  in  1791,  of  his  eldest  brother's  only  son,  he 
became  Earl  of  Orford,  he  refused  to  take  the  title, 
preferring  to  remain  plain  Horace  Walpole  of  Straw- 
berry Hill  ;  and  before  his  death,  which  took  place 
six  years  later,  he  bequeathed  his  beloved  home  to 
the  sculptor  Mrs.  Darner  in  the  hope  that  she  would 
respect  its  traditions.  In  1811  it  became  the 
property  of  the  Dowager-Countess  of  Waldegrave, 
and  since  then  it  has  changed  hands  several  times, 
passing  through  various  vicissitudes  of  neglect  and 
restoration. 

The  parish  church  of  Twickenham  must  have 
originally  been  a  very  picturesque  feature  of  the 
village,  and  the  ancient  battlemented  tower  still 
presents  a  charming  appearance  from  the  river ;  but 
on  to  it  was  built,  in  the  early  eighteenth  century,  a 
barnlike  red-brick  structure  that  harmonises  very 
ill  with  it,  and  is  said  to  have  been  designed  by  Sir 
Godfrey  Kneller,  then  churchwarden,  who  lived  in  a 
house  near  by — still  known  as  Kneller  Hall,  now 
the  Royal  Military  School  of  Music — and  is  buried 
beneath  the  central  aisle,  his  contemporary  Pope 
resting  not  far  from  him.  Amongst  the  monuments 
in  the  church  is  one  erected  by  the  latter  to  the 
memory  of  his  parents,  which  Lady  Kneller  tried 
in  vain  to  persuade  the  poet  to  remove  after  the 
death  of  her  husband,  to  make  room  for  a  memorial 
she  wished  to  put  up  in  his  honour  ;  and  on  the  outer 
wall  are  some  interesting  tablets,  including  one  to 
the  famous  comic  actress  Kitty  Clive,  who  lived 


TWICKENHAM  289 

in  a  cottage  belonging  to  Horace  Walpole  called 
Little  Strawberry  Hill,  later  occupied  by  the  Misses 
Berry,  to  whom  it  was  bequeathed  for  their  lifetime, 
and  one  to  the  beloved  nurse  of  Pope,  bearing  the 
following  touching  inscription  :  '  To  the  memory  of 
Mary  Beach,  who  died  November  25th,  1725,  aged 
75,  Alexander  Pope,  whom  she  nursed  in  his  infancy, 
and  constantly  attended  for  twenty-eight  years,  in 
gratitude  to  a  faithful  servant,  erected  this  stone.' 

Little  now  remains  in  the  populous  modern  suburb 
of  Twickenham  to  recall  the  days  when  Dickens 
wrote  in  it  his  romance  of  Oliver  Twist,  certain 
scenes  of  which  are  laid  at  Isleworth,  and  the  great 
artist  Turner  lived  in  Sandelcombe  Lodge,  that  was 
recently  sold  by  auction,  fetching  £865,  but  the 
view  up  and  down  stream  is  still  practically  the 
same  as  it  was  a  century  ago.  The  short  reach 
between  Strawberry  Hill  and  Teddington  Lock  is 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  on  the  Thames,  charming 
alike  when  deserted  but  for  a  few  barges  being 
quanted  slowly  along,  and  when  crowded  with 
pleasure  craft.  Specially  fascinating  are  the  scenes 
that  take  place  below  the  lock,  when  electric 
launches,  skiffs,  and  punts,  full  of  gaily  dressed 
women  and  men  in  boating  costume,  await  their 
turn  for  the  opening  of  the  gates ;  at  the  Rollers, 
and  in  the  quiet  pool  above  them,  specially  beloved 
of  fishermen,  that  contrasts  forcibly  with  the  noisy 
weir,  the  foam -flecked  rush  of  water  forming  a 
striking  background  to  the  groups  of  yachts  and 
wherries  moored  to  the  Middlesex  bank  and 
beneath  the  Suspension  Bridge. 
T 


290    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

It  is  to  its  lock  and  its  near  vicinity  to  Bushey 
Park  and  Hampton  Court  that  Teddington  owes  its 
ever-increasing  prosperity.  In  Saxon  times,  when 
its  name — the  meaning  of  which  is  obscure,  for  the 
suggestion  that  it  signifies  the  Tide-end  Town  is 
untenable — was  spelt  Totyngton,  it  was  a  mere 
hamlet  of  Staines,  yet  the  honour  of  having  been 
its  original  manor-house  has  been  claimed  for  three 
mansions,  each  of  which  is  said  to  have  served  as 
a  hunting-lodge  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  Only  one  of 
these  is  still  standing,  that  built  by  Lord  Buckhurst 
some  years  after  the  maiden  queen  had  passed 
away  ;  and  the  more  famous  residences  at  one  time 
occupied  by  Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leicester,  and 
the  noted  Quaker  William  Penn,  who  in  1688  dated 
his  protest  against  being  called  a  Papist  from 
Teddington,  have  also  been  pulled  down  ;  whilst 
of  the  parish  church,  in  which  the  latter  may  often 
have  worshipped,  the  only  relic  is  the  sixteenth- 
century  southern  aisle,  the  rest  of  the  building 
dating  from  the  eighteenth  century.  It  contains, 
however,  a  few  interesting  monuments,  including 
one  to  the  faithful  servant  of  Charles  I.,  Sir  Orlando 
Bridgman,  who  represented  his  doomed  master  at 
the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht ;  and  on  one  of 
the  walls  is  a  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the  famous 
beauty,  Peg  Woffington,  who,  after  her  tragic  break- 
down when  acting  as  Rosalind  in  1757,  retired  to 
Teddington,  where  she  died  three  years  later. 

The  riverside  scenery  above  Teddington,  es- 
pecially near  the  long  picturesque  island  opposite 
Thames  Ditton,  is  very  charming,  and  away  from 


BUSHEY  PARK  291 

the  water  is  the  beautiful  Bushey  Park,  that  rivals 
in  popularity  even  its  neighbour  of  Hamptojf  Court. 
Long  jealously  reserved  for  the  use  of  its  royal 
owners,  the  estate,  which  is  more  than  eleven 
hundred  acres  in  extent,  has  been  open  to  the 
public  since  1752,  when  a  certain  Timothy  Bennet, 
a  local  shoemaker,  succeeded,  by  dint  of  dogged 
persistence,  of  winning  a  free  passage  through  it 
for  ever,  or,  to  be  more  strictly  accurate,  in  obtain- 
ing the  restoration  of  ancient  rights  that  had  been 
filched  away.  The  story  goes  that  Bennet,  who,  as 
he  sat  at  work  in  his  shop,  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
watching  the  number  of  pedestrians  who  passed 
through  the  park  on  their  way  to  and  from  Kingston, 
was  moved  to  bitter  indignation  when  he  learned  that 
the  gates  had  been  closed  by  order  of  the  ranger, 
Lord  Halifax.  He  consulted  a  lawyer,  declaring 
that  he  would  gladly  spend  all  his  savings,  which 
amounted  to  about  £700,  to  win  back  the  old 
privilege,  and  was  told  that  all  that  was  needed  was 
for  him  '  to  try  the  right.'  A  notice  was  therefore 
served  on  the  ranger,  who  summoned  Timothy 
before  him,  thinking  to  overawe  him  easily,  but  the 
shoemaker's  rough  eloquence  so  won  upon  the  great 
man  that  the  latter,  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  of 
the  lawyers  on  the  side  of  the  Crown,  ordered  the 
road  through  the  park  to  be  reopened,  and  it  has 
never  since  been  closed. 

The  chief  glory  of  Bushey  Park  is  the  triple 
avenue  of  horse-chestnuts,  more  than  a  mile  long, 
that  was  planted  by  William  III.,  who  longed  to 
reproduce  in  England  some  of  the  characteristics 


292     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

of  his  native  land.  When  in  full  bloom  the  trees 
present  an  appearance  of  unique  beauty,  crowds 
from  far  and  near  flocking  to  see  them,  but  even  at 
other  times  the  park  is  full  of  charm,  forming  one 
of  the  most  delightful  recreation  -  grounds  near 
London.  The  rangership,  long  a  coveted  appoint- 
ment, was  at  one  time  held  by  Lord  North,  the 
minister  whose  fatal  policy  brought  about  the 
American  War  of  Independence ;  and  later  the 
Lodge,  a  substantial  red  -  brick  building  near  the 
Teddington  entrance,  was  the  residence  of  William 
IV.  when  Duke  of  Clarence. 

The  twin  villages  of  Hampton  Wick  and  Hamp- 
ton, the  former  below,  the  latter  above,  the  riverside 
grounds  of  Hampton  Court,  have  little  that  is  dis- 
tinctive about  them  in  spite  of  their  exceptionally 
beautiful  situation,  looking  down  upon  the  Thames, 
which  is  here  dotted  with  picturesque  islets. 
Hampton  Wick  prides  itself  on  having  been  for 
some  years  the  home  of  the  famous  essayist  Sir 
Richard  Steele,  who  dated  from  what  he  called  his 
hovel  in  it  the  dedication  of  the  fourth  volume  of 
The  Tatler  to  Lord  Halifax,  first  ranger  of  Bushey 
Park,  and  builder  of  the  Lodge  referred  to  above. 
Hampton  glories  in  still  owning  the  house  beloved 
of  David  Garrick,  who  often  withdrew  to  it  for  rest 
between  1754  and  1779.  receiving  in  it  as  his  guests 
Horace  Walpole,  Dr.  Johnson,  and  many  other  dis- 
tinguished men,  whom  he  used  to  entertain  with 
night-fetes  in  the  grounds. 

In  Hampton  Court  the  romantic  interest  of  out- 
lying London  may  perhaps  be  said  to  culminate,  for 


HAMPTON  COURT  293 

no  other  place  within  easy  reach  of  the  capital  is 
associated  with  quite  so  many  thrilling  memories, 
or  has  retained,  in  spite  of  all  alterations,  an  equal 
number  of  the  characteristic  features  of  its  evolu- 
tion. In  the  quiet  courts  and  cloisters  overlooked 
by  the  picturesque  gables  and  turrets  of  Wolsey's 
building,  and  in  the  beautiful  gardens  in  which  the 
anxious  minister  so  often  paced  to  and  fro  ponder- 
ing over  the  many  problems  that  harassed  him,  his 
spirit  still  seems  to  linger ;  the  magnificent  hall  of 
Henry  vill.,  in  which  took  place  so  many  stately 
banquets  and  gorgeous  ceremonies,  and  the  richly 
decorated  chapel  in  which  two  of  the  despotic 
monarch's  marriages  were  solemnised,  appear  to  be 
haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  his  murdered  wives,  Anne 
Boleyn  and  Catherine  Howard,  and  of  the  scarcely 
less  ill-fated  Jane  Seymour,  who  paid  with  her  life 
for  the  birth  of  the  long-desired  heir  to  the  throne, 
and  is  said  to  be  unable  to  rest  in  her  grave  because 
of  her  remorse  for  having  been  the  cause  of  the 
execution  of  her  predecessor.  Now  the  young 
monarch,  Edward  vi.,  and  his  stern  guardian,  the 
Protector  Somerset,  loom  forth  from  the  dim  past, 
and  behind  them  the  imagination  conjures  up  the 
shadowy  form  of  Mrs.  Penn,  who  on  the  death  of 
the  infant  prince's  mother  was  chosen  to  be  his 
nurse,  and  was  greatly  beloved  not  only  by  him, 
but  by  his  father  and  sisters.  Henry  vill.  gave  her 
an  estate  in  the  country,  but  she  attended  her  foster- 
son  wherever  he  went,  and  after  his  early  death  she 
resided  in  apartments  reserved  to  her  at  Hampton 
Court,  till  she  too  passed  away.  She  was  buried  in 


294    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

the  parish  church  of  Hampton,  a  full-length  recum- 
bent effigy  portrait  surmounting  her  tomb,  that  is 
still  preserved  in  the  modern  Gothic  building  re- 
placing an  earlier  place  of  worship  ;  but  her  grave  has 
been  rifled  of  its  contents,  and  since  the  desecration 
took  place  she  has  been  supposed  to  haunt  her  old 
rooms,  and  many  have  asserted  that  they  have  seen 
her  groping  along  in  them  with  outstretched  hands 
as  if  seeking  for  some  lost  treasure.  To  these 
phantoms  succeed  those  of  Edward's  melancholy 
sister  Mary  and  of  her  sombre  bridegroom  Philip, 
who  repells  her  ardent  expressions  of  affection  with 
forbidding  coldness,  the  ill-assorted  pair  in  their 
turn  giving  place  to  the  stately  maiden  queen 
Elizabeth  and  her  train  of  richly  garbed  courtiers, 
all  vying  with  each  other  in  their  eagerness  to 
prove  their  devotion  to  her  person.  Again'  the 
scene  changes,  and  the  hapless  Charles  I.  comes 
forth,  closely  attended  by  his  guards,  to  walk  for 
the  last  time  round  the  precincts  of  the  palace  that 
has  served  as  his  prison,  where  but  a  little  later  his 
arch-enemy,  Cromwell,  was  to  reign  supreme.  Now 
a  wedded  pair  as  ill-assorted  as  Philip  and  Mary, 
Charles  II.  and  the  childless  Catherine  of  Braganza, 
hold  their  court  in  the  historic  building,  that  was 
in  the  reign  of  William  III.  to  be  enlarged  and  re- 
decorated, assuming  much  the  appearance  it  now 
presents,  for  the  Georges  did  little  to  alter  it,  and 
it  has  not  been  used  as  a  royal  residence  since 

1795- 

In  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor  the  manor 
of  Hamntone,  as  it  was  then  called,  was  owned  by 


HAMPTON  COURT  295 

the  Saxon  Earl  Algar,  and  in  the  Doomsday  Survey 
it  is  referred  to  as  the  property  of  the  Norman, 
Walter  de  St.  Valeric,  its  value  being  assessed  at 
£39.  It  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  same 
family  for  a  century  and  a  half,  after  which  it  passed 
to  Henry  de  St.  Albans,  who  either  presented  or  let  it 
to  the  Knights  Hospitallers  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem, 
then  one  of  the  most  powerful  religious  communities 
of  Europe,  by  whom  it  was  held  until  1514,  when 
the  then  prior,  »Sir  Thomas  Docwra,  granted  a 
ninety-nine  years'  lease  of  it  to  'The  Most  Rev. 
Father  in  God,  Thomas  Wolsey,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,'  at  a  yearly  rent  of  £50.  Before  that 
all-important  event  in  its  history,  however,  the 
property  had  become  greatly  increased  by  gifts  of 
land  and  money,  and  was  already  known  as  Hampton 
Court,  the  word  court  signifying,  as  is  sometimes 
overlooked,  merely  that  part  of  an  estate  in  which 
the  owner  lives.  That  the  Knights  Hospitallers  had 
a  residence  of  some  importance  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  they  occasionally  received  as  their  guests 
various  members  of  the  royal  family,  who,  as  early 
as  the  fourteenth  century,  showed  a  great  predilec- 
tion for  Hampton.  Many  pilgrims,  too,  flocked 
from  long  distances  to  worship  in  the  little  chapel 
connected  with  the  priory,  that  was  credited  with 
special  sanctity,  and  to  it  in  1503  came  Elizabeth  of 
York,  wife  of  Henry  VII.,  to  pray  for  the  safe  delivery 
of  her  expected  child,  and  to  spend  a  quiet  week  in 
retreat  before  returning  by  water  to  Richmond, 
where  she  died  a  month  later. 

The  Knights  Hospitallers  had  scarcely  left  their 


296    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

old  home  before  the  new  owner  began  to  pull  it 
down,  to  make  way  for  a  building  which  he  deter- 
mined should  rival  in  magnificence  every  other 
private  residence  in  the  kingdom.  The  grounds  of 
the  ancient  manor-house,  hitherto  mere  grazing  lands, 
were  converted  into  a  park  and  enclosed  within  a 
massive  red-brick  wall  bearing  here  and  there  a 
cross  in  black  bricks,  the  emblem  of  the  cardinal- 
archbishop,  two  or  three  of  which  still  remain  in 
spite  of  Henry  vill. 's  orders,  given  as  soon  as  he 
took  possession  of  the  property,  that  every  trace  of 
its  having  once  belonged  to  the  fallen  minister 
should  be  removed.  The  site  of  the  future  palace 
and  its  gardens  was  encircled  by  a  deep  moat,  traces 
of  which  can  be  made  out  on  the  northern  side,  an 
elaborate  system  of  drainage  was  established,  and  a 
constant  supply  of  pure  water  secured  from  the 
springs  at  Coombe  Hill,  three  miles  away,  Wolsey 
proving  himself  far  in  advance  of  his  time  in  his 
knowledge  of  sanitary  science.  The  healthiness  of 
his  retreat  thus  secured,  the  work  of  building  went 
on  apace,  a  whole  army  of  surveyors,  architects, 
builders,  and  masons,  etc., — from  amongst  whom 
emerge  the  names  of  James  Bettes  master,  Lawrence 
Stubbs  paymaster,  Nicolas  Tounley  comptroller  of 
the  works,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Williams  decorator, — 
toiling  continuously  under  the  superintendence  of 
Wolsey  himself,  who  was  able  to  receive  the  king 
and  queen  for  the  first  time  in  May  1516,  when  the 
royal  party  were  entertained  with  all  manner  of 
pageants,  masques,  and  mummeries,  in  some  of 
which  Henry  himself  took  a  prominent  part. 


HAMPTON  COURT  297 

The  next  few  years  were  the  happiest  in  the 
cardinal's  life.  He  was  still  the  king's  most  trusted 
servant,  the  master  of  boundless  wealth,  and  no 
shadow  from  the  melancholy  future  had  as  yet  fallen 
across  his  path.  Whenever  he  was  able  to  get  away 
from  London,  he  hastened  to  his  beloved  home  at 
Hampton,  on  which  he  continued  to  lavish  vast  sums 
of  money,  constantly  adding  to  its  art  treasures,  and 
causing  his  own  apartments  —  several  of  which, 
including  that  known  as  his  closet,  remain  as  they 
were  when  occupied  by  him — to  be  decorated  by  the 
best  artificers  of  the  day. 

It  is,  unfortunately,  impossible  now  to  determine 
the  exact  limits  of  Wolsey's  buildings,  but  they 
appear  to  have  occupied  much  the  same  area  as 
those  now  standing,  which  include  the  additions  of 
Henry  vill.  and  William  III.,  so  that  they  form  a 
kind  of  epitome  of  domestic  architecture  from  Tudor 
to  Renaissance  times.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
the  west  front  and  the  utter  or  outer  court  with  the 
clock  tower,  beneath  which  are  the  cardinal's  arms 
in  terra-cotta  that  somehow  escaped  Henry's  jealous 
zeal,  were  entirely  the  work  of  Wolsey,  and  it  must 
have  been  at  the  western  gateway  that  he  received 
his  many  royal  and  noble  guests.  At  which  date 
this  beautiful  residence  was  transferred  by  its  builder 
to  his  exacting  sovereign,  who  from  the  first  seems 
to  have  greatly  coveted  it,  is  not  known,  but  it  is 
generally  supposed  to  have  been  in  1525  or  1526 
that  the  oft-told  incident  occurred,  when  Henry 
asked  Wolsey  why  he  had  built  himself  so  magnificent 
a  house,  to  which  with  outer  calmness  but  a  sinking 


298     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

heart  the  cardinal  replied,  '  To  show  how  noble  a 
palace  a  subject  may  offer  to  his  sovereign.'  The 
gift  was  of  course  at  once  accepted,  but  the  doomed 
minister  was  allowed  to  remain  practically  master  of 
Hampton  Court  for  some  time  longer,  as  proved  by 
the  fact  that  in  1527  he  there  received  with  great  mag- 
nificence the  French  ambassador  and  his  retinue, 
and  that  in  1528  he  invited  Archbishop  Warham  to 
spend  a  few  days  with  him.  As  late,  indeed,  as  1529 
Henry  and  Katharine  of  Aragon  were  again  his 
guests,  but  before  the  year  was  over  he  had  left  his 
beloved  home  for  ever.  In  August  of  that  year  the 
king  took  formal  possession  of  the  palace,  accom- 
panied not  only  by  the  queen,  but  by  Anne  Boleyn, 
for  whom  a  beautiful  suite  of  rooms  had  been  set 
apart  which  she  had  long  since  chosen.  Very  soon  the 
appearance  of  the  palace  was  completely  transformed, 
Henry's  chief  desire  having  apparently  been  to 
destroy  everything  that  could  remind  him  of  the 
man  he  had  once  loved  so  well  and  trusted  so 
entirely.  A  magnificent  new  hall  with  a  beautiful 
hammer-beam  roof  replaced  the  one  in  which  Wolsey 
had  so  often  entertained  his  ungrateful  master,  a  new 
chapel,  new  galleries,  and  new  suites  of  apartments 
were  built,  the  work  going  merrily  on  in  spite  of  all 
the  exciting  events  that  were  taking  place  in  the 
rest  of  the  palace.  Hampton  Court  soon  knew 
Katharine  of  Aragon  no  more,  and  Anne  Boleyn, 
who  had  given  birth  in  it  to  a  still-born  son,  was 
succeeded  by  Jane  Seymour,  the  change  of  queen 
making  no  difference  in  the  daily  routine,  though 
the  king  gave  orders  for  the  initials  A.  B.  to  be 


HAMPTON  COURT  299 

changed  to  J.  S.  in  the  decorations  of  his  wife's 
private  apartments.  Edward  VI.  was  born,  and  his 
mother  died  in  1537,  the  former  event  being  made 
the  excuse  for  fresh  expenditure  on  rooms  for  the 
infant  prince,  whilst  the  latter  affected  the  widower 
but  little,  though  he  left  Hampton  Court  before  the 
funeral,  declaring  that  he  could  not  bear  to  be 
present  at  it.  For  some  little  time  after  the  death 
of  Jane  Seymour  the  palace  served  chiefly  as  a 
nursery  for  the  heir  to  the  throne,  and  in  1540  Anne 
of  Cleves  resided  in  it  for  a  short  time  whilst  con- 
tentedly awaiting  her  divorce  ;  but  as  soon  as  it  was 
obtained  she  withdrew  to  Richmond,  and  the  king 
brought  home  to  Hampton  Court  his  new  bride, 
Catherine  Howard,  who  really  seemed  likely  long  to 
retain  his  affection.  From  their  beautiful  riverside 
home  the  newly  married  pair  started  on  an  extended 
wedding  trip,  returning  to  keep  Christmas  at  the 
palace,  but  before  that  festival  came  round  again 
the  enemies  of  Catherine  had  managed  to  poison 
her  husband's  mind  against  her.  It  was  on  All 
Souls'  Day,  1541,  when  the  king  and  queen  were  at 
mass  in  the  chapel,  that  Cranmer  secretly  handed  to 
the  former  a  paper  containing,  it  is  said,  convincing 
proof  of  Catherine's  unfaithfulness,  and  with  his 
usual  impetuosity  Henry  at  once  decided  to  get  rid 
of  her.  The  unfortunate  lady  was  ordered  to  with- 
draw to  her  own  apartments,  a  strict  guard  was 
placed  over  her,  and  early  the  next  morning  the 
king  rode  away  determined  never  to  see  her  again, 
The  story  goes  that  in  spite  of  the  vigilance  of  her 
attendants  Catherine  managed  to  elude  them  all  and 


300    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

to  intercept  her  husband  as  he  was  leaving  his  bed- 
room, but  he  sternly  refused  to  listen  to  her,  and  she 
was  dragged  away  weeping  and  wringing  her  hands. 
Yet  once  more,  in  1543,  the  king  brought  a  bride  to 
Hampton  Court,  the  staid  and  tactful  Catherine 
Parr,  who  managed  successfully  to  play  the  role  of 
mother  to  the  three  children  of  her  predecessors, 
and,  until  her  husband  died,  even  to  keep  the  peace 
with  him. 

During  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  Henry  was 
constantly  at  the  palace,  and  when  he  became  too 
infirm  to  hunt  at  a  distance  he  quietly  set  about  en- 
closing within  the  boundaries  of  his  Honour  of 
Hampton  a  vast  tract  of  country  on  the  Surrey  side 
of  the  river,  taking  in  many  manors  and  villages, 
including  East  and  West  Molesey,  stocking  the  com- 
mons, meadows,  and  pastures  with  'beasts  of  venery 
and  fowls  of  warren,'  and  appointing  officers  to 
ensure  the  punishment  of  any  who  should  offend 
against  the  laws  of  the  chase,  which  were  to  be  the 
same  as  those  governing  the  ancient  forests  belong- 
ing to  the  Crown.  To  this  very  high-handed  pro- 
ceeding the  owners  of  the  property  were  compelled 
to  submit,  but  after  the  death  of  the  king  his  son 
had  the  enclosures  taken  down  and  the  'beasts  of 
venery'  removed,  reserving  the  right,  however,  of 
restoring  them  at  any  future  time,  so  that  technically 
the  lands  in  question  still  belong  to  the  Crown. 

Though  Edward  VI.  and  Queen  Mary  were  both  a 
good  deal  at  Hampton  Court,  it  was  not  until  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth  that  it  was  again  the  scene 
of  such  pageants  as  had  been  of  constant  occurrence 


HAMPTON  COURT  301 

during  the  reign  of  their  father.  The  maiden  queen, 
however,  was  greatly  attached  to  it,  often  holding 
her  court  there,  and  it  was  in  its  great  hall  that  the 
council  met  on  October  30,  1568,  which  practically 
decided  the  fate  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  though  it 
was  not  until  December  4  of  the  same  year,  the 
day  after  a  second  consultation,  when  the  Regent 
James,  Earl  of  Murray,  gave  to  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land the  fatal  casket  containing  the  letters  and 
poems  that  were  supposed  to  prove  his  sister's  guilt, 
that  Elizabeth  felt  free  to  pronounce  her  doom. 

In  the  reign  of  James  I.  the  most  important  event 
that  took  place  at  Hampton  Court  was  the  meeting 
of  the  conference  between  the  representatives  of  the 
Established  Church  and  the  Presbyterians,  at  which 
the  king  was  said  by  the  former  to  have  greatly 
distinguished  himself  by  his  eloquence,  whilst  the 
latter  dwelt  angrily  on  his  plausible  duplicity,  that 
really  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  inauguration 
of  the  troubles  that  finally  brought  his  son  to  the 
scaffold.  As  is  well  known,  Charles  I.  greatly  loved 
Hampton  Court ;  he  was  there  for  a  short  time  after 
his  accession  with  his  newly  wedded  queen,  then  a 
mere  child,  and  it  was  there,  too,  many  years  after- 
wards, that  he  had  his  last  real  intercourse  with  his 
children,  who,  as  already  related,  were  often  allowed 
to  visit  him  when  they  were  living  at  Sion  House 
under  the  care  of  the  guardian  appointed  by  the 
Parliament.  Thence,  alarmed  by  rumours  of  a  plot 
against  his  life,  the  unfortunate  king  escaped  on 
November  n,  1647,  first  to  Oatlands  and  then  to 
the  Isle  of  Wight. 


302    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

Whilst  he  was  Lord  Protector  of  England,  Crom- 
well often  resided  at  Hampton  Court ;  in  its  chapel 
his  beloved  daughter  Mary  was  married  in  1657  to 
Viscount  Falconbridge,  and  in  one  of  its  rooms  her 
sister,  Mrs.  Claypole,  died  in  1658,  after  a  short 
illness,  to  the  bitter  grief  of  her  father,  who  had  her 
body  taken  by  river  to  Westminster,  to  be  buried 
with  almost  regal  pomp  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
Her  loss  was  indeed  the  death-blow  of  the  harassed 
ruler,  for  though  he  lived  three  months  longer  he  was 
never  the  same  again.  He  was  removed  in  a  dying 
state  from  Hampton  Court  to  Whitehall,  and  after 
he  had  passed  away  it  was  decided  that  the  palace 
should  be  sold  and  its  contents  dispersed.  Fortu- 
nately, however,  the  historic  building  escaped  that 
fate,  but  though  it  was  several  times  occupied  by 
Charles  II.  and  James  II.,  it  was  not  until  the  acces- 
sion of  William  III.  that  it  again  played  any  im- 
portant part  in  the  history  of  England.  From  the 
first  the  newly  elected  monarch  and  his  wife  showed 
a  very  special  predilection  for  their  estate  at  Hamp- 
ton, and  Sir  Christopher  Wren  was  soon  commis- 
sioned to  add  to  the  palace  an  extensive  group  of 
buildings  that  now,  with  the  great  hall  of  Henry  VIIL, 
form  its  most  important  features.  Unfortunately 
Wren's  alterations  necessitated  the  pulling  down  of 
two  of  WTolsey's  courts,  that  had  been  spared  by  the 
cardinal's  royal  supplanter,  but  in  spite  of  this  it 
must  be  conceded  that  the  famous  architect  trium- 
phantly achieved  a  most  difficult  task,  for  the 
magnificent  state  apartments  designed  by  him, 
though  in  a  totally  different  style  from  that  of  the 


HAMPTON  COURT  303 

earlier  buildings,  are  yet  not  out  of  harmony  with 
them. 

Later,  the  grounds  were  as  completely  transformed 
as  the  Tudor  palace  itself  had  been.  The  fine 
terrace  known  as  the  Broad  Walk  was  made,  many 
new  fountains  were  added  to  those  already  in  the 
gardens,  the  still  popular  Maze  or  Labyrinth  was 
planted,  the  beautiful  gate  called  the  Flower-Pot — 
from  the  baskets  of  flowers  upheld  by  boys  on  the 
stone  piers  flanking  it — was  erected,  and  the  yet 
more  effective  wrought-iron  screens  designed  by 
Jean  Tijou,  a  Frenchman  in  the  employ  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  recently,  after  various  wander- 
ings, restored  to  their  original  position,  were  set  up 
at  the  riverside  end  of  what  is  known  as  the  Priory 
Garden,  separating  it  from  the  towing-path. 

Soon  after  their  first  arrival  at  Hampton  Court 
William  and  Mary  received  as  their  guest  the  Princess 
Anne,  daughter  of  the  exiled  James  II.,  who  had  been 
married  in  1683  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark.  As 
heir-presumptive  of  the  English  throne,  the  princess 
was  very  cordially  disliked  by  the  king  and  queen, 
whose  jealousy  was  greater  than  ever  when,  on  July 
4,  1689,  she  gave  birth  to  a  son,  the  Duke  of  Glou- 
cester. The  boy  was  baptized  in  the  chapel  of 
Hampton  Court,  William  III.  standing  godfather, 
but  the  child  died  in  1700,  two  years  before  his 
mother  became  queen.  As  was  not  unnatural,  con- 
sidering all  that  she  had  suffered  there,  Anne  cared 
little  for  Hampton  Court,  preferring  her  palaces  at 
Kensington  and  Windsor,  but  she  commissioned  the 
painter  Verrio  and  the  sculptor  Grinling  Gibbons  to 


304     THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 

supplement  the  already  lavish  decorations  with  ceil- 
ing paintings  and  mural  carvings.  Her  successors, 
George  I.  and  George  II.,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
very  fond  of  the  palace,  but  they  left  it  much  as  they 
found  it,  except  that  the  former  had  the  ceiling  of 
the  state  bedchamber  painted  by  Sir  James  Thorn- 
hill. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  George  III.,  who  never 
resided  at  Hampton  Court,  that  the  famous  Black 
Hamburgh  vine,  the  largest  in  England,  was  planted, 
and  it  was  the  same  monarch  who  first  turned  the 
palace  to  account  by  assigning  apartments  in  it  to 
people  of  rank  and  distinction,  to  whom  for  one 
reason  or  another  he  wished  to  show  favour.  Since 
then,  though  it  has  never  again  been  the  abode  of 
royalty,  it  has  been  the  scene  of  many  gatherings  of 
celebrities.  At  one  time,  for  instance,  it  was  the 
home  of  the  Countess  of  Mornington,  mother  of  the 
great  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  astute  statesman 
Lord  Wellesley,  and  in  it  lived  for  several  years 
Mrs.  Tom  Sheridan,  daughter-in-law  of  Richard 
Brinsley  Sheridan,  one  of  whose  daughters  was  the 
Queen  of  Beauty  at  the  Eglinton  Tournament  of 
1839,  and  another  the  wife  of  the  Marquis  of  Dufferin, 
whose  son,  the  late  Lord  Dufferin  and  Ava,  became 
Viceroy  of  India. 

It  was  in  1838  that  Queen  Victoria  decided  to 
admit  all  her  subjects  free  of  fee  to  the  state  apart- 
ments and  grounds  of  her  palace  at  Hampton,  a 
generous  policy,  the  wisdom  of  which  has  been  con- 
clusively proved  by  the  ever-increasing  numbers  of 
those  who  show  their  appreciation  of  the  fine  works 


HAMPTON  COURT  305 

of  art  preserved  in  the  galleries  and  their  delight  in 
the  beauty  of  the  grounds.  The  grand  old  demesne 
is  indeed  a  notable  witness  to  the  continuity  of  the 
present  with  the  past,  and  to  the  close  union  between 
the  people  and  their  rulers,  that  in  spite  of  the 
growth  of  democracy  is  still  distinctive  of  England, 
and  is  her  best  hope  for  the  future. 


IN  addition  to  the  many  standard  works  on  London  as  a 
whole,  including  those  by  Sir  Walter  Besant,  Edward  Walford, 
James  Thome,  G.  E.  Mitton,  and  others,  the  author  of  the 
present  volume  has  consulted  William  Hewitt's  Northern 
Heights  of  London  ;  The  Records  of  Hampstead,  edited  by 

F.  E.  Baines  ;  The  Hampstead  Annals ;   The  Transactions  of 
the  Antiqtiarian  and  Historical  Society  of  Hampstead  j  Wyldes 
and  its  Story,  by  Mrs.  Arthur  Wilson  ;  Harrow,  by  J.  Fischer 
Williams  ;  Epping  Forest,  by  Edward  North  Buxton  ;  Chisle- 
hurst  Caves  and  Dene  Holes,  by  W.  G.  Nicholls  ;   The  History 
and  Antiquities  of  Richmond,  Keiv,  Petersham,  and  Ham,  by 

G.  Beresford  Chancellor  ;   Ham  House,  by  Dr.  Williamson ; 
Bygone    Putney,    by    Ernest    Hammond ;     The    History    of 
Hampton  Court,  by  Ernest  Law  ;  supplementing  them  by  the 
collection  of  recent  information   on   the  spot  in  the  various 
districts  treated. 


308 


INDEX 


ABBEY  WOOD,  92. 

Aberdeen,  Lord,  46. 

Abershaw,  Jerry,  204. 

Abney,  Sir  Thomas,  33. 

Aconzio,  Giacomo,  93. 

Acton,  277. 

Adam,  Robert,  283. 

Addington,  142. 

Addington,  Henry,  219. 

Addiscombe,  143. 

Addison,  14,  33,  194. 

^Elffic,  152,  153. 

^Ethelbricht,  King  of  Kent,  198. 

vEthelred,  King,  208. 

Ainger,  Canon,  21. 

Airey,  Sir  George,  114. 

Akenside,  Dr.,  15. 

Alcock,  Thomas,  157. 

Aldborough  Hatch,  72,  73. 

Alfred,  King,  100,  101,  124,  208. 

Algar,  Earl,  295. 

Alleyn,  Edward,  131,  132,  133. 

Allingham,  William,  18. 

Amelia,  Princess,  260,  261,  277. 

Amelia,  Queen,  256. 

Anerley,  135. 

Angouleme,  Duchesse  d',  22. 

Anjou,  Margaret  of,  229. 

Anne  of  Bohemia,  120,  228. 

Anne  of  Cleves,    104,   117,    130, 

234,  299. 

Anne  of  Denmark,  108. 
Anne,   Princess,  242,   283,  287, 

303. 
Anne,  Queen,  ill,  163,  167,225, 

271. 
Antraigues,  Count  d',  195. 


Aragon,  Katharine  of,  59,  86, 103, 

232,  233,  245,  266,  286. 
Archer,  Lady,  195. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  264. 
Arran,  Earl  of,  249. 
Arthur,  Prince,  232,  266. 
Arundel,  Archbishop,  149. 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  161. 
Ashurst,  Sir  William,  35. 
Athelstan,  King,  192,  263,  265. 
Atterbury,  Bishop,  33. 
Atterbury,  Dr.,  33,  39. 
Aubrey,  Lord,  152. 
Auckland,  Lord,  130. 
Audley,  Lord,  116. 
Aulus  Plautius,  138. 
Aylmer,  John,  95. 

BACON,  LORD  FRANCIS,  33,  132, 

149,  286. 

Baillie,  Agnes,  17. 
Baillie,  Joanna,  17. 
Baker,  Sir  Richard,  33. 
Banstead,  165-171. 
Barbauld,  Rochemond,  36. 
Barking,  80,  82,  83. 
Barking,  Abbess  of,  78. 
Barking  Abbey,  72,  Si,  83. 
Barking  Creek,  85. 
Barking  Side,  73,  74. 
Barnard,  Sir  John,  219. 
Barnes,  179,  191-196,  197-218. 
Barnet,  24. 
Barnet,  Chipping,  51. 
Barnet,  East,  50,  51,  53,  54. 
Barnet  Field,  50. 
Barnet,  High,  50,  51,  52,  53. 
307 


308    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Barry,  Sir  Charles,  134. 

Bastwick,  Dr.,  33. 

Beach,  Mary,  289. 

Beale,  Robert,  195. 

Beauclerck,  Lady  Diana,  257, 263. 

Beaufort,  Thomas,  101. 

Beckenham,  129,  130. 

Beckley,  128. 

Beddington,  152,  154,  155,  157, 

215. 

Bedell,  Mary,  145. 
Bedingfield,  Sir  Henry,  236. 
Beechey,  Sir  Thomas,  20. 
Belet,  Michael,  227. 
Bell,  Robert,  202. 
Belsize,  4,  5. 
Belvedere,  95. 
Benn,  Sir  Anthony,  267. 
Bennet,  Timothy,  291. 
Bermondsey,  Monastery  of,  131. 
Berry,  the  Misses,  263,  289. 
Besant,  Sir  Walter,  18. 
Bettes,  James,  296. 
Beverley  Brook,  191,  261. 
Bexley,  98. 
Bickersteth,  Dr.,  22. 
Birket  Foster,  41. 
Blackheath,   100,  105,   115,   116,  ! 

117. 

Black  Prince,  119. 
Blake,  William,  17,  35. 
Boadicea,  Queen,  60. 
Bolingbroke,  Henry,  149. 
Bolingbroke,  Richard,  38. 
Boleyn,  Anne,  103,  140,  141,  234, 

293,  298. 

Bonar,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  128. 
Bonivet,  Admiral,  116. 
Bonner,  Edward,  186. 
Boswell,  James,  42. 
Bourgeois,  Sir  Francis,  134. 
Bowyer,  William,  77. 
Brabazon,  Sir  Roger,  4. 
Bradley,  James,  114,  222. 
Brad  on,  William,  130. 
Bradshaw,  John,  145. 
Braganza,  Caroline  of,  1 66. 
Brampton,  Thomas,  233. 


Brawne,  Fanny,  17. 

Brent,  river,  9,  41,  42,  274,  278, 

279. 
Brentford,  9,  177,  178,  225,  275- 

276. 

Bridget,  Princess,  121. 
Bridgman,  Sir  Orlando,  290. 
Bromley,  128-130. 
Brougham,  Lord,  189. 
Brouncker,  Lord,  247,  248,  257. 
Brown,  Charles  Armitage,  17. 
Bruce,  James,  46. 
Buchan,  Lord,  258. 
Buckhurst,  Lord,  65. 
Bunyan,  John,  275. 
Burdett,  Sir  Francis,  204. 
Burdett-Coutts,  Baroness,  36. 
Burghley,  Lord,  199,  200,  216. 
Burlington,  Earl  of,  272. 
Burney,  Charles,  271. 
Burney,  Fanny,  12,  15. 
Burrage  Town,  91,  92. 
Burstall  Heath,  93. 
Burton,  Lady,  220. 
Burton,  Sir  Richard,  219. 
Burton,  Henry,  33. 
Bushey  Park,  290,  291. 
Bute,  Earl  of,  261. 
Butler,  Bishop,  14. 
Butler,  Dr.,  46. 
Buxton,  Sir  Samuel,  16. 
Buxton,  North,  72. 
Byron,  Lord,  17,  26,  46,  91,  134. 

CADE,  JACK,  116. 
Caen  Wood,  6,  15,  37. 
Caesar,  Sir  Julius,  215. 
Calton,  Thomas,  131. 
Cambridge,  Duke  of,  225. 
Cambridge,  Richard  Owen,  287. 
Campbell,  Thomas,  16,  135. 
Campbell,  John,  264. 
Campeggio,  Cardinal,  116. 
Canning,  George,  187,  272. 
Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  98. 
Canute,  277. 
Capel,  Lord,  221,  222. 
Cardigan,  Earl  of,  205. 


INDEX 


309 


Carew,  Sir  George  and  Lady,  234. 
Carew,  SirNicholas,  154, 157, 164. 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  35. 
Caroline,  Queen,  115,  223,  242, 

250,  255,  270. 
Carpenter,  Edward,  41. 
Carshalton,  155-157,  169,  215. 
Carwardine,  Sir  Thomas,  160. 
Castlemaine,  Lady,  163, 166,  241. 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  187. 
Caterham,  146,  153. 
Catford,  125. 
Catherine,  Queen,  271. 
Ceawlin,  King  of  Wessex,  198. 
Cecil,  Sir  Thomas,  199. 
Chalon,  John  James,  30. 
Chamber,  Sir'William,  222,  255. 
Champion  Hill,  182. 
Chandos,  Duke  of,  50. 
Chandos,  Lord,  187. 
Chantrey,  Sir  Francis,  127,  267. 
Charles  I.,  86,  108,  112,  117,  122, 

133, 145, 163, 168,  182, 187, 190, 

240,  263,  286,  290,  291,  301. 
Charles  II.,  32,  35,  109,  112,  117, 

J33»  I53>    J63.  166,  168,  190, 

197,  200,  201,  257,  264,  271, 

286,  294,  302. 
Charles  V.,  103,  233. 
Charlotte,  Queen,  223,  224,  242, 

256,  265. 

Charlotte,  Princess,  115. 
Charlton,  118,  119. 
Chatham,  Lord,  15, 136,  139,  142, 

144,  187-189,  202. 
Cheam,  158,  159,  163,  197. 
Chertsey,  164. 
Chelsham,  146. 
Cheshunt,  56. 

Chessington,  Richard  de,  214. 
Chesterfield,  Earl  of,  4,  115. 
Chevenix,  Mrs.,  287. 
Child,  Sir  Joshua,  70. 
Child,  Sir  Thomas,  280. 
Chingford-Earls,  63. 
Chislehurst,  96,  125-128. 
Chiswick,  220,  271-273. 
Cholmeley,  Sir  Roger,  29. 


Cholmondeley,  Earl  of,  251. 

Gibber,  Colley,  15,  252. 

Clare,  John,  63. 

Clarence,  Duke  of,  231,  251. 

Clarendon,  Lord,  287. 

Clarke,  Cowden,  35. 

Claudius,  Emperor,  138. 

Claypole,  Mrs.,  302. 

Cleveland,  Duchess  of,  163,  273. 

Clive,  Kitty,  288. 

Clive,  Lord,  216. 

Cobbett,  William,  194. 

Cole,  George,  263. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  16,  25, 

30,  35- 

Colet,  Dean,  246,  249. 
Collins,  William,  20. 
Collinson,  Peter,  42. 
Compton,  Colonel  Henry,  187. 
Conde,  Prince  de,  71. 
Congreve,  William,  194. 
Connaught,  Duke  of,  64. 
Connaught,  Prince  of,  115. 
Constable,  John,  19, 20, 24, 25, 204. 
Conyers,  Sir  Gerard,  69. 
Conyers,  Thomas,  53. 
Cook,  Sir  Frederick,  256. 
Coombe,  loo. 
Coombe  Hill,  296. 
Coombe  Wood,  204. 
Coppe,  Abrezer,  195. 
Cornwallis,  Admiral,  188. 
Cornwallis,  Sir  Thomas,  33. 
Cottington,  Lord,  260. 
Cotton,  Robert,  257. 
Coulsdon,  153. 
Crabbe,  16. 
Craik,  Mrs.,  138. 
Cranmer,  Archbishop,  43,  58,  150, 

215. 

Cray,  Foot's,  96,  97. 
Crayford,  96,  98. 
Cray,  Mary,  96. 
Cray,  North,  96,  97. 
Cray,  river,  98. 
Cray,  St.  Paul's,  96. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,   23,   108,  133, 

174, 262, 264, 273, 276, 294, 302. 


310    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Cromwell,  Thomas,  181,  183,  184, 

198,  246. 

Cromwell,  Walter,  184. 
Crossness,  93,  94. 
Crotch,  Dr.,  270. 
Crouch  End,  31. 
Croydon,  135,  143,  144,  148-154, 

215. 

Crystal  Palace,  135. 
Cyneheard,  the  vEtheling,  208. 
Cynewulf,  King,  208. 

DAMSELL,  MARGARET,  130. 

Dagenham,  83-85. 

Duppa,  Bishop,  253,  256. 

D'Arcy,  Edward,  165. 

Darrell,  Sir  Lionel,  256. 

Dartford,  127. 

Davey,  Sir  Thomas,  66. 

Davis,  Thomas,  20. 

Day,  Daniel,  73,  74. 

Deans,  Jeanie,  250. 

Decker,  Sir  Matthew,  250. 

Dee,  Dr.,  218,  219,  237. 

Delafosse,  Rev.  Mark,  257. 

Delaney,  Mrs.,  270. 

Denmark  Hill,  132. 

Denny,  Sir  Anthony,  59. 

Desenfans,  Monsieur,  134. 

Devonshire,  Duchess  of,  190. 

Dickens,  15,  16,  41,  66,  67,  289. 

Digby,  John,  201. 

Dighton,  Edward,  20. 

Diggs,  Margaret,  181. 

Dilke,  Charles  Wentworth,  17. 

Docwra,  Sir  Thomas,  295. 

Donne,  Dr.,  216. 

Dorchester,  Marquis  of,  35. 

Douglas,  Lady,  262. 

Downe,  140. 

Draper,  William,  97. 

Dry  den,  John,  194. 

Ducket,  Lionel,  215. 

Dudley,  Lord  Robert,  282. 

Dufferin,  Lord,  35,  304. 

Dulwich,  131-134. 

Du  Maurier,  George,  21. 

Duncan,  Edward,  20. 


Dunstan,  Sir  Jeffrey,  174. 
Dunstan,  265. 
Dunstaple,  Sir  Harry,  174. 
Duppa,  Bishop,  240. 
Dyer,  Sir  W.  Thisselton,  224. 
Dysart,  Countess  of,  263,  264. 
Dysart,  Earl  of,  255,  265. 
Dysart,  Lady,  265. 

EALING,  277. 

Edgar,  King,  80,  265. 

Edgware,  39,  40,  51. 

Edmonton,  49. 

Edmund,  King,  265,  275. 

Edred,  King,  265. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  3,  41,  57, 
68,  74,  97,  294. 

Edward  the  Martyr,  265. 

Edward  the  Peaceable,  3. 

Edward  I.,  6,  56,  61,  83,  101, 
130,  227. 

Edward  II.,  101,  119. 

Edward  in.,  7,  28,  72,  76,  119, 
140,  227,  228,  255,  267,  270. 

Edward  iv.,  38,  52,  76,  102,  113, 
116,  121,  156,  230,  245,  266. 

Edward  v.,  38. 

Edward  vi.,  29,  66,  105,  146, 
160,  215,  235,  281,  282,  293, 
299,  300. 

Edwy,  King,  265. 

Eel  Pie  Island,  Richmond,  285. 

Eleanor,  Queen,  56. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  5,  29,  33,  58, 
66,  70,  76,  82,  88,  93,  99,  106, 
108,  117,  122,  145,  150,  154, 
155,  158,  159,  161-163,  165, 
181-183,  *92»  X95>  J99>  2I4- 
216,  218,  221,  235,  237,  252, 
269,  280,  282,  286,  290,  300. 

Elizabeth,  Princess,  282. 

Elizabeth,  of  York,  295. 

Elmham,  Thomas,  229. 

Ellerton,  John,  195. 

Ellymbridge,  Thomas,  156. 

Elstree,  39,  50,  51. 

Eltham,  118-124. 

Eltham,  John  of,  1 19. 


INDEX 


Eltham,  Statutes  of,  122. 
Enfield,  50,  54-60,  76. 
Epping  Forest,  56,  59,  60-71. 

Aldersbrook  Cemetery,  62. 

Ambresbury  Banks,  60,  64. 

Beech  Hill,  65. 

Beech  Wood,  63. 

Buckhurst  Hill,  64,  66. 

Chingford,  62,  64,  65. 

Chingford  St.  Paul's,  64. 

Chigwell,  66,  67. 

Chigwell  Palace,  62. 

Connaught  Water,  64. 

Etloe,  77. 

Green  Ride,  64. 

Harold's  Oak,  63. 

Higham  Hill,  68. 

High  Beach  Green,  63. 

High  Beach  Hill,  63. 

Loughton,  60,  64-66. 

New  Hall  Palace,  62. 

Queen      Elizabeth's      Hunting 
Lodge,  63,  64. 

Ranger's  Road,  64. 

Rocicholt,  77. 

Sewardstone,  62. 

Theydon  Bois,  62,  72. 

Whip's  Cross,  68. 

Woodford,  67,  68. 

Writtle  Palace,  62. 
Epsom,  157,  163-170. 
Eric  IV.  of  Sweden,  237. 
Erith,  92,  95. 
Erskine,  Lord,  16. 
Esher,  185. 
Essex,    Earl   of,    107,    161,    177, 

182. 

Ethelbert,  King,  129. 
Ethelred,  King,  164,  278. 
Ethelred  n.,  3,  265. 
Ethelruda,  124. 
Eugenie,  Empress,  128. 
Evelyn,  John,  100,  193,  201,  264. 
Evelyn,  Mrs.  Richard,  165. 
Ewell,  158-160,  163. 
Ewing,  Mrs.,  257. 

FAIRFAX,  182,  266. 


Falconbridge,  Countess  of,  273. 

Falconbridge,  Viscount,  302. 

Farley,  146. 

Farnaby,  Sir  Charles,  141. 

Farnborough,  128,  140. 

Farnehame,  John,  29. 

Fauntleroy,  Henry,  36. 

Fawcett,  William,  79. 

Fawkener,  Sir  Everard,  173. 

Fielding,  Henry,  195. 

Finchley,  15,  34. 

Finsbury  Park,  38. 

Firth,  John,  150. 

Fittler,  James,  273. 

Fitzherbert,  Mrs.,  251,  256,  285. 

Fitzjames,  Bishop,  268. 

Flammarion,  Camilla,  I. 

Flamstead,  114. 

Flaxman,  John,  19,  257. 

Fleet  Ditch,  9. 

Fletcher,  Bishop,  269. 

Foley,  John,  20. 

Foot,  Sir  Thomas,  79. 

Foote,  Samuel,  173. 

Foote,  William,  29. 

Forest  Hill,  133. 

Foscolo,  Ugo,  273. 

Fot,  Godwin,  97. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  189,  272. 

Francis,  Sir  Philip,  219. 

Frederick  v.,  n. 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  203. 

Friern  Barnet,  31,  50. 

Frognal,  3. 

Froissart,  Jean,  120. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  79,  80. 

Fulham,  175,  177,  179,  268-270. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  165. 

Fuseli,  Henry,  190. 

GAINSBOROUGH,    THOMAS,    14, 

67,  226,  252. 

Gainsborough,  Countess  of,  II. 
Garnett,  Dr.,  18. 
Garratt,  173,  174. 
Garrick,  David,   15,  23,  40,  173, 

226,  252,  273,  292. 
Gatty,  Mrs.,  41. 


312    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Gay,  John,  14. 

George  I.,  304. 

George   n.j    89,    136,    179,    193, 

242,  249,  250,  285,  304. 
George  in.,  137,   142,   167,  183, 

206,  222,  223,  250,  256,  304. 
George  iv.,  223,  285. 
George  Eliot,  30,  173. 
Gibbon,  Edward,  181. 
Gibbons,  Grinling,  112,  303. 
Gideon,  Sir  Samuel,  95. 
Gifford,  William,  203. 
Gilbert  the  Norman,  209,  21 1. 
Gillies,  Margaret,  21. 
Gilman,  35. 
Gilpin,  John,  49. 
Gladstone,  Mrs.,  68. 
Glennie,  Dr.,  134. 
Gloucester,  Duchess  of,  38. 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  282,  303. 
Glover,  Richard,  142. 
Godwin  the  Hermit,  6,  9. 
Goldschmidt,  Madame,  203. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  42. 
Gordon,  Lord  George,  15,  16. 
Gospel  Oak,  9. 
Grattan,  Henry,  205. 
Great  Ilford,  78. 
Green,  Valentine,  174. 
Greenford  Magna,  278. 
Greenford  Parva,  277. 
Greenwich,  86,  100-115,  118,  122, 

123. 
Grenville,  Right  Hon.   William, 

139,  202. 

Gresham,  Sir  Thomas,  280. 
Grey,  Lady  Jane,  282. 
Grey,  Sir  John,  76,  221,  246. 
Grindal,  Archbishop,  29,  153. 
Grote,  George,  130. 
Gunnersbury,  277. 
Gunyld,  277. 
Gurney,  Samuel,  79. 
Gwynesford,  Nicholas,  156. 
Gwynn,  Nell,  32,  33,  276. 
Gypsy  Hill,  135. 

HAINAULT  FOREST,  72-74. 


Halifax,  Lord,  291,  292. 

Haling,  152,  153. 

Halley,  Edmund,  114. 

Hall's  Chronicle,  90,  105. 

Ham,  259,  262,  263,  265. 

Ham,  East,  79. 

Ham  House,  263-265. 

Ham,  West,  78,  79. 

Hamilton,  Lady,   188,  208,  212, 

213. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  212,  213. 
Hammersmith,  270-272. 
Hampstead,  1-24. 

Bertram  House,  18. 

Bolton  House,  16. 

Bull  and  Bush  Inn,  14,  15. 

Capo  di  Monte,  17. 

Christ  Church,  22. 

Church  Row,  17,  21,  22. 

Cloth  Hill,  10,  19. 

Evergreen  Hill,  16. 

Fitz-John's  Avenue,  20. 

Flask  Tavern,  II. 

Flask  Walk,  n,  18. 

Golder's  Hill,  23. 

Heath,  16,  21-23,  2S- 

Heath  House,  14,  16,  22. 

High  Street,  IO,  19. 

Holly  Bush  Assembly  Rooms, 
19. 

Holly  Hill,  10. 

Jack    Straw's    Castle,    u,    15, 
16. 

Judges'  Walk,  17. 

King  of  Bohemia  Tavern,  n. 

Lawn  Bank,  17. 

Lyndhurst  Road,  14,  18. 

Mount,  The,  19. 

Mount  Vernon,  II. 

North  End  House,  11,  15. 

New  Grave  House,  21. 

Parish  Church,  21. 

Parliament  Hill,  23. 

Pond  Street,  18. 

Prince  Arthur  Road,  20. 

Prospect  House,  19. 

Public  Library,  20. 

Roman  Catholic  Chapel,  22. 


INDEX 


313 


Hampstead  (continued)— 
Rosemount,  18. 
Rosslyn  Hill,  17. 
Rosslyn  House,  14. 
Sion  Chapel,  12. 
Soldiers'  Daughters'  Home,  13. 
Steele's  Studios,  14. 
St.  Saviour,  Church  of,  22. 
St.  Stephen's  Church,  18,  20, 

22. 

'Spaniards,'  15,  16. 

Upper  Flask  Tavern,  14. 

Vale  of  Health,  17. 

Well  Walk,  12,  13,  17,  2O. 

Wildwoods,  15. 

Windmill  Hill,  11,  16. 
Hampton,  292. 
Hampton  Court,   103,   160,  182, 

185,  186,  234,  235,  267,  290- 

303- 

Hampton  Wick,  292. 
Handel,   George    Frederick,   50, 

193- 

Hanover,  George,  King  of,  226. 
Hard  wick,  Lord,  156. 
Hare,  Dr.,  195. 
Haringay,  38. 
Harlowe,  Clarissa,  14. 
Harold,  King,  57,  66,  67,  209. 
Harper,  Sir  John,  174. 
Harrison,  Mrs.  Mary,  21. 
Harrow-on-the-Hill,    24,  39,  43- 

48. 

Harrow  Weald,  43. 
Harsnett,  67. 
Hart,  Perceval,  99. 
Hartley,  David,  187. 
Hasted,  121. 
Hatteclyff,  Thomas,  143. 
Hatton,    Sir    Christopher,     150, 

199. 

Havering,  74-76. 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  34. 
Hayes,  136,  138,  141. 
Heath,  Dr.,  47. 
Heidegger,  Count,  194. 
Hendon,  5,  8,  24,  37,  39-42. 
Hengist,  96. 


Henrietta  Maria,  108,  109,  163, 

200,  240,  241,  286. 
Henry  I.,  78,  209,  227. 
Henry  n.,  58. 

Henry  III.,  6l,  119,  130,  266. 
Henry  iv.,  101,  121,  149,  229. 
Henry  V.,  101,  121,  229,  244, 

280. 
Henry  VI.,  38,  40,  Il6,  121,  156, 

280. 
Henry  VII.,  38,    IO2,    121,   130, 

156,  230,  232,  234. 
Henry  vin.,  7,  43,  58,  64,  68, 

80,  81,  86,  94,   102,  103,   117, 

122,  130,  131,  140,  141,   143, 

149,  154,  157,  160,   163,  164, 

181,   198,  214,  233,  234,  249, 

252,  281,  286,  293,  297. 
Henry,  Prince,  239. 
Herbert,  Lord,  91. 
Herring,  Archbishop,  149,  151. 
Hertcombe,  John,  267. 
Heydon,  Sir  Henry,  140,  141. 
Hey  wood,  Thomas,  168. 
Hide  Monastery,  145. 
Highgate,  8,  9,  24,  25-37. 

Archway  Tavern,  31. 

Arundel  House,  33. 

Bank,  33. 

Black  Dog  Tavern,  37. 

Brookfield  House,  36. 

Bull  Inn,  34. 

Chapel,  33,  39. 

Chapel   of  Passionist    Fathers, 

37- 

Church  House,  34. 
Cromwell  House,  33. 
Dorchester  House,  35. 
Dufferin  Lodge,  35. 
Fitzroy  Park,  35. 
Flask  Inn,  34. 
Fox  and  Crown  Inn,  36. 
Gate  House  Inn,  26,  28. 
Great  North  Road,  34. 
Green,  33,  34. 
Grove,  35. 
Hermitage,  36. 
Hermitage  Chapel,  29. 


314    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Highgate  (continued) — 

Highgate  Hill,  31. 

High  Street,  31. 

Holloway,  37. 

Holly  Lodge,  36,  37. 

Holly  Village,  37. 

Ivy  Cottage,  36. 

Lauderdale  House,  32,  33. 

Millfield  Lane,  36. 

Southwood  Lane,  32,  37. 

Swain's  Lane,  37. 

Waterlow  Park,  32. 

West  Hill,  36. 
Highwood  Hill,  43. 
Hill,  Sir  Roland,  18. 
Hoare,  Samuel,  16. 
Hoare,  Sir  Richard,  192,  194. 
Hoare,  Sir  Samuel,  216. 
Hofland,  Mrs.,  253,  257. 
Hogarth,    William,     14,   25,    34, 

272,  273. 
Holbourne,  9. 
Holl,  Frank,  20. 
Holland,  Charles,  273. 
Holland,  Earl  of,  266. 
Holwood  Hill,  138. 
Hood,  Robin,  91. 
Hook,  Theodore,  46,  269. 
Hooker,  Sir  Joseph,  224. 
Hooker,  Sir  William,  224. 
Hoppner,  John,  265. 
Horley,  157. 
Hornchurch,  74. 
Home,  John,  145. 
Home,  Nathaniel,  39. 
Hornsey,  8,  29,  37,  38. 
Horton,  164. 

Houblin,  The  Misses,  254. 
Howard,    Catherine,     105,    235, 

281,  293,  299. 
Howard,  Mrs.,  285. 
Howitt,  Mary,  36. 
Howitt,  William,  36. 
Humphrey,  Duke,  101,  102,  112, 

"3- 
Hunt,  Leigh,  17,  24,  35,  36,  211, 

258,  270. 
Huntingdon,  Countess  of,  34. 


Huntingfield,  Lord,  191. 
Hyde,  Anne,  287. 

INGELRICA,  3. 

Inigo  Jones,  55,    108,    109,    118, 

272. 

Ireton,  General,  33. 
Irving,  Edward,  18,  20,  35. 
Isabel  of  France,  116. 
Isabella  of  France,  120. 
Isabella,  Queen,  119. 
Isle  of  Dogs,  114. 
Isleworth,  220,  281,  284-287. 

JAMES  i.,  33,  54,  66,  76,  113, 117, 

122,  158,  163,  168,  182,  211, 

282,  301. 
James   II.,    109,   242,    264,    302, 

303. 

James  IV.,  232,  246. 
Jansen,  Sir  Theodore,  199,  201. 
Jennings,  Sarah,  201. 
Jerrold,  Douglas,  190. 
John,  King,  94,  127,  266. 
John  of  France,  119. 
Johnson,  Dr.,  15,  129,  135,  216, 

292. 

Johnston,  Hester,  247. 
Jones,  Sir  William,  46,  91. 
Joseph,  Michael,  116. 
Juxon,    Bishop,    150,    151,    182, 

260,  269. 

KEAN,  EDMUND,  252,  257,  270. 
Keats,  John,  17,  24,  35,  36,  49. 
Kent,  Duchess  of,  261. 
Keston,  136-138,  140,  280. 
Kew,  220-226. 
Kew  Gardens,  221-225. 
Keybourne  Brook,  6. 
Kilburn,  5,  6,  8. 
Kilnbourne,  Nonnerie  of,  7. 
Kingsbury,  41,  42,  51. 
Kingston,  159,  177,  178,  197,  220, 

226,  259,  262,  265,  266. 
Kingstone,  Lady  Mary,  77. 
Kirby,  Joshua,  226. 
Kit  Cat  Club,  14,  194. 


INDEX 


315 


Kneller,  Sir  Godfrey,  194,  288. 
Kneller,  Lady,  288. 

LACY,  JOHN,  181,  183. 

Lacy,  Richard  de,  92. 

Lamb,  Charles,  35,  49,  55. 

Lambarde,  122. 

Lambert,  General,  200,  2OI. 

Lanfranc,    Archbishop,    43,    44, 

148,  176. 
Latimer,  269. 
Laud,  Archbishop,  150,  177,  190, 

260. 

Lauderdale,  Duke  of,  32,  264. 
Lea,  river,  49,  54,  56,  59,  69,  70. 
Lee,  124,  125. 
Leicester,   Earl  of,   52,   70,  22 1, 

235,  290. 

Leighton,  Lord,  16,  254. 
Lennox,  Colonel,  204. 
Lennox,  Lady  Sarah,  256. 
Le  N6tre,  112. 
Leo  of  Bohemia,  120. 
L£on,  Comte,  205. 
Lesnes  Abbey,  92,  93. 
Lessingham,  Mrs.,  22. 
Lever,  Samuel,  41. 
Lewis,  David,  77. 
Lewis,  Monk,  195. 
Lewisham,  124,  125. 
Leyton,  69,  7°- 
Lieven,  Princess,  256. 
Lightfoot,  Hannah,  225. 
Lillywhite,  John,  30. 
Linnaeus,  Carl,  43. 
Linnell,  John,  17. 
Lisle,  Lord,  235. 
Lister,  Richard,  181. 
Litchfield,  William,  28. 
Liverpool,  Countess  of,  267. 
Liverpool,  Lord,  143,  204. 
Lloyd,  Bishop,  271. 
Lloyd,  Henry,  159. 
Lloyd,  Sir  Thomas,  190. 
Lombarde,  William  de,  1 1 2. 
Londonderry,  Marquis  of,  205. 
Long,  Miss  Tylney,  71. 
Longley,  Archbishop,  143. 
Louis  xviii.,  71. 


Louis-Philippe,  287. 
Loutherbourg,  271,  273. 
Lovell,  Gregory,  211. 
Lowther,    Honourable    Barbara, 

257- 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  140. 
Luckington,  James,  212. 
Lumley,  Lord  John,  158,  161. 
Lyndhurst,  Lord,  30. 
Lyon,  John,  46,  47. 
Lyttelton,  Lord,  142. 
Lytton,  Lord,  53,  253. 

MACARTNEY,  Lord,  273. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  117. 

Madox  Brown,  41. 

Maid  of  Kent,  245,  281. 

Maiden,  208,  210,  213,  214. 

Mallet,  David,  273. 

Mangoda,  3. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  46. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  15,  38. 

Marble  Hill,  284,  285. 

Margaret  of  Anjou,  121. 

Margaret,  Princess,  232. 

Margaret,  Queen  of  Scotland,  103. 

Marlborough,  Duchess  of,  177. 

Mary,  Princess,  221,  233,  287. 

Mary,  Queen,  29,  70,  105,  150, 
159,  160,  199,  236,  246,  266, 
282,  300. 

Mary,  Queen-Dowager  of  Scot- 
land, 103. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  97,  192, 
195,  211,  301. 

Masters,  Francis,  39. 

Mathews,  Charles,  36,  216. 

Matilda,  Queen,  6,  78. 

Maud,  Empress,  155. 

Maurice,  Frederick,  30. 

Maxwell,  Mrs.,  253. 

Mayerne,  Sir  Theodore,  122. 

Maynard,  Lord,  68. 

Marvell,  Andrew,  33. 

Melvill,  Henry,  195. 

Melville,  Lord,  1 88. 

Merry,  Sir  Thomas,  69. 

Merton,  19,  208-212,  215. 

Merton,  Walter  de,  210,  213,  214. 


3i6    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Meteyard,  Elizabeth,  18. 
Mill  Hill,  39,  42,  43. 
Millais,  Sir  John,  141. 
Millebourne,  William,  191. 
Miller,  Joe,  274. 
Milton,  John,  33,  193. 
Mitcham,  197,  208,  215-217. 
Mole,  river,  267. 
Molesey,  267. 
Molesey,  East,  300. 
Molesey,  West,  300. 
Molyneux,  222. 
Monken  Hadley,  53. 
Monmouth,  Duke  of,  1 66. 
Morden,  208,  214,  215. 
Morden,  Sir  John,  118. 
More,  Hannah,  216. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  124,  215. 
Morel,  Abbe,  22. 
Morland,  George,  25,  34. 
Morland,  Sir  Samuel,  271. 
Mornington,  Countess  of,  304. 
Mortlake,  184,  198,  218-220,  259. 
Morton,  Cardinal,  156. 
Mottingham,  124. 
Mounteagle,  Lord,  83. 
Muloch,  Diana,  18,  138. 
Murphy,  Arthur,  271. 
Murray,  Earl  of,  301. 
Murray,  John,  203. 
Muswell  Hill,  9,  31. 

NAPOLEON  in.,  128,  205. 
Nelson,  Lord,  36,  ill,  188,  208, 

212,  213. 

Newcastle,  Duke  of,  152. 
New  River,  49,  54. 
Newton,  Gilbert  Stuart,  203. 
Nicholls,  Mr.,  126. 
Nonsuch  Palace,  156-163,  168. 
Norviton,  265. 
Norfolk,  Duke  of,  116,  221. 
Norris,  Sir  John,  185. 
North,  Lord,  43,  292. 
Northumberland,  Duke  of,  282. 
Northumberland,  Earl  of,  282. 
Norton,  Mrs.,  35. 
Norton,  Sir  Gregory,  241. 
Norwood,  135,  215. 


Nottingham,  Countess  of,  238. 
Noy,  Chancellor,  274,  276. 

OAKS  RACE,  169. 

CElgifa,  Queen,  265. 

Oesterley  Park,  280. 

Odo,  Bishop,  94,  98,    118,   lig, 

130,  138. 
Oldham,  89. 
Ongar,  64. 

Orleans,  Duke  of,  103. 
Ormond,  Duke  of,  249. 
Orpington,  96,  99. 
Osborne,  Dorothy,  247. 
Oswald,  King,  164. 
Oswy,  King,  164. 
Oulton,  155. 
Owen,  Sir  Richard,  261. 
Ownstead,  Joanna,  145. 
Ownstead,  John,  145. 

PADDINGTON  CANAL,  279. 

Palgrave,  Sir  Thomas,  18. 

Palmer,  Philadelphia,  181. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  46. 

Paris,  Matthew,  119. 

Park,  John  James,  1 6. 

Parker,  Sir  James,  231. 

Parr,  Dr.  Samuel,  46. 

Parr,  Catherine,  199,  300. 

Parry,  Sir  Edward,  18. 

Pauncefoot,  Edward,  32. 

Paxton,  Sir  Joseph,  272. 

Paxton,  William,  202. 

Payne,  Judge,  30,  37. 

Peachman,  Polly,  112. 

Peek,  Sir  Henry,  198. 

Peel,  General,  206. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  46. 

Pembroke,  Countess  of,  261. 

Pembroke,  Earl  of,  285. 

Penn,  Mrs.,  293. 

Penn,  William,  290. 

Pcpys,  Samuel,  86,  87,  91,   109, 

168,  193,  211. 

Perceval,  Sir  Spencer,  5,  46. 
Percy,  Algernon,  282. 
Percy,  Lady  Elizabeth,  283. 
Perivale,  278. 


INDEX 


317 


Ferrers,  Alice,  227,  267,  270. 

Perry,  James,  203. 

Petersham,  254,   259,    262,  263, 

265,  285. 

Pethward,  Dr.,  177. 
Pevrel,  Ranulph,  3,  8. 
Phelippe,  William,  28. 
Philip  i.,  23,  232. 
Philippe,  Louis,  256. 
Phillip  II.,  199,  236. 
Phillippa  of  Hainault,  1 19. 
Phillpott,  89. 
Pickering,  Sir  John,  221. 
Pinwell,  John  George,  30. 
Piozzi,  Mrs.,  135. 
Pirelea,  William  de,  145. 
Pitt,  William,  84,  130,  136,  137, 

142,  204. 

Plantagenet,  Margaret,  69. 
Plumstead,  91,  92,  93. 
Pole,   Cardinal,    151,     155,    199, 

245- 

Poole,  Paul  Falconer,  20. 
Pope,   Alexander,    14,  258,  270, 

285,  288,  289. 
Pope,  Sir  Thomas,  55. 
Porter,  Alan,  127. 
Porter,  Sir  Wallis,  36. 
Portland,  Earl  of,  190. 
Portman,  Sir  Hugh,  221. 
Powis,  Earl  of,  40. 
Preston,  Sir  John,  84,  85. 
Prynne,  William,  33. 
Purley,  145. 
Putney,   145,  174,   175-190,  197, 

218,  259. 
Putney  Heath,  185-187. 

QUEENSBERRY,  DUCHESS  OF,  262. 
Queensberry,  Earl  of,  251. 
Quin,  Samuel,  258. 

RAIMBACK,  ABRAHAM,  39. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  55,  107,  108, 

215- 

Ranelagh,  Countess  of,  273. 
Ratclifle,  Dr.,  156,  271. 
Ravensbourne,  124. 
Ravensbourne,  river,  129,  138. 


Ravenscroft,  Thomas,  51. 
Ravis,  Bishop,  214. 
Raynton,  Sir  Nicolas,  55,  56. 
Rennie,  Sir  John,  87. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  255,  265. 
Rich,  Chancellor,  70. 
Richard  I.,  59. 
Richard   II.,    38,    89,    115,    I2O, 

228,  229. 

Richard  III.,  38,  230. 
Richardson,  Samuel,  12,  270. 
Richmond,    179,    181,    185,   186, 
223,   226,  231-2433  250-258, 
265,  299. 

Ancaster  House,  256. 

Black  Horse  Lane,  255. 

Bridge  House,  251. 

Buccleuch  House,  252. 

Cardigan  House,  254. 

Downe  Terrace,  256. 

Egerton  House,  253. 

Feather's  Inn,  253. 

Gothic  House,  251. 

Green,  252. 

Harleton  Lodge,  260. 

Heron  Court,  253. 

Hill,  250,  253,  259. 

Hospital,  257. 

Ivy  Hall,  251. 

Lansdowne  House,  254. 

Lass  o'  Richmond  Hill,  256. 

Lichfield  House,  253. 

Maid  of  Honour  shop,  253. 

Old  Deer  Park,  234,  244,  250. 

Palace,  232-235,  240,  242,  251. 

Parish  Church,  257. 

Park,  259-262. 

Pembroke  Lodge,  259,  261. 

Queen's  Road,  255. 

Richmond  Lodge,  234,  249. 

Star   and   Garter   Hotel,   255, 
256. 

Trumpeter's  House,  251. 

Vineyard,  253. 

Wardrobe  Court,  243. 

Wesleyan  College,  255. 

Wick,  the,  255. 

Wick  House,  255. 

White  Lodge,  261. 


318    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Richmond,  Earl  of,  130. 

Ridley,  Bishop,  268. 

Ripon,  Lord,  46. 

Rishanger,  William,  119. 

Roberts,  Lord,  47. 

Robinson,  Henry  Crabb,  30,  35. 

Robsart,  Amy,  221,  235. 

Rochelle  family,  130. 

Roding,  river,  78,  82,  85. 

Rodney,  Admiral,  46. 

Roehampton,  190,  191,  197. 

Roger,  Samuel,  16,  39. 

Romford,  74,  75. 

Romney,  George,  18,  19. 

Rook,  Robert,  79. 

Rose,  Edward,  191. 

Rose,  Richard,  192. 

Ross,  Sir  William,  30. 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel,  30. 

Rowe,  Nicolas,  30. 

Roxburgh,  Countess  of,  240. 

Rubens,  Peter  Paul,  108. 

Rudd,  Dr.,  238. 

Rupert,  Prince,  87,  275,  276. 

Rushey  Green,  125. 

Ruskin,  John,  36. 

Rushout,  43. 

Russell,  Earl,  261. 

Russell,  Lord,  151. 

Ryan,  Mr.,  125. 

Ryland,  W.  Wynne,  270. 

SACHEVEREL,  DR.  HENRY,  33. 
Sackville,  Nigel  de,  44. 
Salisbury,  Countess  of,  94,  95. 
Sambook,  Jeremy,  52. 
Sanderstead,  144,  145. 
Sandys,  Archbishop,  269. 
Savage,  Bishop,  39. 
Sayers,  Tom,  30. 
Scawen,  Sir  William,  156. 
Schreiner,  Olive,  41. 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  45,  48. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  250. 
Selwyn,  William,  127. 
Seymour,  Charles,  283. 
Seymour,  Jane,    234,   246,   293, 

298,  299. 
Seymour,  Lady  Jane,  235. 


Seymour,  William,  54. 
Shadwell,  Sir  Launcelot,  194. 
Shaftesbury,  Lord,  46. 
Sharp,  Archbishop,  32. 
Sharp,  William,  273. 
Shaw,  Sir  John,  119. 
Sheen,  226-231. 
Sheen,  Abbey  of,  101. 
Sheen  Monastery,  211,  244-249. 
Sheldon,  Archbishop,  151,  153. 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  17,  35. 
Sheridan,   Richard   Brinsley,  46, 

257,  304. 

Sheridan,  Mrs.  Tom,  304. 
Shirley,  143. 
Shortlands,  130. 
Shovel,  Admiral,  96. 
Shovel,  Elizabeth,  97. 
Shrewsbury,  Duke  of,  284. 
Siddons,  Mrs.,  17,  190,  252. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  193. 
Simmel,  Lambert,  231. 
Sinclair,  Roger,  95. 
Sion  House,  280-284. 
Skelton,  William,  177. 
Skern,  Robert,  267. 
Sloane,  Sir  Hans,  272. 
Smith,  Alderman,  172. 
Smith,  Dr.  Southwood,  35. 
Soane,  Sir  John,  134. 
Somerset,  Protector,  28 1 ,  283 , 293. 
Sophia,  Princess,  123. 
Southampton,  Lord,  35. 
Southhaw  Forest,  51. 
Southwell,  Canon,  38. 
Spencer,  John,  201. 
Stael-Holstein,  Madame  de,  251. 
Stafford,  Archbishop,  150. 
St.  Albans,  Duchess  of,  36. 
St.  Albans,  Henry  de,  295. 
St.  Alphage,  101,  115. 
Stanfield,  William  Clarkson,  20. 
Stanhope,  Lord,  139. 
Stanmore,  39,  49. 
Stanmore,  Great,  51. 
Stanmore,  Little,  50. 
St.  Andre,  Marshal,  236. 
St.  Anselm,  44. 
St.  Blaise,  129. 


INDEX 


319 


St.  Ebba,  164. 

Steele,  Sir  Richard,  14,  194,  292. 

Steevens,  George,  14. 

Stephen,  Kisg,  78. 

St.  Erkenwald,  81,  268. 

St.  Ethelburga,  81. 

Stevens,  Alfred,  20. 

St.  Margaret's,  284. 

Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  189, 

Stone,  Nicholas,  56,  69. 

Stothard,  Thomas,  204. 

Stow,  John,  231. 

St.  Paul,  Earl  of,  127. 

St.  Paulinus,  96,  98. 

Stepniak,  41. 

Strand-on-the-Green,  273,  274. 

Strange,  Sir  John,  77. 

Stratford-on-the-Lea,  78. 

Strawberry  Hill,  287-289. 

Streatham,  135,  215. 

Street,  John,  17. 

Strype,  John,  77. 

Stuart,  Arabella,  54. 

Stubbs,  Lawrence,  296. 

St.  Valeric,  Walter  de,  295. 

St.  Wulstan,  44. 

Style,  Sir-Humphrey,  129. 

Suffolk,  Duke  of,  103,  130,  246. 

Surbiton,  265. 

Sutton,  157,  158. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  247,  270,  285. 

Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles,  190. 

Sydenham,  133-135. 

Sydney,  Sir  Robert,  162. 

TAIT,  ARCHBISHOP,  14,  269. 
Talleyrand,  Prince,  18. 
Tallis,  Thomas,  112. 
Taylor,  Sir  Robert,  251. 
Teck,  Duchess  of,  226,  261. 
Teck,  Duke  of,  261. 
Teddington,  287-290. 
Temple,  John,  248. 
Temple,  Sir  William,  247,  285. 
Tennyson,  Lord,  18,  63. 
Tezelm,  142. 
Thames,  river,  174,  183. 
Thames  Ditton,  267,  290. 
Thirlby,  Thomas,  4. 


Thomas,  Giles,  15. 
Thomas  a  Becket,  2IO. 
Thompson,  Sir  William,  178. 
Thomson,  Tames,  2<57,  258,  259, 

270. 

Thornhill,  Sir  James,  in. 
Thorpe,  John,  199. 
Thrale,  Mrs.,  216. 
Throckmorton,    Elizabeth,    108, 

215. 

Tierney,  William,  187,  204. 
Tijou,  Jean,  303. 
Tillotson,  151. 
Tiploft,  Lady,  56. 
Toland,  John,  167. 
Tonbridge,  Richard  de,  214. 
Tonson,  Jacob,  194,  270. 
Tooke,  John    Home,    146,    202, 

276. 

Tooke,  William,  145,  146. 
Tooting,  208,  211,  216. 
Tottenham,  49. 
Tovi,  57. 

Townley,  Nicolas,  296. 
Trench,  Archbishop,  46. 
Tuckett,  Captain  Harvey,  205. 
Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  in,  289. 
Turnham  Green,  276. 
Turpin,  Dick,  63,  91. 
Twickenham,  225,  283,  287,  285, 

288. 

Tybourne,  river,  9. 
Tyler,  the  runner,  168. 

UPTON,  79. 

Ursuyk,  Sir  Thomas,  83. 

VANBRUGH,  SIR  JOHN,  no. 
Vancouver,  Captain  George,  263. 
Van  der  Gutch,  219. 
Vandyck,  Sir  Anthony,  122,  265. 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  13. 
Van  Neck,  Gerard,  183. 
Varden,  Dolly,  67. 
Vaughan,  Dr.,  46. 
Vaughan,  Hugh,  231. 
Vavasour,  Sir  Thomas,  263. 
Vere,  Robert  de,  38. 
Verrio,  218,  303. 


320    THE  SKIRTS  OF  THE  GREAT  CITY 


Victoria,  Qu^en,  36,  63,  207,  224, 

256,  304. 

Villiard,  Massey,  233. 
Villiers,  George,  193,  276. 
Villiers,  Lady  Frances,  241. 
Villiers,  Sir  Edward,  241.  » 
Voltaire,  173. 

WADDON,  154. 

Waechter,  Sir  Max,  255,  285. 

Wakefield,  George,  257. 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  245. 

Waldegrave,  William,  78. 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  38. 

Wallaston,  Sir  John,  32. 

Wallington,  155. 

Walpole,    Honourable    Thomas, 

136- 
Walpole,  Horace,  122,  136,  200, 

251,  283,  287,  288,  292. 
Walpole,  Sir   Robert,   179,   194, 

219,  260. 
Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  97,  127, 

192,  195. 
Waltham  Abbey,  56,  57,  59,  62, 

66,  67. 

Waltham  Cross,  56. 
Walthamstow,  69,  70. 
Waltheof,  68. 
Wandle,  river,  155,  157,  172,  174, 

208,  209,  213,  215. 
Wandsworth,  172-174,  197. 
Wanstead,  70,  71. 
Wanstead  Flats,  62,  70. 
Ward,  John,  140. 
Ward,  Mrs.  Henry,  30. 
Warham,  Bishop,  39. 
Warlingham,  146. 
Warwick,  Earl  of,  230. 
Waterlow,  Sir  Sydney,  32. 
Watling  Street,  50. 
Watts,  Dr.,  33. 
Wat  Tyler,  15,  115. 
Wedderburn,  Alexander,  14,  216. 
Welbeck,  John,  i8i. 
Welsh  Harp,  41,  42. 


Wellesley,  Lord,  189,  304. 
Wellesley,  W.  Tylney  Long,  71. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  304. 
Wells,  river  of,  9. 
West,  Bishop,  180. 
West,  Gilbert,  142. 
Westbourne,  river,  9. 
Weston,  Sir  Richard,  190. 
West  Wickham,  94,  140,  141. 
Whetstone,  50. 

Whistler,  James  M'Neill,  273. 
Whitchurch,  50. 
Whitchurch,  Edward,  215. 
Whitefield,  George,  34,  116. 
Whitgift,  Archbishop,    150,    153, 

154. 

Whittington,  Dick,  31,  32. 
Whitney,  Miss  Anne,  1 8. 
Whyte,  Rowland,  162. 
Wicker,  Henry,  165. 
Wimbledon,  175,  176,   179,   183, 

185-186,     197,    203,     205-208, 

211,218. 

Wimbledon,  Lord,  200,  203. 
Wilberforce,  William,  16,  42, 138, 

202. 

Wilkes,  John,  173,  276. 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  If. 
Willesden,  8,  9. 
Willett,  John,  66. 
William  the  Conqueror,   58,  68, 

81,  94,  98,  118,  119,  130,  148, 

209,  249,  286. 
William  ill.,  109,  156,  242,  247, 

291,  294,  302,  303. 
William  IV.,  222,  251,  265,  292. 
William,  Morgan,  184. 
Williams,  David,  37. 
Williams,  John,  184. 
Williams,  Rev.,  296. 
Wilson,  Sir  Spencer,  4. 

YATES,  Mrs.,  257. 
York,  Duke  of,  204,  282. 

ZOFFANY,  JOHANN,  226,  274. 


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