Nooks and Corners of Old London Part 7

A Pa.s.sING GLIMPSE OF MANY WINDOWS

Short and narrow Downing Street is the real centre of the British Empire, for the building numbered 20, looking very much like a cheap lodging house, has been the home of the Premier of England these two hundred years, since Robert Walpole was Prime Minister.

Burial in Westminster Abbey is the highest mark of recognition and honour that can be bestowed by the English nation. In this grand old church have been crowned all the sovereigns of England from the time of Saxon Harold. Where the Abbey stands to-day there was once a church commenced by Sebert, King of Ess.e.x, in the year 610. It was on Thorney Island, the boundaries of which are not now traceable, for closely cemented partly by nature partly by artifice, it has become a solid part of the British Isles. The original church was later destroyed by the Danes. Another quite as large as the present one was begun in 1050 in the reign of Edward the Confessor and parts of this old edifice can be traced to-day. In 1220, Henry III. began the rebuilding of the Confessor's church but it was almost destroyed by fire before its completion. The damage was repaired by Edward I., and the church was added to by Edward II., Edward III., Henry VII., and indeed by all other sovereigns down to the year 1714, when Sir Christopher Wren undertook its complete restoration, adding the western towers as they are now.

Perhaps no other spot in all the world is so truly holy ground and the number of the great ones of the earth sleeping here is very large.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of St. Margaret's, Westminster]

Under the north walls of Westminster Abbey is the church of St. Margaret built during the reign of Edward I. on the site of an earlier church.

William Caxton was buried in St. Margaret's in 1491. The fact that there was a chapel in the old Almonry where his printing press had stood led to the union branches of the printing trades being called "Chapels" even to this day. Sir Walter Raleigh is also buried here. The interest of St.

Margaret's centres in a stained gla.s.s window made in Holland for Henry VII., setting forth the Crucifixion, which many times narrowly escaped destruction and was finally in 1758 purchased by the churchwardens and given its present resting place.

The open s.p.a.ce between Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hospital is the Broad Sanctuary so called because here in the 15th and 16th centuries was a sacred place of refuge for criminals who took advantage of the ancient protection of the Church. The Sanctuary was a square Norman tower containing two chapels. Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Edward IV., was seeking refuge here when her two children were taken from her and afterwards killed in the Tower by order of the Duke of Gloucester.

Westminster Hall, now connected with the Houses of Parliament, was begun in 1097 by William Rufus, the Conquerer's son, and it was the scene of the first English parliaments. Richard II. enlarged the building and was here himself deposed. English kings up to the time of George IV. held their coronation festivals here. Charles I. was condemned to death in this Hall, and a tablet set in the floor marks the spot where he listened to his sentence of death. Cromwell was here hailed as Lord Protector, and here a few years later his head was exposed for the satisfaction of his enemies. Guy Fawkes of Gunpowder Plot fame, William Wallace, Sir Thomas More, Somerset, Ess.e.x, Strafford and a host of other folk, were tried and sentenced to death in Westminster Hall. It was in this old Hall, in our own days, that the body of King Edward VII. lay in state.

Between the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey is an open s.p.a.ce called Old Palace Yard, where in 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh was executed, and where the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot met death opposite the very house through which they carried the powder into cellars under the House of Lords.

In Smith Square just beyond Westminster Abbey is the church of St. John the Evangelist with its four queer looking towers, one at each corner.

It has been here since 1721. The story is told that it was ordered built by a lady of wealth who objected to the plans originally drawn, and, angry with the architect when he explained them to her, she kicked over a footstool. As it lay upside down she pointed to it and cried out--"Build it like that." The architect followed her instructions to the letter, hence the odd appearing towers.

Church Street extending eastward from Smith Square towards the river is identified with two of the books of d.i.c.kens. On the south side midway of the block lived Jenny Wren, the dolls' dressmaker of "Our Mutual Friend," whose back was bad and whose legs were queer; and down this street, Martha, in "David Copperfield," fled to the river bent on suicide, with Peggoty and Copperfield close at her heels.

What is now St. James's Park was once a marshy tract connected with the leper hospital afterwards St. James's Palace. It remained uncultivated until enclosed by Henry VIII., but was not actually laid out as a park until the time of Charles II. It was this king who had the Mall for the _palle malle_ game removed from beside St. James's Palace to the long straight walk that marks the northern boundary of the park. Here the fas.h.i.+onable game continued to be played by the cavaliers of the court.

For many a year, the Mall was the most fas.h.i.+onable and exclusive of London's promenades, and it was along it that Charles I. walked to his execution in 1648. Beau Brummell spent much time on the Mall, whether he went to show to admiring friends the latest fas.h.i.+ons in clothes at the court of his friend and patron the Prince of Wales afterward George IV.

Birdcage Walk by St. James's Park takes its name from an aviary which has been here from the time of James I. A continuous line of cages lined the walk when Charles II. was king, and the "Keeper of the King's Birds"

was an important official.

In York Street to the south of Birdcage Walk, where the Queen Anne Mansions are to-day was the house to which Milton removed in 1651. The street was called Petty France then, from the number of French Protestants residing there. In this house Milton became blind. Here his wife died leaving three daughters, and later while still living here Milton married Catherine Woodc.o.c.k in 1656. A century and a half later Hazlitt came here to live and set up a stone on the house-side:

Sacred to Milton Prince of Poets

In the wainscoted room where Milton had often pursued his meditations Hazlitt visited with Charles and Mary Lamb, Hayden and a host of others.

York Street was finally named in honour of the son of George III., Frederick, Duke of York.

In St. James's Park, where Buckingham Palace stands to-day, Buckingham House was built in 1703 by order of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham.

Later it was given to Queen Charlotte by George III. to replace Somerset House as a royal residence. Remodelled in 1825 it became the present Buckingham Palace, the town residence of the King. The eastern facade facing St. James's Park was added in 1846.

Separating the private grounds of Buckingham Palace from Green Park is Const.i.tution Hill, and in this road leading from the Palace to Hyde Park Corner attempts were made to a.s.sa.s.sinate Queen Victoria in the years 1840, 1842 and 1849 by lunatics of various degrees.

The first building to the east of Hyde Park Corner is Apsley House, built in 1785, presented to the Duke of Wellington by the Government; where he dined the survivors of the Battle of Waterloo every year until his death.

The much famed Elgin Marbles now in the British Museum when first brought to London in 1803 from the Acropolis at Athens were placed in Gloucester House in Piccadilly opposite Green Park. Lord Byron spoke irreverently of these relics and their home, calling it the:

General mart For all the mutilated blocks of art.

Aristocratic Park Lane in early days was a narrow path called Tyburn Lane leading to Tyburn, the place of execution. It is still a narrow way, but to-day lined with splendid houses and crowded with the carriages of rich and fas.h.i.+onable Londoners.

Out of Park Lane leads Hertford Street, full of memories of persons of note who have lived there. A tablet on the house at No. 14 indicates that it has been the home of Dr. Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination.

Other dwellers in the street were Richard Brinsley Sheridan, dramatist and politician, who lived several years at No. 10, and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, novelist, whose house was No. 36.

Where Edgware Road now ends at Marble Arch was once an open s.p.a.ce taking its name from the Tyburn brook which flowed from the north to the Thames River. This was a place of execution and malefactors of all kinds and conditions were here executed until 1783. Among the many thousands who met death at Tyburn were Jack Sheppard; Fenton, who killed the Duke of Buckingham, and the thief Jonathan Wild who even on his way to the gallows picked the parson's pocket. Oxford Street was then called Tyburn Street and was the road that led straight from Newgate to the gallows of Tyburn. The prisoners were carried in a cart, usually sitting on their coffins, holding in their hands the nosegay presented to them in accordance with old custom in the church of St. Sepulchre before starting for their last ride. In each cart was a minister. Arrived at Tyburn, the cart was stopped beneath the scaffold until the noose was adjusted, then driven on, leaving the prisoner hanging. Hogarth's picture of the execution of the "Idle Apprentice" gives a detailed sketch of the scene and shows the galleries from which the spectators watched the gruesome sight.

The ancient cemetery of St. George lay near to Hyde Park close by the Marble Arch. There may still be seen here the Tomb of Laurence Sterne, author of "Tristram Shandy" and the "Sentimental Journey." Mrs.

Radcliffe, writer of the "Mysteries of Udolpho," is buried in this graveyard, part of which is now a spot for recreation.

Edgware Road starts northward from the Marble Arch and is the present-day tracing of an old Roman Road.

The grave of the great actress Sarah Siddons is in St. Mary's Churchyard, much of which is now a public park in narrow Harrow Road leading from Edgware Road to the west. Close by is a statue in honour of the memory of this woman of genius.

Upper Baker Street stretches a short distance from Marylebone Road to the entrance of Regent's Park. It was in this street that Sherlock Holmes had his rooms and the house is quite easy to find.

Marylebone got its name from a bourne or rivulet running through a little hamlet far outside the City of London. As the church of this village was dedicated to St. Mary it came quite naturally to be known as St. Mary-on-the-bourne and this in time was shortened to Marylebone.

In Marylebone Road at the end of High Street is Old Mary-le-bone Church where George Gordon, Lord Byron, was baptised in 1788. Although the older church on this site which figures often in Hogarth's series of paintings of "The Rake's Progress," is gone, in the churchyard there is still the flat tombstone on which the "Idle Apprentice" used to throw dice of a Sunday.

At No. 1 Devons.h.i.+re Terrace Charles d.i.c.kens lived from 1839 to 1851.

Here he finished "Barnaby Rudge" and "Dombey and Son," and wrote "Martin Chuzzlewit," "Old Curiosity Shop," "David Copperfield," "The Haunted Man," "The Christmas Carol," "The Cricket on the Hearth,"

"American Notes," and "The Battle of Life." Here he spent many happy hours with Carlyle, Longfellow, Hood, Landseer, Macready and a host of other good and famous men who visited him.

A tablet on the house No. 2 Blandford Street running out of Baker Street to the east, tells that it was here that Michael Faraday the distinguished chemist served his apprentices.h.i.+p.

Hertford House in Manchester Square is the Gaunt House of "Vanity Fair"

and it was from the fourth Marquis of Hertford that Thackeray drew his picture of Lord Steyne. The building now contains the Wallace Collection of paintings, given to the nation by Lady Wallace some years ago.

During the last years of his life Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton lived in Grosvenor Square in the house numbered 12. This is a three-storied structure with a high iron fence, and before its door pillars on which are flambeaux snuffers attest the age of the building. These extinguishers were used by the footmen to put out the flambeaux that were carried lighted on the backs of carriages at night. Writing of these lights the poet Gay says:

Yet who the footman's arrogance can quell Whose flambeau gilds the sashes of Pall-Mall, When in long rank a train of torches flame, To light the midnight visits of the dame.

Many men and many women prominent in the life of London have lived in houses looking upon this Square during its two hundred years of existence.

Mayfair, an aristocratic residential section of London, has Bond Street and Park Lane on the east and west; with Piccadilly and Oxford Street on the south and north. It is named for a fair held where Shepherd's Market is now in each May until about the middle of the 18th century.

Through the Mayfair district stretches Curzon Street named for the third Viscount Howe--George Augustus Curzon; noticeable for having no thoroughfare for carriages at either end. To the west it ends in the cul-de-sac Seamore Place; to the east continued as Bolton Row it is halted against Devons.h.i.+re Gardens.

In Curzon Street at No. 8 lived the great friends of Horace Walpole the sisters Mary and Agnes Berry. Walpole was a constant visitor during the latter years of his life and it is thought that he strongly desired to marry Mary Berry. Just opposite where Queen Street ends was the Curzon Street Chapel which was demolished in 1900. It was in this church that, according to general report, George III. was married to Hannah Lightfoot in 1759. In the house No. 24 Chantrey the sculptor lived in an attic during the early years of his struggle for recognition. Thackeray tells us that Becky Sharp took "a small but elegant house in Curzon Street,"

when as Mrs. Crawley she planned to live on nothing a year. Lord Curzon, former Viceroy of India, is the most notable member of the Curzon family to-day.

Where Curzon Street ends Seamore Place juts off at right angles, only a few yards in length. Here at No. 6 Lady Blessington held her salon in 1830.

Chesterfield House, at the southern end of South Audley Street, was built for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield who lived and died here. He wrote the famous Chesterfield letters and their style and eloquence coined the adjective--Chesterfieldian.

Jostling side by side with the homes of the rich, just to the south of Curzon Street, is a cl.u.s.ter of ancient shattered buildings and dingy shops two hundred and odd years old. This district is known as Shepherd's Market. Here the fair was held that gave the name to Mayfair.

Many notables have lived in Clarges Street, named for Sir Walter Clarges, a relative of General Monk's wife--Anne Clarges. Early in the 19th century No. 11 in this street was for two years the home of Lady Emma Hamilton, the friend of the greatest of British Admirals, Lord Nelson. At No. 21 lived the celebrated lady scholar, Elizabeth Carter, a comrade of Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Edmund Burke. In this street, too, lived Edmund Kean the actor, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, equally famous in their different arts.

Charles Street has changed less in appearance and atmosphere than any other of the Mayfair streets. It was here, where the house numbered 42 is, that Beau Brummel lived in 1792.