Читать книгу William Hogarth: The Cockney's Mirror - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 16
* * *
ОглавлениеThe villages surrounding London were of great interest to both the Cockney and the stranger and the objects of frequent jaunts and excursions; they were as old as London itself and self-contained, with church, usually rebuilt in the classic style, green, inn, and in many cases with a manor, a charity school or alms-house.
Chelsea was famous for the Hospital for Old Soldiers, the Physic Garden with two thousand different plants, Saltero's coffee-house, and the seat of Sir Robert Walpole, which contained a collection of pictures supposed to be the finest in the country.
Hammersmith was notable for its handsome estates, Hampstead was a favourite district for retired merchants and boasted an assembly room, a meeting-house, and a church; Kensington consisted of 'genteel houses,' several boarding-schools, many inns, and the palace built by William III; the Gardens, with the Serpentine lake, were much admired and were open to the public when the Court was not in residence, as were the State apartments with the collection of 'sacred and profane' pictures.
On the other side of this royal Park was the pleasant village of Paddington, surrounded by fields—the residences here also were 'genteel.'