Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 4
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Oxford Street.-Northern Tributaries (continued).
Oxford Street.-Northern Tributaries (continued).
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As in the previous chapter we have pointed out that most of the streets and squares through which we have passed have been named with direct reference to Lord Portman, his family, and his property, so we shall find in the locality we are about to enter the same with reference to the ducal house of Portland, and to that of Harley, Earl of Oxford. | |
, through which we now pass on our way northward, leads direct into , and was so named in honour of the Duke of Manchester, to whom the square itself owes its origin. Of , the thoroughfare crossing , there is little or nothing to record. In , which runs from westward into , a valuable freehold property, consisting of houses, was purchased in , through the influence of Lady Petre, for the purposes of establishing a night home for girls and unmarried women of good character. This charity is to be combined in management with a , or infant nursery, in , on the east side of . Another charitable institution in this street is the Samaritan Hospital for Women and Children, which was established in , and is supported entirely by voluntary contributions. The hospital provides for Attendance is also furnished to poor married women at their own homes in peculiar cases. Close by this hospital is the Quebec Institute, or, as it is sometimes called, Seymour Hall; it is a building where miscellaneous lectures, concerts, &c., are held. In the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, M.P., the eminent writer on agriculture, was a resident in this street. He was President of the Board of Agriculture for Scotland. In this capacity a good story is told of him. He was vain and ambitious enough to tell Pitt that the head of such a board ought to have a peerage. Pitt affected not to understand him, but treated his remark as equivalent to a resignation, and nominated Lord Somerville to the post. | |
observes a writer in the , Her Majesty's death, | |
p.424 | however, threw a damp upon the suggestion. The ground, after lying waste for a time, was taken by the Duke of Manchester, who, in , commenced the building of Manchester House (now called Hertford House), which occupies nearly all the northern side. years later, on the duke's death, it was bought as the residence of the Spanish ambassador. From him it passed into the hands of the Marquis of Hertford, of the friends of George, Prince Regent, who used daily to call at the door in his chariot or pony phaeton. To this habit Thomas Moore refers, in his -- The marchioness, of course, was the great attraction of the Prince. Moore thus refers to her elsewhere as the reigning beauty of the day :
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Some idea may be formed of the unpopularity under which royalty laboured in the interval between the commencement of the Regency and the accession of the to the throne as George IV., from a facetious mock advertisement which was inserted in the for :--
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Besides serving as the Spanish embassy, it is said by a writer in the that Manchester House was at time occupied by the French ambassador, and that Talleyrand lived in it; but we have not been able to confirm the statement. The mansion was the property of the late Marquis of Hertford, who left it to Sir Richard Wallace, who remodelled and nearly rebuilt it in -. The house is built of staring red brick, with white stone dressings, in a very heavy, unattractive style; but it contains a splendid gallery of pictures. The ground on which it stands belongs to the Portman estate. | |
Manchester House is famous as having been of those social stepping-stones which helped poor Theodore Hook in his introduction to the fashionable and West-end world. Through the good offices of Sheridan and his son, the gay Tom Sheridan, favourable mention of his talents was made to the Marchioness of Hertford, then of the lights in the brilliant firmament of the Regency. She was so pleased with his musical and metrical facility that she sang his praises in every direction, and he was called on to minister to the amusement of the Prince Regent himself at a supper in . He used to describe his presentation to the Prince: his awe at was something quite terrible, but good-humoured condescension and plenty of champagne by-and-by restored him to himself; and the young man so delighted his Royal Highness, that as he was leaving the room he laid his hand on his shoulder, and said, After a few more similar evenings at Lady , and, we believe, a dinner or elsewhere, the Regent made inquiry about his position, and finding that he was without profession or fixed income of any sort, signified his opinion that
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In spite of his humble extraction, Hook's gaiety and brilliancy soon made him generally acceptable, especially with the ladies, and he speedily became a favourite throughout the regions of May Fair. He saw its boudoirs, too, as well as its salons, and
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The centre of is formed into a circular enclosure, laid out with grass, shrubs, and a few trees, and surrounded by an iron railing. The houses forming the remaining sides of the square possess no particular interest, with the exception, perhaps, that between the years and No. was the residence of William Beckford, the author of and the owner of the once magnificent mansion of Fonthill, between Salisbury and Shaftesbury. | |
, which runs out of the square on the eastern side, was called after Mr. Jacob Hinde, whose name occurs as lessee of part of in the middle of the last century. | |
In Thayer Street--the thoroughfare connecting with Marylebone High Street-in small lodgings, almost forgotten by the world, died, in , the Earl of Mornington, better known by his former name of Mr. W. Long- Pole-Tylney-Wellesley. In the early days of the Regency he was a dandy about town, and distinguished himself by giving sumptuous dinners at Wanstead Park, in Essex, where he owned of the finest mansions in England, in right of his wife, Miss Tylney-Long, an heiress with a year, whom he ruined, and broke her heart. He used to ask his friends down to Wanstead to dine the opera at midnight, the drive from London, through the dreary streets of Whitechapel | |
p.425 | and , being deemed by him
Every luxury that money could command he would place upon his table at that unusual hour of the night, and he often protracted the dessert into the next day. Having had the enjoyment of such wealth, although he was the head of the Wellesley family, he died almost a beggar; says Captain Gronow, The authors of the wrote of him, in - They had their prayer granted; for his lordship enjoyed for nearly years more the lease of life. [extra_illustrations.4.425.1] The whole of the west side of , which bounds on the east, is formed by the somewhat sombre-looking walls of [extra_illustrations.4.425.2] ; and the name of , we need hardly say, serves to keep in remembrance the occupancy of the mansion by the Spanish ambassador in the last century. As was the case in other parts of the town, so here the Roman Catholics were glad to be allowed to practise their religion under the shelter of a foreign embassy whilst the penal laws were still in force. The chapel on the eastern side was built from the designs of [extra_illustrations.4.425.3] , an Italian architect, in ; it is dedicated to St. James, the patron saint of Spain. It was enlarged in , and further beautified and adorned internally under Cardinal Wiseman. The building is disproportionately broad for its length, and is Italian rather than ecclesiastical in its character. |
In the north-west corner of the square-crossing George and Blandford Streets, and terminating in Dorset Street--is . Here, in , died the arch-impostor, [extra_illustrations.4.425.4] , who deluded hundreds and thousands of credulous persons in London and elsewhere that she was destined to become the mother of the future and that he was soon to be born of her. Her imposture occupied the public attention for several months, and even well-informed and sensible medical men were victims of her assertions. She was buried at Wood Chapel, and we shall have more to say about her when we reach that place. is almost wholly occupied by private hotels or houses let out in furnished lodgings. At Howlett's Hotel, No. in this street, died suddenly, in , Lady Tichborne, the mother of Roger Tichborne, who was lost at sea in , and whose title and estates were claimed by the impostor, Arthur Orton, who pretended to be her long-lost son. | |
, into which we now pass, was so named, as we have already shown, after the county in which is situated a large portion of the estates of Lord Portman, whose property extends thus far eastwards. At No. in this street, now a branch establishment of the Samaritan Free Hospital for Women and Children, noticed above, formerly lived the celebrated [extra_illustrations.4.425.5] , the inventor of the machine for calculating and printing mathematical tables. From the we learn that Mr. Babbage constructed several of these machines. is capable of computing any table by the aid of differences, whether they are positive or negative, or of both kinds. remarkable property of this machine is, that the greater the number of differences, the more the engine will outstrip the most rapid calculator. By the application of other parts of no great degree of complexity, this may be converted into a machine for extracting the roots of equations, and consequently the roots of numbers. Mr. Babbage likewise constructed another machine, which he says continues Mr. Babbage, Mr. Babbage died here in . | |
On the north side of , a thoroughfare called will take us at once into , so called because it led in the direction of the then distant rural village of Paddington, and which forms the connecting link between and , Marylebone. A great part of is taken up on either side with cemeteries for the use of the parish. They are not quite so tastily laid out as that of Pere la Chaise, at Paris, nor is the list of their occupants a very interesting or illustrious . In the cemetery on the south side of the street it is computed that near persons have been | |
p.426 | interred. An inscription here records the deaths of several infants, children of J. F. Smyth Stuart, Among those who lie buried here are Baretti, the friend of Johnson, and the author of the already mentioned in our account of the . For many years he lived at the hospitable table of the Thrales at Streatham, but eventually-like Dr. Johnson-he quarrelled with Mrs. Thrale, afterwards Mrs. Piozzi. An account of the quarrel between these irritable and touchy votaries of the Muses may be seen in the . Baretti was foreign secretary to the Royal Academy, and some members of that learned body attended his funeral here. |
Here, too, lie buried Mr. George Canning, the | |
father of the Premier; and William Guthrie, the historian. The southern cemetery was consecrated in the reign of George I., the northern early in that of George III. | |
In on the , was born George Canning, the future Premier of England. His father, mentioned above, was a young gentleman of good family, whose father had cast him off for making a poor marriage; and while Canning was an infant, his father died of a broken heart, his mother being glad to support herself and her bairn by keeping a small school. Sent by an uncle to Eton, the boy so distinguished himself that he was entered at , Oxford, where he showed himself of the best scholars of his age, and soon afterwards | |
p.427 p.428 | entered upon that political career which led him ultimately to the premiership. [extra_illustrations.4.428.1] [extra_illustrations.4.428.2] |
In East, , a house served as the home of the French clergy, in -, and here they said mass and celebrated the divine offices, till they could open their chapel in . | |
Before proceeding with our perambulation of the streets and thoroughfares lying to the east and south-east of , and crossing the boundary-line which separates the property of Lord Portman from that of the Duke of Portland, we may be pardoned for introducing a few historical remarks concerning the parish of Marylebone. The name is said to be a corruption or an abridgment of or so called from a small chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin which stood on the banks of a small brook, or bourne, or burn, which still runs down from the slopes of Hampstead, passing under Allsop Buildings, where, of course, it is arched over. This is the derivation of the name as given by most writers, who compare with it the termination of Ty. Some writers have asserted that the parish was itself originally called Tybourne, or Tyburn, from the brook (bourne) of which we have just spoken, a name which gradually was exchanged for Marylebourne or Marylebone. If, however, we might hazard an opinion, we would suggest that it is possibly a corruption of
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But whatever may be its derivation, centuries ago it was still a rural spot, and Macaulay reminds us that at the end of the reign of Charles II. It was, in fact, nothing more than a small country village, separated from London by green fields. In of the fields in the neighbourhood, as late as the year , was fought a duel between Lord Townshend and Lord Bellamont, in which the latter was dangerously wounded, being shot through the groin. | |
Almost at the beginning of the last century, writes Lambert, in his published in , Maitland, in his in , gives the number of houses in as , and the persons who kept coaches--that is, carriages--as . At the beginning of the century, the houses had risen to , and the number of is estimated at about . But even this is a sorry total in comparison of the Marylebone of to-day, which at the last census had a population of upwards of souls, and no less than electors, having increased no less than since its erection into a Parliamentary borough in . According to Malcolm, in , there were over houses, with a population of males and females. | |
The parish of Marylebone is now the largest in the metropolis, being more than twice the size of the actual City proper, and having also a larger population; indeed, its population is larger than that of London and combined, in the reign of Elizabeth. According to the last census returns, the population of this parish numbered , or nearly double what it was only a quarter of a century ago. Its present population () is estimated at about . | |
The manor of Marylebone was granted by King James I. to Edward Forset, in , and afterwards passed into the family of Austen, by the marriage of Arabella Forset to Thomas Austen. In John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, purchased the manor of John Austen, afterwards Sir John Austen; and his only daughter and heir, Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, marrying Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, it passed into that family. The only daughter and heir of the Earl and Countess of Oxford, Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, marrying William, Duke of Portland, took the property into the Portland family, with whom it still remains, the present duke being lord of the manor. The various names of these noble families are all represented in the streets of the neighbourhood. Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles gave her names to , , and ; her husband to , , and ; and their daughter, Lady Margaret, to . Bentinck, Duke, and Duchess Streets, as well as , all take their names from the Duke and Duchess of Portland. of the titles of the Earl of Oxford was Lord Harley of Wigmore, after which place was named. Welbeck Abbey, an estate of the Duke of Portland, and Bulstrode, a former seat of the family, are represented by Welbeck and Bulstrode Streets. | |
In Marylebone was of the many chapels or churches which the Huguenot refugees established on settling in London after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, whose number is estimated by | |
p.429 | Mr. Smiles at , and by Mr. Burn at . It was founded about the year . |
In a map published in we see the small village church of Marylebone, or standing quite alone in the fields. It is approached by narrow zigzag lanes, winding up from about the bottom of the east side of Place-then the western boundary of all continuous houses-following the line of what is still called ; the other lane crosses the fields diagonally from . This lane, the northern end of which is now called , was in olden times a footway through the fields from Brook Field, the site of which is now covered by , to [extra_illustrations.4.429.1] . exhibits proofs of its antiquity, by its winding and its narrowness. No doubt it was an old rural lane, along which the farm-horses went to the great city to market from the farmers of the outlying districts. It now terminates on the north side of ; but it would seem to have formerly continued in a winding manner by Shug Lane and to the east end of and the , much in the same way that led from St. Giles's-in-the-Fields to Danes, and Tyburn Lane (now ) from Tyburn to .. The above mentioned was built about:the year , and was so called because it led from- to Marylebone. It is described in the in o, as a
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Mr. Smith, in his tells us how that
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The a public-house in , is said to be the oldest house in the parish. It is described in the , vol. lxxxiii., p. , as having had, in the year before the Restoration,
writes Mr. Larwood, It is currently reported that the celebrated Nancy Dawson, as a young girl, was employed in setting up the skittles at a bowling-alley in , probably in these identical grounds. | |
The old , of which we have given a view on page , stood on the south side of what is now called the , and its site is now occupied by . The house, as Mr. Smith tells us, in the work above quoted, consisted of a large body and wings, a projecting porch in the front, and an enormously deep dormer roof, supported by numerous cantalivers, in the centre of which there was, within a very bold pediment, a shield surmounted by foliage, with labels below it. The back, or garden front, of the house had a flat face with a bay window at each end, glazed in quarries, and the wall of the back front terminated with gables. The mansion was wholly of brick, and surmounted by a large turret containing a clock and bell. From the style of decorations of the interior, Mr. Smith considers it was probably of the Inigo Jones period: the hand-rails of the grand staircase were supported with richly-carved perforated foliage. The house was turned into a school, kept by a certain clergyman named Fountayne, who had here among his pupils the eccentric and wayward George Hanger, afterwards Lord Coleraine. | |
In connection with this old manor house, or rather with reference to Mr. Fountayne's academy, Mr. J. T. Smith tells us, that Sunday morning his mother allowed him, before they entered the he adds,
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During the time that it was vested in the Crown, | |
p.430 | the manor house was occasionally used as a temporary royal residence, particularly by Queen Elizabeth, who appears by many accounts to have used her various palaces in rapid succession. The park attached to the manor stretched away northward, and its site is now the , of which we shall speak in a future chapter. [extra_illustrations.4.430.1] |
There was an [extra_illustrations.4.430.2] which had come down from the times before the Reformation, but having fallen out of repair, it was pulled down in , to make room for another structure, which served as the parish church, until the erection of a structure in the , some years later, reduced it to the rank of a mere chapel of ease. Lambert, in his places the old village of Tyburn on the site of the north-west part of , and supposes, from the number of bones dug up there, that the old Marylebone Court House covered the site of the old church and churchyard of that village. he writes, therefore the parish ioners petitioned the Bishop of London for leave to build a new church on another site, and this being dedicated to St. Mary, and standing near the bourne, came to be called This village of Tyborne appears in to have belonged to the abbess and sisters of Barking in Essex. The church was the selected by Hogarth for the plate in his where he has introduced his As the print was published in , the scene could not have taken place within the little dingy building now standing in the : a part of the inscription in the picture, nevertheless, still remains to be seen in of the pews in the gallery. In Smith's it is stated that
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Among those baptised in this ugly little structure were the poet Byron, in the year ; and the daughter of Lord Nelson, by Emma Lady Hamilton, in . The list of those who are buried here is rather long, including John Wesley's brother Charles; Gibbs, the architect of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields; Hoyle, the author of and a work on Caroline Watson, the engraver; Bower, author of a Allan Ramsay and Vanderbank, the portrait-painters; John Dominic Serres, the marine-painter; Rysbrack, the sculptor; Ferguson, the astronomer; and James Figg, the celebrated prize-fighter, whose portrait figures in of the engravings of Hogarth, in the
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The present parish church is situated in the New (or, as it is now styled, the , opposite . It was originally intended to be only a chapel of ease; but it was so much admired, both externally and internally, that it was subsequently converted, under an Act of Parliament, to parochial uses. It was erected, under an Act of Parliament, in -, at a cost of about , its architect being Mr. Thomas Hardwick, a pupil of Sir William Chambers, and of a family of architects, his son Philip being the designer of Hall and Library; and his grandson, Mr. Philip C. Hardwick, of the new buildings of the , on the Surrey Hills. A double gallery forms a feature of its interior; and a peculiarity in its construction is that the portico faces the north, an arrangement necessitated by the nature of the ground whereon it is erected. The altar-piece, by Benjamin West, President of the Royal Academy, was a present from that celebrated painter to the church: it represents the Nativity of our Lord. | |
Here lie buried James Northcote, R.A., the pupil and biographer of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and also another Royal Academician, Richard Cosway, who died in , at his residence in . | |
In the , near the east end of the parish church, and close by the , is . Here, in , Charles Dickens took up his abode, when newly married, and in the flush of his fame as the author of
and His residence is described by Mr. J. Forster as Here he used to gather round his friends, Macready, Stanfield, Landseer, Harrison Ainsworth, Talfourd, and Bulwer; and here he composed the principal portion of the and How fond Dickens was of his residence here may be gathered from his remark, later on in life, A sketch of the house, by Maclise, will be found in Mr. Forster's
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is the name given to the thoroughfare at the west end of the church, running from the into . Its designation is probably derived from the county in which the chief landed property of the Duke of Portland is situated. Here, at No. , lived for many years Colonel William Martin Leake, the accomplished traveller, and author of so many topographical and antiquarian works on Ancient Greece and Asia Minor, &c. is crossed by a short street bearing the same name. | |
, owing to its great breadth, and the houses standing so far back from the road, has always been a favourite place for hospitals, charitable institutions, &c. Within a short distance of the church is the parish workhouse, which stands partly on the Portman estate, and partly on that of the Duke of Portland. It was originally built in , but was greatly altered and enlarged in . The house is conveniently fitted up with workshops, washhouse, laundry, wards, kitchen, bakehouse, chapel, infirmary, and officers' rooms, all of which are well adapted to their different purposes. Close to the workhouse, at the corner of , is the Home for Crippled Girls, which was established in , and was formerly in , . The building, which is known as , was built about the year ; no reason can be found for the name. The poor afflicted inmates of this institution occupy their time, so far as their ability serves them, in the manufacture of fancy articles in straw and other material suitable for presents; and there is also a public laundry in connection with the Home. | |
The New Hospital for Women, at No. , was founded in , for the purpose of affording to poor women and children medical and surgical treatment from legally qualified women. This institution was originally established in , but was removed hither in . | |
In was established in this road the Western General Dispensary, for the relief of the sick poor in the north-west parts of Marylebone and the parish of Paddington. The number of patients relieved during the year amounts, on an average, to about . Between and are the offices of the Marylebone Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. Judging from the description of some wretched tenements in this parish, as given by the Medical Officer of Health, it would almost seem that there is still work to be done by the above association in this neighbourhood. The dwellings referred to are described as consisting of cottages placed in parallel rows, which are reached by an avenue feet wide, with a narrow, wretchedly-paved footway. says Dr. Whitmore, An inhabitant of of these hovels, nevertheless, declared that if she were forced to leave she would soon die. | |
At the corner of and are the police-court buildings of the parish. The building, which was erected in --the old police-court in the having become unsuited for its purposes-consists of a large and commodious court-room, private rooms for the magistrates, and the requisite offices for other officials. The basement of the edifice is of rusticated Portland stone, and the upper part is built of white Suffolk brick with stone dressings; and the central portion of the front elevation is surmounted by a pediment enclosing a sculptured representation of the royal arms. | |
A little northward of Manchester and Cavendish Squares, and on the east side of , towards the close of the last century, was the place of fashionable amusements so well known to fame as These gardens were formed towards the end of the century, by throwing together the place of public resort called and an adjoining bowling-green, mentioned above. The chief entrance was in the ; and there was also an entrance at the back, from the fields, through a narrow passage, flanked with a small enclosure, known as from their having been cultivated by refugees who had settled in London after the passing of the Edict of Nantes. At , and for many years, the gardens were entered by all ranks of the people; but the company resorting to them becoming more respectable, a shilling was charged as entrance-money; for which the party paying was to receive an equivalent in viands. They afterwards met with such success as to induce the proprietor to form them into a regular place of musical and scenic entertainment; and Charles Bannister, Dibdin (who both made their public appearance here when youths), and other eminent | |
p.432 | vocalists, contributed to enliven them with their talents. Chatterton wrote a burlesque burletta, after the fashion of Midas, called the which was performed here in . Splendid , balls, and concerts, during the run of the season, were given here, as at ; and their details are to be found advertised in the papers of the day. In of these , given on the King's birthday, , after the usual concert and songs, was shown a representation of Mount Etna, with the Cyclops at work, and a grand firework, consisting of vertical wheels, suns, stars, globes, &c., which was afterwards copied at Ranelagh. On another occasion a great part of the garden was laid out in imitation of the Boulevards at Paris, with numerous shops and other attractions. |
In the old time London was surrounded with places of amusement-its , Ranelagh, &c.; but none were more popular than these gardens, the very name of which seems now to have almost passed away. Chambers writes, in his
It is mentioned by Pepys, years after the great in his own quaint manner, in these words: Its bowling-alleys were famous in the days of Pope and Gay, and the latter writer alludes to this place more than once in the , as a rendezvous for the dissipated, putting it on a level with of bad repute already mentioned. In of his he thus alludes to the dog-fights allowed here : and the adjoining bowling-green seem to have been frequented by the rank and fashion of the town. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu alludes to the fondness of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, for this place of amusement; she writes- Here, at the end of each season, as the actor Quin told the antiquary Pennant, the Duke of Buckingham used to give a dinner to the guests who | |
p.433 | frequented the place, when he always proposed as a particular standing toast, An anecdote book, in recording this toast, amusingly prints the word in italics
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Although the memory of Marylebone Gardens has perished to a very great extent, we fortunately have, in Mr. J. T. Smith's a quantity of curious information respecting them and the pleasant sights and sounds which there amused the ladies of the western suburbs, whilst the City dames were showing off their finery at such places of amusement as , and the Mulberry Garden in Clerkenwell. The houses of the north end of , at the time Mr. | |
Smith was a lad, commanded a view of the fields, over hillocks of ground, now occupied by ; and the north and east outer sides of garden wall were entirely exposed. Mr. John Timbs, in his completes the picture by telling us that at that time a cottage with a garden and a ropewalk were here; and that To the right of the rope-walk was a pathway on a bank, which extended northward to the now the sign of the it was kept by Price, the famous player on the saltbox, of whom there is an excellent mezzotinto portrait. It commanded fine views of the distant | |
p.434 | heights of Highgate, Hampstead, , and Harrow; and Mr. Smith tells us that, as a boy of years old, he frequently played at trap-bat beneath the elms. The south and east ends of Queen Anne and Marylebone Streets were then unbuilt: the space consisted of fields to the west corner of , thence to the extreme end of , Marylebone Gardens, Marylebone Basin, and another pond then called which were the terror of many a mother. Upon the site of the now stands Portland Chapel. |
In the , , mention is made of The distance here mentioned doubtless refers to the utmost limits of bricks and mortar in the neighbourhood of . | |
The , for Thursday, , contains the following announcement:--
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, as we have observed, were at opened gratuitously; but in - they were enlarged, and an orchestra built. Silver tickets were at issued, at each for the season, each ticket admitting persons. From every without a ticket was demanded for the evening; but afterwards, as the season advanced, the admission was is. for a lady and gentleman. | |
About this time, when these gardens were in a flourishing state, selections from Handel's music were often played here, under the direction of Dr. Arne. Concerning of these performances, Mr. Smith tells an amusing anecdote, which will bear repeating. he says,
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In a was performed here by Mr. Lampe, in honour of Admiral Vernon, for taking Carthagena. | |
The proprietor of the Mulberry Garden, Clerken, well, apparently stirred up by feelings of envy or jealousy at the success of his brother caterers in the same line of business, indulged in some sarcastic remarks upon places of similar amusement, in which he described this suburban retreat as
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About the year robberies accompanied by violence were of so frequent occurrence in this neighbourhood that
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In the announced that the gardens had been A large sun was exhibited at the top of a picture; a cascade, and shower of fire, and grand airbal- loons were also most magnificently displayed; and likewise This has been considered as probably the occasion of air-balloons and being exhibited in England. | |
Towards the end of the reign of George II. the gardens appear to have risen somewhat in popularity, and to have had rather more of the aristocratic element in its visitors; for we learn that in In the following year we are told that the gardens were opened for breakfasting; nor is it forgotten to be added that The father of this young lady was the proprietor of the gardens, and being a cook, gave dinners and breakfasts. In the following year the gardens, having been greatly improved, were opened in May They were opened also every Sunday evening, when Miss Trusler, it would seem, was an adept in the art of cake-making, for in the of May | |
p.435 | , , appears the following announcement:-- too, we are reminded,
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In there was published an engraving, after a drawing made by J. Donowell, representing these gardens, probably in their fullest splendour.
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In the gardens were visited by the Cherokee Kings; and in the following year the celebrated Tommy Lowe became the proprietor. Among the singers here at that time was Nan Cattley. | |
Notwithstanding the patronage bestowed upon these gardens by many of the nobility, the place seems in the end to have fallen into bad repute; for in Dodsley's we find mention of it as The security of the outlying districts, too, does not seem to have improved, for we are told that in Mr. Lowe, the then proprietor, offered An attempt, nevertheless, seems to have been made by the Sabbatarian party to render this place of amusement less attractive for visitors on the people's only holy day; for we read that in
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Well may Sir John Fielding console the public by writing as follows, just a century ago:-- That highway robberies here, in Sir John Fielding's time, were no new thing, may be learnt from the of -:--
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Amongst other distinguished personages whose names are connected by tradition with this place is Dick Turpin, the prince of highwaymen. He was a gay and gallant fellow, and very polite to the ladies. A celebrated beauty of her day, the wife or sister-in-law of a dean of the Established Church, Mrs. Fountayne, was day in the gardens, when she was saluted by Dick Turpin, who boldly kissed her before the company and all The lady started back in surprise and offended. said the highwayman; and the hero of the road walked off unmolested. Turpin was hanged at York in . | |
In Mr. Lowe gave up the gardens, at the same time declaring that his loss in the concern had been considerable. He conveyed his property in the gardens to trustees for the benefit of his creditors; and in the deed of conveyance, Mr. John Timbs tells us, it is recorded that the premises of Rysbrack the sculptor were formerly part of the gardens. The grounds, however, were not finally closed; for in there was a concert of vocal and instrumental music, in which James Hook, the father of Theodore Hook, is announced as having taken part; and in that same year various alterations were made in the grounds for the better accommodation of the visitors. years later, as Mr. Smith informs us,
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In , proposals
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In the following year () the gardens were again opened for promenading, sixpence being charged for admission; and Dr. Kenrick delivered a series of lectures on Shakespeare in the gardens in this year. | |
The newspaper advertisements of these gardens in are curious. As a specimen, we quote which appeared in the of :--
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At the foot of Mr. Baddeley's subsequent bills the gardens are announced as being still open on a Sunday evening for company to walk in. Some of the papers of this year declare, under Mr. Baddeley's advertisements, that
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Subsequently, George Saville Carey here gave his Lecture on Mimicry. In the gardens opened in May, when the was represented, followed a few days later by some feats of sleight of hand, &c. | |
After existing for upwards of a century, and undergoing many vicissitudes, the gardens were closed about the year , and the site soon afterwards turned to building purposes. The grounds were, however, opened again for a short time in , as a sort of last expiring flicker. Some of the trees under which the company promenaded and listened to the sweet strains of music are still standing behind the houses in . | |
A Prussian writer, D'Archenholz, at the end of the last century, remarks with great truth of the English people, and especially of the Londoners, that the writer continues, When he wrote thus it is difficult to persuade oneself that the foreign author had any other place more entirely before his mind's eye than Marylebone Gardens. | |
These gardens were commemorated by the great London magistrate, Sir John Fielding, in his judgment on Mrs. Cornelys, when he condemned her operas in Soho as on the ground that, besides other places such as the patent theatres,
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Northouck calls the gardens and contrasts them with those of , with a note of admiration which indicates a sneer. he says,
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The entire parish of Marylebone, in the last century, appears to have been devoted to the Muses; for [extra_illustrations.4.436.1] , and Samuel and Charles Wesley, then stars of the magnitude in the musical firmament, lived in the neighbourhood; and since that time Marylebone has given a home to many painters and sculptors. | |
The principal thoroughfares now occupying the site of Marylebone Gardens as well as the adjoining bowling-greens, are , Upper Harley, Weymouth, Upper Wimpole, Marylebone, and Devonshire Streets. | |
[extra_illustrations.4.437.1] , down which we now proceed on our return to , was so named after Wimpole, on the borders of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, formerly the country seat of the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, and subsequently that of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, whose family became | |
p.437 | possessed of it by purchase in the last century. The street was, at all events, begun before the complete demolition of the gardens, for we find that Edmund Burke took up his residence here in , soon after his marriage with the daughter of an Irish physician at Bath, a Dr. Nugent. He was happy in his wife and his home, and his house became a centre of attraction to his friends. The expenses of housekeeping on a larger scale than that to which he had been accustomed, spurred him on to increased exertions in the field of literature, and the author of the here wrote some of those other political and philosophical works which speedily raised him to a high post as an author, including the early volumes of the
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At No. was living, in , Mrs. Cipriani, the widow of the eminent painter, and friend of Wedgwood. At her father's house (No. ) in this street, lived for some time between and , Miss Elizabeth Barrett, then known as the author of a volume of poems, and who afterwards was better known to fame as Mrs. E. Browning. Most of her married life was spent, on account of delicate health, at Florence, where she died in . In this street, too, lived the Duchess of Wellington during the Peninsular War. | |
From the year to , and probably longer, No. was the residence of Henry Hallam, the historian; here he wrote his and his He died in . In No. was in the occupation of the fashionable portraitpainter of his time, Mr. Alfred E. Chalon, and of his brother, John James Chalon, both Royal Academicians. These brothers appear to have been inseparable, for a few years previously they were living together in . At No. in this street lived for some time the gallant Admiral Lord Hood. No was for many years the home of the late Mr. Joseph Parkes, and of his daughter, Miss Bessie R. Parkes. | |
Of we have nothing to record beyond the fact that it forms a connecting link between , Marylebone, and and ; that in it Bryan W. Procter ( ) lived and died; and that it was so called after Lord Weymouth, a sonin-law of the Duke of Portland. | |
, as we have said, crosses about midway, connecting on the west with on the east. In this street was lodging Prince Leopold, afterwards King of the Belgians, when he came to England in , at the time of the Peace Rejoicings, as aide-de-camp to of the Allied Sovereigns, as we have already stated in our chapter on . | |
In Edward Street--as that part of lying between and was formerly called-at No. , the remains of General Sir Thomas Picton lay in state, on their arrival here after the battle of Waterloo, prior to their interment in the burial-ground in the , Bayswater. | |
In , near the end, was for many years the Court-house for the parish. It was erected in , adjoining an older courthouse and watch-house, on ground on which was formerly situated a pound. The building, however, having become unsuited for its present requirements, a new court-house has been erected at the corner of and , as we have already stated. | |
On the west side of , and abutting upon , is . This group of buildings comprises rows of mansions facing each other, with a square courtyard at the northern end, forming a On each side of the entrance is a small house for a watchman, on the top of which is the figure of a lion carved in stone. The buildings were erected about the year by Edward , Lord Aldborough, on land which had been leased from the Corporation of London. The place was formerly decorated with a column supporting a statue of George III., commemorative of the naval victories of Great Britain. It was erected by General Strode, and taken down in , in consequence of the foundation giving way. The house in the centre of the northern side, and facing , is that in which Lord Aldborough himself lived for many years. The house has been occupied at various periods by the Duke of St. Albans, Prince Esterhazy, and other persons of distinction. of these mansions at the commencement of this century was the residence of Richard Cosway, R.A. Shortly before his death, he disposed of a great part of his collection of ancient pictures and other property, and removed to a house in the , where he died in . other Royal Academicians have likewise occupied houses here-namely, Sir Robert Smirke, who was living here in , and Mr. H. W. Pickersgill, who died here in , aged upwards of . | |
The house at the south-east corner, fronting , has been for many years the home of the Portland Club, which is understood to be of the leading clubs where high play at cards prevails, but is honourably and honestly conducted. | |
p.438 | A code of rules for the game of whist is extant, the preparation of which was the work of a committee of gentlemen from many of the West-end clubs, among whom the Portland was largely represented. Of the inner life and history of the Portland Club little is known, and few anecdotes about it are published. |
As we have already stated, here in former times stood a building known as the Lord Mayor's Banqueting-house, from the fact that the chief magistrate and Corporation of London used to dine here annually for many generations, after officially visiting the springs and reservoirs in this neighbourhood whence the great conduit in was supplied with water. The supply came from the gravelly subsoil of Marylebone, where no less than springs oozed out of the ground at various places, and trickled down the grassy slopes into the watercourse called the , of which we have spoken above. As far back as the year the Mayor and Corporation of London Collected these springs into some reservoirs, which they constructed near , and laid a -inch lead pipe from thence to , along and , over the bridge | |
which then spanned the River Fleet and up to the conduit at the west end of . The head of water in the reservoirs was about feet above the conduit mouth. The King used his influence with the owner of the lands whence the springs issued to grant the water to the Corporation; and certain merchants of Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp provided the lead pipe, or gave the money to purchase it, in consideration of the goods they imported into London being exempt from river dues or tolls for a term of years. For the King's service in the matter the Corporation permitted him to lay a pipe from the main pipe into his stables, which were situated where the northeast part of now stands. On the occasion of the Mayor's official visits to these springs, the company used to hunt a hare or a fox in the neighbourhood, and afterwards they dined together with much ceremony near the reservoirs. In course of time the reservoirs were arched over, and a large banqueting-house was erected upon the arches. | |
In , while making some repairs or alterations in the roadway of at this | |
p.439 p.440 | point, the workmen came upon these reservoirs and arches, which had remained in a fair state of preservation. Shortly afterwards, another interesting archaeological discovery was made a short distance westward, at the corner of . Here, close to the curb, much-worn iron flaps were discovered. The workmen's curiosity being aroused as to where the opening might lead, they applied their pickaxes, and after some difficulty, succeeded in raising the flaps, when they discovered a flight of brick steps, in number, leading to a subterranean chamber. On descending, they entered a room of considerable size, measuring about feet long by feet wide, and nearly g feet high. The roof, which is arched, is of stone, and, with a few exceptions, is in fair repair. The walls to the height of about feet are built of small red brick, such as was used by the Romans, in which are chamfered Gothic arches, with stone panels, as though originally used as windows for obtaining light. The upper part of the wall is of more recent date. In the corners of the chamber there is a recess with an arched roof, extending with a bend as far as the arm can reach. In the middle of the chamber is a sort of pool or bath, built of stone, measuring about feet by feet. It is about feet deep, and was about half filled with water, tolerably clear and fresh. A spring of water could be seen bubbling up, and provision was made for an overflow in the sides of the bath. From all appearances the place was originally a baptistery. |
In the beginning of the reign of George III. there was only a dreary and monotonous waste between the then new region of and the village of Marylebone, sometimes called Harley Fields; and even as lately as , the now thickly-peopled district between and was unbuilt. Within the last century , as it was then called, had houses only on (the southern) side between the top of and Tyburn Turnpike; the lower parts of many of these, too, were occupied by dustmen, chimney-sweepers, and At the end of South Molton Street there projected into the road a garden, at corner of which was a wretched mud hovel, rather a contrast to the fine buildings lately erected not far from that very spot by the Duke of . Even for some years after it was built and inhabited, remained a kind of private street, and the few shops which it contained made but little show. It was a solitude indeed compared with its present activity, its silence being principally broken by the tinkling, of the bells of long lines of packhorses proceeding to and returning from the country westwards every day at stated hours. Along this western road, we need hardly remark, the Oxford scholars and the agents of. the Bristol merchants travelled, on packhorses, and then in the long stage-wagons, which in their turn gave place to the stage-coaches of the eighteenth century. | |
Even down to a very late period of the century, or possibly to the beginning of the eighteenth, the high roads in the neighbourhood of London were sadly neglected, and very frequently were in a state almost impassable for vehicles of any and every description. Anthony a Wood, in his mentions a stage-coach under the year ; and years afterwards he informs us that he travelled from London to Oxford by such a conveyance. How much would we give to see him start along the , and nearing Tyburn turnpike in spite of the ruts! The journey occupied, as he tells us, days. An improved conveyance called the was afterwards instituted; it completed the whole distance, about miles, in hours, and the event was regarded as a wonder; but it was found necessary to abandon the effort during the winter months. It has been well remarked that the days of slow coaches were the Augustan era of highwaymen. Many of the last generation well remember the time when gentlemen desiring to return to town late in the evening would stop for other companions to collect on the road for mutual protection, while the more timid would stay the night at an inn at Acton or Bayswater. | |
is now the longest thoroughfare in London, being upwards of yards in length. Towards the western extremity of the street, on the southern side, the dull monotony of its houses and shops has in some instances been relieved by the erection of spacious edifices of a more ornate character. An instance of this is afforded in the group of buildings erected in connection with the Association in Aid of the Deaf and Dumb, between and , nearly opposite the thoroughfare leading into . The buildings, which are of red brick with stone dressings, stand on ground leased from the Duke of , and were erected in from the designs of Mr. A. Blomfield, son of the late Bishop of London, and the stone was laid by the Prince of Wales. The chief feature of this block of buildings is the Deaf and Dumb Chapel, dedicated to St. Saviour, which is subordinate to the parent church of St. Mark in . Although the site is somewhat | |
p.441 | limited, it has been admirably utilised. The lower floor is devoted to a lecture-hall, the upper floor being the church. The ground-plan and the upper floor exhibit nearly the form of a Maltese cross; but in the chapel an apse containing the communiontable is corbelled out over the projecting arm of the cross towards . About feet from the floor-level the angles of the square are cut off with arches and buttressed by the walls of the projecting arms, and the square becomes an octagon. The cruciform projections are arched off, and the simple octagon is left. This has a groined ceiling, pierced with a circular opening in the centre, where there is a sunlight. The sides of the octagon above the angles of the square are pierced with large -light windows, and the apse is lighted with lancets, and groined with stone ribs and brick filling-in. Externally, the main building is covered with a high-pitched octagonal roof, with a circle of small lucarnes or dormer windows near the apex. The other roofs are of a high pitch, and abut on the main building at various levels. The style of the building is Early Pointed, but it is rather French than English in the character of its details. The church affords accommodation for worshippers, and is so planned that, while meeting the requirements of the deaf and dumb, it is equally available for a congregation. |
A little to the east of this part of , nearly opposite to , is the carriage manufactory of Messrs. Laurie and Marner, at No. , between the top of and the gates of . It stands on a site which formerly was the garden of the town-house of Lord Carnarvon in (now the Royal Academy of Music), and it still belongs to the Herberts. The garden was bounded on the north by a wall, with a terrace and summer-house inside, where George III. and his family would come and sit under shady trees and look down upon the carriers' wagons and newly-invented as they made their way along the Tyburn Road. The garden extended nearly as far eastward as Hanover Gates. The premises now used as a carriage manufactory occupy nearly an acre and a half in extent, having a side entrance in ; underneath are vaults which once held Lord Carnarvon's store of port wine. The business of Messrs. Laurie was established, some or yards further west in , about the year ; its founder was the late amiable and eccentric alderman, Sir Peter Laurie, who in - occupied the civic chair. The carriage manufactory of Messrs. Laurie and Marner grew gradually into its present large dimensions out of a humble saddle-maker's business. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.4.425.1] Turner and Son--Dorset Street [extra_illustrations.4.425.2] Manchester House [extra_illustrations.4.425.3] Bonomi [extra_illustrations.4.425.4] Joanna Southcote [extra_illustrations.4.425.5] Mr. Charles Babbage [extra_illustrations.4.428.1] St. Mary-le-Bone School-house [extra_illustrations.4.428.2] Old Manor House [extra_illustrations.4.429.1] Marylebone Manor House [extra_illustrations.4.430.1] St. Mary-le-Bone Chapel [extra_illustrations.4.430.2] old church in Marylebone [] Several skeletons were dug up here in March, 1876. [extra_illustrations.4.436.1] Dr. Arne [extra_illustrations.4.437.1] Wimpole Street |