VI. SIR THOMAS MORE’S HOUSE AT CHELSEA.

Sir Thomas More’s house at Chelsea, where he received the intimate but fatal companionship of King Henry VIII., and held more congenial intercourse with Erasmus, Holbein, and other of his friends, enshrines perhaps one of the most familiar domestic scenes in English history. Yet we have hitherto known little about the house itself beyond the mere fact of its position, and the names of its more or less famous owners until its destruction by Sir Hans Sloane in 1739. Led, however, by a hint of Mr. Randal Davies, I have lately been carefully through the MS. drawings in the possession of the Marquis of Salisbury, and have been rewarded by finding a set of six plans (circa 1595) which undoubtedly relate to this house. Two of them are evidently surveys of its earlier condition, and probably represent its arrangement during the life of Sir Thomas More. The remainder embody some of Sir Robert Cecil’s intentions regarding the refashioning of the house when it came into his possession, intentions which were only partially carried out, and were relinquished by him in favour of his more ambitious project at Hatfield. The plans are beautifully drawn in ink, and throw a most interesting light on the methods of drafting a building scheme, the skill of which seems no whit behind the work of the modern architect.

The information available regarding the riverside estate of Sir Thomas More is by no means slight, although it is lacking in many of the details necessary for the completion of its history, and we have, moreover, no remains of the house with which to compare the early plans, beyond the long garden walls of Tudor brickwork which still divide the rows of modern houses erected upon the site. The whole property has a singularly interesting architectural history, for three other houses were subsequently built upon parts of the estate, and all have a different claim upon our attention. To the west of The Great House, nearer the river, was the original “Farm House” which More had bought and which was rebuilt by Sir Theodore Mayerne, physician to James I., and afterwards altered by the Earl of Lindsey (circa 1674). This house remains, much mutilated and changed, divided into several dwellings, but still retaining the name of Lindsey House and preserving much of the appearance it had in the days of its occupation by Count Zinzendorf and his Moravian followers (1751–1770). To the north of Lindsey House was Gorges House, built probably in the last years of the sixteenth century by the Earl of Lincoln for his son-in-law Sir Arthur Gorges. Surrounding three sides of a courtyard open to the west, and surmounted by a succession of Dutch gables, it eventually came into the possession of the Milman family, and was pulled down about 1726 to make way for Milman’s Row. The third house was to the east of The Great House and its gardens, and was built in 1622–3 by Sir John Danvers, who bought the land from the third Earl of Lincoln. Danvers House was remarkable as being one of the earliest houses to take on the Later Renaissance manner, and its planning and that of its gardens delighted the heart of Aubrey and of Pepys, a detailed description by the former being preserved at the Bodleian. John Thorpe has left us plans of the house, and Aubrey a sketch of the garden. It was pulled down about 1720, and Danvers Street now passes over its site, the present position of the rebuilt Crosby Hall marking roughly its distance from the river.

Before examining in detail the various features of these houses, it may be useful to set out a table of the drawings which are so far available:⁠—

In the Hatfield Papers (1595–6).

(1) and (2) Survey of The Great House: ground plan and first floor, by J. Symonds.

(3) and (4) Proposed rebuilding: ground plan and first floor by Spicer.

(5) First-floor plan of alternative scheme, also by Spicer.

(6) Estate plan showing house and gardens.

In the Thorpe Collection, Soane Museum. (Early 17th century).

(7) Plan of The Great House and lodges.

(8) (9) and (10) Sir John Danvers’ house: ground plan, first floor, and sketch elevation.

In the Smithson Collection (Colonel Coke).

(11) Summer-house, Chelsea (shown also in Kip’s view).

There are also—

(12) Kip’s bird’s-eye view of The Great House, showing also Lindsey House, Gorges House, and the garden of Danvers House, dated 1699, drawn by Knyff.

(13) Danvers House: plan of garden, drawn by Aubrey (Bodleian).

(14) and (15) Lindsey House: drawings in the Moravian Archives at Hernhutt; and engraving in Malcolm’s “Londinium Redivivum.”

From this list it will be seen that if there is not enough material to satisfy the topographer and to enable him to plot the exact position of these houses on the banks of the broad highway of the Thames, yet there is more than enough to interest the student of architecture. Let us first consider the earlier plans of The Great House, which I have the kind permission of Lord Salisbury to reproduce.

Fig. 28.—PLAN OF THE HOUSE, GROUND FLOOR

Drawn by

I. Symonds (c. 1595).

Fig. 29.—PLAN OF THE HOUSE, FIRST FLOOR.

Drawn by

I. Symonds (c. 1595).

It was on the death, in 1595, of Anne, Lady Dacre—well known as the foundress of the beautiful Emmanuel Hospital which used to stand in Westminster—that The Great House at Chelsea came to the Cecil family, Lord Burleigh, who is thought to have stayed here, giving it up to his son Sir Robert in 1597. The house, as we have seen, had already had historic associations, from its first builder, Sir Thomas More, who lived here for about fourteen years until his attainder in 1535. It had then passed successively to Sir William Paulet (first Marquis of Winchester), his son the second Marquis, and in 1575 to Lady Dacre, who was a daughter of the Marchioness of Winchester by her former husband, Sir Robert Sackville. The possession of what must have been a fine old house of the early sixteenth century, amidst the charming Thames scenery just west of the picturesque village of Chelsea, fired the future builder of Hatfield with a desire to remodel the building and bring it up to date as his country seat. With this in view, immediately upon possession Cecil had the house measured up, and commissioned one or more of his “surveyors” to plan the additions and alterations. In a letter dated September 3rd, 1595, from H. Maynard to Sir Robert Cecil, mention is made of “the plattes of Chelsey house made by Torrington, with the Controller of the Works’ additions.” This seems to imply that Torrington had plotted the place as it stood, and that the additions had been made by the Controller of the Works whose identity is not disclosed. The drawings here reproduced do not seem, however, to be the ones referred to in the letter, and it is difficult to say how far any of them represent the form of the original house as acquired by Cecil. To the historian this is unfortunate, but to the student of architecture it will be a matter of congratulation that the “sketch-plans” survived instead.

The two plans which seem most likely to represent the already existing buildings have not the name of Chelsea attached to them, but they are clearly of this house. They are each inscribed: “This Plat is after 10 foot in An ynch. p. J. Symands.” More roughly drawn than the others, they represent less coherent planning, and show an earlier type of house. Most significant of all, the figured dimensions are given in fractions of feet or with inches, and the heights of the stories are shown on the ground and first floors. This John Symonds was the author of the remarkable plans of Aldgate Priory (also in the Hatfield Collection), which Professor Lethaby published in the Home Counties Magazine (vol. ii, pp. 45–53). Professor Lethaby has established that Symonds was employed by Lord Burghley on the harbour works at Dover, and that he died probably in 1597. It is interesting to find another set of plans which associates him again with the neighbourhood of London. The early features of his plan will be seen to consist in the numerous staircase and other projections upon both the north and south fronts, the square porch with shafted angles (as in the western room), and the oriel over the front door. The house had doubtless been altered since Sir Thomas More’s time. Its front elevation is symmetrical between the two slightly projecting wings, the porch being in the centre; but towards the west a further wing had been built with a width and projection similar to the others. This western wing is shown on all the plans of the house, and it was evidently the intention of Sir Robert Cecil to remove the projections between it and the eastern wing, making a symmetrical elevation between them, broken only by the porch. We see, therefore, in all the other plans that the porch has been shifted westwards, and with it the Great Hall, and the planning of the north side has been altered to correspond. This part of the scheme was actually carried out by Cecil, as we can see by referring to John Thorpe’s plan, and to Kip’s view of the house a century later. The Great Hall in Symonds’s plan is of one story, and, beside the usual screen, has posts to support the passage above, a feature which suggests that this was once an open gallery. The hall is shown with a dais, which communicated with a long wing leading northwards, in which were the grand staircase, the chapel, and a cloister. This wing, with its Long Gallery on the first floor, looks at first sight to be of quite Elizabethan character, and may well have been an addition by Lady Dacre. But the chapel, cramped though it is, with its window to the east, is not unlikely to have been the private chapel of Sir Thomas More, and the “Parte of ye Tarras” shows the commencement of his favourite terrace, which appears in Cecil’s estate plan and in Kip’s view, and is described with its “banqueting house” in the conveyance to Sir Hans Sloane (1737). On the first floor may be seen the little balustrade which surrounds the opening into the chapel below, and on the two floors there are no fewer than four rooms having those internal porches which are so characteristic of Elizabethan houses, and which came in those days under the comprehensive term of “oriel.”

The closer one examines these two plans of Symonds the more evident it becomes that they represent an early Tudor house which had been enlarged in the latter part of the sixteenth century—if the north-east wing were really in existence when the house was measured up, and was not the draughtsman’s suggestions for an extension. If our deduction is correct, we have here the substantial arrangement of Sir Thomas More’s house, and one of the rooms, possibly the chapel, formed the background for Holbein’s famous sketch of the family group.

Let us now consider the four other Hatfield plans, two of which are marked “Chelsey,” while the remaining two—undoubtedly of the same place—bear the name of the draughtsman, “Mr. Spicer,”⁠[18] in Cecil’s own handwriting. I do not think that any of these plans represent accurately the actual changes which were made, although to the title of one, “Mr. Spicer’s platt without a gallery,” Cecil has added the word “allowed.”

Fig. 30.—PLAN FOR REBUILDING, GROUND FLOOR.

Drawn by

Spicer (c. 1595).

Fig. 31.—PLAN FOR REBUILDING, FIRST FLOOR.

Drawn by

Spicer (c. 1595).

The plans are drawn with scrupulous care, and, like a fair proof that they were not carried out. The dimensions are marked in whole figures without fractions, and no heights of rooms are given. They exhibit most complete and ideal plans of the period. The scheme for which the ground and first-floor plans are drawn shows the south front reduced to perfect symmetry, the western room already referred to being brought out in a bold wing, and a corresponding projection being placed to the east. This latter contains an imposing chapel with screen, and two shaped balconies to the gallery over. Each wing is flanked by an octagonal stair-turret. The hall (50 ft. by 21 ft.) which replaces the larger Gothic hall (59 ft. by 31 ft. 6 in.) has been moved westward, to allow of a central porch and the addition of an extra retiring-room of important dimensions to the private apartments eastward. The hall retains a screen, but loses its dais and oriel window. The porch is treated with columns in the approved Renaissance manner, which are repeated in the upper storey and take the place of the little oriel that is shown over the earlier doorway. The old north-western wing is modified a little, but to the east a repeat is shown, and in the former, false windows are indicated against the oven walls to balance the bay on the other side! Over the east wing is a long gallery (99 ft. by 19 ft.) overlooking the garden, with three bay windows. The old octagonal projections on the north side are retained, and the plan is noteworthy in having seven newel stairs, beside the principal staircase and one other straight flight.

Fig. 32.—ANOTHER, FIRST FLOOR PLAN.

Drawn by

Spicer (c. 1595).

An even more elaborate scheme is shown on the third plan, of which we have the first floor, or “seconde storie,” only. Here the hall, which is the same length as the old hall, i.e., 59 ft., goes up two storeys, and a gallery is shown over the screen. The apartment to the east of the hall is occupied by the grand staircase, and a fine well-stair flanks each of the front wings, being brought out as square towers behind the octagonal turrets. The chapel shows further elaboration with three balconies, evidently forming private pews, not unlike Queen Elizabeth’s pew in the chapel of the Croydon Archiepiscopal Palace. The kitchen shares with the hall the dignity of embracing two storeys, but the main feature of the plan is the range of building which unites the two northern wings, and forms a magnificent gallery 123 ft. long by 19 ft. wide.

The fourth plan is by far the most interesting from the topographical point of view, for it gives the divisions of all the gardens and forecourts and the outline of the riverbank. The northern boundary is now the south side of King’s Road, and the stable-yard is the Moravian Burial Ground. The open square to the north-east is Dovecote Close, now largely occupied by Paulton’s Square. And down by the river may be seen the quay, and the little street of houses (called Duke Street and Lombard Street) whose picturesque buildings gave way to the making of the Embankment. The lines of garden-wall running north and south are still largely intact, and bear out the general accuracy of the plan, although the measurements are wrong in many places. The terrace, with its archway and steps, is to be seen; but the house is drawn more as a feat of draughtsmanship than as a serious attempt to make it to scale. It represents perhaps another of Sir Robert Cecil’s schemes, but neither a comparison with Symonds’ earlier or Thorpe’s later plans will be found to support its exact arrangement.

Fig. 33.—ESTATE PLAN (c. 1595).

Dr. King, the antiquary, and rector of Chelsea, writing in the early part of the eighteenth century, relates from his own observation how “in divers places [in this house] are these letters, R.C., and also R.C.E., with the date of the year, viz., 1597, which letters were the initials of his [Cecil’s] name and his lady’s, and the year 1597 when he new-built, or at least new-fronted it.” A letter in the Hatfield MSS. from Roger Houghton to Sir Robert Cecil, endorsed “Mr. Steward to my master,” and written “From your Honour’s House in the Strand” (June 22nd, 1597), says: “The bed chamber and withdrawing chamber at ‘Cheallseay’ are matted, and this day they are about to hang them. There wanteth your direction what stone you will that the ‘ffootpasses’ be made of to the chimneys in these two rooms, as also to the gallery, also whether you will have the hangings in the great chamber to be hung at their full length or tucked up.”

Sir Robert Cecil seems soon to have become tired of his new possession. We find him desirous of selling the property in 1599, and on the last day of February of that year it was bought by Henry, second Earl of Lincoln. The new owner was father-in-law to Sir Arthur Gorges, upon whom and his wife the estate was settled. Apparently at this time, too, a site was found for a new house, behind Lindsey House, which was occupied by Sir Arthur Gorges during the Earl of Lincoln’s lifetime. There seem to have been very serious quarrels between the two families, and much interesting and vigorous correspondence is extant concerning their differences. Mr. Randal Davies, in his Chelsea Old Church , has told the subsequent history of the house and of its notable tenants. The Earl of Lincoln died in 1615, and the house and land which he had purchased from Sir Robert Cecil passed to Sir Arthur Gorges. This, however, was not the complete estate of Sir Thomas More, for it appears that the property lying south of Dovecote Close and east of the terrace and garden of The Great House, was in the hands of the descendant of William Roper, who married More’s daughter and received it in dowry, for which reason it is not shown on Cecil’s estate plan. The Tudor home of the Ropers, Well Hall, is still to be seen, in part, at Eltham, where its fine brick walls and chimney-stacks overhang the ancient moat. Before his death the Earl of Lincoln reunited More’s former property by purchase, but in 1615 the two portions were again in separate hands, since he bequeathed his house and grounds to Gorges, but left Roper’s land to his son, the third earl. This latter parcel of the estate, which for a few years was thus a second time in the same ownership as The Great House, has quite an interesting history. It is specified in the grant of Chelsea to William Pawlet after More’s attainder as “the house and one pightell or close of land.” Evidently, therefore, there was already a building upon it, and Mr. Randal Davies confirms a suggestion of Mr. Horne that this was the “place called the new buylding wherein was a chappell, a library, and a gallerie, which Roper tells us More built a good distance from his mansion house.” To this I would add that it seems extremely probable, since the high terrace from The Great House to this site was not a natural one, but apparently built of brick and stone, that it formed a covered way communicating with the “new building.” However this may be, the association of the place with the name of More was so strong that it is mentioned by Aubrey as “the very place where was the house of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England,” and Aubrey adds that “he had but one marble chimneypiece, and that plain, but indeed very good if it be not touch, which remains there still in the chamber that was his lordship’s.” These remarks are not inconsistent with the conclusions arrived at above, but so fixed was the tradition as to this being the site of More’s home, that even the clear evidence in favour of The Great House was assailed. The misapprehension was probably strengthened by the name of “Moorhouse,” perhaps bestowed upon it by Roper and his wife, and mentioned by the third Earl of Lincoln in a letter of 1618. The property was sold by the last-named to Sir John Danvers in 1622–3—three years after The Great House had again changed hands through its purchase by Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex.

Fig. 34.—PLAN OF HOUSE.

Drawn by

I. Thorpe (c. 1620).

The general date of the drawings of John Thorpe in the Soane Museum would seem to assign his plan of The Great House, Chelsea, to the time of the Earl of Lincoln, or that of the Earl of Middlesex. The plan, which bears no inscription, was identified by Mr. J. A. Gotch, by a close comparison with Kip’s view. In its south elevation it corresponds exactly with the engraving, and, most significant of all, both drawings show the two square lodges set anglewise about the gate that divides the two front courts. Assuming, as seems probable, that Cecil did not alter the northern side of the original house very much, that portion might well have become too antiquated for the Earl of Middlesex, who, when pulling down the northern wing, may have modified the south front and the other features of the house. It must be conceded that the presence of the plans of the adjoining Danvers House (built 1622–3) in the Soane collection renders it possible that Thorpe was the architect, and in such case he may easily have been consulted regarding The Great House itself. This theory would account for the inclusion of both houses in the same collection of plans. Thorpe’s plan of Chelsea House is disappointing in that the new arrangement appears distinctly uninteresting when compared with the earlier plans in the Hatfield MSS. But it has the corroborative evidence of Kip’s view, and is therefore probably more accurate than some other of his plans have been found to be. Mr. Gotch has pointed out the interesting fact that in the plan we have one of the first examples of the corridor or passage of modern times, attention to which is called by the draughtsman in his quaint phrase “A long entry through all.”

The Earl of Middlesex added to the estate by the purchase of “Brickbarn Close” and “The Sandhills,” two properties lying to the north of the present King’s Road, and these he converted into the Park, shown in Kip’s view. Till recently this district, though partly built upon, retained much of its old character and a goodly number of its trees. Its northern part, the Elm Park estate, was built over some years ago, and more recently the remaining portion has been cut up into roads, and, amid unavailing protests, is completely given over to the builders.

Fig. 35.—KEY PLAN OF ESTATE.

Drawn by

Walter H. Godfrey.

As a result of the royal displeasure which Cranfield incurred, Chelsea House was surrendered in 1625 to the Crown, and in 1627 Charles I. bestowed it upon the Duke of Buckingham. After the assassination of the latter his duchess continued to reside here, and Mr. Davies gives us the interesting information that his daughter, the Duchess of Lennox, decided to come in 1646 “to her house at Chelsea to be under Dr. Mayerne’s hands for her health.” This brings under notice the other house on More’s estate, now called Lindsey House, which was then in the occupation of Sir Theodore Mayerne. Tradition says that it was he who bought the original farmhouse which Sir Thomas More had purchased and left standing, and that he rebuilt it for himself. On page 57 will be found a quotation from the Parliamentary Survey of Eltham, to the effect that Sir Theodore Mayerne, formerly physician to James I., and ranger of Eltham Park, no longer resided there, but at his house in “Chelsey,” which confirms the other evidence to be found in the parish records. The house still stands as rebuilt by the Earl of Lindsey in 1674, and not much altered in appearance since its delineation in Kip’s view.

After The Great House had been occupied during the Commonwealth by the Parliamentary Commissioners (Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke and John Lisle), the second Duke of Buckingham regained possession. Lost to him, through his debts, the house ultimately passed (1674) into the hands of the trustees for George Digby, Earl of Bristol, and his Countess sold it in 1682 to Henry, Marquis of Worcester, afterwards Duke of Beaufort, the house remaining in his family until 1720. It was during this period, about the year 1699, that Kip’s beautiful view of the mansion—then called Beaufort House—was published, a priceless record of the property, so ruthlessly defaced and destroyed by Sir Hans Sloane after he had purchased it in 1737.

Fig. 36.—BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF CHELSEA ESTATE.

Drawn by

Kip (1699).

Fig. 37.—GARDEN OF DANVERS HOUSE.

Drawn by

J. Aubrey.

Mr. Randal Davies, whom I have followed in the account of the occupants of the house, has printed⁠[19] the interesting conveyance of the property to Sloane, and if its description is carefully collated with the information in Kip’s view one is struck by the wonderful accuracy of the latter. Here is The Great House, as shown by Thorpe, its lodges and its forecourts, the wharf with its brick towers east and west, the orchard, and “one garden environed with brick walls ... and a terrace on the north end, with a banqueting house on the east end of the terrace,” as well as the “one great garden ... extending from the terrace and banqueting house unto the highway on the north.”⁠[20] The “banqueting house,” as already stated, is alike in detail with the sketch of “A Summer House, Chelsea,” in the Smithson collection of seventeenth-century drawings now in the possession of Colonel Coke. But, valuable as is the representation of The Great House, the print has much more information to give us. The great park is there shown in all its original beauty; the Duke of Beaufort’s stables and yard, since converted into the historic chapel and burying-ground of the Moravians, is to the west; and nearer the river are the beautiful Jacobean House of Sir Arthur Gorges (our sole evidence of its character and design) and the house and garden of the Earls of Lindsey. And to the east, below the wide area of Dovecote Close, laid out as a large kitchen-garden, are the beautiful pleasure grounds of Danvers House, which had been destroyed but three years before the drawing was made.

Fig. 38.—PLANS OF DANVERS HOUSE.

Drawn by

J. Thorpe (c. 1620).

As already described, Sir John Danvers bought the land shown to the right of Kip’s view in 1622–3. That he built the house shown in the Thorpe drawings is corroborated by John Aubrey’s minute description of house and garden in his MS. “Natural History of Wiltshire,” preserved at the Bodleian. His rough sketch of the garden is here reproduced for the first time, to show how it confirms the general lines of the drawing published by Kip. It would be interesting to quote Aubrey in full, but a few sentences must suffice. He says: “’Twas Sir John Danvers, of Chelsey, who first taught us the way of Italian gardens. He had well travelled France and Italy and made good observations.... He had a very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens and architecture.” There is no doubt that the plan of the house was greatly in advance of its time. Pepys “found it to be the prettiest contrived house that I ever saw in my life,” and Aubrey describes it as “very elegant and ingeniose.” He adds that “as you sit at dinner in the Hall you are entertained with two delightful Vistos: one southward over the Thames and to Surrey, the other northward into that curious garden. Above the Hall is a stately Roome of the same dimension, wherein is an excellent organ of stoppes of cedar. Sir John was a great lover of musick, and especially of J. Coparario’s Fansies.” Again of the garden he tells of its “boscage of lilacs,” its “syringas,” its “long gravelled walks margented with hyssop” and “several sorts of thyme.” “Sir John was wont on fine mornings in the summer to brush his beaver hat on the hyssop and thyme, which did perfume it with its natural essence and would last a morning or longer.” He also tells of the “figure of the gardener’s wife in freestone coloured,” and “the like of the gardener, both accoutred according to their callings,” of which the King’s mason, Nicholas Stone, notes thus in his diary: (1622) “Unto Sir John Daves at Chelsey, I made two statues of an old man and a woman and a diall, for which I had £7 a piece.” And finally Aubrey thus continues: “At the four comers of the garden, about the ovall, are four low pavilions of brick leaded flatt and some firre and pine trees, shumacks, and the quarters all filled with some rare plant or other. On the east side of the Hall is a neat little Chappele or oratorie finely painted; next to it a Drawing room whose floor is chequered like a chesse board of Box and Ewgh panels of about six inches square. At the east and west end of the House (without) are two high fastigiated turrets the Fans whereof are the Crest of Danvers sc. a golden Wyvern volant.” Aubrey says the garden was 8 chains 9 yards by 4 chains 9 yards wide.

Fig. 39.—ELEVATION OF DANVERS HOUSE.

Drawn by

J. Thorpe (c. 1620).

From these descriptions we obtain a charming idea of the beautiful little house which has gone the way of nearly all the buildings that peopled this “Village of Palaces.” The Earl of Radnor was a tenant here from 1660 till 1685, and after him Thomas Lord Wharton, who inherited the property, lived there. The house was not demolished until 1720, but in 1696 on the site of the garden were built the first houses of Danvers Street by Benjamin Stallwood, as may still be seen recorded on a little tablet at the corner of the street. The foundations discovered when Crosby Hall was built on the site were sufficient to determine the general position of the building, but were not sufficient to plot it exactly.

I am indebted to Mr. Walter L. Spiers for his kind permission to make the copies of the Thorpe plans that are here published.

—W. H. G.

COCKERSAND ABBEY AND ITS CHAPTER-HOUSE

Fig. 40.—INTERIOR OF CHAPTER-HOUSE.