London: volume 2
Knight, Charles.
1851
XXXVI.-The Strand (Concluded from No. XXXV.)
XXXVI.-The Strand (Concluded from No. XXXV.)
Among those curious narrow lanes which extend from downwards to the Thames, there is called , through which ran the watercourse from Strand Bridge, and which we have in our former article incidentally referred to as containing an important remain. It is a place which few persons besides the inhabitants are at all familiar with--a circumstance that may account for the little notice that has been paid to the announcement seen in front of No. of the lane in question. We were roaming carelessly through these lanes, thinking there could be little or nothing in them to repay the curious visitor, when that announcement attracted our attention, and we read With some surprise and a great deal of incredulity we desired to be shown this piece of antiquity, which the chief historians of the metropolis had said nothing about. Descending several steps we found ourselves in a lofty vaulted passage, evidently ancient; and its antiquity became still more apparent on walking to the end of the passage, where the ceiling of the opposite or terminal wall exhibits half of a great circular arch, the upper portion of the other half being occupied by a descending piece of masonry, supported by a beam, which appears to be at least or centuries | |
166 | old, possibly much more. The age of this beam speaks significantly as to the age of the arch, which it and the accompanying masonry have mutilated. On the left of the passage is a door, leading into a vaulted chamber, measuring weshould suppose about feet in length, the same in height, and in breadth about feet. In the massive wall between the chamber and the passage is a recess, passing which, and standing at the farther end of the room, we have the view seen in the above engraving. The Bath itself is about feet long, broad, and feet inches deep. The spring is said to be connected with the neighbouring holy well, which gives name to , and their respective position makes the statement probable. Through the beautifully clear water, which is also as delightful to the taste as refreshing to the eye, appear the sides and bottom of the Bath, exhibiting, we were told, the undoubted evidences of the high origin ascribed to it. Minutely as the height and peculiar coldness of the water would permit, did we and the artist of the above drawing examine the structure of these supposed Roman walls and pavement. The former consisted, we found, of layers of brick of that peculiar flat and neat-looking aspect which certainly seemed to imply the impress of Roman hands, divided only by thin layers of stucco; and the latter of a layer of similar brick, covered with stucco, and resting upon a mass of stucco and rubble. The construction of the pavement is made visible by a deep hole at the end near the window, where the spring is continually flowing up; and in pursuing our inquiries among those persons best calculated to satisfy them, we were told by a gentleman connected with the management of the estate, who had had a portion of the pavement purposely removed, that the rubble was of that peculiar character well known among architects as Roman. The bricks are inches and a half long, inches and a half broad, and an inch and quarters thick. On this point it may be necessary to observe that Roman bricks are often, but most incorrectly, stated to have been invariably square. The evidences in disproof of the assertion are as numerous as they should be well known. In Woodward's account, for instance, of the Roman walls of London, the dimensions of the bricks or tiles are stated at about a foot wide by a foot and a half long. In Rickman's [n.166.1] the floor of the baths at Wroxeter is described as The remainder of the passage might be applied, with the mere alteration of the proportions in depth of the different layers, to the Bath in :-- These were the larger Roman bricks. We are told the Roman wall discovered in in was constructed but no dimensions are given. At the farther end of the Bath is a small projecting strip or ledge of white marble, and beneath it a hollow in the wall slanting towards corner: these are the undoubted remains of a flight of steps leading down into the water. Immediately opposite the steps, we learn from the authority of the gentleman before referred to, was a door connected with a vaulted passage still existing below-and towards the back of- houses in , and continuing from thence upwards in the direction of . These vaults have some remarkable features: among others, there is a low arch of a very peculiar form, |
167 | the rounded top projecting gradually forward beyond the line of its sides, in the house immediately behind the Bath. But the history of the Bath--is there nothing known of it? All we can say in reply is--that the property can be traced back into the possession of a very ancient family, the Danvers (or D«Anvers), of Swithland, in Leicestershire, whose mansion stood on the spot;--that, although the existence of the Bath was evidently unknown to Stow, Maitland, Pennant, and Malcolm, or the later historians of London, from the absence of any mention of it in their pages, yet from time immemorial in the neighbourhood the fact of its being a Roman bath has been received with implicit credence ;--and, lastly, that a kind of dim tradition seems to exist that it had--been closed up for some long period, and then re-discovered. It will not be thought we have spent too much of our attention on this matter when it is considered how great an interest has always been felt on the subject of any remaining traces of the residences of the former masters of the world in our own island, and particularly in London; and that among those remains, consisting chiefly of fragments of walls, mosaic pavements, and articles of use or ornament, a bath, presenting to-day, probably, the precisely same aspect that it presented or centuries ago, when the Roman descended into its beautiful waters, must hold no mean place. The proprietors, we are happy to say, rightly estimate its value, and have long ago caused another bath to be built and supplied from it; and it is in the latter alone that persons are allowed to bathe. |
Continuing our route, and passing and .-subjects too large to be considered in the present paper-we descend. another narrow | |
| lane, bearing a name suggestive of a long train of historical memories. We are now in the precincts of the ancient palace of the Savoy; and that rather low but | |
168 | long and antique-looking edifice, with its beautiful windows and curious little tower, is its chapel, the last remnant of its architectural glories. In front extends the burial-ground, a peculiarly neat for London, with its well-gravelled walks, and fresh-looking evergreens. The founder of the Savoy was Peter de Savoy, brother to the Boniface Archbishop of Canterbury whom we have mentioned in our account of , and uncle to Eleanor, the queen of Henry III. This Peter, coming over to England on a visit to his niece, was created Earl of Savoy and Richmond, and solemnly knighted in . The date of is ascribed to the original erection. From the Earl of Savoy, the palace passed, most probably by gift, to the Friars of Mountjoy, and then again returned into the possession of the family by Eleanor's purchasing it for her son Edmund, afterwards Earl of Lancaster. His son Thomas Earl of Lancaster was beheaded during the reign of Edward II., and the Savoy then became the property of his brother Henry, who enlarged it, and made it so magnificent in , at an expense of , ( says Stow, ) that there was, according to Knighton, no mansion in the realm to be compared with it in beauty and stateliness. After the decease of the Earl's son, the Duke of Lancaster, in , of the daughters of the latter married the famous John of Gaunt, who became in consequence the possessor of the Savoy. years later occurred an event which has bequeathed to the locality of its most interesting memories, namely, the residence of the captive King John of France. The battle of Poictiers took place on the , and on the following the King with his illustrious conqueror, the Black Prince, the darling of our old historians, entered London. With the same touching delicacy of feeling which characterized all the proceedings of the Prince towards his prisoner, from their supper after the battle, when he served the French monarch kneeling, and refused to sit at table with him, John was now mounted on a richly caparisoned cream-coloured charger, while the Prince rode by his side on a little black palfrey. The accompanying procession was most magnificent. The Savoy was appropriated to the use of the King during the period of his stay. says Froissart, The negotiations as to John's ransom were long protracted, and it was not till , that the terms were settled; when, all the parties being at Calais, the French King and of his barons on the side, and Edward with of his barons on the other, swore to observe the conditions, and John was liberated on the following day. We must rapidly follow his history to its conclusion. He returned to France; was unable to fulfil his portion of the treaty; and to add to his mortification, his son, the Duke of Anjou, entered Paris from Calais, where he had been permitted by the English, whose prisoner he was, to reside, and which he had only been enabled to leave by breaking his parole. These, and it is said various other (and more doubtful) circumstances, made him resolve upon a line of conduct which his courtiers vainly strove to drive him from by ridicule; and to the astonishment; no doubt, more or less, of all parties, he suddenly returned to London, where he was received with open arms by Edward, and took up his final residence at the Savoy. Under the date , we find in Stow's Chronicles the following passage :--
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During the meeting which took place in , in pursuance of Wickliffe's citation to appear before the Bishop of London, the Duke, his patron, and Lord Percy, Marshal of England, grievously offended the citizens by their violent conduct towards the prelate, who expressed their resentment loudly, and the result was the breaking up of the court in the midst of the altercation, with a mere prohibition to Wickliffe against any further preaching or writing on the subject complained of. The Duke was so offended at the remarks of the citizens, that that very day, in his place as President of Parliament, he proposed the abolition of the office of Lord Mayor, and the substitution of a captain to execute his duties. Lord Fitzwalter, a standard-bearer of the city, joined the citizens, and advised them to look to their means of defence. They immediately armed and crowded in great numbers about the Savoy, evidently bent on mischief. A priest advanced to meet them, and inquired the cause of their coming; he was told they sought the persons of the Duke and the Lord Marshal, in order to compel them to surrender Sir Peter de la Mere, unjustly detained in prison. The priest was so imprudent as to reply that Sir Peter was a traitor, and deserved to be hanged; the words had scarcely issued from his lips before the cry was raised that he was a Percy in disguise, and he was barbarously murdered. But for the Bishop of London, who on hearing of the riot had hurried to the Savoy, the palace would no doubt have been destroyed, as it was a little later under very similar circumstances. The people, to show their opinion of the Duke, reversed his arms, traitor fashion. The civic authorities were obliged to exhibit a very different demeanour: of the last audiences given by Edward III. was to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen at Sheen (Richmond), who came to crave pardon of the Duke, in his presence, for their grievous offence. Not the less, however, were they all ousted from office by the powerful Duke, and creatures of his own substituted. The danger that threatened the Savoy on this occasion was only temporarily averted; in the popular fury burst with terrible effect upon its stately halls and towers. In that year Wat Tyler's insurrection broke out, and soon after the dreaded leader of a desperate men appeared at Blackheath. On the , whilst body marched along the Surrey bank of the Thames and destroyed the furniture and books of , another directed their steps towards the Savoy. They there The same writer mentions in his Chronicles an appalling incident of this affair:--
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From this period, during a century and a quarter, the Savoy remained a heap of ruins. About the expiration of that time Henry VII. began to erect an hospital on the site; and to ensure its completion, bequeathed to the Dean and Chapter of for that purpose. | |
The buildings do not appear to have been completed till the year of Henry VIII., when a master and chaplains were nominated. During the reign of Edward VI. the hospital, which had become, it is said, a harbour or receiving-place for loiterers, vagabonds, and strumpets, was suppressed, and the revenues given to the newly-erected hospital of ; but on the accession of Mary was soon re-established. Jackson took possession of the place as a master, and, says Stow, Among the other historical incidents of the hospital may be mentioned the deprivation of the master, Thomas Thurland, in the reign of Elizabeth, for corruption and embezzlement, and the visits which have at or different periods been made to it by commissions to inquire into the disposal of the revenues, &c. The last of these, which sat about the commencement of Anne's reign, sealed the fate of the hospital. It was then found that the purposes of the institution were utterly neglected; and the commissioners entirely deprived the chaplains of their offices, and declared the hospital dissolved. Accounts of the property were immediately taken on the part of the Crown, to which from that time it belonged. The improved value of the rents was then estimated at | |
The of the great religious meetings that have been held at the Savoy took place a little before Cromwell's death; when the Independents petitioned his Highness for liberty to hold a synod, in order to publish to the world a uniform confession of faith. They were now become a considerable body; their churches being increased both in city and country by the addition of great numbers of rich and substantial persons; but they were not agreed upon any standard of faith or discipline. The petition was opposed by some of the Court, as tending to a separation between the Independents and Presbyterians: says Neal, The meeting took place on the , when ministers and messengers from above congregational churches met together, and, after or days' | |
171 | deliberation, agreed upon their well-known Declaration of Faith, consisting in all of chapters, and nearly distinct articles of belief and discipline. It proceeded essentially on the plan of the Assembly of , omitting however, among other matters, the chapters relating to the powers of synods, councils, church censures, marriage and divorce, and the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. years later, on the same spot, was held the Savoy Conference, so famous in ecclesiastical history. On the , royal letters patent were issued, appointing |
bishops, with assisting clergymen, to meet an equal number of Presbyterian divines, at the lodgings of Dr. Sheldon, Bishop of London and master of the Savoy, &c.; and, in the Church. Among the eminent men present during the controversy, were Richard Baxter, and Dr. Wallis, the great mathematician. The former, not satisfied with the proceedings, set to work and drew up in a single fortnight an entirely new Liturgy, and offered it for the approval of the Conference. The act gave great offence to the bishops and other members of the Church of England, and they rejected it without examination. Ultimately, after a great number of discussions, carried on in the presence of a numerous audience, the parties separated without coming to any agreement. A few years later the Savoy was used as an hospital for sailors and soldiers by Charles II., and subsequently as a garrison. A considerable portion of the hospital was, it appears, in ruins as early as the | |
172 | commencement of the last century. It had been built in the form of a cross, with front towards the Thames, having several projections, and a double row of angular mullioned windows, and another towards , facing the Friary, with large pointed windows, embattled parapets, and a strong buttressed gateway, bearing the arms and badge of Henry VII., and Latin lines engraved in large characters, ascribing the foundation to that monarch. During the improvement of the neighbourhood consequent on the erection of , all remains of the Savoy were swept away, with the exception of the Chapel. Let us now enter the walls of this building. From the burial-ground there is a considerable descent to the floor of the Chapel, and, consequently, instead of the low appearance of the exterior, lofty and noble dimensions here meet the gaze. The roof is perhaps the most striking feature on a glance. It is covered with minute-looking decorations, consisting of quatrefoils, with circular leaves, enclosing crowns of thorns, carved emblems, shields, &c., which were formerly gilded, and must then have made the roof blaze of decoration. There are here the remains of an exceedingly beautiful altar-piece, which, as Malcolm has observed, may be from the design of Sir Reginald Bray, the distinguished architect of Henry VII.'s reign. Whoever its author, its intrinsic beauty should have preserved it from the disgraceful treatment it has undergone. On side it has been almost entirely destroyed to make room for the immense monument of Sir Robert Douglas and his lady, and on the other the beautiful architecture is disfigured by a brass plate to William Chaworth, and the kneeling effigies of Lady Dalhousie's monument let in (no doubt to the particular satisfaction of the parties concerned |
173 | at the ingenuity of the thing) the hollow of the niche, which there forms the most conspicuous object. On each side of the niche is a double panel, terminating originally at the top in delicate pinnacles, and over it is an elaborate canopy. The space between the sides of the altar-piece is occupied by a large piece of worthless daubing. The Douglas monument, before mentioned, exhibits the armed effigy of Sir Robert reclining on his right arm, a work of considerable merit; and a kneeling representation of his lady, in a great hood, behind him. On the western wall, near the altar-piece, is a beautiful ornamented recess, in the back of which have been effigies engraved on brass. Near this is a small tablet to Anne Killigrew, , daughter of of the masters of the Savoy, Dr. Killigrew, and niece to the well-known jester. This is the lady immortalised by Dryden as
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Whilst we are on the subject of the poetical reminiscences of the Savoy, we must not forget to mention that Gawin Douglas (son of the terrible Archibald, surnamed Bell-the-Cat), the translator of Virgil, and a poet himself of high original power, was a resident of the Savoy, and died there of the plague about : he was buried in the chapel. The only other monument requiring notice is a very large and magnificent structure of the Elizabethan era, enriched with pillars, a niche, &c., and having the effigies of a lady extended along its table. Lastly there is the tablet to the memory of the enterprising but unfortunate traveller, Richard Lander. The inscription records briefly the melancholy circumstance of his death. He This was indeed altogether a most disastrous expedition; of the crews of the steam-vessels employed in the expedition under Lander's direction, consisting of persons, only returned alive. We conclude this notice of the Chapel with the remark that it was appropriated to the use of the inhabitants of the liberty of the Duchy of Lancaster by Queen Elizabeth. Before we quit the Savoy we must visit a tomb in the burial-ground, signifying to all who are interested in the last resting-place of a man of genius that there lies William Hilton, the late Keeper of the Royal Academy. It is not always that honours such as attended his funeral ceremonies are so fitly bestowed. A procession, consisting of a large body of the students of the Academy, followed by numerous mourning-coaches, containing many of the most eminent of the deceased artist's professional brethren, among the list of whose names we find those of De Wint, Blore, Shee, Westmacott, Wyon, Uwins, Eastlake, Chantrey, &c. &c., conveyed his remains to the grave. | |
at this part was till a very recent period peculiarly narrow and inconvenient. If the reader will refer to the (the view forming the Frontispiece to Volume I.)--he will- have a better idea than pages of description could give of the aspect of this part of in olden times. That view is supposed to- be taken from a spot a little beyond the Savoy, the wall of which is there seen occupying so unreasonable a share of the roadway. Passing from ancient to modern | |
174 | periods, who, we may ask, does not remember Old Exeter «Change, with its stall-like shops, its menagerie, and above all its man at the entrance in the beef-eater costume, stimulating the imagination of many a youthful passer-by, till it could believe anything of the wonders to be shown above? Then there were the paintings, in which the artist with laudable ingenuity succeeded in conveying a very fair idea of elephants, lions, tigers, &c., without running any risk of a violation of the Commandment. The elephant too; who does not remember the melancholy circumstance of the poor creature's being shot to death, and how his skeleton afterwards adorned the window of the exhibition, forming himself his own monument in the scene of his exhibitional triumphs? The place itself was not destitute of historical interest, to say nothing of the magnificent bed exhibited here in and other matters of a similar kind. The building on the site, of which we have any record, was erected by Sir Thomas Palmer, Knight, in the reign of Edward VI.; writes Stow, From hence, he adds, there had been from which the present Bedford and Southampton Streets, &c., derive their name. During Cecil's time the house was known by his name, and afterwards from his successors, the Earls of Exeter, as Exeter House; and thus gave name to the «Change, which is said to have been built by Dr. Barbon, a speculator in houses, in the time of William and Mary. The removal of the «Change, and the adjoining houses as far as , took place in ; and the present handsome building, including the Hall which still perpetuates the ancient name and the ancient recollections, soon rose on their site. The Hall, which is used for the meetings of various religious and political associations, and for interesting musical performances, was opened in . Its great size, feet in length, in breadth, and in height, enables it to accommodate at least persons. A magnificent organ of extraordinary size and power has been recently added. |
A little beyond Exeter House and the Savoy, on the same side as the latter, was Worcester House, originally the seat of the Bishops of Carlisle; where Clarendon lived during the building of his splendid mansion in , and at that period of his life when the wily Chancellor succeeded in accomplishing an object dear, there is little doubt, to his heart--the marriage of his daughter to the Duke of York, afterwards James II.; though on the discovery of the marriage he professed to feel so shocked as to say to the King that, if the union taken place, he would give a positive judgment that At this very time it is stated the Chancellor was labouring in secret to remove all difficulties, and that he overcame the chief , the Queen Mother's dislike of the match, by engaging to get Parliament to pay her debts. At last all difficulties were removed, the marriage was publicly announced, and the nobility and gentry thronged to Worcester House, where | |
175 | the marriage had taken place, to pay their respects to the new duchess. Elated by this connexion with royalty, no wonder that Clarendon thought little of paying, as he did, the. then enormous rent of a-year for Worcester House. The mansion was pulled down by the Duke of Beaufort, and the present buildings bearing his name erected on the site. At the corner house, now occupied by Messrs. Ackermann, lived Lillie the perfumer, whom Steele has commemorated in his a more important resident of was Fielding, of whom an interesting anecdote is recorded in the for . Some parochial taxes for his house having long remained unpaid, in spite of repeated calls, the collector at last signified to the great novelist that it would be impossible to allow any longer delay. In this dilemma Fielding went to Jacob Tonson the bookseller, who also resided in , and obtained in advance some or guineas for a work he had in hand. On his return he met with an old college chum, whom he had not seen for many years, and, finding he had been unfortunate in life, gave him all the money he had just received. On reaching home he was informed the collector had called twice for the taxes.
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Between Worcester and Durham Houses stood other large mansions of noblemen; the principal being Rutland House and Cecil House; the latter standing on the site of the existing Cecil and Salisbury Streets. This was built by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, a son of the great Burghley, and was a large and stately mansion. It was a part of Cecil House that was turned into the Middle Exchange, consisting of large room, lined with shops on both sides, extending down to the river, where was a handsome flight of steps for the convenience of those who desired to take boat. It seems to have had a bad kind of reputation, and the popular idea of the purposes to which the place was applied soon found a popular but not very delicate mode of expression, and the nick-name bestowed on it had such an effect, that the Middle Exchange went to ruin, and was, with the other remains of Salisbury House, pulled down by the Earl of Salisbury, and erected in their room, about . All the part now known as the was formerly occupied by the buildings, gardens, &c., of , of the most interesting of the old Strand palaces. Pennant says the original founder was Anthony de Beck, Patriarch of Jerusalem and Bishop of Durham in the reign of Edward I.; and that Bishop Hatfield, to whom Stow ascribes the foundation, merely rebuilt the place. The latter historian describes a great feast that was held here in the reign of Henry VIII., on the occasion of the holden at , , when the challengers not only feasted the King, Queen, ladies, and all the Court at , but also
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In the reign of Edward VI. the was established here, under the direction of the Lord Admiral Seymour, who placed a creature of his own, Sir William Sharrington, in it as master. He calculated on thus obtaining great | |
176 | assistance in his ambitious projects. After his execution passed into the hands of the Duke of Northumberland, the uncle of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey; and it was here that, in the beginning of , the scheming noble beheld the part of his plan, in connexion with the throne, accomplished, by the marriage of his son,--Lord Guildford Dudley, to Lady Jane. To strengthen himself as much as possible by other powerful alliances, his daughter, Lady Catherine Dudley, at the same time married the eldest son of the Earl of Huntingdon, and a sister of Lady Jane the son of the Earl of Pembroke. The ceremony was, as we may well suppose, under such circumstances, celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. The end of all these arrangements was soon to be known. The King died on the following; and Northumberland, after days' delay (a circumstance of itself almost sufficient to ensure his failure), exhibited the will of the deceased monarch, declaring Lady Jane Grey his successor, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and obtained their oaths of allegiance. After the lapse of days more Lady Jane was conducted from to the Tower and openly received as queen, much, however, to the sorrow of the amiable victim herself, who felt no sympathy with the projects of her cold-hearted, calculating relative. Seldom indeed has a more pitiable sacrifice been offered up on the altar of ambition. Young, graceful, and pretty, if not beautiful, she at the same time possessed all the qualities that would have cheered, adorned, or elevated the domestic hearth. The partisans of Mary in the mean time were actively at work; they had gathered a numerous body of adherents together--they were bold and energetic. Collecting all his retinue at , his carts laden with ammunition, his artillery and field-pieces, the Earl set out, at the head of men, to attack them. In his absence the Council went over in a body to Mary; his troops deserted; and at last, to save his life, he endeavoured to make a virtue of necessity by proclaiming Queen Mary at Cambridge. The result is but too well known. The innocent and the guilty alike fell; the former, however, by whom we more particularly refer to Lady Jane and her youthful husband, were the last who suffered,--and might perhaps have been altogether spared, even by the vindictive and merciless Mary, but for Wyatt's ill-managed insurrection. To continue the history of :--its next eminent inhabitant was Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom it was granted by Elizabeth; but the grant appears to have been made without sufficient right in the maker, for Sir Walter was dispossessed of it by the Bishops of Durham. During the reign of James . the stables of the mansion, fronting , which had become very ruinous and unsightly, were pulled down, and the New Exchange raised in their room. It was completed in , and opened in the presence of the King (James), the Queen, and the Royal Family, and was splendidly decorated for the occasion. It then received the name from the former of Britain's Bursse. The shops generally were occupied by milliners and sempstresses, among whom the Duchess of Tyrconnel, wife of Richard Talbot, Lord Deputy of Ireland under James II., after the abdication of the and the death of the other, is said to have supported herself for a short time by engaging in the usual trade of the place. She sat in a white mask and a white dress, a circumstance which caused her to be known as the Almost from its erection the Middle Exchange became a favourite place of resort. It was here that a Mr. Gerard was |
177 | walking day planning how he should best carry into execution the plot in which he was engaged,--the assassination of Cromwell,--when he was insulted by the Portuguese Ambassador, and resented it so warmly that the latter in revenge the next day sent a set of bravoes to murder him: his murderers mistook their victim, and killed another man. The denouement is curious as well as tragical: Don Pantaleon, the ambassador, was tried, found guilty, and executed. On the scaffold he met the very party he had intended to destroy, Mr. Gerard, whose plot in the interim had been discovered. |
As we approach we are again reminded, by the magnificent pile of buildings on the northern side, that improvement has here too been busily at work of late years. Were not the alterations indeed so recent, might almost fancy Malcolm had been dozing over his ponderous labours, and unconsciously written in that state the passage where he talks of facing being Who now, standing beside the mansion referred to, and looking along , can fancy such a state of things as existing but or years ago? | |
Several important edifices have sprung up to the great adornment of in consequence of the recent improvements, in addition to the Hall before mentioned; such as the British Fire Office, a grand and characteristic edifice, designed by Mr. Cockerell; and the , of those elegant nests of shops which it would be desirable to see more commonly in populous places, were it only for the shelter they afford from the variations of our uncertain climate, and from the noise, bustle, and confusion of the great thoroughfares: the latter was designed and executed by Mr. Herbert. We do not here refer, otherwise than by this passing notice, to the improvements connected with the principal theatres of , or to those connected with Hungerford Market, as we shall have other and more favourable opportunities of so doing. With York House and then we shall now complete our notices of the more interesting features of this great thoroughfare. | |
At the corner of , in the house occupied by Messrs. Roake and Varty, is still preserved a portion of the old ceiling of the house where the great Bacon saw the light. It was then occupied by his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, as Keeper of the Great Seal. Originally the building had been the inn of the Bishops of Norwich; by exchange it passed through the hands of the monks of St. Bennet Holme in Norfolk, and then, in , to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Having become vested in the Crown by the attainder of that nobleman, it was given by Queen Mary to the Archbishops of York, who, since Wolsey's loss of (), had possessed no metropolitan residence :--it then took the name of York House. It again reverted to the Crown in the time of James I., by exchange for certain manors, and was appropriated to the use of the Keepers of the Great Seal. Sir Nicholas Bacon resided here for many years during the period he held the office, and was succeeded by Egerton, who, when retiring into private life on account of his age and growing infirmities, recommended to James as his successor the son of Sir Nicholas, who had, as we have before mentioned, been born in this very house. Strange must have been:the feelings of the man as he came back once more to the scene where | |
178 | the boy had spent so many happy hours! From hence he used to wander about with his favourite playmates, whom he would abruptly quit whenever the humour seized him, to inquire into some natural phenomena which he did not understand. On occasion of this kind he was found in , investigating the cause of an echo he had there discovered. Here, too, many a flattering mark of royal favour had been lavished upon him-Elizabeth frequently calling him her young Lord Keeper, and applauding his address and ingenuity, Bacon indeed was as early a courtier as philosopher. When the Queen once asked him how old he was, the ready-witted boy replied, --and Elizabeth desired no better system of chronology. Arduous had been his exertions since the time to which these memories belonged. On leaving the parental halls he had had to work his way upwards almost unassisted through the different phases of a career that, under the most favourable circumstances, is seldom rapid; barrister, bencher, counsel extraordinary, registrar of the Star Chamber, member of parliament, solicitor-general, attorney-general, keeper,--these were the steps of his advancement that he looked back upon as he entered York House, now at the summit of his ambition-Lord High Chancellor of England. years later the chambers of the magnificent mansion were thronged with troops of friends--it was the Chancellor's birthday; he was now in his sixtieth year. Among those present was Ben Jonson, who in some excellent verses has recorded his impressions of the scene and of the great and accomplished man who was the chief actor in it. All things, he says, seemed to smile about the old house, and he speaks of Bacon as What must Jonson have thought a year later, when in the very same halls so different a scene was presented; when the Committee of the waited upon the Chancellor, to know personally whether the confession of guilt he had sent them, involving the grossest corruption in his high office, was really his; and the unhappy man could only reply,
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York House was now to the King by an act of parliament, who hastened to bestow it on his favourite Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Great alterations and improvements in consequence took place, until the whole presented the appearance shown in the engraving at the end of our paper. It is to this period we owe the only existing remains of York House, (with the exception of the ceiling)-the beautiful water-gate at the end of , and which stands a little eastward of the site of the mansion. This is of Inigo Jones's finest works. The material is of Portland stone. On the pediment which adorns the river front are the arms of its founder. Buckingham did not long enjoy his new possessions. He was murdered in , and his murderer died on the scaffold, not only himself satisfied of the justice of the act, but blessed by the people generally for it. Such a fact speaks volumes as to the character of this owner of York House. In the Parliament bestowed York House on their | |
179 | general, Fairfax, whose daughter married George Villiers, the duke, and thus re-conveyed it into the Buckingham family. By this nobleman the estate was sold for building purposes, and the streets bearing his title were shortly afterwards built. |
, the last remaining representative of the old palatial character of , stands on the site of an hospital or chapel of St. Mary, founded in the reign of Henry III. by William, Earl of Pembroke, on a piece of ground which he had given to the priory of Rouncivalle in Navarre. In the reign of Henry V. the hospital was suppressed, as belonging to an alien monastery, with all the other houses of that kind in the kingdom; but was again restored by Edward IV., to be finally dissolved at the Reformation. About the beginning of the century the site passed into the possession of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, son of the poet Surrey, who erected a splendid mansion, and died here in . Descending then to the Earl of Suffolk, the name was changed from Northampton to Suffolk House, and again to the present title, , on the marriage of the daughter of the Earl of Suffolk with Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, in . The edifice originally consisted of sides of a spacious quadrangle, the , facing the Thames, being open. Jansen is said to have been the architect, but the front is supposed to be from the designs of Christmas, who rebuilt Aldersgate in the same reign. A side was added by Earl Algernon from the designs of Inigo Jones. Lastly, towards the close of the eighteenth century, new wings were attached to the galden front, and all but the central division, including the gateway (the work of Christmas), of the front next the Strad was rebuilt. The existing edifice is in every way worthy of the representative character we have mentioned, as-well as of the ancient family to which it belongs. Immediately behind that long front, with its conspicuous lion, the badge of the Percies, extends a spacious court-yard surrounded by the buildings before referred to. From the principal entrance, a magnificent staircase, lighted by a beautiful lantern, leads to the principal apartments; the stairs and landings of white marble finely contrasting with the rich carpets which partially cover them, and with the gilt bronzed balusters and chandeliers. The mansion is rich in works of art. In the dining-room is Titian's celebrated picture of the Cornaro family, of the painter's masterpieces; a Sebastian Bound, by Guercino; a small Adoration of the Shepherds, by Giacomo Bassano; a Fox and Deer Hunt by Synders; a Holy Family by Jordaens; and a picture containing portraits by Vandyke. This brief enumeration may give some idea of the artistical wealth of . In the long and lofty gallery, a most splendidly ornamented place, are copies of several great pictures by Raphael, Annibale Carracci, and Guido Reni, of more than ordinary excellence. The drawing-room is richly decorated with arabesques and paintings intermingled. A suite of apartments, used for the reception of evening parties, are distinguished by the solid magnificence of their decorations. In of them are vases of the finest Florentine mosaic, imitating plants, bunches of fruit, birds, animals, &c., in the most happy manner. From the windows are seen the beautiful gardens extending down to the Thames, forming a noble background to the picture. The memories of Northumberland | |
180 | House deserve a few concluding words. It was here that in General Monk, and many other of the principal nobility and gentry who agreed in his views, met by invitation of Earl Algernon to concert measures for the restoration of Charles; and in all probability it was here also that Goldsmith, when waiting upon the Earl of Northumberland, at the latter's own request, mistook the Earl's gentleman for the Earl, and only discovered his error after the delivery of a carefully prepared address. The poet's mortification was so great, that he immediately left the house, and gave up whatever hopes he had founded on so promising an invitation, |
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