Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 3
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XLVII: Whitehall:--Its Precinct, Gardens, &c.Beaconfield's Homes--Park Lane and Curzon Street
Chapter XLVII: Whitehall:--Its Precinct, Gardens, &c.Beaconfield's Homes--Park Lane and Curzon Street
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The gardens adjoining Palace on the south and south-west were laid out in terraces, square and formal in plan, and adorned, after the fashion of the times, with statues of marble and bronze, many of which were subsequently removed to . says John Timbs, In the reign of Charles II. this dial was defaced by a nobleman of the court, when drunk; and Andrew Marvell wrote upon it the following epigram:--
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In the court-yard, facing the Banqueting House, was another curious dial, set up in , by order of Charles II. It was invented by Francis Hall, Lyne, a Jesuit and Professor of Mathematics at Liege. The dial consisted of stages rising in a pyramidical form, and bearing several vertical and reclining dials, globes cut into planes, and glass bowls, showing besides and Among the pictures were portraits of the King, the Queens, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert. Father Lyne published a description of this dial, which consisted of parts, and was illustrated with plates. It would appear, from what the author of the says, that it was subsequently set up at Buckingham House. | |
We read incidentally that the gardens were intersected by a brook or rivulet, which here ran into the Thames; for in there was an order made by the Court of Sewers, as to the This orchard dated back as far as the reign of Henry VIII. | |
The site of the old palace of , which was made extra-parochial at an early date, formerly formed part of the parish of , . In order to assert the extent of the parish, the authorities, in took a boat at and rowed to the centre arch of , where there was a mark, and then landing at Privy Garden Stairs, (Loudoun), afterwards the Duke of Richmond's, of which we shall have more to say presently. | |
Down to a comparatively recent date, the gardens above mentioned were called by the old name of the but this has now become changed to --a name given to a row of houses in the rear of the Banqueting House, which, until the formation of the , had its gardens and lawns sloping to the Thames. were very fashionable residences in the reign of William IV. In , No. , the present home of the National Club, was the town residence of the Marquis of Ailsa, and afterwards of the Dowager Marchioness of Exeter; and further on were the houses of Lord Farnborough (better known as Sir Charles Long) and the Earl of Malmesbury. Here, too, lived, in the time of Pitt and Fox, old Lady Townshend, who in her early days had been of the in the court of George II. Here used to drop in of an evening George Selwyn and the other wits of the age; and it was said of her by Sir N. W. Wraxall, that, The Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli took the house, No. , in , after the death of his wife, Lady Beaconsfield. | |
Lady Townshend's house was celebrated for the of its mistress. Lady Lepel Hervey tells a good story of her and Sir Thomas Robinsons, who had both offended her. The was | |
p.377 | very tall and thin, the other very plump and short remarked her ladyship, Lady Townshend's pleasantry, however, it should be remarked here, was scarcely just. The Sir Thomas was a man of merit and ability, and for some time Secretary of State, and afterwards was created Lord Grantham. The Sir Thomas was a celebrated bore and butt of the day. Lord Chesterfield used to bear with his dulness for the sake of laughing at him. adds Lady Hervey,
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In [extra_illustrations.3.377.2] , before and during his premiership; and here he died, , from the effects of a fall from his horse, a few days previously, on . In this house, which is still occupied by the Peel family, there is a fine gallery of paintings by the old masters, and the best collection of modern portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Those of Canning, Wellington, &c., are there, and a variety of others too many to enumerate here. | |
Among the other mansions built on the site of the old deserve to be mentioned here-viz., Pembroke House and Gwydyr House. | |
writes Lady Hervey, in , His name will be remembered as of the and an inveterate versifier; and it is said that not a sitting of that illustrious body took place at Paris which the duke did not enliven by reading out a fable. It is to be hoped that he was more merciful to West-end society here. The mansion known as Pembroke House was afterwards occupied by the late Earl of Harrington, and passed, in or about the year , into the hands of the Government, who turned it into of the departments of the State. | |
At Gwydyr House, for many years, were the offices of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, the Commissioners for Promoting the Fine Arts, and the Commissioners of the Health of Towns. Within its walls is now carried on the business of the newly-constituted branch of the public servicethe Local Government Board. Upon the establishment of this Board, in , the Poor Law Board ceased to exist, and all the powers hitherto exercised by the Secretary of State and the Privy Council were transferred to this department. The powers exercised by the Local Government Board relate to the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, public health, drainage, public improvements, local government, &c., and also to the prevention of disease. Close by is the office of the Board of Trade and Plantations, and also that of the Statistical and Commercial Department of the Board of Trade. | |
of the almost forgotten memories of the neighbourhood of , is the celebrated Museum of Sculpture and Works of Art made by the Duchess of Portland. writes John Timbs,
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Sir Christopher Wren was ordered by Queen Anne, in , to erect a wall to enclose that part of the garden which contained the fountain, as a pleasure-ground to the house inhabited by the Scotch commissioners appointed to settle the terms of the union of the kingdoms. | |
At the southern end of is Montagu House, the town mansion of the Duke of Buccleuch, who inherited it from the noble family of Montagu. The old house was a low building, and, with the exception of the pictures it contained, had little or nothing to call for special remark. The building was demolished about the year , when the present magnificent mansion, in the Italian style, was built upon its site, the architect being Mr. George Burn. | |
There is here a splendid gallery of pictures containing many examples of the masters. , having special reference to the locality, is Canaletti's fine view of , showing Holbein's Gateway, Inigo Jones's Banqueting House, and the steeple of , with the scaffolding about it. Then there are a large number of portraits by Vandyck and others, formerly belonging to Sir Peter Lely, and purchased at the sale of his effects by Ralph, Duke of Montagu. There are also other fine pictures by Vandyck, and a series of family portraits. | |
On the site of what is now [extra_illustrations.3.377.3] was formerly Richmond House, the town residence of the Dukes of Richmond. This mansion stood at the southern end of the , and | |
p.378 | faced and , on ground previously occupied by the apartments of the Duchess of Portsmouth, Louise Renee de Perrencourt, whose son, by Charles II., was the Duke of Richmond. The house was built for George, Duke, by the famous architect Boyle, Earl of Burlington, concerning whom Pope asks,
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Among those enlightened noblemen and gentlemen who co-operated practically, and not merely by word of mouth, with George III. in his zeal for the promotion of the fine arts, Charles, the [extra_illustrations.3.378.1] , who held the title from down to , claims a prominent notice. After his return from the Duke munificently opened a school for the study of painting and sculpture at his house, at the end of . Here a spacious gallery was provided, with every convenience and accommodation for the students, and a fine collection of casts, moulded from the most select antique and modern statues at Rome and Florence, was procured. These were set out as models, and young artists were invited, by public advertisement, to make the gallery a school for the study of art. In consequence of this | |
| generous invitation several young artists, whose names were afterwards known to the world, entered themselves as students. Cipriani, the painter, and Wilton, the sculptor, presided as instructors, till the students were sufficiently advanced to follow their bent unaided, and silver medals were occasionally awarded. This benefit was given to the rising school without tee or emolument. The gallery was opened in , years before the foundation of the Royal Academy. In it contained upwards of statues, and among them may be noted the Apollo Belvidere, the Gladiator, the Venus de Medici, the Dancing Faun, Group of Hercules and Anteus, the Rape of the Sabines, and a variety of casts from the Trajan Column, &c. The value of such a school in London, at a time when there were no railways and other facilities for foreign travel, can hardly be exaggerated. Among the artists who owed some of their early art-training to this school, the mentions John Parker, a painter of historical portraits, long resident in Rome; John Hamilton Mortimer, the pupil of Robert Edge Pine (known to his friends as Friar Pine), who outstripped all his compeers in the drawing of the | |
p.379 p.380 | antique figure, and obtained several prizes from the Society of Arts for drawings made here; Richard Cosway, the miniature painter, and William Parrs, whose productions figured on the walls at the exhibition of the Royal Academy. This artist was a great traveller, and much patronised by the Lord Palmerston of that day. Another was John A. Grosse, a native of Geneva, and a pupil of Cipriani; another was William, Parry, son of a blind Welsh harpist, who obtained several prizes for drawings made in this gallery, and afterwards was a favourite pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Parry made a drawing of the Duke's gallery itself, into which he introduced several portraits: to the curious the discovery of this representation of a place so memorable would be a prize indeed. The Duke of Richmond, too, was a liberal patron of the meritorious artists of his time, as is proved by their numerous works in the Gallery at Goodwood. In other respects the Duke was often attacked for a want of hospitality and liberality ; but, possibly, if he had squandered his wealth in giving costly banquets at the artists of a century ago would have been so much the more poorly off. It would be well indeed for art, and indeed for literature also, if there were amongst us more noblemen endowed with the same generous feelings as Charles, Duke of Richmond. There is a deep truth in the old line which says:--
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But the house has also yet another claim to be remembered, for it was here that the meeting of the friends of Parliamentary Reform was held, in , a week or before the subject was brought forward by Mr. Pitt in the . | |
The mansion was burnt to the ground in . There is an engraving of the house by Boydell; and Edwards, in his mentions the drawing of the gallery by Parry, alluded to above, which he considered curious, as being On the site of this mansion, as already stated, has risen , a noble row of houses overlooking Montagu House and , standing at right angles to the Thames , and having an entrance from through handsome iron gates. | |
We read in Macaulay that in the panic arising out of the perjuries of Titus Oates patrols were marched up and down the streets, and that cannon were planted round . The same, too, was the case during the agitation respecting the bill for excluding the Duke of York from the throne. | |
The house No. in is rich in some historical traditions of the last generation. On the formation of Lord Grey's ministry, in , it was occupied by the Premier's brother-in-law, the late Mr. Edward Ellice, M.P., who had a very extensive acquaintance and influence among the Liberal party. As it was near to the Treasury and to the , it soon became the head-quarters of the Whigs, and the chief centre of communication between the friends of the intended Reform Bill which was engrossing the attention of the public, including not only the old Whigs and modern Liberals, but also the Radicals of Birmingham. When Parliament was dissolved, in , this house again became the chief centre of action, where candidates came to make inquiries for vacant constituencies, and deputations from near and distant boroughs came in search after eligible candidates, a committee for that purpose sitting there , under the auspices of Mr. Ellice, who here gave Parliamentary dinners and Liberal . After the death of his wife, Lady Hannah Grey, the house passed into the hands of another leading Liberal, a son-in-law of Earl Grey, Sir Charles Wood, who, in the year i, was created Viscount Halifax in reward of his long official services. | |
It was conclusively shown, in the trial of Sir C. Burrell . Nicholson, before Lord Denman, in , that when the Palace of was seized upon by Henry VIII., he added to its precincts the ground on the south, where now stands, the land originally being part of parish, and belonging to the Abbot of . The gardens and acres of land which the king got from Wolsey were not enough for his Majesty. | |
At , on making the customary perambulation of the bounds of parish every year, a little parish apprentice usually was whipped soundly in order that the tradition might be kept up of the limits which marked off the precinct of from the mother parish out of which it had been carved. | |
Extending from the back of to , , and about midway between the Thames and , is a narrow thoroughfare called Cannon (or , which has a little-history of its own. We learn from Stow and from John Selden that Cannon Row--or, as it was often called, Channel Rowderived its name from being the residence allotted to the canons of Chapel. Stow informs us that among its inhabitants in his time were as Sir Edward | |
p.381 | Hobbes, John Thynne, Esq., Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, and the Earl of Derby and the Duchess of Somerset, mother of the Earl of Hertford, who both occupied houses. |
On the south side stands a dull and heavy building, erected in for the Ordnance Board, but appropriated to the then newly-formed . The architect was a Mr. W. Atkinson. It is now occupied by the Civil Service Commissioners. | |
In was to use Strype's quaint expression, and mentioned by Prior and Montague in terms which imply that it was well known in their day:--
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Here stood the stately house built by the termagant Anne Stanhope, wife of the Protector Somerset, whose dispute about some trifling point of female precedence is said to have contributed in some degree to her husband's fall. Here, too, was Manchester House, which appears to have been cut up into tenements in the reign of Queen Anne. | |
Leading out of this row on the east side was formerly Derby Court, so called from the town residence of the Earl of Derby, which it adjoined. Stow describes it, in , as then in the course of erection. It was surrendered in the time of Charles I. to the use of the Parliament, who occupied it for meetings of committees. Here died Pym, and here, as we learn from Ludlow's his body was publicly exposed after his death. After the Restoration, the Stanleys removed elsewhere, and the mansion was occupied as the office of the Lord High Admiral. | |
A view of , whilst in the course of erection, painted by Canaletti (see page ), shows the Middlesex bank of the river about and covered with handsome mansions, most of which rise perpendicularly out of the river, with stairs and landing-places. | |
Between and the river, extending in a southerly direction, was a double row of private houses, principally occupied by bachelor members of Parliament, and known as . Their site is now covered by the Metropolitan District Railway Station and the Club. They were so called because they adjoined the town residence of the Earls of Manchester, with as we learn from Strype; and adjoining the houses of the Earls of Derby and Lincoln. According to Mr. Peter Cunningham, a gaming-house in these buildings was once occupied by Thurtell, who murdered Mr. Weare. | |
is of historic interest on account of its connection with the very last days of the life of King Charles I. In Wood's we find the following touching narrative told by the King's faithful attendant, Herbert:-- | |
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, the line of thoroughfare which forms a direct communication between and , was driven through the heart of the and the displacing the terraces, sun-dials, and statues, about the year , in order to supersede the narrow road which led to from . Previously the only access from the spot to the other was by , a narrow way, muddy and ill paved, which ran parallel to from the corner of to the Abbey. At the northern end it was spanned by the lofty and | |
p.382 | imposing gateway, called, from its designer, Holbein's Gate, of which we have already spoken. So bad was as a thoroughfare that we are told that, when the King went to open Parliament in the winter in the early part of the eighteenth century, it was often found necessary to throw down a supply of fagots in the ruts in order to allow the royal coach to pass along. But of we shall have more to say hereafter. |
For years, from down to , the Messrs. Nichols issued the at their printing-office in this street. The work of editing and printing the had for many years previously been conducted by the Messrs. Nichols at their office in , . As far back as , the writers in the were thus satirisedmuch to their own credit-by --
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It was in [extra_illustrations.3.382.1] , on the , that Mr. E. Drummond, private secretary to Sir Robert Peel, was shot by a man named Macnaghten, who mistook him for the Premier. No. in this street was for many years the residence of Charles James Fox. | |
At the corner of , the short thoroughfare leading out of into , stands the Club, which was built about the year . The building, Italian in style, is constructed of stone, and consists of storeys, besides offices in the basement. It was built from the designs of the late Mr. Parnell, at a cost of about . Over the doorway and upon the cornice is some admirable sculpture executed by Mr. Tolmie. The rooms are spacious and lofty, and well adapted to the purposes to which they are devoted. | |
Close by stood a small public-house, of which Charles Dickens tells us, that when a very young boy, he lounged in there and asked for a glass of ale, which the kind-hearted landlady gave him, after sundry inquiries as to his name, age, and belongings, and into the bargain a kiss,
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With respect to this highly historical neighbourhood, Pope, as usual, minutely accurate in details, thus writes in a spirit of prophecy, which, it is needless to say, has never yet been quite fulfilled to the letter : And yet, after all, the seer may be regarded as not so very wide of the mark, if we interpret a to mean the new Houses of Parliament, and the new Foreign, Indian, and Colonial Offices, which have lately risen on the Park side of , and have well nigh effaced the narrow and close of . | |
Before closing our remarks on , we may state that in , De Foe, then busy in the midst of politics, secular and religious, started the , a newspaper consisting of leaves, in small quarto, and published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. De Foe was connected with it till , but the paper continued to exist for many years after this date. Whether it was actually published at , or near to it, is not known, but it is probable that it was connected with the courtly locality through some of its contributors. | |
It must be remembered that before the middle of the eighteenth century, nearly every house in the leading streets of London and had its sign. Thus an observer in the reign of James I. remarks: It is almost needless to add that all trace and nearly every record of these house signs have long since disappeared before the onward march of the prosaic spirit of modem progress. Writes Macaulay; If the walk from to Whitechapel lay through an the same, in a certain degree, must have been true of the walk from to . | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.377.2] No. 4, a house with a large bow window, the late Sir Robert Peel lived [extra_illustrations.3.377.3] Richmond Terrace [extra_illustrations.3.378.1] Duke of Richmond [extra_illustrations.3.382.1] Parliament Street |
