BOOK I. (continued 3)

In 1733, he was chosen Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, where he had given several courses of lectures, and had greatly restored the study of that science.

Mr. Martyn, in 1723 (as is stated in a preceding page), married Eulalia, youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. John King, Rector of Chelsea, by whom he had three sons and five daughters, all of whom were born in Church Street, Chelsea, in the same house wherein their mother was born and died, and in which her father, Dr. King, lived and died. Mrs. Martyn died in 1749, from a cancer in her breast, occasioned by a violent blow given her as she was walking in London.

In 1750, Mr. Martyn married, secondly, a daughter of Claude Fonnereau, Esq., merchant of London, who bore him one son and survived him. Soon after this he retired to Streatham, Surrey. In 1761 he resigned his professorship of botany; and some time after presented to the University his library of botanical books, amounting to above 200 volumes.

Chelsea, notwithstanding the happiness he enjoyed at Streatham, seems after all to have been his favourite place of abode, as he removed back again to his former residence in Church Street, and at last, by the most gradual and gentle decay, died there in 1768.

Mr. Martyn’s benevolence was that of a Christian, diffusive and unconfined; he was considered as the father of the poor in the parish, and gave constant attention to the sick, both in and out of the workhouse. He was the author of many works, two of which we shall notice:—

“An Account of an Aurora Australis, seen at Chelsea, March 18, 1738–9.” This was the first account which had ever been given of that phenomenon.

“An Account of an Earthquake felt in London, February 8, 1749–50.”

The following extract from the latter account will no doubt interest the reader: “At 40 minutes after noon, all the houses were violently shaken, especially those nearest the river. A maid servant, passing from one under office to another, felt the ground, which was six feet below the surface, shake. Of those who were in the street, or on the river, some felt, others not. It was felt at Fulham, but not at Hounslow, Brentford, nor Richmond, nor farther westward than Kensington Turnpike; it seemed to terminate in the west, about two miles beyond Chelsea.”

Mr. Martyn was also engaged in a weekly paper, called “The Grub Street Journal,” which had a large sale, about the year 1736. It was one of the most curious of the periodical papers of that period. In a fine vein of irony it attacked the heroes of the Dunciad, and tells some secrets of their obscure quarrels. [85] The papers he contributed are distinguished by the signature “B.”

William Petyt, Esq., to whom we have already slightly referred, in the account of his gift to the parish of the School Room at the Old Church, resided in Church Street, and died there in 1707, aged 71 years. Of his progress through life there is no information, except that he enjoyed considerable reputation as a writer on the laws and constitution of England, which are preserved in the Inner Temple Library. There is a long Latin epitaph to his memory in the Temple Church. It was the year before his death that he built the schoolrooms and vestry.

The White Horse Inn in Church Street, which was burnt down some years since, and a new one substituted for it, was a very ancient house, built in the style which prevailed in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. The disposition of the rooms, the ancient panelling, and the various grotesque ornaments and carving, especially of human figures in the form of brackets, were well worthy of inspection, and excited the attention of most strangers who visited the house.

The old Parochial Guardian Society mostly held their meetings at the old White Horse Inn. The principal room was large and consequently well-adapted for such purposes; and when the parishioners met in open vestry, the house being opposite to the Vestry Room where they assembled, it was particularly convenient on such occasions for the accommodation of the ratepayers generally. The above society comprised a great many members, and acted in conjunction with a large number of the resident gentry of the parish.

Justice Walk, which extends from Church Street to Lawrence Street, took its name from a magistrate who lived in it. An avenue of lime trees formerly adorned it, and, being kept in good order, it was a very agreeable footway for passengers. There is now in it a commodious Wesleyan Chapel, built in 1841. The exterior is plain and unpretending. The interior is neat, comfortable, and well ventilated. Beneath the chapel is a spacious school room, in which the Sunday School is held. This school is very well attended. Through the exertions of the members, and other friends, the interior of the chapel has recently been painted, and rendered more comfortable in many respects.

The Chelsea China Manufactory was situate at the corner of Justice Walk, and occupied the houses to the upper end of Lawrence Street. Several of the large old houses were used as shew-rooms. It has been discontinued for nearly 90 years.

The manufactory of Chelsea porcelain was set on foot and carried on by a Mr. Spremont, a foreigner. The establishment employed a great number of hands; but the original proprietor having acquired a large fortune retired from the concern, and his successors, wanting his enterprise and spirit, did not so well succeed, and in a few years finally abandoned it. Previous to the dissolution, the proprietors presented a memorial respecting it to the Government, requesting protection and assistance, in which they stated that “the manufacture in England has been carried on by great labour and a large expense; it is in many respects to the full as good as the Dresden; and the late Duke of Orleans told Colonel York that the metal or earth had been tried in his furnace, and was found to be the best made in Europe. It is now daily improving, and already employs, at least, 100 hands, of which is a nursery of thirty lads taken from the parishes and charity schools, and bred to designing and painting: arts very much wanted here, and which are of the greatest use in our silk and printed linen manufactories.”

Specimens of this porcelain have always been much esteemed, and still retain a great value. At the sale of the effects of Queen Charlotte, the articles in Chelsea china, of which her Majesty had a large collection, brought very high prices. Mr. Watkins, in his Life of Queen Charlotte, says, “I beheld with admiration a complete service of Chelsea china, porcelain, rich and beautiful in fancy beyond expression. I really never saw any Dresden porcelain near so fine.”

Mr. A. Stephens, whom we have already noticed, was told by the foreman of the Chelsea China Manufactory (then in the workhouse of St. Luke’s, Middlesex), that Dr. Johnson had conceived a notion that he was capable of improving on the manufacture of china. He even applied to the directors of the Chelsea China Works, and was allowed to bake his compositions in their ovens in Lawrence Street, Chelsea. He was accordingly accustomed to go down with his housekeeper, about twice a week, and stop the whole day, she carrying a basket of provisions with her. The Doctor, who was not allowed to enter the mixing room, had access to every other part of the premises, and formed his composition in a particular apartment, without being overlooked by any one. He had also free access to the oven, and superintended the whole of the process; but completely failed, both as to composition and baking, for his materials always yielded to the intensity of the heat, while those of the Company came out of the furnace perfect and complete. Dr. Johnson retired in disgust, but not in despair, for he afterwards gave a dissertation on this very subject in his works; but the overseer assured Mr. Stephens, in 1814, that he was still ignorant of the nature of the operation. He seemed to think that the Doctor imagined one single substance was sufficient, while he, on the other hand, asserted that he always used sixteen, and he must have had some practice, as he had nearly lost his eye-sight by firing batches of china, both at Chelsea and Derby, to which the manufacture was afterwards carried.

Chelsea china, originally patronised by the Duke of Cumberland, and afterwards by Sir R. Faulkner, was a long time in such repute as to be sold by auction, and as a set was purchased as soon as baked, dealers were surrounding the doors for that purpose. [87]

LAWRENCE STREET, &c.

Lawrence Street derives its name, as previously intimated, from its having been the site of the residence of the Lawrence family for many years. On this spot stood the first old Manor House, until Lord Sandys alienated the manor to Henry VIII., when that king sold it to Sir Thomas Lawrence, and erected another in Cheyne Walk.

The ancient family of Lawrence first came into England with William the Conqueror, and settled at Ashton Hall, in the county of Lancaster, where they resided for 300 years, and possessed an immense property, which, in the year 1591, included 34 manors, the rental of which amounted to £6000 per annum. It is uncertain when this family first came to Chelsea, but as the Lawrence chapel in the Old Church is built in the style of architecture which prevailed at the beginning of the fourteenth century, they were probably settled here about that period, and some time before they purchased the manor house. Some of the family who were buried in the chapel have already been mentioned.

The chief branches of this eminent family resided in Chelsea, in London, and at Iver, Bucks. Sir John Lawrence, knight, was Lord Mayor of London in 1665.

Some “Pious Contemplations,” on the arms of the Lawrence family, are written in the margin of their pedigree. They are supposed to have been affixed to it in 1664, but the author is not known. The following are the concluding lines:—

“The way to Heaven is not with roses spread, But throng’d with thorns, as was Thy sacred head; Our peace is hack’d and hew’d, our life’s a war, We, for our Cross, must many crosses bear— Or, a red sea our passage doth withstand, Or, fiery serpents, or, a barren sand, Ere we can reach the truly Holy Land.”

“Christ’s Cross the ladder is that leads to bliss, Blest Jacob’s vision was a type of this; Who climbs by other steps is at a loss— To Heaven the only ladder is the Cross.”

Ann, Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleugh, relict of James, Duke of Monmouth, resided in the “great house” in Lawrence Street about 1714, and from that time it was called Monmouth House. The following item appears in the Churchwardens’ accounts for the year 1716: “Paid the ringers, when the Princess (afterwards Queen Caroline) visited the Duchess of Monmouth, six shillings.” The Duchess was, it is said, for her agreeable person, good sense, and irreproachable character, one of the most amiable ladies about the Court. During the first years of her marriage she seems to have been as happy, and as much envied as any woman in the kingdom; but this happiness was of short duration; she was unfortunately supplanted in the Duke’s affections by Lady Harriet Wentworth, daughter of the Earl of Cleveland, whose personal charms were superior to her own. Her Grace died in 1732, aged 90 years.

Mr. Gay was for some time secretary to the Duchess, as stated in Johnson’s Life of Gay.

Dr. Smollett afterwards resided in the same house in Lawrence Street. He came to Chelsea on account of the bad state of health of his beloved daughter, who was at that time in a consumption, under which she finally sank in the year 1763. The house and premises were extensive, and well suited for the residence of a person of rank. There are few men of real genius who have written more voluminously than Dr. Smollett. His entertaining novels are so well known that it seems almost unnecessary to mention Roderick Random, the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Ferdinand Count Fathom, and Sir Launcelot Greaves, the Expedition of Humphry Clinker, &c.

He was bred to the medical profession, and in the early part of his life served as a surgeon in the navy. It is said that before he took a house at Chelsea he attempted to settle as a practitioner, at Bath, but was unsuccessful, chiefly because he could not render himself agreeable to the ladies. This, however, was a little extraordinary, for Smollett was as graceful and handsome a man as any of the age; besides, there was a certain dignity in his manner which could not fail to inspire respect whenever he appeared. Abandoning physic altogether as a profession, he fixed his residence at Chelsea, and turned his thoughts entirely to writing.

Dr. Smollett’s History of England has had a most extensive sale. He is said to have received £2000 for writing it and the continuation. During the last years of his life he was employed in abridging the Modern Universal History, great part of which he had originally written himself. In the year 1755 he set on foot the Critical Review, and continued the principal manager of it till he went abroad for the first time, in the year 1763. He had made some very severe remarks on a pamphlet published by Admiral Knowles, who commenced a prosecution against the printer; and, just as sentence was going to be pronounced, he came into Court, and avowed himself the author; upon which he was fined £100, and condemned to three months’ imprisonment in the King’s Bench. It is there he is said to have written the Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, in which he has described some remarkable characters, then his fellow-prisoners. When Lord Bute was called to the chief administration of affairs, he was prevailed upon to write in defence of that nobleman’s measures, in a weekly paper called the Briton. This gave rise to the well-known North Briton, wherein he was rather baffled.

Smollett’s constitution being at last greatly impaired by a sedentary life, and assiduous application to study, he went abroad for his health in 1769. He wrote accounts of his travels, in a series of letters to his friends, which were afterwards published.

During that time he appears to have been occasionally in a distressed state of mind. In his first letter he writes:—“In gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the tedious hours; which, without some such employment, would be rendered insupportable by distemper and disquiet. You knew and pitied my situation: traduced by malice, persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by domestic affliction.” He here alludes to the loss of his only daughter. In another letter, addressed to Mr. Reid, of this parish, he desires to be remembered to his Chelsea friends, wishing them that health and happiness to which he himself was a stranger, and adds, “I am very glad to know your concert was so brilliant, and I hope all your Chelsea societies will continue to flourish.”

Dr. Smollett returned to England, but afterwards went back to Italy, where he died in 1771.

The old Chelsea Stage Coaches started from Lawrence Street and Church Street, between which places there were extensive stabling, and a residence for the proprietor in the centre of the yard. The fare for inside passengers was 1s. 6d., outside 1s., and no intermediate fare at a lower sum was taken. Thanks to the General Omnibus Company, to the Steamboat, and the Railway Companies, we can now go to almost the extremity of London for 6d. and a shorter distance for 3d.

Lordship Place takes its name from having been the site of the barns, &c., of the Lord of the Manor. It is a short street, near the river, connecting Lawrence Street with Cheyne Row. In the early Parish Registers occur many lamentable details of poor people being found dead in these barns, where they had taken refuge from the inclemency of the weather.

Cheyne Row was built in 1708, and was named after the Lord of the Manor.

John Denver, Esq., resided in Cheyne Row for the last twenty years of his life. He devoted his time to study, and the forming of a collection of early printed Bibles, manuscripts, and missals, which was at last one of the most valuable in England. His daughter, Miss Denyer, was very clever in painting and illuminating on vellum, &c. Her drawings and miniatures were equal to the finest specimens of the middle ages. Mr. Denyer died at the age of 71, and was buried in the Old Church, and his affectionate daughter was also interred near her father and mother. This family was distinguished for their benevolence to the poor.

In Cheyne Row, within my recollection, many old and influential families have resided there, who were greatly respected. Amongst them may be mentioned Edmund Chalmers, Esq., Thomas Chalmers, Esq., John Hulme, Esq., Edward Holl, Esq., the benevolent Mrs. Hebert, Richard Draper, Esq., George Blyth, Esq., and Isaac Wrentmore, Esq.

Thomas Carlyle, Esq., who is so well-known in literary and other distinguished circles, and who is certainly one of the most profound writers of the present age, has resided in Cheyne Row for a great many years. The University of Edinburgh, last year, conferred on him the highest honour it could bestow. His habits of life at Chelsea are naturally secluded, but he is nevertheless greatly respected by those who have an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of his social worth. Mr. Carlyle begins now to bend with age, although apparently in tolerable health, and, notwithstanding his recent severe bereavement, not a cloud seems to dim the vigour of his intellectual faculties.

In Upper Cheyne Row there was formerly a manufactory for melting gold and silver in crucibles, which was said to produce the best articles of the kind in England.

Cook’s Grounds was formerly a back way to Alston House, Cheyne Walk.

Cook’s Ground Chapel was originally built for the use of the French Protestants, who had taken refuge in this country after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in the year 1685. Several French gardeners settled upon this spot, and the Rev. Dr. King, the rector, mentions them in terms of great kindness, and strongly recommends them to the protection of his successors. The chapel was for many years in the Independent Connexion. The Rev. Benjamin Fielder, in 1773, succeeded the Rev. Mr. Trail, and died in 1803. His death was very affecting; he had seated himself in the pulpit, and, after a hymn had been sung, he was observed with his head reclining, and without any signs of life. He was immediately removed, but never spoke afterwards. The Rev. John Bunce, who was well known and respected in Chelsea, was minister at this chapel for many years, and subsequently Dr. Tracey, Mr. Webb, and at the present time Mr. Hayward.

Alston House, Cheyne Walk.

Shrewsbury, or Alston House, a capital mansion, built about the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., was situated in Cheyne Walk, to the west of the present “Pier Hotel.” This house was considered for a long time to have been the residence of Sir Thomas More; but Dr. King has proved, from the most authentic documents, that it never had any just pretensions to that honour.

It was an irregular brick building, forming three sides of a quadrangle. The principal room was one hundred and twenty feet in length, and was originally wainscotted with carved oak. One of the rooms was painted in imitation of marble, and appeared to have been originally an oratory. Certain curious portraits on panel, which had ornamented the large rooms, were destroyed some few years since; this is to be regretted, as, in all probability, they represented its former owners, or, at least, some persons of note.

Leading from the premises, towards the King’s Road, there is a subterranean passage, which has been explored for a short distance. It is said, traditionally, to have communicated with a cave or dungeon, situated at a considerable distance from the house; but for what purpose made, no one now in its vicinity confidently presumes to guess.

The following information concerning this subterranean passage, is obtained from a letter of Miss Gulston to Miss Tate, who was the proprietor of the estate:—

“I have found an old man, now living at Chelsea, who worked at the paper manufactory when a lad, and who has established the facts. I have always been laughed at when I have mentioned the story. I have gotten two drawings of the room and passage.

“The entrance to this passage was from the room used by the paper stainers as a drying place. It had no fire-place in it; the dimensions were nearly as follows: 25 feet high, 50 long, 36 wide; the ceiling was strong with beams, to sustain the upper floors, but without any plastered ceiling. You descended into it by a wide winding staircase, through a circular-top door, strongly fortified with rivets and four large hinges: this door was so contrived, that it opened far enough back to hide the approach to the hole, and could there be fastened so as to have the appearance of belonging to the large room, and the circular steps leading to it caused the more deception.

“The side walls are all brick. This man never could proceed with his light more than a distance of thirty yards, when the light invariably went out. The passage is free from any incumbrance of earth, or from any part of the side walls having given way; as far as could be ascertained, its direction was towards the river.

“It is regularly paved with two flag stones, leaving a border of six inches of earth; width 3 feet, length 5½ feet.

“This passage was discovered, owing to the proprietor having been robbed of a quantity of paper for years. The man now alive volunteered to detect the thief; the paper was found on the staircase descending to the passage.

“E. Gulston.”

Alston House was for many years the residence of the Shrewsbury family.

George, Earl of Shrewsbury, succeeded his father in the title, June 28th, the 13th Edward IV., while a minor. In the reign of Henry VIII. he was in high favour with that monarch, was steward of the household, and a privy counsellor, and accompanied the King at his interview with Francis I. at Guisnes.

In 28 Henry VIII., on the rebellion in the North, called “the pilgrimage of grace,” occasioned by the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, he was constituted the King’s Lieutenant, to march thither with a powerful army, he himself having raised a number of men at his own expense, when the Earl, and the Duke of Norfolk, succeeded in bringing the rebels to submission, and obtained for them the King’s pardon. This nobleman resided occasionally at Chelsea; and here his sixth son, by his first wife, was born. The Earl died 1538; he is characterised by Polydore Virgil, “as a person noble, prudent, and moderate through the whole course of his life.”

Francis, his son and heir, is mentioned among the freeholders in the court rolls of the Manor of Chelsea, 35 Henry VIII. This nobleman also enjoyed the favour of his sovereign during three succeeding reigns. In 1545 he was appointed the King’s Lieutenant in the North; and in the following year was installed one of the Knights Companions of the most noble order of the Garter. In 2 Edward VI. he had the command of a large army that was sent into Scotland, and in 1st of Queen Mary was made President of the Council of the North. He died September 21, 1560.

George, Earl of Shrewsbury, son of the preceding, was installed a Knight of the Garter, May 17, 1562. In 1568 the custody of the Queen of Scots was committed to his charge. In 1573, he presided as Lord High Steward at the trial of the Duke of Norfolk; and on the death of his Grace, which happened soon after, he was constituted Earl Marshal of England. He died 1590, and was buried at Sheffield, in the county of York. “An inquisition, taken at Derby, 3rd April, 33 Elizabeth, on the death of George, Earl of Shrewsbury; after reciting lands, &c., in many counties, adds Middlesex, one capital messuage, &c., in Chelsea. The value is lumped in many manors, into a gross sum of £800 a year.” The inscription on his monument, among other things, sets forth, “That, as he excelled in mind, so was he skilled in the affairs of war.” On the arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots, in England, she was again put under his care, and so continued till 1584. His behaviour to her was ever generous and honourable, sparing no cost for her entertainment. Words cannot fully express the care and concern he had for her, nor can envy itself say otherwise than he was a faithful and prudent person; in a word, his integrity in his high office was not to be suspected, although evil disposed persons secretly and vaguely gave out that he had used too much familiarity with his royal prisoner. Thus, noble by descent, he was more noble and illustrious in his actions; famous at home and abroad; loyal to his prince and true to his country; and he resigned his soul in “a good old age.” The Earl married to his second wife, Elizabeth, widow of Sir William St. Loo, Captain of the Guards to Queen Elizabeth, who survived him, and to whom he probably bequeathed his house at Chelsea, as it appears to have descended to her son William, first Earl of Devonshire. In “Lodge’s Illustrations of English History,” is a letter of this nobleman, dated from Chelsea, in 1585.

Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury. This lady, who was much celebrated for her beauty and accomplishments, and still more for her extraordinary fortune in the world, was daughter of John Hardwick, Esq., of the county of Derby. At the age of fourteen she was married to Robert Barley, Esq., who, in about two years, left her a very rich widow. The next husband was Sir William Cavendish, ancestor of the Duke of Devonshire. Her third was Sir William St. Loo. In this third widowhood she had not survived her charms of wit and beauty, by which she captivated the then greatest subject of the land, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, whom she brought to terms of considerable honour and advantage to herself and children; for he not only yielded to a very large jointure, but to a union of families, by marrying Mary, her youngest daughter, to Gilbert, his son and afterwards his heir, and giving the Lady Grace, his youngest daughter, to Henry, her eldest son. In 1590 she was a fourth time left, and continued a widow till her death. Her’s was a change of conditions that, perhaps, never fell to any one woman before or since: to be four times a creditable and happy wife, and to rise by every husband to greater wealth and higher honours; and, after all, to live seventeen years a widow in absolute power and plenty. She built three of the most elegant seats that were ever raised by one person in the same county—Chatsworth, Hardwick, and Oldcoates; all transmitted entire to the first Duke of Devonshire. The Countess died in 1607, aged 87. She bequeathed all her estates to her son William, Earl of Devonshire; and we find this nobleman to have been in possession of this mansion at Chelsea soon after her death.

William, Earl of Devonshire, received his education with the sons of the Earl of Shrewsbury, his father in-law; and, being distinguished for eminent abilities, was advanced to the dignity of Baron Cavendish, by James I. in the third year of his reign; at which time of his creation his Majesty stood under a cloth of state in the hall at Greenwich, accompanied by the princes and the greatest part of the nobility, both of England and Scotland. In 1618 he was created Earl of Devonshire. He died at Hardwick in 1625. The Earl married, to his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Boughton, Esq., of the county of Warwick, and widow of Sir Richard Wortley. This lady survived him, and continued to reside at Chelsea till her death, which happened in 1643, as appears by the parish book, in which are also entries of the burials of some of her domestics.

After the death of the Countess of Devonshire, this ancient house became the property of Sir Joseph Alston, who was created a baronet by Charles II. in 1682. Mrs. Mary Alston, the wife of this gentleman, died here in 1671, and her funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Littleton, who published it shortly after, in quarto. Sir Joseph was in possession of this house in 1664; it afterwards came into the possession of Mr. Tate, and was occupied as a stained paper manufactory.

In 1813 it was pulled down, and the materials sold by a builder, who had obtained possession; and now not a stone remains to show where it once stood.

The family of Tate were originally of Chelsea, and had at one time large property here, which they parted with by degrees. They attained property also in Leicestershire, through a marriage with the daughter of Lord Zouch.

Bishop of Winchester’s Palace.

The Bishop of Winchester’s Palace, which was pulled down some years since, adjoined the gardens of Alston House, on the east, and on the site of which is now Oakley Street, and a terrace of well-built houses, fronting the river. The houses erected in Oakley Street are throughout of a superior class, and as the road is of considerable width, with a good pavement, it now forms the most respectable and important direct thoroughfare from the King’s Road to the centre of Cheyne Walk. The contemplated embankment and Albert Bridge will be noticed at the conclusion of this work, so as to get correct information.

The ancient palace of the Bishops of Winchester, in Southwark, having been dilapidated and laid waste, an Act of Parliament was passed in the year 1663 empowering George Morley, Bishop of Winchester, to lease out the houses in Southwark, and for other purposes. In the ensuing year the Bishop, in pursuance of this Act of Parliament, purchased a new brick house at Chelsea, then lately built by James Duke of Hamilton, and adjoining to the Manor House, Cheyne Walk, on the east, and Alston House, on the west, for £4250, to be the future residence of the bishops of this see, and to be called Winchester House. By the Act it was held to be within the diocese of Winchester.

The Bishopric of Winchester is of good antiquity, and has never changed the see since its foundation. The Bishops are Chancellors of the see of Canterbury, and Prelates of the most noble Order of St. George, called the Garter, which office was vested in them by King Edward III. at the establishment of that noble Order, and has continued with them ever since. Anciently, they were reputed Earls of Southampton, and are so styled in the Statutes of the Garter, made by Henry VIII.

BISHOPS SINCE THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES II.

1662. George Morley, Bishop of Worcester.

1684. Peter Mews, Bishop of Bath and Wells.

1707. Sir Jonathan Trelawney, Bart., Bishop of Exeter.

1721. Charles Trimnell, Bishop of Norwich.

1723. Richard Willis, Bishop of Salisbury.

1734. Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Salisbury.

1761. John Thomas, Bishop of Salisbury.

1781. Hon. Brownlow North, Bishop of Worcester.

1820. George Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln.

Dr. Tomline was the last Bishop of Winchester who had possession of this ancient house, but he never resided in it.

George Morley, chaplain to Charles I., was a great scholar and an eminent divine. After the death of the king he retired to the Hague, where he attended on Charles II. At the Restoration he was made Dean of Christ Church, and in the same year Bishop of Worcester, whence he was translated to Winchester. His constant practice was to rise at five o’clock in the morning, to go to bed at eleven, and to eat but once a day. By these rules he preserved his health with very little interruption through the course of a long life. He died in 1684.

Peter Mews was born at Parscandle, in Dorsetshire, in 1618, and was educated at Merchant Tailors’ School, under the care of Dr. Winiffe, then Dean of St. Paul’s, and afterwards Bishop of Lincoln. From school he was elected scholar to St. John’s College, Oxford, and became Fellow of the same College at the commencement of the civil war. Soon afterwards he left Oxford, entered the royal army, and was promoted to the rank of captain; he served for some time, and then went to Holland.

During the Interregnum he took holy orders, and at the Restoration returned to his college, where he took the degree of D.D. On the death of Dr. Bailey he was made President of St. John’s College. In 1669 he was chosen Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and in 1673 he was promoted to the see of Bath and Wells, which he held for about twelve years, till he was translated to Winchester. He died 1706, aged 88.

Singular Predictions.—In 1706, John Needs, a Winchester scholar, foretold the deaths of Mr. Carman, chaplain to the College, of Dr. Mews, Bishop of Winchester, and of himself, within that year, to several of his school-fellows, among others, to George Lavington. This declaration exposed him naturally to much raillery in the school, and he was ludicrously styled “Prophet Needs.” Mr. Carman died about the time he mentioned. For this event, however, he had little credit, it being said, that the death of such an old man might reasonably be expected. Within the time prefixed Bishop Mews also died by a strange accident. He was subject to fainting fits, from which he soon recovered by smelling spirits of hartshorn. Being seized with a fit whilst a gentleman was with him, and perceiving its approach, he pointed eagerly to a phial in the window; the visitor took it, and in haste poured the contents down the Bishop’s throat, which instantly suffocated him. As the time approached which Needs had prefixed for his own dissolution, of which he named even the day and the hour, he sickened, apparently declined, and kept to his chamber, where he was frequently visited and prayed with by Mr. Fletcher, second master of the school, and father of the Bishop of Kildare. This gentleman reasoned and argued with the youth, but in vain; for with great calmness and composure the patient resolutely persisted in affirming that the event would verify his prediction. On the day he had fixed, the house-clock being kindly put forward, struck the hour before the real time; he saw through the deception, and told those who were with him, that when the church clock struck he should expire—he did so!

Mr. Fletcher left a memorandum in writing to the above purpose; and Bishop Trimnell, about the year 1722, having heard this story at Winchester, wrote to New College, of which Mr. Lavington was then Fellow, for further information. His answer was, that “John Needs had indeed foretold that the Bishop of Winchester (Mews) and old Mr. Carman should die that year; but then they being very aged men, he had foretold, for two or three years before, that they should die in that number of years. As to foretelling the time of his own death, I believe he was punctually right.” Dr. Lavington gave the same account to his friends after he was Bishop of Exeter.

Jonathan Trelawney was a younger son of Sir J. Trelawney, of Petynt, Cornwall; but his elder brother dying in 1680, he inherited the title. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where there is a portrait of him. He was in succession Bishop of Bristol, Exeter, and Winchester; a man of polite manners, competent learning, and uncommon knowledge of the world.

Bishop Trelawney was one of the seven prelates committed to the Tower by James II. for their efforts to maintain the Protestant cause. When the news of his probable peril of life reached Cornwall, the miners proposed coming up to London in a vast body to demand the bishop’s release. The song in every mouth was—

“And shall Trelawney die? And shall Trelawney die? Then twice five hundred Cornish men Will know the reason why.”

It is said that the bishop was open, generous, and charitable, a good companion, and a good man. He died in 1721. [100]

Charles Trimnell, son of the Rev. Charles Trimnell, Rector of Repton Abbotts, Huntingdonshire, was educated at Oxford. He was consecrated Bishop of Norwich in 1707; was made Clerk of the Closet to George I., and translated to the see of Winchester in 1721. This bishop, naturally of a weak constitution, did not long survive his last promotion. He died at Farnham in 1723, aged 40. This prelate was a steady partizan of the revolution, which he defended by his pen; warm, yet temperate; zealous, yet moderate; and his piety did not prevent him from gaining a perfect knowledge of mankind.

Richard Willis, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, was promoted to the deanery of Lincoln, by King William; and in 1714 was consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, translated in 1721 to Salisbury, and thence to Winchester in 1723, where he resided till his death, which happened suddenly at Winchester House, Cheyne Walk, in 1734, aged 71; his wife was buried in Chelsea Church, in 1727, but he himself was buried in his own Cathedral.

Bishop Hoadly, a prelate of great merit, was the son of the Rev. Samuel Hoadly, Master of the Public Grammar School at Norwich; he was educated at his father’s school till he went to Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he afterwards became College Tutor, and appears to have been held in high esteem throughout the whole course of his academical studies. Although he applied to study with an intensity of application that made him eminent, he acquired at the same time considerable proficiency in music. In 1698 he was ordained, and about three years afterwards he married Miss Curtis, a great proficient in the art of painting, many of her portraits exciting public attention, particularly one of Bishop Burnet.

In 1704 Mr. Hoadly obtained the rectory of St. Peter le Poor; he began writing as soon as he came to London; and in 1709 the following vote was passed in the House of Commons:—“Resolved, That the Rev. Benjamin Hoadly, having often justified the principles on which his Majesty and the nation proceeded in the late happy revolution, hath justly merited the favour and recommendation of this House. That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, that she would be graciously pleased to bestow some dignity in the church on Mr. Hoadly, for his eminent services, both to the Church and State.” A change of Ministry prevented any benefit arising to him from this address; but he afterwards had bestowed on him, by the grandmother of the Duke of Bedford, the rectory of Streatham, Surrey. Soon after the accession of George I. he was made Bishop of Bangor. From thence he was successively translated to those of Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester, which last he enjoyed nearly twenty-seven years.

It is somewhat a singular circumstance, that when Bishop Hoadly went to Court to kiss the King’s hand on his promotion, he did not know the way up stairs, the attendants being all busily engaged at the moment, and by mistake he sat down in an outer room unobserved, and some affirm that he lost the honour of being presented on that occasion to his Majesty.

The doctrines contained in his publications gave such offence to the clergy, that they produced the famous Bangorian Controversy. On the 16th of December, 1761, having supped, he retired to bed in perfect health, but in the middle of the night he was seized with a fit of vomiting, of which the violence abated in about an hour. Medical assistance was immediately sent for, and the bishop seemed better, but about two o’clock the following even, his lady found him dead, without knowing the precise moment of his departure. As a writer, he possessed powerful talents; his greatest defect, perhaps, was in extending his periods to a disagreeable length; for which Pope has thus recorded him:—

“But, sir, of writers? Swift for closer style, But Hoadly for a period of a mile.”

Amongst the most celebrated writers of modern times, who have possessed great argumentative powers, this “defect” is generally a natural consequence. Lord Brougham, for instance, was remarkable for the length of his periods, or final sentences, but with him it evidenced deep thought, and enabled him to impart into his writings and speeches that eloquence and force of language for which he was so highly extolled. Bishop Hoadly might have been one of those “powerful” writers.

Dr. John Thomas was born in 1696, and in 1733, being then Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, he was presented by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, to the united parishes of St. Benedict’s and St. Peter’s, Paul’s Wharf, London. In 1742 he became Canon Residentiary of St. Paul’s, and was sworn in one of his Majesty’s Chaplains in Ordinary. He was consecrated Bishop of Peterborough in 1747, and four years after was appointed Preceptor to the Prince of Wales. On the death of Bishop Hoadly he was presented to the see of Winchester. Dr. Thomas died at his episcopal palace, Cheyne Walk, in 1781, aged 85, having sustained throughout life the character of an exemplary prelate. [102]

The Hon. Brownlow North was born in 1741, was the younger son of the first Earl of Guildford, and brother to that Lord North who became twice Prime Minister of this country, once during the American war, and, secondly, in conjunction with Mr. Fox. Mr. North was first educated at Eton, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1770 he was promoted from a canonry at Christchurch, to the deanery of Canterbury. His elder brother being now Prime Minister he obtained the mitre of Lichfield and Coventry in 1771, at the early age of 30. In 1744 he was promoted to the see of Worcester, soon after which he was promoted to the rich see of Winchester. By his wife, formerly Miss Bannister, a lady previously well known in the fashionable world, he had a very numerous family, of whom both sons and sons-in-law were amply provided with valuable livings in the church. The bishop with his family went to Italy, and shortly after their return his lady died; his lordship died at his palace at Chelsea, after a long illness, accompanied with blindness, at the age of 79, July 12, 1820.

Bishop North was kind and charitable. The present writer gladly embraces this opportunity to testify to the truth of this statement. The bishop was walking in front of his palace, as was his frequent custom, when the writer, then quite a youth, fell accidentally with considerable force on the shore of the river, it being at the time “low water.” The bishop observing the accident, and perceiving the injury sustained, gave immediate instructions for his being carried home, compensating the men, and offering to pay any additional expenses. This may appear no more than an act of duty on the part of the bishop, but the writer cannot refrain from remembering it as a deed worthy of a “good Samaritan.”

Winchester Palace was of humble exterior, and displayed little of grandeur or of magnificence. It was two stories in height, and built with red bricks, without pilasters or any other architectural ornament; but, however plain in its exterior, it comprised every convenience and comfort that could be required for a large establishment. The building formed a quadrangle, and its principal entrance was in the south front, the ground floor of which comprised the great hall, kitchen, and chapel, the latter being of moderate dimensions, plainly but neatly fitted up. The great staircase at the eastern end of the hall led to three grand drawing rooms, which extended the whole length of the south front, and which, during the residence of Bishop North, were splendidly furnished. The walls were covered with beautiful paper, having gold borders, the ceilings were richly ornamented in stucco work, and the chimney-pieces composed of various coloured marbles, put up at considerable expense by the bishop after his return from Italy. The sleeping rooms, and other domestic chambers, occupied the whole north front, commanding fine views over the gardens adjoining. On the ground floor of this front were two libraries, and other apartments, bounded on the east by a great gallery, leading to the gardens.

Having been obliged in the year 1791, by the bad health of part of his family, to seek the climate of Italy, Bishop North collected there many curious articles of undoubted antiquity, of modern art, and of natural history, of which the principal were, Greek sepulchral vases, specimens of ancient marbles used in the Roman villas, mural paintings from Herculaneum, beautiful works in Mosaic, fine bronzes, splendid gems, curious china, &c. These were disposed with much taste in various apartments of the house, and some of them we will notice.

The great entrance hall was 40 ft. long, and 20 ft. wide; on a table stood an antique juvenile bust of Bacchus, which was much admired.

The grand staircase was of noble proportions, and was ornamented with a variety of objects of taste, disposed in glass cases, consisting of specimens of all the articles of domestic use among the ancient Romans. Here likewise stood a sepulchral Roman vase of white marble, ornamented with rams’ heads and elegant festoons of white flowers, with the following inscription:—

Semproniæ Elegantiorib. choreis Psallendoq; Præstantis Suæ viridis in medio juventæ E. Vivis Per crudelia fata direptæ Sodaliu. Sibi. Choors. Dilecta D.O.M. Moer. M.P.

In bloom of youth, midst sweet companions dwelling, With elegant and tuneful arts excelling, Fate did Sempronia suddenly remove: Submissive to the wise behests of Heaven, Those lov’d companions (full of hope) have given To her this token of their loss and love.

W. B.

Near the preceding was a plaster cast of Dr. Burney, author of the History of Music, taken from the original bust by Nollekens. The three drawing-rooms were of the same dimensions as the hall; the first was ornamented with several mosaic and fresco paintings from Herculaneum, and other works of ancient arts. In the next apartments were portraits of Bishop North, and his lady. Along the gallery which led to the garden were disposed, in glass cases, a rich variety of beautiful shells, with spars and ores, and a large collection of Italian marbles. The house was also adorned with many specimens of modern art, in modelling and painting, executed by Miss North, the Hon. Mr. Brownlow North, and by others of his lordship’s family.

Winchester House was well and expensively supplied with water, conveyed by pipes from a conduit, built by Henry VIII., situated in the King’s forcing grounds at Kensington.

Upon pulling down the palace a singular discovery was made. In a small room, to the north front, and at the north-west corner, were found on the plaster of the walls, nine figures of the size of life, viz., three men and six women, drawn in outline with black chalk in a bold and animated style. Various opinions have been given respecting these spirited sketches. They displayed much of the manner of Hogarth, who lived on intimate terms with Bishop Hoadly, and it was supposed that these figures applied to some domestic incident in the bishop’s family, or to some scene in a play. His lordship’s partiality for the drama was great. A near relative, who resided in Chelsea, wrote the comedy of “The Suspicious Husband.”

The palace remained unoccupied after the death of Bishop North; for Lady Tomline, the wife of Bishop Tomline, conceived a dislike to the place altogether. His lordship, in consequence, applied to Parliament and obtained an Act to enable him to sell the premises. The Lord of the Manor became the purchaser; and subsequently the whole fabric was sold by auction.

Description of the Manor House.

As full particulars have already been given of the distinguished occupiers of the ancient Manor House, Cheyne Walk, it is here only necessary to describe the structure of this once celebrated residence. [105]

Immediately adjoining Winchester Palace, on the east, was situated the ancient Manor House and lands. It was a spacious house, built by Henry VIII., the original consisting of a rather plain brick structure, one storey above the ground floor, with irregularly-shaped windows, and divided by four buttresses of great width, carried up considerably higher than the roof, either as ornaments or concealed flues. The parapet of this part was castellated. Two additions, on the east, seems to have been subsequently added to the original; one of them being three stories in height, the other of two, without either buttress or embrasures. The number of windows in the entire front was thirty-four, and the entrance door accorded with the period of Henry VIII. The whole presented an idea of monastic antiquity.

Sir Hans Sloane, it is said, was buried from the eastern end of the Manor House. A man, named Howard, who was employed in the removal of his books, stated that they amounted to nearly 40,000 volumes.

On part of the site of the old Manor House, and adjoining Winchester Palace, in the first house eastward in Cheyne Walk, resided for a long time the Rev. Thomas Clare. When the destruction of the episcopal domain took place, Mr. Clare, with some difficulty, obtained a portion of the land upon which the gardens of the above venerable edifice stood, in the arrangement and disposition of which he omitted nothing which might do justice to the memory of its former illustrious owners and occupiers, or excite the approbation of visitors of judgment and taste.

Sir Richard Steele appears, from the parish books, to have rented a house by the water-side, rated at £14 per annum. In a letter from Sir Richard to Lady Steele, dated Chelsea, 14th of February, 1716, he says, “Mr. Fuller and I came hither to dine in the air, but the maid has been so slow that we are benighted, and chuse to lie here rather than go this road in the dark. I lie at our own house, and my friend at a relation’s in the town.”

Sir Richard was born about the year 1676, in Ireland, but of English parents. At a very early age he was sent from Dublin to London, and was educated with Addison at the Charter House; from hence he removed to Merton College, Oxford; he left the University without taking a degree, and entered the army, a step highly displeasing to his friends. However, as he had a constant flow of good nature, a generous frankness of spirit, and a sparkling vivacity of wit, these qualities rendered him the delight of the soldiery, and having made choice of a profession which set him free from all the ordinary restraints in youth, he indulged his inclinations in the wildest excesses. He became Secretary to Lord Cutts, who obtained for him the rank of captain in Lord Lucas’s regiment of Fusileers; and, in the beginning of Queen Anne’s reign, he was appointed to the profitable place of Gazetteer, to which he had been recommended by Mr. Addison. Steele had already exhibited his talents as a dramatic writer with success, and in 1709 he began to publish “The Tatler,” which was undertaken by him in concert with Dr. Swift, and others; and by this work his reputation was perfectly established. This was followed by “The Spectator,” which was carried on chiefly by the assistance of his friend Addison, and the success of this paper being still superior to that of the former, encouraged him to proceed in the same design in the character of “The Guardian.”

In 1710 Sir Richard was made a Commissioner of the Stamp Duties, which office he resigned in 1713; and from a placeman he became a violent oppositionist. He took his seat in the House of Commons as Member for Stockbridge, in Hampshire, but was expelled thence in a few days after for writing several seditious libels. From this time till the death of Queen Anne his attention was wholly engrossed in writing and publishing political tracts. [107]

On the accession of George I. he was again taken into favour; was appointed Surveyor to the Royal Stables at Hampton Court, had the honour of knighthood conferred upon him, and during the whole of this reign continued to receive many marks of the royal bounty.

It might now naturally be imagined that, taught by ample experience, Sir Richard would pay some attention to economy: such, however, was the power of habit, and such was his thoughtless profusion, that scarcely a twelvemonth had passed before he was obliged to sell his share in a theatre to relieve the oppressive exigencies of want. In 1725 he surrendered the whole of his property to his creditors, and retired to Wales, where, in the following year, he was seized with a paralytic stroke, which rendered him incapable of any further literary effort.

By the indulgence of the mortgagee he resided on his estate, near Carmarthen, which he had formerly acquired on his marriage with his second wife. After lingering nearly two years in this secluded situation, he died September 21, 1729. Such was the chequered life of Steele, at one time exulting on the wing of prosperity; at another depressed by all the evils of the most embittered poverty. His frailties were not the offspring of vice, but the effects of habitual carelessness and the want of prudence. Compassionate in his heart; unbounded in his benevolence; no object of distress that he could relieve ever left him with a murmur; and in the hour of prosperity he was ever ready, both with his influence and property, to promote the views of literature and science, and to assist the efforts of unprotected genius. Mental wealth, however poor and humble the possessor, was esteemed by him to be of invaluable worth. [108]

Don Saltero’s Coffee House.

This well known coffee-house was first opened in the year 1695, by one Salter, who had been a servant to Sir Hans Sloane, and had accompanied him on his travels. The collection of curiosities, which were principally the gift of his master, being the duplicates of his various curious collections, drew from London a multitude of spectators. It existed for more than a century, and was at length sold by public auction in the year 1799.

In “The Tatler,” No. 34, Sir Richard Steele has given the following humorous description of this once far-famed collection of rarities, and of its eccentric proprietor:—

“Being of a very spare and hective constitution, I am forced to make frequent journies of a mile or two for fresh air; and indeed by this last, which was no further than the village of Chelsea, I am farther convinced of the necessity of travelling to know the world; for, as it is usual with young voyagers, as soon as they land upon a shore, to begin their accounts of the nature of the people, their soil, their government, their inclinations, and their passions, so really I fancied I could give you an immediate description of this village from the Five Fields, where the robbers lie in wait, to the coffee-house, where the literati sit in council. A great ancestor of ours, by the mother’s side, Mr. Justice Overdo, (whose history is written by Ben Johnson,) met with more enormities by walking incognito than he was capable of correcting; and found great mortifications in observing, also, persons of eminence, whom he before knew nothing of: thus it fared with me, even in a place so near the town as this. When I came into the coffee-house, I had not time to salute the company, before my eye was diverted by 10,000 gimcracks round the room, and on the ceiling. When my first astonishment was over, comes to me a sage, of thin and meagre countenance, which aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting had made it so philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be of that sect which the ancients call Gingivistæ, in our language, tooth-drawers. I immediately had a respect for the man; for these practical philosophers go upon a very rational hypothesis, not to cure, but to take away the part affected. My love of mankind made me very benevolent to Mr. Salter; for such is the name of this eminent barber and antiquary. Men are usually, but unjustly, distinguished rather by their fortunes than their talents, otherwise their patronage would make a great figure in that class of men which I distinguish under the title of Odd Fellows; but it is the misfortune of persons of great genius to have their faculties dissipated by attention to too many things at once. Mr. Salter is an instance of this; if he would wholly give himself up to the string, instead of playing twenty beginnings to tunes, he might, before he dies play Roger de Caubly quite out. I heard him go through his whole round; and, indeed, I think he does play the Merry Christ Church Bells pretty justly; but he confessed to me, he did that rather to show he was orthodox than that he valued himself upon the music itself. Or if he did proceed in his anatomy, why might he not hope in time to cut off legs, as well as draw teeth?

“The particularity of this man put me into a deep thought, whence it should proceed that, of all the lower order, barbers should go further in hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men: watermen brawl, cobblers sing; but why must a barber be for ever a politician, a musician, an anatomist, a poet, and a physician. The learned Vossius says, his barber used to comb his hair in iambics; and indeed in all ages, one of this useful profession, this order of cosmetic philosophers, has been celebrated by the most eminent hands. You see the barber, in Don Quixote, is one of the principal characters in the history, which gave me satisfaction in the doubt, why Don Saltero writ his name with a Spanish termination; for he is descended in a right line, not from John Tradescant, as he himself asserts, but from that memorable companion of the Knight of Mancha; and I hereby certify, to all the worthy citizens who travel to see his rarities, that his double-barrelled pistols, targets, coats of mails, his sclopeta, and sword of Toledo, were left to his ancestor, by the said ancestor to all his progeny down to Don Saltero. Though I go thus far in favour of Don Saltero’s merit, I cannot allow a liberty he takes of imposing several names (without my licence) on the collections he has made, to the abuse of the good people of England, one of which is particularly calculated to deceive religious persons, to the great scandal of the well-disposed, and may introduce heterodox opinions: he shows you a straw hat, which I know to be made by Madge Peskad, within three miles of Bedford, and tells you it is Pontius Pilate’s wife’s chambermaid’s sister’s hat. To my knowledge of this very hat, it may be added, that the covering of straw was never used among the Jews, since it was demanded of them to make bricks without it.

“Therefore this is really nothing, but, under the specious pretence of learning and antiquity, to impose upon the world. There are other things which I cannot tolerate among his rarities, as the china figure of a lady in the glass case, the Italian engine for the imprisonment of those who go abroad with it; both of which I hereby order to be taken down, or else he may expect to have his letters-patent for making punch superseded, be debarred wearing his muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his wife.

“It may be thought, perhaps, I have dwelt too long upon the affairs of this operator; but I desire the reader to remember that it is my way to consider men as they stand in merit, and not according to their fortune or figure; and if he is in a coffee-house at the reading hereof, let him look round, and he will find there may be more characters drawn in this account than that of Don Saltero; for half the politicians about him, he may observe, are, by their place in nature, of the class of tooth-drawers.”

The curiosities of this collection were deposited in glass-cases, and consisted of a great variety of petrifactions, corals, chrystals, ores, shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed animals from various parts of the world, idols, curious Chinese manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes, butterflies, medals, models, fire-arms, fishes, portraits, prints, &c.

A catalogue of the whole was printed, with the names of the donors affixed; and under the management of skilful hands this collection could not have failed to produce ample remuneration and profit.

Such collections, aided by those of Tradescant, Ashmole, and Thoresby, cherished the infancy of science, and should not be depreciated now, as the playthings of a boy are scorned after he has arrived at manhood. Mr. Pennant’s ancestor, who lived at Chelsea, often took his great nephew, Mr. Pennant’s father, to the coffee-house, where he used to see poor Richard Cromwell, a little and very neat old man, with a most placid countenance, the effect of his innocent and unambitious life. He imagines this was Don Saltero’s coffee-house, to which he was a benefactor, and has the honour of having his name mentioned in the collection. [111]

Mr. Pennant, when a boy, saw “his uncle’s gift to the great Saltero,” which was “a lignified hog.” What Mr. Pennant thus facetiously denominates, is called, in the edition of Saltero’s catalogue that we have seen, “a piece of a root of a tree that grew in the shape of an hog.” He feared this matchless curiosity was lost; at least, it is omitted in the last, or forty-seventh edition of the catalogue.

What author, except Mr. Pennant, can flatter himself with delivering his works down to posterity in impressions so numerous as the labours of Don Saltero?

The name of Don Saltero made its first appearance in the newspaper, June 22nd, 1723; whence the following account of himself and his rarities is extracted.

“Sir, fifty years since to Chelsea great, From Rodman, on the Irish main, I stroll’d, and maggots in my pate, Where, much impro’d, they still remain. Through various employes I’ve past, A scraper, virtuos’, projector, Tooth drawer, trimmer, and at last I’m now a gimcrack-whim collector. Monsters of all sorts here are seen, Strange things in nature as they grow so, Some relics of the Sheha queen, And fragments of the fam’d Bob Crusoe. Knick-knacks, too, dangle round the wall, Some in glass cases, some on shelf, But what’s the rarest right of all, Your humble servant shows himself. On this my chiefest hope depends, Now if you will the cause espouse, In journals pray direct your friends To my Museum Coffee-House: And, in requital for the timely favour, I’ll gratis bleed, draw teeth, and be your shaver. Nay, that your pate may with my noddle tarry, And you shine bright as I do—marry, shall ye Freely consult your Revelation Molly. Nor shall one jealous thought create a huff, For she has taught me manners long enough.”

Chelsea Knackatory.

DON SALTERO.

Dr. Franklin, in his Life, mentions coming to Chelsea to see Don Saltero’s collection:—“We one day (says he) made a party to go by water to Chelsea, in order to see the College, and Don Saltero’s curiosities. On our return, at the request of the company, I undressed myself, and leaped into the river. I swam from near Chelsea the whole way to Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my course, a variety of feats of activity and address, both upon the surface of the water as well as under it. The sight occasioned much astonishment and pleasure to those to whom it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exercise.”

This noted coffee-house was for many years, in the present century, conducted in a most respectable manner. There was a subscription room, where gentlemen met and conversed, and which was frequently visited by men of literature and science, many of whom are still living, but of late years it had lost the celebrity of former days. It was rebuilt in 1867, is now a capital private residence.

Henry Redhead Yorke, Esq.—This accomplished scholar died at his residence, at No. 19, Cheyne Walk, in 1813, in the 41st year of his age. He was a great classical scholar. In his youth as he himself expressed it, he was “madly in love with ideal liberty.” He became an officer in the French army, and a member of the National Convention, and personally acquainted with all the leading characters of the French Revolution. He was denounced by Robespierre; and but for a friendly hint from the celebrated Condorcet, must have been guillotined, had he been one hour longer in making his escape.

In the month of March, 1798, he was liberated from Dorchester Castle, after an imprisonment of four years, for a seditious libel. He had paid a fine of £200, and entered into securities for £2,000.

Some years previous to his death his political ideas became moderated, and he manifested a strong sense of the value of the British constitution. He had been called to the bar; a profession for which he was highly qualified, and in which there was every reason to hope he would have risen to high eminence, had his life been prolonged. Indeed, the zeal with which he devoted himself to his various professional pursuits, hastened, if it did not bring on, the disorder which put a period to his existence at the comparative early age of forty-one years. As a classical scholar, and nervous elegant writer, he has left few equals. His letters, under the signature of “Galgacus,” have scarcely been surpassed since the days of Junius. In private life, Mr. Yorke was distinguished for benevolence and liberality of sentiment, openness of character, and his company was courted by men of all parties.

Francis Chalmer, Esq., (son of Edmund Chalmer, Esq.,) resided in Cheyne Row for a great many years. He was a magistrate for the county, and highly esteemed in the parish. As a gentleman he was affable and courteous, and kind to the poor. He died at his house in Cheyne Row, in July, 1859, and was interred in the Brompton Cemetery.

Leigh Hunt, Esq., the well-known author of many interesting works, and who was the associate of the most distinguished political as well as literary men of the earlier part of the present century, occupied a house in Upper Cheyne Row for a considerable time.

Miss Frances Elizabeth Eggleton, and Miss Christian Mary Eggleton, lived in Cheyne Walk. They were the daughters of Mr. David Eggleton, of Church Street, a very old Chelsea family. The former lady died in 1861, and the latter in 1867. Miss Frances Eggleton bequeathed a sum of money, to be given at her sister’s death to the Rector and Churchwardens, in trust, for them to give, on Christmas Eve, “a shoulder of mutton of not less than seven pounds in weight, and not exceeding eight pounds in weight, and four pounds of bread, to each of twenty poor persons of Chelsea, being married persons and having a family.” An extract from her will, respecting this gift, will be inserted amongst the other parochial legacies.

Charles Rawlings, Esq., who resided in Cheyne Walk for many years, was much respected in the parish, and was of a most benevolent disposition. His deed of gift in 1862, and the legacies in 1864, will be found in the list of Chelsea Charities.

Dr. Bayford, a distinguished proctor, and father of the present Dr. Bayford, resided with his family in a spacious house, within a few doors of Manor Street. His sons, in their younger days, were particularly attached to aquatic exercises.

Nathaniel Handford, Esq., an old and respected parishioner, resided also in Cheyne Walk, where he died. Mrs. Sarah Handford, his relict, who did not very long survive him, left several small legacies, in 1865, to various charitable societies in the parish.

W. Carpenter, Esq., well-known in literary circles, and who has long been connected with the press, resided likewise within the last few years in Cheyne Walk.

R. E. N. Lee, Esq., occupied the house at the corner of Manor Street, (now in possession of Dr. Sannemann,) for a considerable period. He was Steward of the Manor for eighteen years. He died in 1833, and in St. Luke’s Church there is a tablet to his memory. No family was more respected in Chelsea.

Mr. J. Fraine, a solicitor, resided at No. 13, in Cheyne Walk, and died in 1785, aged 70. The history of this gentleman and his family was marked by some very uncommon circumstances. He was himself afflicted with a continual gnawing pain in his left arm, which he carried on a board in a sling; and by pinching his jaws and throat, and beating his right cheek through the violence of the pain, he had marked them very much. He compared the sensation to a worm in the marrow of the upper bone of his arm, and used to keep a boy to beat it with a stick whenever the pain returned, and to tap on the back of his head with a piece of wood covered with cloth. Mr. Fraine’s death was occasioned by the fall on his right thigh of a leaden weight, with which he was exercising as a remedy for his complaint; the injury brought on a speedy mortification. This extraordinary case was fully described in a letter, subsequently written by Dr. Monsey. The calamities of this unhappy gentleman extended also to his son and daughter, both of whom fell by their own hands.

Mr. Fraine’s only son. King Samuel, an amiable, accomplished young man, who received his education at Christ Church, Cambridge, put an end to his existence at his chambers in the Temple, in 1799, aged 22 years, for which no reason can be assigned but disappointment in love.

Miss Fraine, whose duteous attention to her tortured and frequently impatient father was most exemplary, after the dreadful catastrophe of her brother’s suicide, not wholly unaccountable from hereditary irregularities of system, seemed to have a dread (not aversion) of marriage. The tendency of her social feelings, strictly regulated and controlled by the reserve of modesty and the dignity of virtue, almost irresistibly inclined her best affections towards wedlock; whilst her extremely sensitive forethought shunned the general result of engagements ennobling to mankind in general, but appalling in many lights to herself.

During this state of mind, repeatedly avowing her contempt for birds, cats, and dogs, she expressed great attachment for infant children. Miss Fraine, in 1780, frequently expressed to a very near neighbour her ardent wish that a particular child were placed under her own sole and immediate management. “I cannot safely marry,” she would often observe, “but I shall undertake the charge of an infant’s education with delight.”

After making many serious colloquial attempts to reason against such an intention, the Rev. Weeden Butler sent some sportive lines to the highly gifted and unfortunate lady. It succeeded so far as to repress any further application by the lady, but her feelings remained the same. The following elegant jeu-d’esprit was written with similar effect. She appears to have possessed great sensibility of feeling without adequate reflection.

SALE OF A DAUGHTER,

In fairy guise and playful mood, Euphrania, young and fair, and good, Vows, if her friends a price would set Upon their daughter Harriet, Herself the gift of Heaven would buy, And cherish it beneath her eye. Does, then, Euphrania mean to say, (If we would cast our young away, Like ostriches) she’d prove a mother, And rear the nestling of another?

Ye powers, it is a strange temptation! Let us not treat it with flirtation. Come, think upon it well, dear wife; We love our offspring as our life. Euphrania’s offer is adoption: Take it, or leave it, is our option.

Heigho! I read your tearful eye, “For the babe’s good we must comply.” ’Tis said, ’tis done. Now, in a trice, Let us determine well the price; And, shunning all superfluous joke, Settle the worth of infant folk. The bargain is as clear as water; Full many a one has sold a daughter.

The consent of the parents having thus been obtained, the price to be given for the infant daughter is the next consideration. The following is a summary of the supposed value of the child:—

Imprimis. For a hazel eye, And tongue that never told a lie, &c. £52 10 0

Item, for pranks and wanton wiles, Nods and becks, and wreathed smiles, &c. 80 0 0

Item, for filial obedience, One of our daughter’s chief ingredients, &c. 100 0 0

Then, item, for her race and name, Nearly in value both the same, &c. 200 0 0

Item, for every hope and fear That hitherto hath chequer’d care, &c. 67 10 0

£500 0 0

For such a sale, to us are due A Bond, and final Judgment too; From you the former may be given, The latter must be left to . . . Heaven.

Advised, pressed, solicited, nay, perhaps, commanded by an anxious father, this lady at last married. Soon afterwards she grew melancholy and desponding, and fell by her own hand, at her residence at Richmond, in the year 1785. She married Captain Fortescue.

Dr. Dominiceti’s Baths.—The dwelling house afterwards occupied by the Rev. Weeden Butler, a few doors from Flood Street, Cheyne Walk, was once inhabited by one Dominiceti, an Italian physician, of very considerable notoriety and talents. At this house he established medicinal baths for the cure of all diseases; and it was fitted up with pipes, &c., for the accommodation of numerous patients, who might choose to reside with him while they were under his care. In 1765 it is described as a large, pleasant, and convenient house, which contains four spacious and lofty parlours, two dining rooms, and thirteen bed chambers. On the east side of the garden, and directly communicating with the house, was erected an elegant brick and wooden building, 100-ft. long, and 16-ft. wide, in which were the baths and fumigatory stoves, etc. It appears, from his own account, that he expended about £37,000 altogether in erecting, contriving, and completing his house, and baths in Cheyne Walk.

Among his visitors and patients, at Chelsea, was his Royal Highness Edward Duke of York, who entrusted the preservation of his life to Dominiceti’s sole direction for above a month; and that in direct opposition to the advice of the Physicians and Surgeons of the Royal household. Sir John Fielding, having experienced the good effects, as he considered, of these baths, wrote a “Vindication of Dr. Dominiceti’s Practice of removing various afflicting diseases by medicated baths, stoves, fumigations, and frictions, founded on facts.”

Dominiceti resided for several years in Chelsea. He became bankrupt in the parish in 1782, and at length disappeared, overwhelmed with debt.

We will now notice one of the most distinguished scholars and clergymen of the early part of the present century, the Rev. Weeden Butler, who resided in the above-mentioned house for a great many years, and also one of his sons, etc., until a comparatively recent period, and which cannot fail to be highly interesting to a large number of readers.

The Rev. Weeden Butler was born at Margate, in 1742. When aged fourteen, he lost both his parents; and with his own free will was articled as clerk to Mr. Rosewell, a respectable solicitor, in Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, London. At the expiration of his term, he was offered by his considerate late master and constant friend till death, a share in the business; but he had determined to renounce for ever the profession of the law, and resolved, by intense study and application, to improve his superior intellectual powers, and ardently to prepare himself for holy orders. About this time, he frequented all the churches and chapels within and around the vast metropolis, as an enquirer after truth. The result of his search fixed his choice, and he devoted his time thenceforth, as a firm member of the Establishment, upon the fullest conviction of its excellence. The course of his classical and theological reading was directed by that splendidly and variously gifted, but most unhappy character, Dr. William Dodd, to whom, for a salary of small extent, he acted as an assiduous amanuensis, till his patron’s ignominious death, in 1777.

Dr. Dodd’s “Commentary on the Holy Bible,” was partly compiled, and wholly written out for the press, by the then unknown Rev. Weeden Butler, who also greatly assisted in editing the four last volumes of “The Christian’s Magazine,” and corrected the proof sheets of the poem, in blank vase, “Thoughts in Prison,” of which Dr. Dodd’s own MS. was in the possession of Mr. Butler’s eldest son in 1829–30. In this last singularly affecting composition occur lines indicative of the worth of the person eulogized, and of the author’s gratitude:—

“But I am lost! a criminal adjudg’d! A guilty miscreant! can’st thou think, my friend! Oh! Butler ’midst a million faithful found; Oh! can’st thou think, who know’st, who long hast known, My inmost soul; oh! can’st thou think, that life,” &c.

Dr. Dodd resigned his office of Morning Preacher, in Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico, in February, 1776, and at his strong recommendation, Dr. Courtney nominated the deserving Reader, Mr. Butler, who was licensed Morning Preacher accordingly; and afterwards by purchase he became proprietor of the chapel, officiating therein up to the year 1814. When the subject of the present article retired from Chelsea, to Gayton; where he piously discharged the duties of curate to his second son, till his increasing infirmities compelled him to resign this his last charge, and he finally withdrew to Greenhill, in the neighbourhood of Harrow, where he died.

He was master of the school in Cheyne Walk for forty years; where many persons of considerable rank had been so thoroughly grounded in morality and general learning as to become bright ornaments to their country. Amongst other scholars, the Rev. Weeden Butler had the gratification of seeing his two sons treading assiduously in his own paths. The Rev. G. Butler, D.D., in 1805, was chosen Head Master of Harrow School, and continued as such, with great reputation, for many years.

The elder Mr. Butler was one of the earliest institutors of the “Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons imprisoned for small debts,” and most materially assisted James Neild, Esq., his next door neighbour, in firmly establishing that excellent Institution. The friendship, indeed, which existed between these two benevolent characters, cannot be better exemplified and attested than by the following few extracts from a letter written by Mr. Neild, dated Chelsea, January 1, 1808.

“When I look back to the distant period of our lives, and observe, that, of the first Committee of the Society, you, Rev. Sir, and myself, remain the only survivors, I cannot but feel the most powerful, and, at the same time, the most humble gratitude to the Great Disposer of all human events, for having suffered me to live and witness the happy result of our early and well-meant endeavours. * * * * With growing and well-merited esteem, Sir, I witnessed your successful exertions in behalf of the Society, at its earliest institution. Often have I felt the influence acknowledged by all who have heard the eloquent and impressive discourses which you have delivered from the pulpit, in recommendation of the objects embraced by this Charity, and never can the gratifying recollection be effaced which beamed from every countenance around you, when you mentioned the receipt of £100 from an eminent advocate for suffering humanity.” Mr. Neild concludes by referring to the promotion of Mr. Butler’s son (Dr. Butler), which he considers to be the reward of his virtues; of those early advances which his father’s tuition enabled him to make in literature, and to the purity of his Christian principles.

In 1787 he instituted the Chelsea Sunday Schools, with the sanction of the Rev. W. B. Cadogan. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent had a great regard for Mr. Butler, and appointed him one of his domestic chaplains. Hardly one charitable Society in London existed, to which his popular oratory did not essentially contribute credit and profit. He died in a good old age, and his remains were placed in the family vault at Chelsea. The Rev. Weeden Butler, his eldest son, occupied the same house for many years afterwards, as also the son of the latter, Thomas Butler, Esq., who was much esteemed by a numerous circle of friends while he resided in Cheyne Walk. The whole of this family were remarkable for their classical attainments and love of literature. The Rev. T. Helmore, Precentor, St. Mark’s College, has since resided in Mr. Butler’s house.

A very fine portrait of Dr. Dodd, painted by Gainsborough, and a large quarto volume of the doctor’s unedited poems, in MS., bound, including a tragedy, called “The Syracusans,” and a comedy, called “Sir Roger de Coverly,” were left by Mr. Butler, to his legatees. The portrait is the only likeness extant The Rev. Philip Dodd, and the Rev. Weeden Butler (eldest son of Mr. Butler), possessed all the Doctor’s unprinted sermons.

James Neild, Esq., who resided at No. 4, Cheyne Walk, was born in 1744, at Knutsford, in Cheshire, in the neighbourhood of which his family had some good estates. He came to London, and was placed with Mr. Hemming, the King’s goldsmith, but after a short time, he removed to a jeweller’s. In 1770 he settled in St. James’s Street, and continued there till the year 1792, when finding his health declining, and having recently lost his wife, he retired from business to Chelsea, with an ample fortune.

The attention of Mr. Neild, very early in life, was drawn to the distressed state of persons imprisoned for debt; the endeavour to alleviate which soon became his favorite pursuit, and one which he followed with intense application.

In 1773, having previously visited most of the prisons in England, and many on the continent, he was, together with his benevolent friends, Dr. John C. Lettson, and the Rev. Weeden Butler, chiefly instrumental in instituting the Society for the Relief and Discharge of Persons imprisoned for small debts. In 1812 he published “The State of the Prisons,” in a quarto volume, a work teeming with valuable information. Mr. Neild died in 1814, and was buried in Battersea Church. He married a daughter of John Camden, Esq., of that parish.

John Camden Neild, Esq., was a magistrate for the county, and the son of the preceding. He resided in his late father’s house in Cheyne Walk, and bequeathed half a million of money to Queen Victoria. He died in 1852.

John Goss, Esq., the present organist of St. Paul’s Cathedral, lived at No. 3, Cheyne Walk. He was appointed Organist of St. Luke’s New Church, when that sacred edifice was completed. His proficiency, even at that early period of his musical life, excited general admiration, and large portions of the congregation frequently waited in the Church, at the close of Divine Service, to listen to his concluding performances.

There are several highly respectable families, who have for many years resided in Cheyne Walk, of whom it would have been only an act of justice to notice, but the strict rules of propriety prevent my discharging an otherwise pleasing duty, which, in some instances especially, is much to be regretted, as they take a deep interest in the promotion of whatever tends to enhance the welfare of the parish.

DOGGETT’S COAT AND BADGE.

Mr. Thomas Doggett, a native of Ireland, was an actor, and made his first appearance in Dublin; but his efforts not meeting with sufficient encouragement he removed to London, where he performed with great reputation, and by his talents, industry, and economy, acquired a competent fortune, and quitted the stage some years before he died. He was also a patentee and manager of the theatre with Wilks, Booth, and Cibber; the latter of whom gives Doggett the following character:—“He was the most original and the strictest observer of nature of all his cotemporaries. He borrowed from none of them; his manner was his own, he was a pattern to others, whose greatest merit was that they had sometimes tolerably imitated him. In dressing a character to the greatest exactness, he was remarkably skilful; the least article of whatsoever habit he wore seemed in some measure to speak the different humour he presented, a necessary care in a comedian, in which many have been too remiss or ignorant. His greatest success was in characters of lower life, which he improved from the delight he took in his observations of that kind in the real world. In songs, and particular dances too of humour, he had no competitor. Congreve was a great admirer of him, and found his account in the characters he expressly wrote for him. In those of Fondlewife in his Old Bachelor, and Ben in Love for Love, no author and actor could be more obliged to their mutual masterly performances. He was very acceptable to several persons of high rank and taste, though he seldom cared to be the comedian, but among his more intimate acquaintances.

He is highly spoken of in the Spectator. He wrote one play, called “The Country Wake,” a comedy, acted with great applause; and out of this play were made two farces, “Hob, or the Country Wake,” and “Hob’s Wedding.” The first has been acted often with great success, and likewise several songs have been added to it in imitation of the Beggar’s Opera, since which it has been acted under the title of Flora.

In his political principles he was, in the words of Sir Richard Steele, “a Whig up to head and ears;” and he took every occasion of demonstrating his loyalty to the house of Hanover. One instance, among others, is well known; which is, that in the year after King George I. came to the throne, in 1715, Doggett gave a waterman’s orange-coloured coat and silver badge to be rowed for; on the latter is represented the Hanoverian horse.

This contest takes place on the 1st day of August, being the anniversary of that King’s accession to the throne, between six young watermen, who had just completed their apprenticeship; the claimants starting off on a signal being given at that time of the tide when the current is strongest against them, and rowing from the Old Swan, near London Bridge, to the White Swan, at Chelsea. This tavern adjoined the Apothecaries’ Botanical Garden, on the east, and enjoyed a great share of public favour for many years; but in the year 1780, it was converted into a Brewhouse. Since this period, the place of landing the victor has been at a house bearing the same sign, near to Cheyne Walk. I have been favoured with the following chorus, said to be written by a waterman:—

“Let your oars, like lightning flog it, Up the Thames as swiftly jog it, An’ you’d win the prize of Doggett, The glory of the river! Bendin’, bowin’, strainin’, rowin’, Perhaps the wind in fury blowin’, Or the tide agin you flowin’, The coat and badge for ever!”

Mr. Doggett, at his death, left a sum of money, the interest of which was to pay for the same for ever.

The “Yorkshire Grey” public house stood at the west corner of Old Manor Street, opposite the river. It was a very old tavern, mostly frequented of late years by the watermen who plied at the stairs opposite to it. It has recently been pulled down, and two good private dwelling houses now occupy the site.

In the year 1824, a new road was opened, connecting Old and New Manor Street, forming a direct communication from Cheyne Walk to the King’s Road, and St. Luke’s Church. Prior to that period a large garden crossed the street, with a wall and iron railing, so that the two streets were entirely detached.

With respect to the embankment of the shores of our parish, this was certainly the work of ages, much posterior to the Norman Conquest, nor was it even completed before the latter end of the seventeenth century, for, from the manorial records, we find them to have been frequently imperfect, whilst the keeping them in repair and good order, was a subject of vexatious dispute between the Lord of this Manor and his tenants; and hence sometimes by the parish and the turnpike trust; sometimes by those persons who inhabited houses immediately in front of the River, to the extent of their own frontages; and sometimes by the Lords of the Manor themselves, to the extent of their frontages. This uncertainty respecting the right of repair was attended with many evils, the walls being often out of order, and in a dangerous state. In December, 1822, upon the trial of an indictment on the prosecution of the Kensington turnpike trust, against the Lords of the Manor, in the Court of King’s Bench, the Chief Justice ruled at nisi prius, that the onus rested on the latter, unless and until they could show on whom by right of tenure, or otherwise, the burthen lay.

Having now arrived at the conclusion of Book I., in which are described all that is worthy of special notice in a great portion of the western extremity of the parish, I shall commence Book II., with a description of that beautiful architectural structure, St. Luke’s Church.