Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850 - Various - Страница 2

Mr. Cunningham's work on London is a book of such general interest, that the additions and corrections, which I shall continue from time to time to offer to your readers, will not, I think, be deemed impertinent or trifling. Let it not be imagined, for one single instant, that I wish to depreciate Mr. Cunningham's labours. On the contrary, his book is one of the most delightful publications relative to our great city which we possess. And let me candidly say, if I were to select only half-a-dozen volumes for my own reading, Cunningham's Handbook of London would most assuredly be one of that number.

The quaint and learned old Fuller, in his address to the Worthies of England, says:

"The bare skeleton of time, place, and person, must be fleshed with some pleasant passages; and to this intent I have purposely interlaced (not as meat but as condiment) many stories, so that the reader, if he do not arise religiosior or doctior, with more piety or learning, at least he may depart jucundior, with more pleasure and lawful delight."

This remark has been well understood by Mr. Cunningham, whose pleasant quotations, and literary and artistic recollections, have made his book a readable one to the many, and an instructive companion for the initiated.

The "bare skeleton" sometimes wants "fleshing," and hence the following list of additions and corrections:

1. Dobney's, or, more correctly, D'Aubigney's Bowling Green, was a celebrated place of amusement "more than sixty years since." It is now occupied by a group of houses called Dobney's Place, near the bottom of Penton street, and almost opposite to the Belvidere Tavern and Tea Gardens.

2. Bridge Street, Westminster. The Long Wool-staple was on the site of this street. Henry VIII., in 1548, founded, "in the Long Wool-staple," St. Stephen's Hospital, for eight maimed soldiers, who had each a convenient room, and received an allowance of 5l. a year from the exchequer. It was removed in 1735, and eight almshouses rebuilt in St. Anne's Lane, bearing the inscription "Wool-staple Pensioners, 1741." In 1628, in the Overseer's books of St. Margaret's is rated in the Wool-staple "Orlando Gibbons ij d."

3. Campden House, Kensington. Built by Sir Baptist Hickes in 1612; pulled down about 1827. Nicholas Lechmere, the eminent lawyer, was residing here when he was created a peer.

4. Finch's Grotto. A place of amusement, similar to Vauxhall Gardens, much in vogue at the end of the last century. The "Grotto Gardens," as they were sometimes called, were situated partly in Winchester Park, or the Clink, and partly in the parish of St. George, Southwark.

5. Leicester Square. Mr. Cunningham does not mention the fine house of Sir George Savile, in this square. It was subsequently Miss Linwood's Exhibition of Needlework; and has latterly been used as a concert-room, casino, &c. The statue in the centre of the square is George I., not George II.

6. Thavie's Inn. A small brass plate fixed up against the first house on the west side, has the following inscription:

"Thavie's Inn, founded by John Thavie, Esquire, in the reign of Edward the Third; Adjudged to be extra-parochial, in the Court of King's Bench, Guild-hall, in the causes Fraser against the Parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, on the 7th day of July, 1823, and Marsden against the same parish, on the 17th day of October, 1826. This memorial of the antiquity and privileges of this inn, was erected during the Treasurership of Francis Paget Watson, Esq., Anno Dom. MDCCCXXVII."

7. Old Bailey. Peter Bales, the celebrated writing master of Queen Elizabeth's reign, was master of a school "at the upper end of the Old Bailey" in 1590. It was here he published his first work, entitled, The Writing School Master.

8. Islington. During the reign of James I. and Charles I., Islington was a favourite resort, on account of its rich dairies. In that part of the manor of Highbury at the lower end of Islington, there were, in 1611, eight inns principally supported by summer visitors. See Nelson's History of Islington, p. 38, 4to., 1811.

9. Seven Dials. The Doric column with its "seven dials," which once marked this locality, now "ornaments" the pleasant little town of Walton-on-Thames.

10. Mews (the King's). The fore-court of the royal mews was used in 1829 for the exhibition of a "monstrous whale." The building (which stood upon the site of the National Gallery) was occupied, at the same time, by the Museum of National Manufactures. The "Museum" was removed, upon the pulling down of the mews, to Dr. Hunter's house in Leicester Square, and was finally closed upon the establishment of the Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Mr. Cunningham, in his Chronology, says the mews was taken down in 1827. In the body of the book he gives the date, perhaps more correctly, 1830.

11. Brownlow Street, Holborn. This should be "Brownlow Street, Drury Lane;" George Vertue the engraver was living here in 1748.

12. White Conduit House. The anonymous author of The Sunday Ramble, 1774, has left us the following description of this once popular tea-gardens:

"The garden is formed into several pleasing walks, prettily disposed; at the end of the principal one is a painting, which serves to render it much larger in appearance than it really is; and in the middle of the garden is a round fish-pond, encompassed with a great number of very genteel boxes for company, curiously cut into the hedges, and adorned with a variety of Flemish and other painting; there are likewise two handsome tea-rooms, one over the other, as well as several inferior ones in the dwelling-house."

"White Conduit Loaves" were for a long time famous, and before the great augmentation in the price of bread, during the revolutionary war with France, they formed one of the regular "London cries."

13. Vauxhall Gardens. A curious and highly interesting description of this popular place of amusement, "a century ago," was printed in 1745, under the title of A Sketch of the Spring-Gardens, Vaux-hall, in a letter to a Noble Lord, 8vo. My copy is much at Mr. Cunningham's service for any future edition of his Handbook.

Edward F. Rimbault.