Here Essex' stately pile adorned the shore; There Cecil's, Bedford's, Villiers'--now no more.--Gay.

Proceeding still westward on our pilgrimage along the Strand, we next arrive at , where in the last century resided Fielding, the novelist, of whom an interesting anecdote is told in the for :--

Some parochial taxes for his house in

Beaufort Buildings

being unpaid, and for which he had been demanded again and again, or, in the vulgar phrase, dunned

de die in diem

, he was at last given to understand by the collector, who had an esteem for him, that he could delay the payment no longer. In this dilemma the author of

Tom Jones

called a council of his thoughts to whom he should apply for a temporary accommodation, on the pledge of the embryos of his own brain. Jacob Tonson was his usual resource on these occasions. To him, therefore, he addressed himself, and mortgaged the coming sheets of some work then in hand. He received the cash--some

ten

or

twelve

guineas. Full freighted with this sum, he was returning home, when lo! fate, in the guise of friendship, had determined to intercept him in his passage, and to prevent him reaching his destination with his pecuniary cargo. When within a few doors of his own house he met 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 that the collector had called twice for the taxes. Fielding's reply was laconic, but memorable :-- Friendship has called for the money and had it; let the collector call again! The reader will be glad to hear that a

second

application to Jacob Tonson enabled him to satisfy the parish demands.

On the site of , between the Savoy and , stood Worcester House, the town mansion of the Earls of Worcester, and previously the residence of the Bishops of Carlisle. Its gardens extended to the river-side. The great Earl of Clarendon occupied this house before his own mansion was built, and paid for it the annual rent of .

In the Strand, near the Savoy, was a house known as Carey and afterwards as Stafford House.

a house now of entertainment, next my Lady Ashly's, where I have heretofore heard Common Prayer read.

Wild Gallant,

the sack at Cary.House with the apricot flavour

Fox under the Hill

,

Concerning the old house of the Earls of Worcester, afterwards , honest John Stow tells a story to the effect that

there being a very large walnut-tree growing in the garden, which much obstructed the eastern prospect of Salisbury House, near adjoining, it was proposed to the Earl of Worcester's gardner, by the Earl of Salisbury or his agent that if he could prevail with his lord to cut down the said tree, he should have

£ 100

. The offer was told to the Earl of Worcester, who ordered him to do it and to take the

£ 100

; both which were performed to the great satisfaction of the Earl of Salisbury, as he thought; but, there being no great kindness between the

two

earls, the Earl of Worcester

soon caused

to be built in the place of the walnut-tree a large house of brick, which took away all his prospect.

The building adjoining, Salisbury House, gave place to and , the latter of which, before the construction of the Thames , led to Salisbury Staris. Salisbury House-or, as it was sometimes called, Cecel House--was built by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, a son of the great Lord Burghley, and was a

large and stately

the Middle Exchange.

Whore's nest

fair street with very good houses, fit for persons of repute,

nest

Of we have little or nothing to remark, as its annals appear to be a blank of late years, except that in the last century it was inhabited by the Lord Grey, the Archbishop of York, and Dr. Wollaston. Of the same may be said, except that it was pulled down and rebuilt in the middle of the last century.

At the bottom of , on the left hand, in a house overlooking and the river, has been established, since , the Arundel Club,so called from its original abode in . It consists mainly of members of the newspaper press and of the dramatic profession, together with a few artists. Over the fireplace in the principal room is a fine portrait of Marinarni, many years scene painter at , painted by the late Mr. Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., and presented to the club by his son, Mr. G. C. Stanfield.

The next turning westwards of , down to what once was the river-sie, was called , leading to Ivy Bridge, or Pier-the same which in our own memories was used as the landing-stage of the halfpenny steamboats that used to ply between the Strand and , but were discontinued shortly after the disastrous explosion of the Cricket at the

Fox

parted the Liberty of the Duchy (of Lancaster) and the city of

Westminster

on the south side,

bridge

Near this spot, Pennant tells us the former Earls of Rutland had

a house at which several of that noble family breathed their last.

Adjoining Ivy on the west was , the

Inn

Inn

high and stately, supported with lofty marble pillars;

exchange

robbery.

That day, after the jousts performed, the challengers rode into

Durham House

, where they kept open household, and feasted the king and queen, with their ladies and all the court.

Young Edward, on reaching the throne, gave to his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, and she in her turn, when she became queen, bestowed it on Sir Walter Raleigh. On his attainder, however, the property was restored to the Bishops of Durham, but--soon after sold to the Earl of Pembroke. In Edward's reign a royal mint was established at , under the direction of the Lord High Admiral Seymour. It was at that, in , the Duke of Northumberland, who then inhabited it, beheld the accomplishment of the act of his plan for placing his niece, Lady Jane Grey, upon the throne-namely, her marriage with his son, Lord Guildford Dudley. months later, and within days of the death of the king, the Lady Jane was conducted from to the Tower with great pomp and ceremony, and openly proclaimed queen. The result is but too well known to every reader of English history.

In the reign of James I. the thatched stables of the mansion, fronting the Strand, were pulled down, and a large building, called the

New Exchange,

Britain's Burse.

The New Exchange consisted of a basement, in which were cellars; the ground-floor, level with the street, a public walk; and an upper storey, in which were stalls or shops occupied, by milliners and sempstresses, and other trades that supply dresses. The building did not attain any great success till after the Restoration, when it became quite a fashionable resort, and so popular that there is scarcely a dramatist of the time of Charles II. who is without a reference to this gay place. The shops, or stalls, had their respective signs, of which, the

Three

Spanish Gipsies,

But she was by no means the only duchess associated with the New Exchange. 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 in of the trades of the place; and she is commemorated by Horace Walpole with his usual piquancy. Pennant speaks of her as

a female suspected to have been his duchess,

supported herself here for a few days, till she was known and otherwise provided for, by the trade of the place, for she had delicacy enough to wish not to be detected.

White Milliner.

The White Milliner.

It was here, too, that a certain Mr. Gerard was walking day, meditating how he should best carry into execution a certain plot in which he was engaged--the assassination of no less a person than Oliver Cromwell-when he was insulted by Don Pantaleon, brother of the Portuguese ambassador, and resented it so warmly that the latter, in revenge, the next day sent a set of ruffians to murder him. His murderers mistook their victim, and killed another man. The , as well as tragical. Don Pantaleon was tried, found guilty, and condemned. On the scaffold he met the very man whom he had intended to destroy, Mr. Gerard, whose plot in the interim had been discovered, and the suffered in company.

The New Exchange was a long building running parallel with the Strand, and its site is now occupied by the houses Nos. to , the bank of Messrs. Coutts being the centre. It stands on the court garden front of , and, next to Drummond's, is the oldest of the West-end banks. It was founded by George Middleton, and originally stood in , not far from , but was removed to its present site by Mr. Thomas Coutts, an enterprising Scotchman, the story of whose rise is thus narrated : His father was a merchant at Edinburgh, who had sons, the youngest of whom, James and Thomas, were brought up in the paternal countinghouse. James, at the age of , came to London, and settled in , as a Scotch merchant, but from that business, however, he subsequently retired to become a banker. He took a house in the Strand, the same in which the firm still exists; and he was joined here, some years after, by his brother Thomas, as a partner. On the death of James--soon afterwards, Thomas continued to carry on the banking business, and with such an energetic spirit, that he soon gained many friends, and found himself on the sure road to success. Mr. Lawson, in his

History of Banking,

In the early part of his career Mr. Coutts, anxious to secure the cordial co-operation of the heads of the various banking-houses in London, was in the habit of frequently inviting them to dinner. On

one

of these occasions, the manager of a City bank, in retailing the news of the day, accidentally remarked that a certain nobleman had applied to his firm for the loan of

£ 30,000

, and had been refused. Mr. Coutts listened, and said nothing; but the moment his guests had retired, about

ten

o'clock in the evening, he started off to the house of the nobleman mentioned, and requested the honour of an interview with his lordship the next day. On the following morning the nobleman called at the bank. Mr. Coutts received him with the greatest politeness, and taking

thirty one-thousand pound

notes from a drawer presented them to his lordship. The latter, very agreeably surprised, exclaimed, But what security am I to give you? I shall be satisfied with your lordship's note of hand, was the reply. The I.O.U. was instantly given, with the remark, I find I shall only require for the present

£ 10,000

; I therefore return you

£ 20,000

, wiih which you will be pleased to open an account in my name. This generous-or, as it may more truly be called, exceedingly well-calculated-act of Mr. Coutts was not lost upon the nobleman, who, in addition to paying in within a few months

£ 200,000

to his account, the produce of the sale of an estate, recommended several high personages to patronise the bank in the Strand. Among new clients who opened accounts there was King George III.

Mr. Coutts hadnot only many friends, but even real admirers, among the nobility, and he is said to have been an object of attraction to not a few designing matrons, who had marriageable daughters. But all these aristocratic matrimonial speculations were somewhat rudely dispelled and frustrated, and Mr. Coutts in the end

took unto himself a wife,

for her sole use and benefit, and at her absolute disposal, without the deduction of a single legacy to any other person.

The partners in

Coutts and Co.

We learn from Mr. Peter Cunningham's

Hand- Book of London,

good marble chimney-pieces of the Bacon and Cipriani school.

The dining-room is hung with Chinese subjects on paper, sent to Mr. Coutts by Lord Macartney, whilst on his embassy to Ciina, in

1792

-

5

. In another room is a collection of portraits of the early friends of the wealthy banker, including the portrait of Armstrong, the early poet, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The strong rooms and vaults of the house will repay an endeavour to obtain a sight of them. Here, in a succession of cloister-like avenues, are stored, in boxes of all shapes, sizes, and colours, the patents, titledeeds, plate, &c., of many of the nobility and gentry; and the order in which the place is kept is perfectly wondrous.

The estate of Durham Yard, having become an unprofitable heap of ruin, was purchased by Messrs. Adam, brothers, architects by profession, who built upon it, in , parallel with the river, the noble terrace known as the , and also or streets running at right angles with it,

The following account of the brothers Adam we take from

Pilgrimages in London:

Robert Adam was the eldest brother; he had travelled much, had visited Palmyra and Baalbec, and in all his architectural works there is a peculiar style, which displays itself in the ornamental portions of the

Adelphi buildings

-the introduction of an exuberance of delicate ornament. Scotchmen are proverbially fond of their country, and the immense building speculations into which the Messrs. Adam had entered afforded them an opportunity of giving employment to their countrymen, as well as of obtaining their services, when engaged in Scotland, at a lower rate of wages than was demanded by English bricklayers and labourers. Some hundreds were, therefore, imported from Scotland, and came attended by half-a-dozen bagpipes, for the purpose, as was asserted, of keeping up the national feeling. These pipers played daily while the embankments were formed and the foundations laid; and as the sweet chords of the classic lyre of Orpheus are said to have moved inanimate objects, so arose the

Adelphi

to the squeak of the Scotch bagpipes. But the charms of music to soothe the savage breast were, in this instance, vainly tried, as the workmen soon discovered that they were paid less than the London market price of their labour, and they consequently very speedily relinquished what they called the curse of Adam, for more pay and less work, as an extra hour had been stipulated for. What was to be done? The undertaking could not be allowed to stand still, but it was impossible to comply with the advance of wages and the diminution of time demanded. In this state of things Ireland was thought of, and a similar bargain to that which had been made in Scotland was made there, with the exception of the bagpipers whose national melodies had produced so little harmony. .It was this importation from Ireland, I believe, that

first

opened the channel for the export of labourers and hodmen to England, and which stream of emigration has flowed regularly from the same source down to the present hour. But as nothing of importance long remains secret, the Irishmen, although satisfied to abide by their bargain of hard work and small pay, felt displeased that they had been deprived of the music enjoyed by their predecessors, and vented their humour in a coarse joke, upon which I have remarked that Scotchmen of all ranks are, even to the present moment, peculiarly sensitive; for Pat, with a knowing wink of his eye, asserted that if his employers had deprived him of the drone of the bagpipes by day, their honours had given him instead, both day and night, the lively amusement of the fiddle.

We ought not, and indeed we cannot forget to record here the fact that in the centre house of [extra_illustrations.3.106.3]  died, in , no less a man of note than David Garrick, within a few yards from the scene of his professional triumphs. He had been an inmate of it for the last years of his life. In the same street lived Topham Beauclerk, the wit, politician, and friend of Johnson, of whom it is recorded by Boswell that as he stood day here gazing on the river below, he lamented in breath the loss of both.

The author of

Haunted London

When the

Adelphi

was building, Garrick applied for the western corner house of

Adam Street

on behalf of his friend, Andrew Beckett, the bookseller, and obtained it, promising the brothers, if the request was granted, to make the shop, as old Jacob Tonson's shop once was, the rendezvous of the

first

people in London.

In his letter on this subject,

Garrick calls the architects the dear

Adelphi

(brothers), and the western corner house the corner blessing.

Mr. Timbs remarks that

the

Adelphi

arches, many of which are used for cellars and coal-wharves, remind us, in their grim vastness, of the Etruscan cloaca of ancient Rome. Beneath the

as they were (and are) called, the most abandoned characters used to lurk; outcasts and vagrants came there to sleep; and many a streetthief escaped from his pursuers in those subterranean haunts, before the introduction of gas-lights and a vigilant police. Even now tramps prowl in a ghastly manner down the dim-lit passages.

Garrick died in the back room of the floor of his house in the . The ceiling of the drawing-room, if we may believe Mr. J. T. Smith, the author of

A Book for a Rainy Day,

Venus attired by the Graces;

The

Shades

Darkies

In , at No. , is the building designed and erected for the [extra_illustrations.3.107.1] . This society has a history of its own, and has not been without its influence on the world of art and science in England. It originated, in , through the public spirit of William Shipley, a drawing-master, and brother to the then Bishop of St. Asaph. Mr. Shipley obtained the approval and concurrence of Lord Folkestone, Lord Romney, the Bishop of Worcester, Dr. Isaac Maddox, and a few other friends, and in the fist meeting was held at Rawthmell's Coffee House. The object of the society was the encouragment of art in connection with manufacture, &c. In the society met at Peel's Coffee House. The Royal Academy is said to have sprung from the Society of Arts, and in the latter proposed to the Academy- which had been instituted in --that they should paint the great council-room at the , and be renumerated by the public exhibition of their works therein. The Academy, with Sir Joshua Reynolds at its head refused this proposal; but in the following year James Barry, who had signed the refusal with the rest, volunteered to decorate the room without any remuneration at all. The

Handbook of London

That the attainment of happiness, individual as well as public, depends on the development, proper cultivation, and perfection of the human faculties, physical and moral, which are so well calculated to lead human nature to its true rank and the glorious designation assigned for it by Providence.

There are here a few other pictures and minor works of art and ingenuity, and they are open to the inspection of the public, free of charge, during the months of March, April, and May, from till . It is worthy of note that in Sir William Fothergill Cooke, who was at that time a member of the Council, and Vice-President of the Society of Arts, originated at a council-meeting his scheme for an International Exhibition of Industry, which was eventually carried out in . Lectures are given every Wednesday evening, from November to May. The terms of membership are guineas annually.

, our next turning in passing westward along the Strand, and , a thoroughfare running parallel with it, mark the site of York House, a building so named from having been the town residence of the Archbishop of that see, after the fall of Wolsey and the loss of their former and more magnificent palace at , which has passed irrevocably into the hands of the Crown. It had been in ancient times the house or

inn,

Great Seal,

His mansion never lost its name of York House, and the water-gate at the foot of continued to be known as

York Stairs.

On the side next the river appear the arms of the House of Villiers, and on the north side is their family motto,

Fidei Coticula Crux

At York House, within a few yards of the spot [extra_illustrations.3.107.3] 

In this you will pardon me: York House is the house where my father died, and where I drew my

first

breath; and there I will yield my last breath, if it so please God and the King.

The old mansion was pulled down, as we have already noticed, by the Duke of Buckingham, who erected in its place a modern fashionable residence, the state apartments of which were fitted up with large mirrors, and other costly pieces of luxury. Between the house and the river he carried a long terrace with an embattled wall, in the middle of which was the water-gate above mentioned. After the duke's death, in the year , York House was let on lease to the Earl of Northumberland.

Here was,

a fine collection of paintings, among which is supposed to have been the lost portrait of Prince Charles, by Velasquez.

Cain and Abel.

superstitious

Not far from the gate stood formerly a high and not very shapely tower of wood, erected in -, for supplying the Strand and its neighbourhood with the water of the then silvery Thames. Happily both the tower and the water-works, and also the water so supplied, have long been things of the past. In a print published in , representing York Stairs and the Water-gate, the wooden tower of the water-works close by is shown. It was an octangular structure about feet high, with small round loopholes as windows, to light the interior.

The houses at the bottom of , facing the river, have each an association of its own with the past. That on the west side was the residence of Samuel Pepys, from whose amusing

Diary

In John Evelyn was living in -, as he tells us in his

Diary

.

I took a house in

Villiers Street

,

York Buildings

, for the winter, having many important causes to dispatch, and for the education of my daughters.

Mr. Timbs identifies the site of the house in which Lord Bacon was born with that of No. , in the Strand, at the west corner of . It was for many years the shop of Messrs. Roake and Varty, and contained a portion of the old ceiling of the house once inhabited by Bacon. The house was pulled down in to form the approach to the railway station.

In former times,

History of London,

the banks of the Thames, from

Whitehall

to

Somerset House

, were ornamented with numerous palaces of the nobility, many consisting of

two

and

three

courts, and fitted up in the most sumptuous manner. Even as late as the time of Edward VI. elegant gardens, protected by lofty walls, embellished the margin of our great river, from Privy Bridge to Baynard's Hall. The gardens appended to the sumptuous buildings of the Savoy, and York, Paget, and Arundel Palaces.

It was on account of these numerous palatial residences, no doubt, and not on account of the magnificence of its shops, that Middleton, the dramatist, styles the Strand

luxurious.

luxurious,

For divers years of late certain fishmongers have erected and set up fish stalls in the middle of the street in the Strand, almost over against Denmark House; all which were broken down by special commission this month of

May, 1630

, lest in a short space they might grow from stalls into sheds, and then to dwelling-houses.

It has been often remarked that out of the mansions which lay crowded between the Strand and the Thames, a very large number appear to have belonged to prelates of the Church in proportion to those of the titled aristocracy-the Howards and the Cecils. And if a reason is asked, it may be found in the

Table Talk

anciently the noblemen lay within the City for safety and security, but the bishops' houses were by the water-side, because they were held to be sacred persons whom nobody would hurt.

As an instance of the insecurity of life--for the laity, at least--in the neighbourhood of the Strand, in the reign of George I., we take the following from a newspaper of the year :--

Last night a gentlewoman returning late from the Court at St. James's, was stopped a little before she came to her lodgings, in

Cecil Street

, in the Strand, by

one

Captain Fitzgerald, who would have taken her out of her chair by force; but upon her making an outcry, the chairmen were about to pull out the poles, in order to secure her from his violence; which seeing, the captain drew his sword, and sheathed it in the body of an unfortunate watchman, just come to their assistance, who instantly dropped down dead. The captain was secured for that night in

St. Martin's

Roundhouse, and the next day committed to the Gatehouse.

[extra_illustrations.3.101.1] History of England- Cover

[extra_illustrations] Durham, Salisbury and Worcester Houses- 1630

[extra_illustrations.3.105.1] Miss Angela Burdett

[extra_illustrations.3.105.2] buildings for ameliorating the condition of the working classes

[extra_illustrations.3.106.1] Wheatley's Adelphi and its site

[extra_illustrations.3.106.3] Adelpi Terrace

[extra_illustrations.3.107.1] Society of Arts

[extra_illustrations.3.107.2] six great pictures

[extra_illustrations.3.107.3] Journal- Society of Arts- September 22, 1882

[extra_illustrations.3.109.1] Peter the Great

[extra_illustrations.3.110.1] Vaudeville Play Bill of 1817