NoPoa'ooD Gal er THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES NOEWOOD AND DULWICH, PAST AND PRESENT. r Hdwaixl Allevn 102 0. NOEWOOD & DULWICH PAST AND PRESENT, WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. BY ALLAN M. GALER, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON : TRUSLOVE AND SHIRLEY, 7, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 1890. TRUSLOVE AND BRAV, PKINTERS, WEST NORWOOD, S.E. PREFACE. F any apology be needed for an attempt, however slight, to describe the history of an interesting district, it may surely be found in the complete absence of any monograph on Dulwich. Its history, it is true, has been related in Mr. Blanch's book on the " Parish of Camberwell," but that is now some 15 years old, and can certainly not be said to be within the reach of all. With regard to Norwood, I have more or less traversed an unknown land : it has not enjoyed even the advantages of Dulwich : for its history has never been related before ; and this, although it has made the enquiry all the more difficult, at least ensures a certain amount of value to the result. The favour with which the publication of a series of articles on local history was received some four years ago, showed that there existed a want of a popular history of Dulwich and Norwood, and this want I have endeavoured to supply in the following pages. In making this attempt I have looked to three things : to relate in a concise form the history of Dulwich without allowing the story of the College to overshadow the interesting story of Duhvich as a village ; to make a first attempt towards a history of Norwood ; and to publish a life of Alleyn which should be relevant, brief, and accurate, with a due rejection of the many facts that have obtained credence owing to the spurious additions to the College iVIanuscripts. Nothing can exceed the courtesy with which my inquiries have been met, and if I may single out any for mention, I would especially wish to thank the Rev. Canon Carver (late Headmaster of Duhvich), the Rev. G. W. Daniell (Chaplain of the College), Dr. Campbell, Rev. S. H. Harris, G. Clinch, Esq., R. J. Fynmore, Esq., W. G. Wightman, Esq., W. Robinson, Esq., and J. Hammond, Esq. ALLAN M. GALER. Worcester College, Oxford, i8go. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. NORWOOD IN THE PAST. Page. I Absence of detailed information with respect to Norwood — The reason of this — The Northwood, the Common and the Gipsies — The Vicar's Oak and the Vestrymen's Pic- nics — Churchwardens' accounts referring to the foregoing — Aubrey's account of the Great Northwood — Cromwell's seizure of the Wood — The Wood in 1746, and Rocque's Map published in that year — Becomes Norwood Common — And is split up into allotments in i8o8 — The Horns Tavern — The "celebrated singer, Miss Catley" — O'Keefe's reminiscences quoted — "Bates the composer" — Miss Catley sets the fashion in Dublin — Anne Catley and Horace Walpole — O'Keefe's experiences — General Lascelles. The Gipsies at Norwood — When did they first come to Norwood — The wife of Samuel Pepys visits them in 16SS — Margaret Finch, the Gipsy Queen, who lived to the age of log — Buried at Beckenham — The Gipsy House — Queen Bridget — Queen Margaret — Lysons' reflections on the habits of the Gipsies — The Gipsies as fortune-tellers in the i8th century — Prince of Wales (afterwards George HI.) visits the Gipsies — Lord Byron — "The Norwood Gipsies" at Covent Garden, 1777 — Dream Books — Dr. Weatherhead on the Gipsies. Beulah Mineral Spa — Laid out by Mr. D. Smith — Statistics concerning subscriptions, postal arrangements, and communications with Norwood in 1831 — Weatherhead's Guide to the Spa — Other Guides — A description of the grounds — Accommodation for visitors — "The new town of Beulah!" — Knight's Hill — Knight's Hill {i.e. Norwood) Common — Knight's Hill Farm — Lord Thurlow and his house on Knight's Hill — House destroyed in 1808 — -The derivation of the name " Knight's Hill." CONTEXTS. CHAPTER II. Page. NORWOOD AT PRESENT .19 Parish of St. Luke's — St. Luke's Church opened in 1825 — List of Incumbents — The St Alban's Bishopric Act — The restoration of St. Luke's — Norwood Cemetery^ Opened 1837 — The various Chapels on the grounds — Famous people buried there — The Westmoreland Society — Their School in the Norwood Road — Income and expenditure of the Charity — The Jews' Hospital at Norwood, the result of the amalgamation of three different Jewish Charities — Mr. Barnet Meyers presents the land at Norwood — Income and expenditure — The Jewish Synagogue — Lambeth Parochial Schools — The old and new buildings — Internal arrangements — The Royal Normal College for the Blind at Upper Norwood — Dr. Campbell and Dr. Armitage — The steady growth of the School from its foundation in 1871 till the present day — The arrangement of the building and the funds — Different forms of physical exercise for the Blind — Their education, intellectual and musical, and its happy results — The Norwood Free Library — Its cost — Good results — Statistics for the first year. CHAPTER III. DULWICH 32 Origin of the name — The Priory of Bermondsey — References in the annals of the Monastery to Dulwich — Manor bought by Thomas Calton — Bought by AUeyn — Other lands bought by AUeyn — Building of the Old College begun in 1613 — Constant repairs necessary — Inscriptions formerly extant — Raphael's picture of the Transfiguration — The Font — AUeyn's Tomb — The Registers — The Dulwich Burial Ground — The School — General arrangements — Historical details — The various Wardens and Masters — Evelyn visits Dulwich — The Rev. James Hume — James AUeyn, the founder of the Girls' School — Horace Walpole visits Dulwich, 1791 — View of the Old College, about 1790 — Lord Holland's AUeyn — Rev. Ozias Linley, organist — The Act of 1837 and the end of the old Corporation — Rev. Alfred J. Carver — The Headmasters of the Lower School — Erection of the New Buildings — Opened 1870 — General arrangements — Mr. Welldon — Mr. Gilkes — Present state of the School — The various schemes for the management of Dulwich College — Estimate of the claims of the so-called privileged parishes — Lord Selborne's judgment — The Picture Gallery at Dulwich — AUeyn's bequests — Cartwright's Pic- tures — Desenfans' Collection. Dulwich Wells — The three mineral springs that went by the name of Dulwich — Great confusion resulting therefrom — Evelyn visits Dulwich Wells — " Strange news from Dallidg Wells "—Treatises on the Wells— Dr. Peter, of Lewisham— Allen's CONTENTS. Page. History of Mineral Waters — The "Green Man" — Dr. Webster— Cox discovered mineral spring — Lord Thurlow— Dr. Glennie's Academy— Sadler's Wells. Famous Houses in Dulwich — Ricotts — The Blew House — Dulwich Court— Hall Place (alias the Manor House) — Dulwich Common— Dulwich Wood — Dulwich Mill — The Mill Pond — The Common enclosed in 1805 — The Gipsies — The Dulwich Hermit murdered, Dec. 27th, 1S02 — The "French Horn" — Dulwich Park— 72 acres thrown open as a recreation ground — Croxted Lane — The Hffra and Queen Elizabeth. CHAPTER IV. EDWARD ALLEYN 63 Fuller's Life of Alleyn — Other Lives of AUeyn, by Oldys, Collier, Blanch, Ellis, Warner — Henslowe's Diary — Alleyn born September ist, 1566 — Probably played as a boy in female parts — Described as a musician — Acted with the Earl of Worcester's Players- Then with Lord Strange's— References to Alleyn in Henslowe's Diary, 1592 — Publication of Nash's " Pierce Pennyles " mentioning Alleyn in terms of high praise — Plays for a wager against Bentley — " Knacke to knowe a knave " as acted by Ed. Allen^Allen marries Joan Woodward, 1593 — Plague broke out and Alleyn goes on a provincial tour — His letters to his wife — The Theatres on the Bankside — Taylor the Water Poet — Players allowed to act again at the Rose, 1594 — Becomes lessee of the Bear Garden— Buys out the King's Master and obtains the King's Patent — Remarks on the amusement of bear baiting — Paul Hentzner's description of the Bear Garden, and a performance — An advertisement of Alleyn — Stow's account of Alleyn baiting before James I. — Rebuilding the Paris Bear Garden in 1606 — In 1605 Alleyn first buys land in Dulwich — Previous history of the Manor — 1610, Alleyn becomes Churchwarden of the Liberty of the Clink — Comparison of profits from the Bear Garden and the Fortune at Christmastide, 1608. Preparations for the building of the College at Dulwich — Did Inigo Jones design the building — Stories about AUeyn's motives in founding it — Arrangements with Benson — When did Alleyn remove to Dulwich — His friends —Stephen Gosson recommends poor people — i6i5, death of PhiHp Henslowe — Extracts from AUeyn's Diary — Its great value — Officials of the College — Lord Bacon's opposition to the granting of letters patent to Alleyn — The opposition at length overcome — The formal opening and ceremony — AUeyn's visitors — His almshouses — " Foreigners " always admitted to Dulwich College on payment of fees — Further extracts from the Diary. 1623, death of Joan Alleyn — Marries a second wife, Constance Donne — Acquires further property in Yorkshire — AUeyn's will — He founds other almshouses — Alleyn as a musician — His character — Kindness to his relatives — Alleyn and Shakespeare — CONTENTS. Page. References to AUeyn by Edward Guilpin — Samuel Rowland — Ben Jonson — Nash — Hey wood — Cartwright — Baker — Langton — Oldys — Earl of Stirling — Parts performed by Alleyn. CHAPTER V. LOCAL CELEBRITIES 92 Oliver Goldsmith at Peckham — Dr. Lettsom at Grove Hill, Camberwell — Description of j his house— Maurice's poem on " Grove Hill " — Thomas Campbell the poet and Thomas Hill at Sydenham — John Allen, Master of Dulwich — David Cox at Dulwich — Mr. Ruskin at Denmark Hill — Mendelssohn at Norwood — Dr. Johnson at Streatham — Sir Richard Blackmore and Daniel Defoe at Tooting. APPENDICES . 114 n^jLi^s. DULWICH, 1746. Norwood, 1746 Page 4 iXjXjTjsa?i?.^Ti02srs. Edward Alleyn Picture Gallery, Dulwich Ann Catley Old Gipsy House ...- [From an engraving published by Laurie & Beulah Spa, View in St. Luke's Church, Norwood The Free Library, Norwood Canon Carver Old College, Dulwich, 1790 [From Lyson's Environs.] New College, Dulwich, 1890 Dulwich Village, View in Manor House, Dulwich Dulwich Mill Pond Dulwich Mill [From an engraving entitled " View at Dulwich Croxted Lane, about 1880 Dr. Lettsom Thomas Hill Whittle, 1803.] Frontispiece. Face p. I. 8 12 16 21 29 Face p. 32 40 41 48 52 56 60 by Prout, 1805 65 95 lOI The Picture Gallery, Dulwich. (See pp. 47-49). IRovwoob in tbe fliast ITTLE information with respect to Nor- wood is to be found ready adapted to the use of the local historian. The County His- tories have hardly anything to say on the subject, and even in such a work as Tans- well's History of the Parish of Lambeth, where we might expect more, we find little beyond a few dates and statistics concerning St. Luke's Church, with some short account of the gipsies and their connection with the place. The reason is, of course, not far to seek. The district is of such modern growth that it cannot lay claim to any great history : but there are, nevertheless, a number of in- teresting facts with regard to Norwood which may be gleaned by the diligent enquirer, and these we will en- deavour to set forth to the best of our power. Centuries ago an immense forest filled the whole of the north of Surrey, of which the centre would be now repre- sented by the town of Croydon. From time immemorial there had been in the heart of this wilderness a chapel dedicated, with good reason, to St. John the Baptist ; and as the years advanced there sprang up around the church a village which afterwards received the name of Croydon. To the north of the town there still remained, and remained for many 3-ears, a large wood, called from its position Northwood. The wood has long ago disappeared, and all that is now left is the name of Norwood. 2 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. But it is only quite recently that Norwood has been built over. Even at the beginning of this nineteenth century of ours it could be described as " a hamlet scattered round an extensive common," and the existence of this " extensive common," coupled with the fact that it was only five miles distant from London, made the spot a favourite encampment of the gipsies. Two or three hundred years ago the most celebrated feature of Norwood was an ancient tree of immense age, known as the Vicar's Oak. At the spot where this tree stood* no less than four parishes (Lambeth, Camberwell, Battersea, and Streatham) met ; and at the periodical beating of the bounds this place was chosen (among others) for the refreshment of the parochial authorities after their arduous labours. The Vicar's Oak is frequently mentioned in the accounts of the parish, and that, too, over a period of nearly 150 years. 1583 When we went our perambulation at Vicar's Oak in Rogation week ... ... ... 2S. 6d. Item for drinking the same day ... ... 6d. The churchwardens, by their own account, seem to have been particular as to the people they admitted to share in the festivities always enjoyed at such ceremonies. Observe how carefully the writer insists on the fact : — 1584 In going our perambulation to Vicar's Oke — churchwardens and other honest mm of the parishe ... ... ... ... 2s. 6d. 1586 For making honest men drinke when we went to Vicar's Oke in perambulation 2s. 6d. 1588 For drinking for certain honest men of the parish when we went our perambu- lation to Vicar's Oke ... ... ... 3s. 4d. Henceforth the churchwardens gradually become more liberal to them- selves and their friends (the " honest men " to be met with above) : — 1589 When we went our perambulation to Vicar's Oke to make the parishioners drynke ... ... ... ... ... 5s. od. 1592 When we came from Vicar's Oke peram- bulation ... ... ... ... ... 4s. od. • This would now be in Upper Norwood. THE VICAR'S OAK. 3 1594 For going to Vicar's Oke drinkinge ... 4s. od. 1597 At the King's Head when we came from the Vicar's Oke 6s. od. 1610 Bread and bear (!) at Vicar's Oke for the procession ... ... ... ... 9s. od. 1612 For a kilderkin of beer and other charges spent on the parishioners at the Vicar's Oke 6s. 6d. 1625 At the perambulation ... ... ;^i los. 2d. Item for carrying the provisions to the Oke 2s. 6d. 1634 When we went the bounds of the parish 13s. od. When we went to Vicar's Oke ... 12s. od. 1635 At the perambulation to Vicar's Oke £2, 8s. 6d. 1704 Paid for 100 lbs. of cheese spent at the Vicar's Oke 8s. od. Aubrey, in the second volume of his Perambulation of Surrey, in describing Croydon, gives us the best account we have of the great Northwood : — " A great wood called Norwood, belonging to the Arch- " bishops, wherein was anciently a tree called the Vicar's oak, where four " parishes met as it were in a point. It is said to have consisted wholly " of oaks, and among them was one that bore mistletoe, which some were " so hardy as to cut, for the gain of selling it to the apothecaries of " London, leaving a branch of it to sprout out. But they proved unfor- " tunate after it, for one of them fell lame and others lost an eye. At " length in the year 1678 a certain man, notwithstanding that he was "warned against it on account of what others had suffered, adventured to " cut the tree down and he soon after broke his leg. To fell oaks hath " long been accounted fatal." The wood was seized from the Archbishops of Canterbury by Oliver Cromwell, and at this time consisted of 830 acres, " but such havoc had " been committed in it that it contained only 9,200 oaken pollards and " eighty timber trees." In 1746, as will be seen from our reproduction of Rocque's map of that date, it was about three miles across in its widest part.- WWi ■EI» '^^^^iWi^^^^ > Mr V ^' \ *J^ iV «• ^^H ' TTtM SXIr >UC! Q O J^ O ~ J:^ ^ ^ ^ 6 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. A little later we find it bisected by two roads at right angles. Starting from the corner of Lordship Lane we can trace the wood extending along Dulwich Common up to what is now the Norwood Road ; and then in a southernly direction towards Croydon. Turning northwards, it included Penge and Forest Hill, and came down to Dulwich Common again at Lordship Lane corner. It must have been of this size throughout a large part of the last century ; but all the time the ancient forest was passing away, as the trees were disappearing fast, so that it was at the end of the century simply a common in some parts ; even in 1700 it was by some called a common, and Norwood Common then consisted of 200 acres. The common was, of course, originally part of the wood, but at what time it became separate we cannot discover. An Act was passed in 1808 for inclosing this land, and a plan of the allotments then made is still preserved.* The remnant of the wood that survived was only a mile in extent, but is marked as belonging to the Archbishop of Can- terbury, two parts of which, it is curious to notice, retained the names of Great Elderhole Coppice and Clayland Coppice respectively. The common which surrounded this was broken up in innumerable small allotments. This plan of 1808 mentions the Vicar's Oak, which stood somewhere in Upper Norwood. Whether the oak itself survived all these years, or whether it was simply the site itself that retained the name, we are unable to determine. But it was certainly a favourite spot with the worthy Churchwardens of Lambeth. No doubt it was chosen as the scene of the parochial picnics from its rural condition ; and that Norwood was a very rural spot prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century there can be little doubt. We have already quoted one other allusion to the state of the common at the beginning of the present century : it is described, as has been already mentioned, as "extensive" in the "Topographical Dictionary of the United Kingdom," by B. P. Capper, Esq., published in 1808, " on which common," the above mentioned authority adds, " is the noted public house called the horns, kept by the father of the " celebrated singer Miss Catley." The Horns was still standing fifty years ago, and its site is now occupied by a more recent building close * I must here thank the Librarian of the Lambeth Public Libraries (Mr. Burgoyne), in whose possession this plan is, for his courtesy in making it known to me. ANNE CATLEY AND "THE HORNS." 7 to St. Luke's Church. It is mentioned in a map of the district published by J. Wyld, of Charing Cross, in 1834. * The "celebrated singer Miss Catley " was indeed famous throughout the latter part of the last century. Her beauty and her voice, added to her extraordinary history, in which the scandal-loving public of the day took so great an interest, made her well-known in Dublin as well as in London ; and indeed it is from a Dublin writer that we derive the best description of Anne Catley that has come down to us. Her adventures afforded material for the pens of many scribblers, but the several biographies that were published are all more or less composed of scandals which would not bear repetition here. Catley, who was the proprietor of the Norwood "Horns" during the last part of the iSth century, was a retired coachman, and seems to have been sadly remiss in the fulfilment of his duties to his daughter. Anne Catley was born in 1745, and she is said to have displayed a taste for music at a very early age. When only 15, in 1760, she was " apprenticed " to a musician named Bates.t to be trained as a public singer ; but soon after this she was the victim of a most iniquitous conspiracy, which caused her removal from the care of this master. Two years later, in 1762, she made her first appearance at Vauxhall Gardens, after which she rapidly took a prominent place amongst the great operatic singers of the day. About 1769 she was singing in Dublin, and at this time made the acquaintance of O'Keefe the dramatist, then a young man of 18, who has left an interesting description of her. O'Keefe was introduced to Miss Catley by Macklin the actor, who wished him to paint her portrait. " He wished," says O'Keefe, "to give my genius an opportunity of a display in a portrait of youth and beauty." "She (Miss Catley) wore her hair plain over her forehead in an even line almost to her eyebrows, and the word was with all the ladies to have their hair Catleyfied." Miss Catley and her mother lived in Drumcondra Lane. I * This inn must be distinguished from a more famous one of the same name in Kennington, in which O'Connor held a conference with the police while the Chartists were drawn up on Kennington Common, in 1848. t Bates composed (i) " The Jovial Crew," comic opera, 1760; (2) " Pharnaces," opera, 1765; (3) with Dr. Arne, "The Ladies' Frolick," 1770; (4) "The Theatrical Candidate," 1785; and published songs sung at Marylebone Gardens, 1768. { O'Keefe's Reminiscences, vol. i, pp. 122-123. 8 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. In 1770 Anne Catley returned to London to act and sing at Covent Garden. Horace Walpole saw her in November, 1773, acting with Mrs. Hartley at Covent Garden in a play called " Elfrida." Walpole testifies to her " impudence," but has not very much to say about her. * Some years afterwards O'Keefe was in London, and renewed his acquaintance with Anne Catley ; this time he has several anecdotes to ^ Ajf jf C^<^ tell of her eccentricities. It seems to have been a common habit with her to carry on a conversation in the middle of the play with any friend she might happen to see in the boxes or pit. O'Keefe himself suffered from this : he had produced an opera called " The Banditti, or " Love's Labyrinth," under the direction of Dr. Arnold, but it had been hissed off the stage. Soon after this, when O'Keefe was at the theatre • Walpole's Letters— Edited by P. Cunningham, 1857— Vol. vi. p. 13. THE NORWOOD GIPSIES. 9 one evening, Anne Catley, who was also among the audience, accosted him "loud enough to be heard by everybody, 'So, O'Keefe, you had a piece "d — d the other night. I'm glad of it: the devil mend you for writing " an opera without bringing me into it.' " O'Keefe then adtls another anecdote, and we shall perhaps be pardoned for quoting it, seeing that it ends with a description of the singer in question. " A few minutes after Miss Catley had thus " accosted me, Leoni entered the box with a lady leaning on his arm. " Miss Catley, catching his eye, called out, ' How do you do, Leoni ? " I hear you're married ; is that your wife ? Bid her stand up till I " see her.' Leoni abashed, whispered the lady, who with good humoured " compliance stood up. Catley, after surveying her for a little, said — " ' Ha ! very well indeed, I like your choice.' The audience around nie " seemed more diverted with the scene in the boxes than that on the " stage, as Miss Catley and her oddities were well-known to all. She was " one of the most beautiful women I ever saw : the expression of her eyes " and the smiles and dimples that played round her lips and cheeks "enchanting. She was eccentric, but had an excellent heart."* Anne Catley ended her life as the wife of General Lascelles, whom William Mason once described as " a strutting carrion crow," and died at his house near Brentford, October 14th, 1789. t It is hard to discover how long the Gipsies frequented Norwood Common. In 1808, Capper speaks of the place as "once the haunt of a " numerous horde of gipsies ;" but even though they had entirely deserted Norwood (which we are inclined to doubt) they were nevertheless to be found in Dulwich Wood for many years to come. The date of their first appearance in Norwood is a still more doubtful point, and like so much of the history of these wanderers, must be left in obscurity. They must have lived on the Common at a very early date, and in 1668, at any rate, they were well known there; for in that year, under * O'Keefe's Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 21. t Life of Anne Catley, by Miss Ambross, London, 1790. Memoirs of the Celebrated Miss Ann C....ly, by Barclay, Lond. 1773. Miss Ambross gives a curious reference to the Old Gipsy: — "Lady Isabella was a dupe to superstition. The old Gipsey woman at Norwood, whom " she frequently visited, stood higher in her estimation than Boyle or Newton, and she put " more confidences in the presages of an astrologer who resided up four pair of stairs in the "Old Bailey than ever was placed in Copernicus." 10 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. date August nth, Pepys enters in his diary — "This afternoon my wife "and Mercer and Deb went with PelHng to see the Gypsies at Lambeth " and have their fortunes told ; but what they did, I did not enquire." Shame ! Mr. Pepys ; we are left to lament your unpardonable lack of curiosity. The most famous of all the gipsies was their queen, Margaret Finch, who may indeed have been the very person consulted by Deb and " my " wife ;" though this can hardly be said to be probable. She was at any rate the original Norwood Gipsy. Having spent the first part of her life in wandering through the country, somewhere about the junction of the 17th and i8th centuries she came to' settle in Nonvood, when her fame soon spread throughout the district. She was visited by great numbers, and it is related that, from constantly sitting in the same position, on her death in 1740, at the ripe age of 109, her limbs could not be moved, and it was necessary to bury her in " a deep square box." The small rustic house in which she lived, stood on Gipsy Hill, and was still standing in 1808, a view of it, which is reproduced here, having been engraved in that year. On October 24th, 1740, she was buried in Beckenham Parish Church, where her funeral was attended by a large mass of people. Margaret Finch was taken as the sign of a public house in the Gipsy Road, called the "Gipsy House;" its position and general appearance is thus sketched by Lysons : "The Gipsy house is situated on " a small green in a valley surrounded with woods. On this green a few " families of gipsies have pitched their tents for a great number of years " during the summer season. In the winter they either procure lodgings " in London or take up their abode in some of the more distant counties."* Her niece old Bridget occupied her place as Queen of the Gipsies after her, but not for any great length of time, as she died in 1768 and lies buried in the old graveyard at Dulwich. Next door to the " Gipsey Public House in Norwood lived, in 1786, an "old woman, granddaughter of Queen Margaret, who inherits her title; "she is the neice of Queen Bridget, who was buried in Dulwich in 1768. " Her rank seems to be merely titular. I do not find that the Gipsies "pay her any particular respect, or that she differs in any other respect, • Lysons, 1786, vol. iv., page 302. BYRON AND THE GIPSIES. ii "than in that of being a householder, from the rest of her tribe." Thus wrote Lysons about 1790, and these records of three generations of Gipsy Queens who made their home in the Northwood, appear to comprise all that is known about them. The popularity of the Gipsies throughout the i8th century showed no signs of waning ; visits were still paid to the fortune-tellers on Norwood Common, and by even greater numbers of people. The amusement was very popular among a certain class : but that class was of a considerably higher rank than the people who indulge in the " Dream Books " and such like of the present day. No less a person than the Prince of Wales (George III.) is to be included among the visitors to the Gipsies, for he, as Mr. Tom Taylor tells us in his book on Leicester Square,* loved all kinds of amusements. " The town was at this time full of gaiety — " masquerades, ridottos, Ranelagh in full swing, and the Prince a promi- " nent figure at all, for he loved all sorts of diversion, from the Gipsies at " Norwood, the conjurors and fortune tellers in the bye-streets in Leicester " Fields, and the bull baits at Hockley-in-the-Hole, to Amorevoli at the " Opera and the Faussans in the ballet." Towards the dawn of the 19th century, as an authority we have already quoted seems to imply, the Gipsies disappeared from Norwood. The reason for this is, of course, that both the wood and common were fast disappearing from Norwood, and the inclosures of 1808 naturally deprived the Gipsies of their old home ; but they still clung, it seems, to the neighbouring wood of Dulwich. Here at any rate they were constantly visited by Lord Byron, then at school with Dr. Glennie in Lordship Lane, whenever he felt inclined to play the truant. The curious may perhaps infer from these Gipsies some influence on the after life of the discontented poet. Even now the Gipsies have left us a mark of their occupation of Norwood in the name of Gipsy Hill. Of their great fame in their day we have very clear evidence. In 1777 a pantomime was produced at Covent Garden, under the title of the Norwood Gipsies, and there is a copy of the airs and duets, and a slight " pastoral," included in the entertainment, preserved at the British Museum, but from a literary point of view the production, like so many others of its class, is entirely worthless. * Tom Taylor's Leicester Square, p. 252. 12 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. THE NORWOOD FORTUNE TELLERS. 13 Even in our own day, the fame of Margaret Finch is not forgotten. A recent publication, proceeding from Houndsditch, and containing a marvellous illustration, fearfully and wonderfully coloured, bears the title of "The Original Norwood Gipsy or Universal Dream Book and Magic " Oracle of all kinds of visions and dreams, as prophesied by the old "Gipsy;" while even Glasgow has given us "The Norwood Gipsy Fortune " Teller, containing the art of Telling Fortunes by cards, the signification "of moles, etc." The contents of these two works do not soar above the stock-in-trade of the ordinary village fair, but a few extracts may prove amusing. " If a man hath a mole athwart his nose, he will be a " traveller." " To dream that you see a negro indicates joyful tidings." "To dream of onions" (touching reflection!) portends "much suffering." " To dream of elephants is a sign of prosperity, and that some friends " will greatly assist you and that you will marry above your present " condition." Who, we may well wonder, ever did dream, in a casual kind of way, of barbers and apples, onions and negroes, elephants and such things ? Let us hope the fame of Margaret Finch was not based on such sorry stuff as this. The very name of the gipsies seems to have drawn authors into grandiloquent language. " Norwood," says Weatherhead in 1832, was in "the memory of several of the inhabitants still living an entire forest of " oaks and the well known resort of those vagrant Egyptians who way- " lay the path of the too credulous maiden, to bid her hope or fear " events which often guide the future tenor of her life, reahsing in dreams "fortunes as unsubstantial and visionary as the flattering and deceptive vehicle " that for a happy while depicts their ideal existence on the slumbering " imagination." Mr. Weatherhead, had he been living now, might have even stood a chance of admission into the select circle of novelette writers of the present day : but he has a very formidable competitor. An anony- mous writer in 1834 soars into the heights of rhetoric as follows: — "The " village of Norwood is delightfully situated in the skirts of an extensive "wood, and has long been famed for the salubrity of its air and the " beauty of its surrounding scenery. In olden time the nut-brown Gipsy " pitched his camp under the shades of its forest : to them the love sick " maid and the anxious swain resorted to have their destinies unravelled by ' Shuffled card or geomantic lore.' 14 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. " But the improvements that covered the uninhabited heath and the " tangled forest with smihng villas and blooming flower gardens have " driven these rustic deceivers to pursue their vocation in a distant "land and amongst a simpler people. The ancient allurement of Norwood " has passed away, and an attraction more adapted to the well " being and mode of thinking of the present age has arisen." This more modern " attraction " was, of course, Beulah Spa, which now demands our attention. The mineral spring at Norwood was not so celebrated as its more fashionable rivals — Dulwich, Epsom, Streatham, and Lewisham, and was unknown in the last century outside of its immediate neighbourhood. " The spa has long been resorted to by the country people of the neigh- " bourhood, who from experiencing its beneficial effects in a variety of "disease have sustained its sanative character and kept it from sinking " into total neglect." Early in the present century the estate came into the hands of a Mr. D. Smith, who appears to have been of an enterprising turn of mind. He had the gardens laid out, and their natural beauties increased by the aid of all that art could suggest, accommodation on the spot being also provided for visitors, and the whole thrown open to the public on August ist, 1831. Some interesting statistics may be drawn from the various guide books of the period : the subscription was as follows : — Yr. A Family ^^3 3 Two of a Family. £2 2 One Person £1 11 Single admission, is. Visitors could either drink the water at the well or have it brought to their lodgings : the water was also delivered in town at two shillings per gallon. Under the examination of Faraday (the famous professor at the Royal Institution) and Hume, one quart of the water yielded the following analysis : — Sulphate of Magnesia 123 Sulphate of Soda and Magnesia 32 Muriate of Soda 19 Muriate of Magnesia 18^ Qr. Month. Week. ;f2 2 £1 I £076 £1 II 6 ^0 15 £060 6 £1 I £0 12 £0 3 6 THE SPA GROUNDS. 15 Carbonate of Lime 15 Carbonate of Soda 3 210^ Communication with town was effected by a service of stage-coaches, which started from the Silver Cross at Charing Cross, and ran three times a day, at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m., returning from the Spa, at a quarter to three and a quarter to seven. Fares, outside, is. 3d.; inside, 2s. 6d. Omnibuses also ran at 2 p.m. Moreover " the threepenny Post " delivers letters three times a day around the Royal Beulah Spa and " carries letters twice a day to London." All these arrangements at any rate show us that the place was well frequented, and the number of guide books to the Spa brings us to the same conclusion. Of these three are still preserved in the British Museum. In 1832 Dr. Weatherhead, to whom we have already referred, pub- lished his "Account of the Beulah Saline Spa: which was dedicated to " William Archbishop of Canterbury, in commemoration of the favourable " manner in which your Grace has been pleased to regard the Beulah " Saline Spa." This is more or less of a medical work, and the list of diseases which this worthy doctor asserts the waters will cure is simply marvellous, and shows that the " attraction more adapted to the well " being and mode of thinking of the present age " was a worthy suc- cessor to the fortune-telling of the Gipsies, inasmuch as it entailed an equal amount of innocent credulity on the part of the visitor. In 1834 appeared an anonymous " Guide to the Beulah Spa, " Norwood," and in 1838 an enlarged edition of this was published under the initials of W.J.W. From the last of these guides we can obtain a fair idea of the grounds and their arrangements. The grounds of the Spa were a relic of the old forest and common. "The Spa lies embosomed " in a wood of oaks, open to the south-west, whose dense foliage shelters " and protects it and is now the sole remaining vestige of the former " haunts of the gypsies." In extent it consisted of twenty-five acres, and the hilly nature of the ground added largely to its beauty. The hills and ornamental waters were at any rate enough to drive one of the writers of the guides into hysterical descriptions of the "Helvetic Scenery" of the lakes and "the mimic waterfall from the Upper to Lower Lake." i6 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. At the entrance to the grounds stood a Rustic Lodge, noticeable from the fact that its " talented designer " had given in it " specimens of " all the varieties of gable, dripstone, portico, and bay window," which must have presented rather a mixed appearance. The rash explorer next approached an octagon Reading Room, and then the Spa Well, under " a " thatched hut, built in the form of an Indian wigwam," in the centre of which hut the water rose to the height of fifteen feet, falling amidst a VIEW AT BEULAH SPA. grotto of rocks. Immediately opposite the Spa was an " Orchestra," in which during the season a military band played each day from ii till dusk, while those who wished could indulge in dancing on grass laid out for that purpose. Moreover, there was a camera obscura, a wilderness or maze, a rosary (here was another lawn for dancing), an archery ground, and a terrace from which lovely views could be obtained. One of the seats in the gardens was " the favourite resting place of the late (1834) " Countess of Essex, and from her since denominated Lady Essex's " seat." But there was one most commendable arrangement, which we have almost forgotten. The excursionist of fifty years ago could not take KNIGHTS HILL AND LORD THURLOW. 17 his meals with him and leave numerous souvenirs of his visit in the shape of broken fragments and their wrappings ; for people who wished to enjoy a picnic had a large booth provided for them in which they were com- pelled to make their meal. Thus the Spa was simply a place of popular amusement, and a very healthy and innocent amusement too ; though we may shrewdly suspect that the cures were rather effected by the change of atmosphere and the open air life than by the mineral waters to which all the credit was given. That the visitors, during the time of the popularity of the wells, were very numerous, there can be little doubt, since there were two inns close to the wells, the " Park Hotel " and the " Beulah Spa Hotel," while numerous houses sprang up in the neighbourhood for the accommodation of visitors. In addition to these, "a large plot of ground adjoining the " grounds of the Spa has been laid out for the building of the new town " of Beulah, the increasing popularity of the place demanding the erection " of suitable residences for such as wish to render this beautiful spot a " place of permanent abode." It is now necessary to consider the district known as Knight's Hill. A glance at the map of 1746 will show us the importance of this road. Starting from what would now probably be Heme Hill, it extended to a point far more southerly than Streatham Common. The very common at Norwood went by the name of Knight's Hill Com- mon, and we notice Knight's Hill Pound a little to the south of the "Horns;" but what was best known about the district was Knight's Hill Farm, which must have been situated somewhere about the present Thurlow Park Road. Knight's Hill Farm is to be found in maps down to the beginning of the present centur}-. It is chiefly remarkable for its connection with Lord Thurlow. This nobleman purchased Brockwell Green Farm in 1785, the Manor of Leigham Court in 1789, and at other times various other lands in this district. He chose Knight's Hill as a suitable site, and employed Henry Holland, the architect of old Drury Lane, to build him a house there. The house was finished, but it had cost so much that Lord Thurlow refused to enter it, and persisted in living in Knight's Hill Farm. i8 NORWOOD IN THE PAST. The following entry we found in the Dulwich Chapel Register, among the Baptisms in 1781. " Oct. 25, Mary, d. of Edward Ld. Thurlow and " Mar}' Humphreys, of Knight's Hill." Lord Thurlow died on September 12th, 1806, and the estate devolved to his son. In 1808 an Act was passed enabling the executors to pull down the house and sell the lands. It is hard to find any origin of the name Knight's Hill. It is certainly of a date prior to the last century. Perhaps — but it is certain]}' nothing more than a theory — the mention of " Mr. Knight," who owned 30 acres in Dulwich, in AUeyn's inventory of i6og, may suggest a derivation. This landowner may have owned part of Norwood as well, and may have had something to do with the naming of the place. We have thus taken the reader through different phases of life in Norwood that have long since passed away ; but what of the present ? It is of too recent growth to have much of a history, and consists simply of modern houses and still more modern public buildings; but these Public Institutions, though of so recent a date, are numerous and important, and require some consideration here. IRoiwoob at ll>ieeent HE ecclesiastical parish of Norwood is of very recent date. Before the present centur)' the district called by that name lay partly in Lambeth and partly in Croydon parish. Moreover, there was no place of worship nearer than St. Leonard's, Streatliam, or the Chapel of Dulwich College, and so we are not surprised to notice tliat a great many of the entries in the registers at Dulwich refer to Norwood inhabitants, this being specially the case with the baptisms. The parish of Norwood was created at the beginning of the present century, and shortI\- afterwards the Parish Church was erected and dedicated to St. Luke. It cannot by any means be called a pleasing structure, S^^iP being in fact a Greek temple surmounted by an English J;f~^ steeple. It is modelled after the equall}- unlovely ^j[i> church of Hoi}- Trinity, Newington, and the original ^A, estimate for the building was £12,387 8s. 3d., but when Nx*^ completed it had cost about £18,000. The work was • begun in 1822 and finished in 1825, and on the 15th of July, in that year, the church was consecrated by George Pretyman Tomline, Bishop of Winchester. The living — a perpetual curacy — has been held by the following clergymen : — Rev. A. Gibson, M.A. .... 1825 — 1836 Rev. Charles Turner, M.A. - - - 1836— 1858 Rev. J. W. Lester, M.A. - - - 1858— 1870 Rev. Leveson Cyril Randolph, M.A. - 1870 — 1876 Rev. J. Gilmore, M.A. .... Feb. 20, 1876. 20 NORWOOD AT PRESENT. St. Luke's, Norwood, formerly belonged to the Winchester diocese, but by the St. Albans Bishopric Act of 1875 — which reconstructed the dioceses of Winchester and Rochester — Norwood was transferred to the latter see. Some ten years ago the church was falling into a very bad state. Many will remember the dilapidated appearance of the outside, which was an eyesore to the neighbourhood ; but under the last and the present Incumbents, these deficiencies have been remedied, and quite recently the interior has been entirely restored and redecorated, under the direction of Mr. Street, the architect, in a way which to some extent redeems the outward appearance of the fabric. Norwood Cemetery, which occupies so much land in \\'est Norwood, is one of the largest of the surburban cemeteries, covering as it does nearly fifty acres. About ;^75,ooo were expended on its foundation, and though it has only been open for use some fifty years, its available ground seems already fairly covered. It is hard to decide whether the presence of such a large burying ground in the midst of so thickly populated a district as Norwood is not prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants ; but it is at any rate an open question whether the large surburban cemeteries, such as those at Norwood, Nunhead, and Honor Oak, which were once in the country, will not have to be moved further afield, since London has alread\- crept up to them and surrounded them with street after street of small houses. Norwood Cemetery has two chapels standing in its grounds, that for the Established Church being 70ft. by 32ft., while that for Dissenters is slightly smaller, onl\- measuring 60ft. by 30ft. Both were built from the designs of William Tite, and are Imilt in the pointed style of English architecture. There is also a small Greek church in the grounds. The Cemetery was first opened in 1837, and since then has become the last resting-place for thousands of Londoners; but among all those brought here there are not nearlj' so many famous names as those whose memorials are to be found in the great northern burial grounds. Most of the names on the tombstones will be seen to consist of local inhabitants, but there are a few exceptions, and some of the more important may be mentioned here. Several actors are interred at Norwood : — George Both- well Davidge ; David Webster O.sbaldiston, of the Surrey Theatre; Robson, the comedian; Harriet Waylett (Kate Kearney); Alexander Lee, the ST. LUKE'S CHURCH. 22 NORWOOD AT PRESENT. composer, and manager of Drur}' Lane. Art is represented by David Cox, who lived for some years at Dulwich ; by Arthur " Crowquill "' (Alfred Henr}- F"orcster, 1872); and by Samuel Prout (1852), Painter in Water Colours in Ordinary to George IV., William IV., Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert. One of the most famous of modern lawyers, Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, D.C.L., one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Common Pleas, has found a last home in Norwood, and he is accompanied by Lord Justice Baggalay. Literature has sent a few of her famous sons in Douglas Jerrold (1857), Samuel Leman Blanchard (1845), and Sharon Turner, the historian of the Anglo Saxons ; while finally we must mention \'ice-Admiral \\'illiam Young, the Rev. Baldwin Bawn, \\'illiam Maltby, Librarian of the London Institution, Gideon Mantell, the geologist, the discoverer of the Iguanodon and the Pterodactylus, Thomas Miller the author, Moffatt the missionary, Tom Spring, " Champion of England," and Henr}' Benjamin Beaufoy, who did so much for education in London. Norwood is peculiarl}- rich in public institutions, and what is more, nearly all of them are of the highest educational importance ; there are few places so near to the Metropolis which could boast such foundations as the Norwood Free Library, the Westmoreland School, the Lambeth Parochial Schools, the Jews' Hospital, and, greatest of all, the Royal Normal College for the Blind. Let us take the Westmoreland School first. This originated in the Westmoreland Society, which was first founded in London in 1746, and was intended to afford a means of uniting the various natives of West- moreland then living in the capital, and above all to take in hand young men coming to London from that county, and help them in their efforts to get a living. But though the Society was thus founded early in the iSth century, it does not appear to have done very much towards accom- plishing its purposes. But with the beginning of the present century, a new regime was inaugurated. In 1801 the first annual address was issued, and when, in 1810, the Right Hon. William, second Earl of Lonsdale, became president, his energy put fresh life into the Society. It was resolved to build a school; five children were at once elected to the foundation, and a building-fund was immediately started by the gift of THE JEWS' HOSPITAL. 23 ;rioo from some unknown friend. V>y 1850 this fund had reached £3,712. and about tliat time a Mrs. Edwards offered the Society an acre of land at Tuisc Hill, on very advantageous terms. On Ma\- 4th, 1852, the founda- tion stone of the school was laid, and on January 17th, 1854, the buildings were thrown open. Five years afterwards they were enlarged by the pro- vision of additional accommodation for girls. The School will hold 24 children, and at the present moment there are 13 boj'S and 7 girls receiving its benefits. It was primarily intended for the children of nati\'es of \\'estmoreland resident in London, but children born in Westmoreland were afterwards admitted. The privileges of the School were never limited to orphans, but at present the only condition insisted on is that at least one of the parents must have been born in Westmoreland. For admission it is required by the rules of the School that children should be between the ages of 8 and 12, but after election boys are boarded and educated till 15 years old, and girls till they reach their i6th year. The annual income of the School from its investments is only ^^475, and as the annual expenditure is about £"850, the deficit has to lie made up by voluntary subscriptions. The Jews' Hospital and Orphan Asylum at Knight's Hill. West Norwood, does important work for the community to which it belongs, and fulfils a double object, serving, in the language of the official report, " for the support of the aged and the maintenance, education, and "employment of youth." But it has not reached its present state of success at one bound : its final constitution is the result of a series of successful amalgamations with similar societies belonging to the Jewish denomination. The Jews' Hospital was first founded at Mile End, about the beginning of the present centur}-, by the late Abraham Goldsmid — who was largely assisted by the late Duke of Sussex. F"rom the very first the objects were to educate poor children and to afford a home for the aged poor. The latter lived in the Almshouses at Mile End, and received their maintenance, while the children were educated and trained for some mechanical profession, being apprenticed when old enough to such trades- men as shoemakers, cabinet-makers, and tailors. The institution was 24 NORWOOD AT PRESENT. supported by voluntary contributions, but in 1861, Mr. Barnet Meyers, who owned propert}' in Norwood, presented the Hospital with nine and a half acres of freehold land on Knight's Hill. The Hospital was now in the peculiar position of owning enough land for extensive buildings, but with no money to spend on their erection, and with no fi.xed income. However, the almspeople were at once removed, and pensioned out at Norwood, having their clothing provided for them and receiving 15s. a week. Soon afterwards, an epidemic of cholera in Petticoat Lane and its neighbourhood, which was thickly populated with Jews, left a great number of orphans, whom the Hospital wished to protect, but could not, as it had not sufficient funds. Money was, however, obtained by an amalgamation with another society, which was devoted entirely to the education and maintenance of orphans — the Jews' Orphan Asylum, situated in Lemon Street, Whitcchapel. We have now to mention a third institution, whose aims and objects were verj- similar to the last. This was an orphanage at Tenter Ground, Goodman's Fields, which had been founded by Lionel Moses in 1846, to provide a home for orphans deprived of both parents, but was soon united with another institution, to which children who had lost one parent were admitted. This Hospital at the Tenter Ground had the good fortune to be well endowed, and as the managers could not procure a suitable site, while the Mile End Orphanage possessed a large property in a very healthy district, it soon became apparent that great and mutual advantages would accrue from the amalgamation of the two institutions. The result was that the Mile End and the Goodman's Fields Orphanages joined forces, and the spacious buildings at Norwood were erected. This occurred in 1876 : in 1878 the children were removed to Norwood, and from that time up to the present the Rev. S. H. Harris has held the post of Head Master. The good effect of the amalgamation was at once apparent : greater success was ensured, and even the voluntary contributions were at once largely increased. The number of children who are at present being educated is 160 boys and 140 girls. The School claims to have been one of the first to give a technical education. A workshop was erected at the cost of £700, furnished by Mr. B. L. Cohen, and for six hours a week the boys are LAMBETH SCHOOLS. 25 taught technical carpentry and the use of tools. Thus the children are trained for a profession, and wlien they leave school they are either apprenticed to various trades, or are furnished with situations as clerks and pupil teachers, or are assisted to emigrate. Another feature which is well worthy of admiration is that a member of the committee is appointed to look after each child who leaves the school, and to watch over him or her during apprenticeship. As for the method of nomination : orphans who have lost both father and mother are admitted at once without election ; orphans deprived of one parent alone are admitted only after election. In addition, the Hospital takes over many pauper children (of course, Jews) from the workhouses, for whose education they are allowed a grant by the various parish authorities. Within the buildings is included a small synagogue, which affords a place of worship for members of the Jewish persuasion resident in the neighbourhood, as well as for the inmates of the Hospital. The income of the Jews' Hospital is derived from four sources — from voluntary contributions ; from funded property, which yielded in 1888, £350; from the ground rents of the Mile End freehold; and from the rent of shops which have been erected on the site of the Orphan Asylum (Tenter Ground Estate). The largest educational establishment in Norwood is the Lambeth Parochial School in Elder Road. Founded in 1815, as a slab still existent in the old buildings certifies, it first went by the name of the Norwood House of Industr}', and was intended to serve as a healthy residence for the very young or very old inmates of the \\orkhouses of Lambeth ; for in those days the old people were sent to Norwood as well as the children. At present the old buildings serve as the infant school, while the older boys and girls are housed and educated in the handsome pile of buildings first opened in 1885. All the children in the Lambeth Workhouses who are orphans, or who have been deserted by their parents, are sent to the Norwood Schools by the parish authorities, and here their board, clothes, and education are provided for them out of the parish rates. The new buildings are excellently laid out. There is no overcrowding : each dormitory has its own school-room attached, and all the rooms are spacious and lofty. The staff of teachers, if not large, at least appears 26 NOR]VOOD AT PRESENT. adequate, and includes, in addition to the Head Master and the Head Mistress, five assistant masters and four assistant mistresses : and besides, four servants are allotted to the bo}s' department and four to the girls'. The great hall will conveniently afford even more seats than it is called upon to do at present. Few have ever imagined what a colony the Parochial Schools contain. In the infant school there are now 200 ; while the new buildings house 500 children, 300 boys and 200 girls. The boys are kept at school, as a general rule, till they reach the age of 14 or 15 ; none are ever kept past their i6th year, and they are then apprenticed to bakers, tailors, and bootmakers; or are sent on board the "Exmouth" training ship ; or further, since the school has made a special feature of music, and possesses a band of its own, enter the regimental bands in the army. The girls, on the other hand, are trained for the various professions open to them, according to their capacities. We have now to speak of a school which is far different, and perhaps far more interesting to most people than any we have yet described : a school which is almost unique in England — the Royal Normal College for the Blind. The public interest and the national utility of this institution none will deny, and in the opinion of many it will be regarded as one of the greatest educational achievements of the 19th century that the unhappy blind (we almost hesitate to use the epithet) are now placed on a level with their more fortunate brethren in the race for life. This was Dr. Campbell's aim when he first came to Norwood, and he has certainly achieved it. The Normal College at Upper Norwood, like many another institution which has achieved the most important results, may almost be described as a lucky accident. Dr. Campbell, as he has himself informed us, had intended to sail for America, and had already taken his passage, when a chance interview with Dr. Armitage changed his plans, and the Royal Normal College for the Blind was the result. When this College was first instituted, in 1871, a house near the Low Level Railway Station, at the Crystal Palace, was sufficient to contain the pupils, but when after two }'ears numbers began to grow. Dr. Campbell moved the school to its present site on \N'estow Hill. The main objects of the system adopted at this school in training THE COLLEGE FOR THE BLIND. 27 the pupils are to ensure confidence and self-reliance, and, above all, to develop their physical energ) . The blind from their helpless condition are naturally more inactive than others, and so more bodily exercise is at first required to keep their mental faculties in a vigorous condition. To insure this result recourse has been had to a system which would appear to the casual onlooker at first sight as rather a refinement of cruelty, but is in reality the truest kindness. Advantage has been taken of the hilly district of Upper Norwood to make as many terraces as possible with long flights of steps, but the visitor will observe that due notice is given to the blind of each descent b)' a very simple but at the same time a ver}- safe device : at the head of each flight of steps the asphalt, with which all the terraces are paved, is slightly raised, so that the foot can tell at once where the steps are : and it must be further noticed each flight consists of the same number of steps. So successful is this system that it is a not at all unconunon sight to see the blind children clear a number of steps at one bound. Enough has been said to show how minute has been the forethought expended in laying out the grounds, and how carefully each detail has been considered. Every game, every form of physical recreation which could be at all adapted for the use of the blind, has been emplojed. There are two gymnasiums and skating rinks, one built b\' Dr. Armitage, the other from the Fawcett Memorial Fund. There is a lake, on which the pupils can row in summer and skate in winter; there is a cycle track, on which the large cycles in tandem form, used at the school, are so useful, some of them being " eight-in-hands," which enable seven blind persons to ride steered by one sighted person, who is generally one of the masters. There are swings of all sorts, there are bowls, there is a special kind of football, in fact it seems almost impossible to e.xhaust the list. Lastly, one of the most important of the recent institutions is the swimming bath, which has been built by Dr. Armitage. Altogether the buildings and playgrounds cover qh acres. To turn to the mental training of the pupils. The education is, of course, principally a musical one, since piano-tuning affords an excellent opportunity to the blind of getting their own living. The usual English subjects are taught to all, besides Latin, French and German, while the more important features of the system are instrumental music and singing. 28 XORU'OOD AT PRESENT. It is occasionally found very difficult to get the blind to use their fingers properly, and for such pupils as these there is a workshop where carpentering is taught. This generally has the desired result, and as soon as they can handle these tools they begin to study music. The musical education which they receive covers a good deal of ground, as it includes, besides playing, the construction and repairing of the pianoforte, a knowledge of these subjects being absolutely necessary if the blind are to serve as piano tuners. It is hardl}- necessary here to speak of the results which Dr. Campbell has attained. Since the school was opened they have had one long series of successes. Their pupils are now known in most parts of the musical world, in Germany and America besides England ; while in many cases — a fact which may well arouse admiration — the high objects of the school have been achieved, and a large number of former pupils are now getting their own living, and that with ease, comfort, and satisfaction to themselves. Dr. Campbell's untiring energy and enthusiasm is mainly responsible for this happy result, and to him all credit is due. Nine j-ears ago, when the school was in its early days, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (Rev. J. R. B\'rne) reported that "the College continues to extend and improve steadily from year to " year, thanks in the main to the genius and energy of the one individual " who is the moving spirit of it." And since that time the School has increased enormously, its pupils now numbering some iGo. Dr. Armitage has from the very beginning been an important benefactor (we have already alluded to the swimming bath he has given), and the Royal Normal College depends entirely on \'oluntar\- subscriptions and bequests for its support and maintenance, but it must, of coui'se, be remembered that fees* are paid by the relatives of man^- of the pupils. Lastly, the school authorities never lose sight of the old pupils when they go out into the world to earn their living, but have always been anxious to aid them in their struggles; and in 1888 an Old Pupils' Guild was established, which will carry on this excellent work in the best way. We have finally to mention one other institution in Norwood, which is the latest addition to the Public Buildings of the neighbourhood. In December, 1886, the Parish of Lambeth voted for the adoption of the ' Though these are often merely nominal. S3 30 NORWOOD AT PRESENT. Public Libraries Act, and in the ensuing February the Vestry nominated commissioners to carry this decision into effect. It was resolved that the Parish of Lambeth should be divided into five districts, each of which was to have a Public Free Librarj- of its own, and the first of these Libraries which has been erected is the one we are now describing at West Norwood. A freehold site adjoining the Knight's Hill Road was given by Frederick Nettlefotd, Esq., of Streatham. On this the Library was built in time to be opened early in 1888, at a total cost of ;^4,500, a con- siderable amount of that sum being provided by private subscriptions. The success which has attended the adoption of the Act has been most remarkable. The News Rooms at Norwood have been largely used, especially in the winter months, and when the Library proper was opened in October, 18S8, for the lending of books, the same result was observable. The stock of books available is extremely limited, the number being only 6,653, but this is of course being remedied from time to time. This, however, being the case, the following statistics speak for them- selves. We quote from the Librarian's first official report to the Lambeth Libraries Commissioners (August, 1889). Monthly Return of Books Lent. October, 1S88 2510 November 6786 December 7697 January, 1889. 9257 February 10015 March 10844 April 10176 May 9041 June 8143 July (part of) 5320 Total 79789 Class of Books during the Ten Months. Theology, Philosophy, etc 1238 History and Biography 54^7 Voyages and Travels . . 2916 Arts and Sciences — 4322 Fiction 46464 Poetry and the Drama 1076 Politics and Statistics 763 Miscellaneous Literature 461 1 Juvenile Books in all classes 12932 Total 79789 THE FREE LIBRARY. 31 "The News Rooms," the Librarian adds, "are ver\- i)opular, and it " is of frequent occurrence in the winter that every cliair is in use. No "attempt has been made to count the readers each da}-, but from counts " made on several occasions, I estimate that over 500 persons use the "Norwood News Rooms and 600 the Tate News Rooms daily." "At each " place 13 daily, 56 weekly, and 33 monthly newspapers, magazines and " periodicals are taken as published." Complete statistics for the first twelve months at Norwood show that 98,155 volumes have been borrowed, which gives a daily average of 389, while the number of readers who hold tickets is 3,906. 2)ul\vicb. iULWICH, though it has a more important f; history than any other village in the neigh- "i bourhood, has alvvaj'S been a quiet little picturesque place ; and in spite of advancing years and the ruthless hand of the jerry- builder, it has at any rate managed to preserve much of its picturesque appearance up to the present time. Its situation has doubtlessly much towards effecting this. The nearest high road, before the present century, lay two or three miles off, passing through Streatham and Croydon, and the road that traversed Duhvich simply led to the still smaller \illagc of Sydenham. The ancient form of the name DuKvich appears in man}- documents as Dilwysshe, and this is said to have been derived from De la \\'yk, the owner of considerable lands in Camberwell, in the reign of Henry I. (circa iioo). But, if this person really owned the Manor of Dulwich, he did not retain it for long, since in 1127 Henry I. presented the Manor, with other estates, to the Priory of Bermondse}-. " Henricus rex primus," runs the old chronicle of Bermondsey, " dedit nionachis de Bermundeseye, Retherhith " Dilwich, hidam de Southwark, Waddon et confirmavit donationem " Kynwardeston." * For the ne.xt four centuries Dulwich remained in the • This had been given to the Priory by " Eustachius comes Boloniae," in 1115. Canon C arver. 1 8 07. BERMONDSEY PRIORY. 33 hands of the Monks, and we may fairly assume that like most of their brethren they made very fair landlords ; we at any rate hear nothing to the contrary. In 1245 an agreement was made between "the Prior of Bermondsey "and the Prioress of Halliwell, about the tithes in East-Dulwich (Est- " Dilewich), viz., that the said Prior and Convent should receive all tke "greater tithes coming from lands which had been converted from woods "and pasturage into tilth."* With the exception of these two entries in the Annals of Bermondsey we have no information till we arrive at the time of the dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1539 the Abbot of Bermondsey (for by this time the Prior}- had been exalted to the rank of an Abbey) was wise enough in his generation to "voluntarily surrender" his domains, and received the substantial reward of a pension of £^25 per annum (leaving about £60 to be divided among his inferiors) ; while the property, including the Manor of Dulwich, passed to the Crown. In the rent-roll of the Abbey, at its dissolution, we find that Dulwich Manor brought into the Monastic treasury ^14 a year, while Dulwich Common contributed only four shillings. Soon afterwards the King found a purchaser of Dulwich Manor in the person of Thomas Calton Goldsmith, of London (1544), from whom it went by inheritance to Sir Francis Calton. This worthy Knight seems to have always been in great want of money ; in 1602 we find he had mortgaged two properties in Dulwich to Sir Robert Lee, Lord Mayor of London, and so when Edward Alleyn first formed the idea of settling in Dulwich, he had not much difficulty in bringing its proprietor to terms. The first transaction was in 1605 (October ist), when Alleyn paid off the mortgage as part of the price ; and in 1606 he obtained complete right to the Manor. In 1607 (August 4th), Alleyn bought three other tenements in Dulwich and 22 acres for £410 los., from Ellis Parry, and the estate was enlarged by subsequent additions. Since that time, with the exception of a very small portion, Dulwich has never changed owners. ' Annates sub anno 1245. 34 ■ DULWICH. The Old College was begun in 1613, was finished in 1616, but was not formally opened till 1619 — all these events being described at length in our account of Alleyn. But the buildings, though said to be designed by Inigo Jones, must have been erected in a very poor way, for they needed constant repairs. In 1622 Alleyn himself notices in his diary that he had spent in a period of five years £3,373 17s. yd. on building and repairs ; it would seem to have been rather early in the history of the College for repairs to be necessary. In 1638 the tower (which was in the centre of the building) seems to have fallen, and the unhappy fellows had to go without their salaries in order to find funds for the restoration. In 1647 the Parliamentarians visited Dul\\ich ; a troop, under Colonel Atkinson, was quartered on the College, and these soldiers are credited with having damaged the organ, torn up the coffins for lead, and stabled their horses in the vestry. In 1664 it became necessary to rebuild one whole wing ; in 1703 the College porch and treasury chamber fell to the ground. The east wing was entirel)' rebuilt in 1740, but not with any great success, for Sir Charles Barry was called upon to build it again in 1831. In 1823 the chapel had been considerably enlarged and the south gallery added. The latest restoration was in 1878, when the east window was opened. It will be seen from this that little remains of the old buildings ; every part at some time or other has passed under the restorer's hand. The few particulars mentioned above are all that have been preserved concerning the fabric of the College : we shall now proceed to mention all that is noteworthy m the history of the Chapel, and after that describe in brief the history of the School. There is nothing of much interest in the Chapel except the tomb of the founder, and the valuable picture which now hangs on the north wall. At the time of the Civil Wars the inscription on Alleyn's tomb was erased. It now runs as follows : — " Here Lyeth the Bodie of Edward Alleyn " Esq the Founder of this Church and " College who died the 21st day of November " 1626 aetat 61." For many years there was a tradition that Edward Alleyn was not ALLEYN'S GRAVE. 35 buried in the Chapel, because his tombstone was said to have long stood in a field in Half Moon Lane, but we believe that it has been satis- factorily determined of late years that the Founder is really buried in the Chapel with his two wives, though he docs not rest immediately beneath the tombstone. The painting that has been already mentioned is a copy by Julio Romano of Raphael's great picture of the " Transfiguration," and was presented to the College in 1796, by Mr. Mills, of Great Saxham Hall, Suffolk. Till 1878 it stood above the communion table, hiding the greater part of the east window, but it was then removed, and now hangs on the north wall. In old days there were several inscriptions on the walls of the Chapel, but they have long since disappeared. Whether they have been simply white- washed over, or altogether destroyed, I have not been able to discover. On the north side there was formerly an epitaph of Anne Henslowe on a gravestone : — " Here lieth the body of Anne Henslowe late " wife of Philip Henslowe Esqre. one of the " ordinary Sewars of the chamber to Queene " Elizabeth and King James." So much was standing at the beginning of this centurj', but the rest, sa3'S Manning, was then " defaced." On the south wall was painted this monument to Joan, AUeyn's first wife : — "Jone Allene the religious and loving Wife of Edw. Allene, Esquier, Founder of this Chappell and Coledge depa- rted this mortal Life with- out Issue on Saterdaye, being the 28 of June 1623. and was solemnly interred on the first Daye of July following In the Quire of this Chappell." 36 DULWICH. There was also a stone in memory of the same person on the south side of the chancel. "Here lyeth in hope of the Resurrection, the Body of JOANE, the religious and loving wife of EDWARD ALLEYN Esq. Founder of this Colledge who de- parted this mortal Life the 28th of JUNE 1623 being in the 51 year of Her Age." The font is inscribed with a curious anagram in Greek :; — NI^ON ANOMHMA MH MONAN O^IN It was given, in 1729, by the Rev. James Hume, one of the Fellows of the College (1706-1730), who also wrote the Latin inscription to AUeyn on the outside of the porch : — Regnante Jacobo Primo totius Britanniae monarcha, Edwardus AUeyn, armiger, Theromachiae Regis praefectus, Theatri Fortunae dictus choragus Aevique sui Roscius, Hoc Collegium instituit ; Atque ad Duodecim Senes egenos Sex scilicet viros et totidem Faeminas Commode sustentandos Talemque Puerorum numerum alendum, Et in Christi Disciplina et bonis moribus Erudiendum Re satis ampll instruxit. Porro Ne quod Deo dicaverat postmodum frustra fieret, Sedulo cavit. Diplomate namque Regis munitus, jussit THE CHAPEL REGISTERS. 2,7 Ut a Magistro, custode, et Quatuor Sociis, Qui et conscientiae vinculis astricti, Et sua ipsorum utilitatc admoniti Rem bene administrarent In perpetuum regeretur. Postquam annos bene multos Collegio suo praefuisset Dierum tandem et bonorum operum Satur Fato concessit VIP Cal. Decembris* A.D. MDCXXVI. " Beatus ille qui misertus est paupurem " " Abi tu et fac similiter." " Go thou and do likewise." The advice was a curious satire on the Fellows of the College, who must have seen it every day in Dulwich. So far from considering the poor and following in the steps of their founder, they only considered themselves, and took little interest in aught connected with the College or their real duties as had been laid down by Allejn in the Statutes. The more ancient of the Chapel Registers are preserved in the New Buildings. Those still at the Chapel I have been enabled to examine, and these give a few interesting facts. Most of them, it must be confessed, were disgracefully kept ; and no attempt had been made, till quite recently, to ensure their preservation. No marriages have been celebrated in the Chapel since 1754, but the register of those performed from 1712 to 1754 is still to be seen on two loose sheets of foolscap : no attempt has been made to preserve it properl}-. During the period it covers, we have a list of 127 marriages, none of them at all noteworth\-, though one of the last entries seems to refer to a relation of the Founder. "May 5, 1748: James Allen and Ann Hodgers." But this could hardly be the James Allen who was Warden at the time, since by the statutes he would have been compelled to resign. The first entry (March 24th, 1712) records the marriage of John Lucas and Mary Pepys. It would be very interesting if we could discover whether this Mary Pepys was any relation of our old friend Samuel • November 25th. This is the correct date. Vidi " Life of AUeyn." 38 DULWICH. Pcpys. We, at any rate, know that just before the time of his death, in 1703, he had been staying at a house in Clapham, where he was visited by Evelyn. " Sept. 23, 1703. I went to visite Mr. Pepys at Clapham, where he " has a very well noble and wonderfully well furnished house, especially " with India and Chinese curiosities." The first book of baptisms is a small octavo memorandum book, with the list of burials beginning at the other end. It extends from 1780 to 1788; but the burials from 1781 to 1786 have been cut out! This is followed by a quarto note book, in the same mauve coloured paper cover. It is on the same plan ; baptisms at one end, burials at the other, and as in the first case, the fees are added. This second dates from 1789 to 1830. From 1808 to 1812 we have a better attempt, the baptisms during these years being also entered in a large ledger, while in 1813 a genuine register was provided. So, too, with the burials : from 1813 to 1855, the entries are made in an official register, being continued in another volume. Burials took place in the College burying ground up to 1862. After that year the ground was closed. Six persons, however, have been buried there as having ancient rights since that date, the last being in 1877. Among the persons buried at Dulwich are several connected with Trinity College, Cambridge. Thus, on July 25th, 1807, Thomas Jones (58), Fellow of Trinity College, was interred in a vault "for one person, " 8ft. X 2ft.;" and the curious fact is recorded that after the funeral the " undertaker left 8 shillings for the boys for singing before the coffin." In 1825, March nth, " Wm George Judgson (45 jears) Fellow of " Trinity Coll Cambridge in the vault of Thomas Jones " (to whom he was related). A second relation of Thomas Jones was placed there in 1827. In the Dulwich graveyard two actors were buried in the past century, Anthony Boheme, " the famous tragedian," in 1731, and John Eggleton, " a player," in 1727. Bridget, Queen of the Gipsies, was also brought there from Norwood in 1768. The only persons who had a right to be buried in tlic Chapel besides the Founder were the successive Fellows : those in holy orders were placed beneath the sacrarium, while the lay Fellows were buried under the choir. THE COLLEGE STATUTES. 39 A large proportion of the children brought to the College Chapel to be baptised came from Norwood ; in fact, Norwood is as frequently mentioned in the registers as Dulwich. The number of people who fell victims to the Great Plague of 1665, in Dulwich, amounted to 37, but the majority of these were buried in Camberwell. Defoe, in his Journal, says that at Camberwell, Norwood, and Dulwich, " it seems no Body durst relieve the poor distress'd people " for fear of the Infection." Before leaving the Chapel it may be noticed that quite recentl)' a door has been cut in the west wall so as to give a passage direct from the Vestry to the Chapel, but nothing was found during the operation. Poor Edward Alleyn must have often stirred in his grave when his wishes were altogether disregarded. As Fuller said long ago, " Sure I am no hospital is tied with better or stricter laws." But the only result of all the money and trouble of the Founder was the maintenance of a few of his relations in comfortable indolence. The explanation, no doubt, is due to the very fact that the posts of Master and Warden were confined to members of the Founder's family. Alleyn must have taken great care in the drawing up of the College Statutes. He seems to have provided for every contingency, except the general apathy of the College authorities. He left regulations for the diet and the clothing of the 30 pensioners, and for the salaries and main- tenance of the Master, Warden, and four Fellows. Provision was made for every necessit}- ; rules left for the management of the estate, the numbers of the servants, the subjects of instruction in the School, the times of the services in the Chapel ; but all to no avail. The authorities settled down and enjoyed themselves at their leisure. The Master was the chief ruler of the little corporation in the hamlet of Dulwich, and had the supervision of everything : the Warden acted as treasurer and receiver of rents: the four Fellows consisted of (i) ist Fellow, or Preacher ; (2) 2nd Fellow, or Master of the School ; (3) 3rd Fellow, or Usher; (4) 4th Fellow, or Organist. The thirty poor pensioners comprised 12 "poor scholars," 6 "poor old brothers," and 6 "poor sisters," the aged brothers and sisters living in the almshouses attached, and finally 6 " chaunters or junior fellows," to form the choir and to teach the boys 40 DULWICH. music. The Master and Warden, it was stipulated, should be of the Founder's kin. The long roll of the Fellows of Dulwich is simply a mere list of names : except in a few rare instances, their lives were totally un- remarlcable, but there are one or two noticeable points. In 1630, John Alleyn became organist ; he was the only one of the Founder's name who ever held that post. In 1645 the Committee for plundered ministers appointed Stephen Streete and Edmund Coleb}- to perform the duties of the four T'ellows. The latter petitioned for an allowance for maintenance, and were granted £10 a-piece. But they were not content with this : they petitioned Cromwell some years afterwards for the restoration of their rights. The Protector The Old College, 1790. nominated Nathaniel Fienes (one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal), Sir Bulstrode Whitelock, Chief Justice St. John, General Lambert, with others, to serve as a board of inquiry. Their visitation at Dulwich took place March igth, 165I; but their investigation brought little good, for they simply appointed two persons of their own choice, alleging that the Fellows had taken arms against the Parliament, and then retired. EVELYN'S VISIT. 41 Further petitions produced no result, but at the Restoration the College resumed the right of choosing their own Fellows. In 1670 and 1677 we find two of the Founder's kin — George Allcyn and James AUeyn, respectively, acting as first Fellows or preachers. These, together with the instances referred to above, are the only cases in which any one of the name of AUeyn filled any post other than that of Master or Warden. In 1675, Evelyn, as he records in his famous diary, paid a visit to Dulwich. It was on September 2nd : " I went to see Dulwich Colledge, " being the pious foundation of one Allen, a famous comedian in King " James' time. The Chapell is pretty, the rest of the Hospital very ill .» s-.''V-'.M'r<^: ' , ..i. «fcB»a&*»i'/««^^^>-^ - The New College, i8go. "contrived, yet it maintains divers poore of both sexes. 'Tis in a " melancholy part of Camerwell parish." In 1692, John Rhodes became Usher, and four years afterwards advanced to the rank of Master of the School. He has left a memorial behind him in the shape of " The Six Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, " grammatically translated by J. R.," which is still preserved in manuscript at the College. 42 DULWICH. In 1700, John Reading was elected organist, but was never formally admitted. He probably did not care to retain the post for long, as he was an excellent musician. His " Book of New Songs after the Italian " manner, with Symphonies," was very well known at the time. He sang as one of the children of the Chapel Ro}al under Dr. Blow, and he only left this post to become Organist of Dulwich. In 1702 he was chosen Junior Vicar of Lincoln Cathedral. It has always been the tradition at the school that he was the composer of the well-known tune to the Christmas Hymn, " Adeste Fideles," but this is denied by some authorities, and the hymn is attributed to his father, the John Reading who wrote the Winchester School song, " Dulce Domum." The College Library still contains some of his manuscripts, and his portrait hangs in the Board Room. The Rev. James Hume became schoolmaster in 1706 : reference has already been made to him as the giver of the font, and as the author of the inscription to Edward Alleyn over the Chapel door. James Alleyn, who was chosen Warden in 1712, and became Master in 1721, v.as a considerable benefactor to the Hamlet. He founded a charity-school, in Dulwich, to teach "poor boys to read, " and poor girls to read and sew," at which school, in 1792, there were 15 children, for each of whom the Master paid 3d. a week to the Schoolmistress. By Act of Parliament, in 1857, its advantages were restricted to girls, and it is now known as " James Allen's Girls' " School." The increased income and further advantages granted by the Charity Commissioners' latest scheme have considerably increased its importance, and raised its rank as a school. There are three portraits of James Allen at the College, an inscription on one of them stating him to have been " Six feet High, Skilful as a Skaiter, a "Jumper, ATHLETIC, and humane." He died in 1746. His successor, Joseph Allen, M.D., became Master in 1746, and held the post till 1775. Before his appointment he had travelled round the world with Anson ; and his rule at Dulwich was so wise and beneficent (he must have been an exception to the general rule) that it was resolved to have his portrait painted, " to remain for ever in the said College." The artist chosen was George Romney. In connection with his successor, the following entry is copied from the Chapel Register: "July 24th, 1805. Thomas Allen (aged 81), elected HORACE WALPOLE'S VISIT. 43 "Warden, July, 1752; admitted Master, June, 1775; buried within the " Communion Rails on the coffin of Dr. Joseph Allen." The following comes from the same source: — "March 2gth, 1816 : " Richard Uowell (68), near 34 years organist and Fellow of DuKv. " College — buried on the north side of the Communion Table, near the "wall, about 6 feet deep, on the coffin of the Revd. William Swann." Dowell had been appointed organist in 1782. In 17S5 the Rev. Thomas Jenyns Smith was elected preacher, and he retained the post for 45 years. It is to him that the carelessness already noticed in the matter of the register is to be attributed. As he grew older, the register became worse and worse, till for a few years before death his writing is almost illegible. But with his death, in 1830, all the notes and comments which are found in the register cease. In a letter written in 1791 to the Misses Berry, Horace Walpole describes in his own interesting fashion a visit he paid to Dulwich on June 8th in that year. " This morning," he writes, " I went with " Lysons the Reverend to see Dulwich College, founded in i6ig by " Alleyn, a player, which I had never seen in my many days. We " were received by a smart divine (tres bien poudre), and with black " satin breeches, but they were giving new wings, and new satin breeches, " to the good old hostel too, and destro3ing a gallery with a very rich " ceiling, and nothing will remain of ancient, but the front and a " hundred mouldy portraits among apostles, sybils, and kings of England." We reproduce a view of the old buildings in 1792, from which it will be seen that the boundary wall then ran direct from the East to the West wing; and that the space in front was not inclosed at that time, as at present, but was then a village green. In 181 1 John Allen — Lord Holland's Allen — was appointed Warden, and in 1820, Master. An account of his life, which is important, apart from his connection with the College, will be found on another page. In 1816 the Rev. Ozias Thurston Linley was chosen organist. He was a Minor Canon of Norwich, and a most interesting description of his personal character will be found in "Sketches of Old Times," a recently published volume of reminiscences by Archdeacon Sinclair, of Middlesex. He was the son of Thomas Linley, a celebrated musician at Bath, and the brother of Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickell, who have been immor- 44 DULWICH. talised by the beautiful picture of Thomas Gainsborough (in the Dulwich Gallery). Ozias Linle}- was an eccentric man, and he was, moreover, blessed with a very irritable temper. When aroused he " twisted his snuff bo.\ " between his fingers more rapidly in proportion to his e.\citement, and " pulled his wig awry till the back was foremost, and a large portion of " his fine bald head became visible. He spoke so loud as to make the " dining - hall resound, and struck the tables violently with his clenched " fist as to put the glasses and decanters in serious jeopardy." He was led into many scrapes by his great absence of mind. On one occasion he had undertaken to do duty at a church some distance from Norwich, and set off on his horse. " ' What have I to pay ' said Mr. Linley, coming " to a turnpike whip in hand, with a bridle trailing on the ground. ' You " have nothing to pay, sir,' replied the turnpike keeper, ' You must have " left your horse behind you.' " And so he had ; he had dismounted to give his horse a rest, and the bridle had slipped off. It would have been interesting if Archdeacon Sinclair had given us more reminiscences of Dulwich, for he was at that time Curate to the Rev. J. Lindsay (Usher of the College, 1813-1834), who had a church in Northamptonshire, and when Mr. Lindsay went to his parish, the furture Archdeacon came to Dulwich to perform his duties there. Mr. Linley died in 1831, his burial is recorded in the register on March 12th. " Rev. Ozias Thurston Linley, A.B., organist of "the College, aged 66." In 1857, by Act of Parliament, the old Corporation came to an end, and the Master, Warden, and Fellows were pensioned off. Henceforth the school was divided into two parts, which have tended to separate more and more as time went on. The Lower School retained most similarity to the School as founded by Alleyn ; boys were to be educated at a merely nominal cost {£1 per annum for boys under 14, £2 for those over that age), and twelve "Foundation Scholars" were to receive their education without payment. These were to be residents in the four parishes mentioned in Alleyn's will. In the Upper School itself boys, whose parents resided in any of the favoured parishes, were received at less rates {£6 and £%) than "foreigners" {£% and £10); but these fees were soon increased to £12 and £1^, and £}, e.xtra in each division for CANON CARVER. 45 outsiders. The Rev. Alfred J. Carver was appointed Head Master of the Upper School and Master of the School. To him, as everyone must admit, the success of Dulwich College is mainly due. Starting with about twenty boys, he had brought, at the time of his retirement, the numbers of the school up to 600, and under his rule the College gradually fought its way to the prominent position among the great public schools of England which it now holds. The Lower School may now be dismissed with a mention of its three Head Masters : — The Rev. W. F. Greenfield, M.A., of Pembroke College, Cambridge, directed the School from its commencement in 1857 till 1870, when he was succeeded by the Rev. B. C. Huntley, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge. In 1875, Mr. Huntley retired, and the Rev. J. H. Smith became master ; under his rule the Lower School, or Alleyn's School as it is now strictly termed under the Act of 1881, has won numerous and remarkable successes. In a very few years after the Act of 1857, it was seen that more accommodation would be required. The new buildings were designed by Mr. Charles Barry, to occupy a spot about half a mile from the old College, of which we shall have more to say immediately. The foundation stone was laid on June 26th, 1866, by the Rev. W. Rogers, Chairman of the Board of Governors, in the absence of Mr. Gladstone, who was prevented from attending by the fact of his Government retiring that very day. In four years the three large blocks of buildings on Dulwich Common were completed, and on June 21st, 1870, they were formally opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The block to the north forms the "Senior" School, and the southern provides accommodation for the " Juniors," while the middle block contains the Entrance Hall, Great Hall* (92ft. by 43ft.), Lecture Theatre and Laboratory, the Library, and the Board Room used for meetings of the Governors. We have already mentioned how much Canon Carver has done for the School, but it is necessary to refer again to his untiring exertions to protect it during the dangerous times, which only ended in 1881. From 1872 the position of the School had been assailed by the extraordinary attacks of the Charity Commissioners. Not content with restricting the * The Great Hall now contains a magnificent organ, erected in 18S5 in honour of Canon Carver. 46 DULWICH. Upper School to the lowest possible grant on which it could be conducted, they at first wished to make the College a " second grade " school, but they had to succumb before the storm of disapproval which immediately arose. However, they annoyed the College with scheme after scheme. Hardly a year passed without some fresh proposition, and these attempts only came to an end in 1881. Under the final scheme, by which the fees were considerably advanced. Canon Carver retired, and was succeeded, in April, 1883, by the Rev. J. E. C. Welldon. Of Mr. Welldon it is need- less to speak ; we can only say here, that under him the School made another great stride, and when he left Dulwich for Harrow his departure was viewed with general regret by everyone who had ever had anything to do with him. In 1885, Mr. A. H. Gilkes became headmaster. Of the present position of the School it does not come within our province to speak here ; but that that position is one of the greatest prosperity and success is sufficiently obvious. But if proof be required, we need only refer to the " honours' list " of 1888-89, which may well be left to speak for itself. Though it is unnecessary to describe in detail the long series of attempts made by the Charity Commissioners to settle the problem of the constitution of Dulwich College, yet we must refer to the claims of the so-called "privileged " parishes, which were indeed an important factor in the dispute. Alleyn, by his statutes, directed that two churchwardens from each of the parishes of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, St. Saviour's, Southwark, and St. Giles', Cripplegate, should act as "assistants" to the corporation of the Hospital, "in the governing thereof." Their assistance was needed in making choice of proper persons to enjoy the benefits of the "eleemosynary branch" of the institution. These persons were, as Alleyn directed in the next chapter of his Statutes, to be chosen in the following manner: — Two "poor" brethren, one poor sister, and three scholars {i.e. foundation boys), were to be sent by St. Botolph's, Bishop- gate ; two poor brethren, one poor sister, and three scholars, from St. Saviour's ; while St. Giles', Cripplegate, and St. Giles', Camberwell, were each to furnish one brother, two sisters, and three scholars. With these facts to work upon, the three parishes* tried to prove that they were entitled to a quarter of the revenues of Dulwich College. The idea * "St. Giles without Cripplegate" is now represented by St. Luke's, Finsbury. THE PICTURE GALLERY. 47 existed solely in their own imaginations. They had forgotten the fact that Alleyn did not confine his school (though the old corporation practically did), to the twelve foundation boys, hut made arrangements for the reception of eighty boys from DuKvich itself. " They shall freely," says Alleyn of his masters, "without recompense or reward, teach and instruct the children of the inhabitants ivithin Dulwich, aforesaid, in writing and grammar." Other children, or as Alleyn calls them, " Foreigner's children " — a term which he expressly defines to mean " other than [inhabitants of] Dulwich aforesaid " — were to be admitted in addition to Dulwich boys, but then only on payment of certain fees, to the School, and residents in Dulwich were to have the first claim, while in no case was the number of the pupils to exceed sixty. Though the three parishes had no right, as Lord Selborne pronounced in his judgment, to demand that the Dulwich revenues should be equall)' divided, )'et they have fared much better than they deserved, by the final Act of 1883 ; but their good fortunes were due simply to their prolonged agitation, which met with no counterblast from the sluggish inhabitants of Dulwich. There is, of course, something to be said in their excuse. They had grown so weary of the perpetual schemes, which were promul- gated only to be withdrawn, that they finally refused to believe in them at all. But the fact remains that the College authorities were at the last left to fight the battle themselves. There is one other important institution in Dulwich which still remains to be described, and the close connection of the Picture Gallery with the School renders it peculiarly fitting that it should be considered here. The fame of the collection of pictures at Dulwich is indeed world-wide ; but this collection consists of two parts — the history of each of which must be discussed separately. The less famous, but from a historical point of view, no less interesting part of the collection, is the series of College pictures left by Alleyn and Cartwright. A number of valueless heads of Kings and Queens of England, with the Sibyls, and a few portraits were bequeathed by Alleyn in 1626. In 1686, William Cartwright, a bookseller in Holborn, left by his will a large collection of pictures, including valuable and interesting portraits of Elizabethan actors, such as Richard Burbage, Tom Bond, Nathan Field, and William Sly. These, the original College pictures, were formerly DESENFANS. 49 housed in the west wing of the old I)uildings ; thence they were removed to the Master's house, in the New College, hut have since found a home in the Picture Gallery. In the latter part of the i8th century, Desenfans, a picture dealer of London, was commissioned by Stanislaus, King of Poland, to form a collection of the old masters. At the downfall of the Polish kingdom, Desenfans was left with his pictures, including invaluable specimens of the art of Murillo, Cuyp, Gainsborough, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, without any prospect of payment, and at his death, in 1807, bequeathed his splendid collection to Sir Francis Bourgeois. He at first intended to make these pictures the nucleus of a National Gallery for England, but his proposals were not received favourably. At his death in 1810 he bequeathed the pictures to Margaret Desenfans, wife of Noel Desenfans, to pass to Dulwich College at her death, an event which took place in 1813. Before this, however, she had arranged for the building of a Gallery at Dulwich, under the direction of Sir John Soane, on a site adjoining the old College, and this was completed and opened in 1817. Many foolish restrictions were at first imposed on intending visitors : they were only admitted on certain days, and then only by tickets to be procured from London art dealers ; but this era has long since passed away, and the collection is now as open to the public as any of the great national museums. It does not come within our province to discuss the various pictures, but a few statistics maj' be admissible to shew the character of the pictures exhibited. Correggio is represented by 2, Claude by 7, Cujp by 17, Carlo Dolci 3, Gainsborough 6, Hobbema 2, Lawrence 3, Murillo 12, Nicholas Poussin 17, Raphael 2, Guido Reni 7, Rem- brandt 5, Reynolds 6, Salvator Rosa 5, Rubens 20, Ru}sdael 4, Teniers the Elder 6, Teniers the Younger 16, Van Dyck 12, \'elasquez 3, Paul Veronese 4, Watteau 2. Strange to say, such an unique collection of the Old Masters has no School of Art attached to it. It has often been proposed to institute such a school ; but as \et the idea has borne no fruit. It is to be hoped that such a defect will soon be remedied. In iS5g, an enquirer wrote to Notes and Queries : " In Harrison's " ' History of London ' I find mention made of a medicinal spring at £ 50 DULWICH. " Duhvich, 'from which,' sajs the author, 'the waters are sent to London " and are esteemed exceedingly efficacious in many disorders.' Now I " have made search for this spring, but cannot discover its whereabouts." The writer, "C. A. R.," goes on to ask whether Harrison meant Sydenham Wells. This theory is possible, though hardly probable. The truth is that the whole question concerning the mineral waters of the neigh- bourhood is very complicated. The reason of this is quite clear ; for at different periods no less than three different mineral wells were called by the name of Duhvich, and there may have been even more, of which we know nothing ; but of these three only one was really included in the boundaries of Duhvich Hamlet. The mineral springs alluded to were situated on Lewisham Common — at Sydenham (whence "Wells Lane") and at Lordship Lane ; and so the question of " C. A. K." is not so easy to answer as at first sight appears: but Manning and Bray in their " History " of Surrey " distinctly assert that the springs called Duhvich Wells in the 17th century were situated on '' Westwood Common," Lewisham, two miles from Lewisham Church, and were originally discovered in 1648. The fashion of "drinking the waters," which was regarded as a safe cure for all the ills to which flesh is heir, prevailed from the latter part of the 17th century almost down to the invention of railways, or at any rate until George IV. brought Brighton into popular favour, and with Brighton the numerous other seaside resorts. The wells close to London, comprising those of Epsom, Duhvich, Lewisham, Sydenham, and Streatham, were in their time hardly less frequented than those of Tunbridge and Bath. In an extract which has alread}' been quoted in part, Evelyn mentions Sydenham Wells. On September 2nd, 1675, he writes : " I went to see " Duhvich Colledge, being the pious foundation of one Allen, a famous " comedian in King James' time. . . 'Tis in a melancholy part of Camer- " well parish. I came back by certain medicinal Spa waters at a place " called Sydnam Wells, in Lewisham parish, much frequented in suuuncr.'" On August 5th, 1677, Evelyn again has to mention the wells : " I went " to visit my Lord Brounker, now taking the waters at Duhvich." On this occasion the reference is probably to the Lewisham Wells. These wells — at that time they were ahva)s called Duhvich \\'ells — were very popular. Besides drawing visitors to the place, the waters were hawked about the streets of London, and that before 1678. There is a pamphlet DULWICH WELLS. 51 preserveJ in the British Museum, wliich was published in that \ear, with the following title : — Strange and Lamentable News from Dullidg-Wells or The Cruel and Barbarous Father A True Relation How a person which used to cry Dullidg water about the streets of London kill'd his own son. Printed for D. M. 1678. This small tract describes how " on Tuesday tlie second of this instant " July a person that made it his business to carry Dullidg-water to " London, and there crying it about the streets for their conveniency that " cannot spare time to go drink it upon the place, about two of the clock in " the morning, call'd up his son, a Lad of about 12 years of age, and sent " him forth to fetch home his horse." The boy spent rather longer than was necessary on the errand, and his father beat him so severeh- that he died an hour or so afterwards. Whether this Dulwich water came from Lewisham or Sydenham, it is impossible to ascertain. It must be also borne in mind that some mineral wells are said to have existed (now in private gardens) close to the Blew House. These mineral waters were, as we have said, held b}' doctors to be certain cures for an immense number of diseases. Several treatises were published describing their wonderful qualities. Thus Dr. John Peter, of Lewisham, wrote an account of them in 1681, and ten years later, in 1691, Dr. Benjamin Allen published his " Natural History of the Mineral Waters of Great Britain :" of this last book several editions were demanded by the credulous public. All this shows how popular such mineral waters were, and how genuine was the belief in their efficacy. Allen's treatise is ver)- interesting as an example of the chemical analysis of the time. Class VIH., in his classification, is "a water medi- " cated with a salt of the nature of common salt, but of a niixt nature " with a nitrous quality and a little more marcasitical," and under this THE "GREEN MAN." 53 heading he includes " Dulwich-Water." Whether he refers by this name to Sydenham or Lewisham Wells it is not quite certain, but, at any rate, all the mineral waters of this neighbourhood were very much alike, and a short quotation may not prove uninteresting: — "The wells are at the foot "of a heavy claiy Hill, about 12 in number, standing together, discovered "about 1614. They are about nine feet deep, as I gess'd at view, in " which the water stood about half a yard. The Petrify'd Incrusted " Stones, when broke, glitter with Ferreous Parts, as sulphurous marcasites " produce ; w hich I prov'd and found to be only parts of iron " The water taken the same day with Richmond in the quantity of nine " ounces and near a quarter, was 28 grains heavier than common water "and 12 than Richmond. The nature of the salt of this water, which it " takes from the peculiarity of the earth which generates it, is that of " common salt : in that it turn'd with gall, first yellow and clear, then " thick and muddy, white not free of yellowness, in making no alteration " in a solution of sublimat and in making an effervescence with a spirit of " niter but none with spirit of salt ;" and so on through a varietj' of similar tests. Allen concludes with the following quaint comment : — " Whether the hint of this Earth's piercing Tobacco Pipe clay and ren- " dering it glassy within like China ware, I mean the Petrify'd earth or " stone, be a hint of any use, I leave. The earth of the well exposed to "the air had no efflorescence." All this from the edition of 1711. It has thus been seen that there were at least two wells which usurped the name of Dulwich, though neither of them were really situated in the parish. The genuine Dulwich waters have now to be mentioned, and with this description will be involved an account of a spot which has the most interesting history in Dulwich after the College. Dr. Webster, an old inhabitant of the hamlet, writing some years ago, spoke of " the ' Green Man,' then a place of resort on the verge of " Dulwich Common. This was as far back as the 17th century." The " Green Man," like its modern representative, stood at a spot where now Dulwich Common Lane meets Lordship Lane. It stood half a mile from Dulwich Village, separated from it by an extensive common, which now exists only in name, while Dulwich Wood extended almost down to its door. The inn belonged to a family of the name of Cox, long resident in the neighbourhood, as is shewn by the Chapel Registers. In 1739, 54 DULWICH. Cox, the landlord, discovered at the back of his premises a well which proved to have all the medicinal virtues of the neighbouring Sydenham springs. The fame of the well soon spread abroad, and attracted large numbers of visitors,* inasmuch that the proprietor was induced to build " a handsome room on one end of his bowling green, for breakfasts, " dancing, and entertainment." Large quantities of the waters were hawked about London, and regular supplies were sent to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The depth of the well is said to have been 60 feet. After man}' years of prosperity, it became the residence of Lord Thurlow, the famous Lord Chancellor, and perhaps he made this his home whilst superintending the building of his house on Knight's Hill. The " Green Man " is mentioned in Priscilla Wakefield's Perambula- tions, in iSog.t But in a ver}- short time it disappeared and made way for a Ncr)- different establishment. This time it served as a private school, or, as the phrase ran in these days, a " select academy." Dr. Glennie, a man of some notoriety, was the headmaster, and among the pupils there was no less a person than the future Lord Byron. Of his school life there is little to record; but we know that Dulwich Wood was one of his favourite haunts, and that he used to make friends with the gipsies who frequented the place. There are pleasant pictures of Saturday evenings spent at Dr. Glennie's house. A concert was given once a week in the hall, which drew Campbell from his countrj' home at Sydenham, and the artists Howard and Wilkie from town. An engraving of the school as it appeared in 1820 is still extant, showing a plain white stone building of two stories. In 1825 (on the authority of Dr. Webster) the school was demolished. Once more an inn appeared on the spot, built by an old College servant named Bew, from whom it was called " Bew's Corner." This was a picturesque building of wood, which became, like its predecessor, the " Green Man," very popular with e.xcursionists ; but at what date it gave place to the present tavern we are unable to say. " In 1748 it is spoken of as this " noted house of good entertainment." t I give this on the authority of Mr Thornbury's "Old and New London." There is no copy of Priscilla Wakefield's " Perambulations " in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and in that in the British Museum the very pages referring to Dulwich are missing. FAMOUS HOUSES. 55 The following verses, "hung up in the room of the Lodging-house" at Sadler's " Wells," must be quoted, though they are not to the credit of Dulwich. " For three times ten years I travelled the globe, Consulted whole tribes of the physical robe. Drank the waters of Tonbridge, Bath, Harrowgate, Dulwich, Spa, Epsom (and all by advice of the College) ; But in vain till to Islington waters I came. To try if my cure would add to their fame : In less than six weeks they produced a belief This would be the place of my long-sought relief. Before six weeks more had finished their course. Full of spirits and strength I mounted my horse. Gave praise to my God and rode cheerfully home, Overjoy'd with the thoughts of sweet hours to come. May Thou ! Great Jcho\ah ! give equal success To all who resort to this place for redress." Unfortunately for Sadler's Wells, this looks very much like an advertise- ment written to order, or the puff friendly. Its date is prior to 1811. Of famous houses in Dulwich there are, unfortunately, very few. In most cases the site is all that is left, though the modern structure has received the old name. This is the case with Ricottes and the Blew House. " Rigaites," in an inventory of AUeyn's, preserved at Dulwich, of the date 1609, is credited with five acres. It stood on Dulwich Common. Like the rest of Dulwich it had belonged to Bermondsey Abbey, and was, at the dissolution of the Monasteries, sold by Henry VIII. to Sir Humphrey Browne, together with other lands, for £848. The deed preserved at Dulwich describes the property as " Rigate's Greene in "Dulwich Commen Woode (late belonging to the Abbey of Bermondsey)" and is dated April 27, 1542. For Rigaites Sir Humphrey Browne was to pay the yearly rental of fourpcnce, but on the very day after his purchase he parted with this property to Sir Thomas Pope, Knt., for £30. There is a "feoffment from Sir Thomas Pope to Thomas Calton, of Rigates " Green," dated September 18, 1544. But when Edward AUeyn purchased it about 1606, it seems to have been in the possession of Sir Edmund Bowyer, of Camberwell, for in both the letters patent from the 56 DULWICH COURT. King and in AUeyn's deed of Grant of Lands it is described as " Ricotes, " also Rigates, lately bought and purchased by the said Edward AUeyne "of Sir Edmond Bowyer, Knight." The Blew House also stood, as it does now, on Dulwich Common, and was left by Alleyn to St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. " Item, I will " and bequeath to the Churchwardens of Saint Buttolphe's Without, " Bishopsgate, London, and their successors for ever, a tenement in " Dulwich, with the appurtenances called the Blew House, now in the " tenure of Edward Kipping, to and for the only use of the poor of their "said parish, to be by them employed and disposed of in such manner " and form as in the Statute of God's Gift College aforesaid is set down, " and not otherwise." To St. Botolph's the Blew House still belongs, but it is worthy of notice that the College receives from that parish an annual ground rent : how that came about is not quite clear.* The picturesque Court Lane, leading from Lordship Lane to Dulwich Village, took its name from a large property which was situated in it called Dulwich Court. There are many documents still in existence which mention this house. In the inventory of i6og. Court Mead is said to consist of ten acres. It was in the possession of the Calton family, and " Dulwich Corte Hall Place, and three other messuages in " Dulwich " were mortgaged by Sir Francis Calton to Robert Lee, Lord Mayor of London, December 17th, 1602, for £660. Alleyn paid off the mortgage in 1605, and acquired full possession of the property shortly afterwards. The deed of the sale by Calton, Lee, Simpson (a goldsmith who had witnessed Calton's mortgage) to Alleyn, " of St. Saviour's, " Southwark, Esquire," mentions " Dulwich Court, and Hall Place, and " three other messuages in Dulwich for ;ri30 to Sir Francis Calton, and " £660 to Sir Robert Lee " (i.e., the amount of the mortgage). We shall shortly have occasion to discuss the question whether Alleyn lived at Dulwich Court. The Court is to be found on Rocque's Map of London, published in 1746, and in his map of Surrey about 1765. It occurs in the map in Lyson's Environs in 1792, and is seen in a map of so late a date as 1808. Whether it has been merged in " Court " Farm," or, as its position on the map would seem to imply, was a * Part of the ground-rent is for the land in front of the Blew House, which was formerly part of the main road If. ^ o Oh >-) -J •--1 58 DULWICH. house nearer to Dulwich Village (in which case it must have been demolished), does not seem to be known. We must now come to the old Manor House, which was by far the most interesting mansion in the neighbourhood. This stood till quite recently in the " Manor House Field " at the bottom of Croxted Road. It was formerly known as Hall Place, or Knowles, as we learn from AUeyn's deed of grant, by which he gives the College "all that the Mannor House, or capital messuage, " with the land and appurtenance thereunto belonging in Dulwich afore- " said, called Hall Place, also Knowlis." The ground in " the occupacion "of Hall" in i6og was ten acres. Manning and Bray assert that Alleyn lived " either at Hall Place, or " what is now Dulwich Court."* Tradition has alwajs averred that the Manor House was Allej-n's home, but there is a lease still extant " from " Francis Calton to John Bone, of Camberwell, of Hall Place at a rent " of £20 for 21 years," dated May 12, 1597, and Alleyn let the same house to William Lawton. The Manor House was a picturesque old building of a pre-Elizabethan date. Some eight years ago the land on which it stood was let " for building purposes," and the lessee seems to have been allowed to destroy the building at his own sweet will ; the destruction was useless, for the land has never j'et been built upon. Such a transaction on the part of the authorities needs no comment. Even so late as the beginning of the present centur}-, Dulwich could boast of very large open spaces. Dulwich Common exists now only in name. We have already seen in Alleyn's dajs how Ricotes and the Blew House were situated on it. These houses ha\'e been joined by a great number of others since these days. The New College itself stands partly on the Common ; though about the middle of the last century there existed very close to the old Mill Pond (now transformed into an "ornamental lake") a mill called by the extraordinary name of " Bree- " Kill."t This mill continued, it is said, almost up to the time when the new College was built. In the early days of this 19th century, it was • So that Dulwich Court was standing in 1S14. + So it is written in Rocque's map of 1746. In his map of 1765 there seems to have been a brick-kiln on the Common : had this anything to do with the origin of the name ? DULWICH COMMON. 59 not difficult for grasping landlords to enclose common lands, and an Act was passed in 1805 enabling the College to enclose Dulwich Common, consisting, it is said, of 130 acres. In this case the Authorities had some show of right, as the Common was certainly among the lands acquired by Allej'n. In 1746 it was over a mile and a quarter in length. Part of Dulwich Wood still exists, but it cannot compensate for the loss of the Common, as only the authorities have the right of using it. It was originally part of the great Northwood — and that till about 1820, if not later — and it extended to the corner of Lordship Lane. Cox's Walk, behind Lordship Lane Station, was originally part of it, and was so named from Cox, the owner of the "Green Man" already referred to. The gipsies frequented this part of the wood just as much as they did the modern Norwood, and we have already mentioned how Byron is said to have spent his time w'ith them. The gipsies were also supposed to have been connected with a ver}' mysterious crime, of whicli the memory has not quite died out yet. Samuel Matthews — called the Dulwich Hermit, who had, by the permis- sion of the Authorities, made himself a cave in the wood, in which he lived — was one day found murdered. He seems to have been an eccentric old man, and his death was probably due to a general belief that he had saved money ; but he could hardly have found his profession as jobbing gardener so lucrative as that. We cannot do better than quote the account which appeared in the "Times" of December 31st, 1802. His dwelling we are told — " Was partly an excavation of the earth, and partly covered in with fern and underwood, &c. " Here for a series of years he lived unmolested and unmolesting, following his daily avocations "in performing under-gardener's work in the gardens of some of the neighbouring gentlemen; " by whom, for his inoffensive and gentle demeanour, he was much liked. His return to his cave to " sleep was constant, where on the Sunday he used to sell beer to such persons (of whom in tht " summer thtre tt'tre muny) as from curiosity might be drawn to visit his lonely cell. About five or " six years ago, however some villains, instigated by the same motive that probably led to his " death (an idea of his being possessed of money) broke into his cave, beat him in a dreadful " manner, and according to his own account at that time, robbed him of 12 shillings. From this " period for more than a year and a half he totally deserted his abode, and continued sleeping " in the hay lofts and stables of the people for whom he worked. Drawn, however, by some " irresistible propensity to his former mode of living, he altered the construction of his cave, " digging it from a mouth like that of an oven, into which he just left himself room to crawl, " and when he laid down, contrived to fix a board against the entrance, which he propped up " with his feet." In this curious abode he was found murdered on December 27th, 1802. It was thought at the time that the assassins might be some of DULWICH MILL. THE NEW PARK. Gi the " Gipsies who infest the vicinity of Norwood. Three men of this " description, and who were the vagrant tenants of a camp hard by " the retreat of Matthews, have been committed on suspicion of knowing "something of this inhuman transaction." A "gipsey chimney sweeper" named Sprague or Spragues was tried on the charge, but was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence. The measures taken to investigate the matter were very curious in the hght of modern development. " Sir K. " Ford sent a party of the Bow-Street Patrol into the neighbourhood " to endeavour to collect every possible information that may lead to " the detection of the murderers." The inquest, it may be added, was held at the "French Horn" in Dulwich, an inn formerly situated opposite the Old College, in a piece of land now included in the Park. Though Dulwich Common has gone for ever, and Dulwich Wood has been practically closed to everyone, yet Dulwich can now boast of a large " open space." A few years ago the Estates Governors of Dulwich College, after much discussion and prolonged deliberation, offered to make over a number of fields, including those which had long been known by the name of the " Five Fields," to the Metropolitan Board of Works, to be governed by them, and laid out as a Public Park or Recreation Ground. But even when this decision was reached there were many difficulties in the way of the proposal. The parishes of St. Luke and St. Botolph again made themselves heard, and were loud in their opposition to the scheme. We have already discussed these rights of the so-called privileged parishes, and the Select Committee of the House of Commons, with Mr. Algernon Egerton as president, at last came to the conclusion that the Governors had the power to grant these lands, which altogether comprised 72 acres, and gave the scheme their approval on May 5th, 1885. Since then operations have been carried on in the Five Fields, but the Park is not yet finished, while its old picturesque appearance seems to have disappeared altogether. We have been enabled to reproduce a photograph of Cro.xted Lane as it appeared in 1880. In the short space of ten years the pretty country lane has been transformed into the present street of modern houses. In old days, Croxted Lane, as will be seen from our repro- duction of Rocque's map, was a most important part of Dulwich ; in fact, it appears, like Lordship Lane, to be the name of a district. In 62 DULWICH. this signification it occurs frequently in the Chapel Registers ; as, for instance, among the Births we find : " 1780. Jane d. of John and Catherine \\'rane, of Croxcd Lane." Through this lane flowed the Effra, the stream on which tradition asserts Queen Elizabeth travelled to Dulwich ; and Croxted Lane for a long time retained the rural aspect for which it was beloved by Mr. Ruskin when he lived at Denmark Hill, and on this subject we shall have more to say in a subsequent chapter. Ebwarb Hlle^n. %0 TAINT of selfishness is found in the generosity of Edward Allejn, the founder of the College of God's Gift at Dulwich. Though only " bred a stage-player," a profession which received but scanty honour at that time, and though his fortune was gained by his own hard exertions, }et, like many another noble benefactor of these days, the " pious actor " during his own lifetime generously gave up a considerable part of his property and himself personally superintended the completion of his own deeply laid plans for improving the welfare of the public. In more modern da\s, generously - minded millionaires prefer to enjoy their riches to the full during their own lifetime, and only give them up to the use of the public at their death. Yet even in Alleyn's case, fortune cruelly proved unkind ; in spite of all his rules and statutes, his school must be said to have been a complete failure for two hundred and fifty years ; and it was not until 1870 that it entered, in its reformed state, on a career of success. The School has, therefore, its history all before it, but that this history will be a great and famous one, there is clear and indubitable e\idence. Before narrating the known facts of Alleyn's life, it will be well to reproduce the quaint though short biography of the founder given by Fuller in his "Worthies."* 'Fuller's Worthies," edited by P. A. Nuttall, 1840. Vol. II. p. 3S5. 64 EDWARD ALLEYN. " Edward Allin was born in the aforesaid parish (Allhallows, Lombard " Street), near Devonshire House, whyre is now the sign of the Pie. He " was bred a stage player, a calling which many have condemned, more " have questioned, and some few have excused, and far fewer conscientious " people have commended. He was the Roscius of our age, so acting to " the life that he made any part, particularly a majestic one, to become " him. He got a very great estate, and in his old age, following Christ's " counsel (from what forcible motive belongs not me to enquire) ' he " made friends of his unrighteous mammon,' building therewith a fair " college at Dulwich iit Kent, for the relief of poor people. " Some, I confess, count it built on a foundered foundation, seeing, " in a spiritual sense, none is good and lawful money save what is " honestly and industriously gotten. But perchance such who condemn " Master Allin herein have as bad shillings in the bottom of their own " bags, if search were made therein. Sure I am, no hospital is tied with " better or stricter laws, that it may not sagg from the intention of the " founder. The poor of his native parish, St. Botolph, Bishopgate, have " a privilege to be provided therein before others. Thus he, who out-acted " others in his life, out-did himself before his death, which happened " Anno Domini 1626." This extract, it will be noticed, is marked throughout by the Puri- tanical spirit of contempt for actors so common in the sixteenth century, which almost refused to believe that any good could be achieved by a follower of that calling ; but it is the first account we possess of Edward Alleyn, and it has the great advantage of being written by an author almost contemporaneous with the man whose life he described. In the eighteenth century 01d}s wrote a life of Alleyn for the "General Historical Dictionary," and the writings of Fuller and Oldys are almost our only authorities, till the manuscripts preserved at Dulwich came to be examined at the beginning of this century. The diary of Philip Henslowe— Alleyn's father-in-law, a lender of stage properties and a leading theatrical manager of the age of Elizabeth — was lent by the Wardens of the College, who seem to have been always careless of their duty, to Malone, the great Shakesperian scholar and critic. He at once saw the great value of the book, and, delighted with the discovery, handed it about among his friends, many of whom were unscrupulous enough to cut 66 EDWARD ALLEYN. away pages, especially those containing autographs. Collier, in his " History of Dramatic Poetrj'," even states that he found a page of this diary bound up in a volume of old plays bought at an auction : but all that this author says of his purchases and discoveries must of course be accepted with much reserve. But be that as it may, the fact remains this diary is of immense value, and is an important authority in the general history of the stage as well as in the life of Edward Alleyn. A more trustworth\' instance of the carelessness of the College Wardens is the Carlton-Alleyn agreement of 1605, which is set down in the catalogue of the College Manuscripts of 1881 as having been lost. In March, 1885, this document was sold at an auction to an agent of Mr. Halliwell-Phillips, by whom it was generously restored to the College authorities. Still more important evidence as to the facts of Alleyn's life is to be found in the diary kept by the actor between the years 1617 and 1622, and in the detached documents (consisting of leases, agreements, letters, etc.) which Alle\'n carefull_v preserved. All these manuscripts were used by Mr. Payne Collier in writing a life of Alleyn for the Shakespeare Society in 1841. Mr. Blanch has included a short memoir of Alleyn in his " Histor}- of the Parish of Camberwell," the value of which chiefly lies in the documents reprinted in the appendix ; and there is a still shorter sketch to be found in the appendi.x to Mr. Havelock Ellis's edition of Christopher Marlowe's works, published in 1887. The biography of Alleyn contributed to the " National Dictionary of Biography " is written by Mr. G. W. Warner. Alleyn's father was, as we are told in his will, a " citizen and inn- " holder " in London, but it may be very well doubted whether Fuller's words admit of the interpretation that the inn in question bore " the " sign of the Pie." On both sides Alleyn's parents were well connected. His paternal grandfather was Thomas Alleyn, of Willen, in Buckingham- shire, and of Mesham, in Bedfordshire, while his mother, Margaret, was the daughter of John Townley, esquire, of Townley, in Lancashire. On the death of the elder Edward Alleyn, his widow married a man named Brown, and it is thought that Brown was an actor and that to him Alleyn owed his first introduction to the stage. It is to be observed that we know very few details connected with ALLEYN'S FAME AS AN ACTOR. 67 the early life of Alleyn ; and those details that are known come to us largely from extraneous sources ; as for instance, the two or three references to Alleyn before 1600, in the works of contemporary authors. The first reference to Alleyn's profession as yet discovered describes him as a " musician." That Alleyn had considerable skill in music there can be no doubt ; but the title, it is argued, may be simply due to the fact that little or no distinction was drawn in those days between the stage and the orchestra. It seems likely that in boyhood Alleyn, as was usual before the Restoration, personated female characters, and was thus, in Fuller's words, "bred a stage player." In those days it was the custom for a body of actors to enter the service of the Queen or of some nobleman whose name afforded them considerable protection — protection which was above all needed when the company went on a tour through the country. At the age of 20 (1586) we find Alleyn enrolled among the Earl of Worcester's players ; and from this date his rise to fame and honour was singularly rapid. From the Earl of Worcester Alleyn passed to the service of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, and on the death of that nobleman in 1594 the company enrolled themselves under the Lord Chamberlain, and performed with the " Lord Admiral's Players." In 1588-9, Philip Henslowe has occasion to mention Alleyn in his diary as buying " playing-apparels, play books, instruments, and other " commodities," for the sum of £^j los., and from this entry we may conclude that Alleyn was by this time well advanced in laying the foundations of his subsequent wealth. Shortly after this, in 1592, Nash published his " Pierce Pennyless," alluding to Alle\n, on two occasions, in terms of the highest praise. " Not Roscius nor Aesope, those tragedians " admyred before Christ was borne, could ever perform more in action "than famous Ned Allen." And further on he adds: — "If I ever write "anything in Latine (as I hope one day I shall), not a man of any desert " here amongst us, but I wdll have up, — Tarlton, Ned Allen, Knell, Bentley, " shall be made knowen to Fraunce, Spayne, and Italie, and not a part " that they surmounted in more than other but I will there note, and set " downe with the manner of their habits and attyre." About 1590 or 1591 Alleyn was induced to pit himself against some of the more famous actors of the day. The document which informs 6S EDWARD ALLEYN. us of this fact would seem to show that Alleyn's position and reputation as an actor, though assured, was not as yet so great as it afterwards was. Alleyn in this letter was asked to undertake a wager against a person " affected to Bentley" that he would surpass Bentley or Knell in any part played by them. " I see not," the writer of the letter goes on to say, " how you canne any waie hurte )'Our credit by " this action ; for if yow excell them 3-ou will then be famous ; if equall " them yow wynne both the wager and credit : if short of them " we must and will saie Ned Allen still." Another document quoted by Mr. Collier, referring to a similar wager, has since been declared to be spurious. Two years afterwards (1593) a play called "A Knacke to Knowe a " Knave," was entered at Stationers' Hall, with Alleyn's name on the title page. The quaint title of the book runs as follows : — " A most pleasant and merie new Comedie entitled A Knacke to Knowe a Knave newlie set foorth as it hath sundrie tymes been played by Ed. Allen and his companie, With Kemp's applauded merrimentes of the men of Goteham in receiving the King into Goteham. Imprinted at London bj' Richard Jones, dwelling at the signe of the Rose and Crowne, nere Holborne Bridge, 1594." This at least shows that Alleyn was by this time regarded as the head of his company.* The play is mentioned on four occasions in Philip Henslowe's diary, as having been acted by his company, and was so successful that the author, whoever he may have been, was induced to write " A knacke to knowe an honest man," which is continually being mentioned throughout the diary. Meanwhile, in 1592, Alleyn had married Joan Woodward, the daughter — by a former husband— of Agnes, wife of Philip Henslowe. Henslowe enters the event in his diary as follows : — • Only four copies of the book are Unown to exist, but it may be seen by anyone, at the South Kensington Museum, in the room adjoining the Dyce and Forster Reading Room." ACTING IN THE PROVINCES. 69 " Edward Alen wasse marjd unto Jone Woodward the 22 day of octobr " 1592 In the IV. and thirtie jeare of the Quene's Ma'tics Rayne eh2abeth "by the grace of God of Ingland, francc, and larland and defender of the " fayth." The speUing of this entry, as throughout the diary, is interesting and remarkable, and points to considerable neglect on the part of the parents of Mr. Philip Henslowe. Henslowe, it is true, was not verj' well educated, but it is nevertheless true that in the 17th century one could ha\e hardly got tired of the most commonplace surname, there was sucli a delightful variety of ways in which it might be spelt : AUin, Allen, Alen, AUein, Alleyn, Alleyne, are all constantly to be met with. Alleyn was now manager of Lord Strange's compan}-, who were plajing at the Rose Theatre. The Rose, built on the Bankside, about 15S0, was the first theatre erected on the Surrey side of the river and was situated (juite close to the Paris Garden. In 1593, the )ear after AUeyn's marriage, the plague broke out in London and the theatres were closed by royal edict. In consequence of this, Alleyn was forced to go with the company on a tour through the provinces ; and it was during this journe\- that Alleyn wrote these delightful letters to his wife at home, which are still preserved at Dulwich College. " M}' good sweete harte and "loving mouse," he writes " I send the a thousand commendations, wishing " thee as well as well may be ; but, mouse, I littell thought to hear "that which I now hear by 30U, for it is well known they say that " you wear by my lorde maior's officers mad to rid in a cart, you and "all your felowes, which I ame sorry to hear: but you may thank "your II supporters, your stronge leges I mean, that would nott carrj' " \'0u away, butt let you fall into the hands of such tarmagants. But, " mouse, when I com horn, I'l be revenged on "em : till w hen, mouse, " I bid thee fayen\'ell. Farewell mecho mousin, and mouse and fare- " well bess dodipoll." Dodipoll, it may as well be remarked, is evidenth' a term of endearment. The nickname comes from a play called Dr. Dodipoll, selections from which ma}- be seen in Charles Lamli's " Elizabethan Dramatists." This very play is one of the so-called Garrick collection, many of which, and these too the most valuable, were obtained by the actor Garrick from Dulwich College in exchange for a parcel of new books. Such a scandalous transaction is perhaps the most unpardonable crime which can be laid to the charge of the last century 70 EDWARD ALLEYN. Wardens of the School — reckless and careless as they were. The loss, of course, to the College is immense ; but fortunately Garrick left them to the nation, and they are probably more useful at the British Museum than they could have been at Dulwich. Yet, supposing they had been sold to any ordinary collector, the result would have been most disastrous ; they would certainly have been dispersed sooner or later, and probably many of the unique specimens of the Elizabethan Drama would have been lost for ever. In 1592, before the provincial tour, Lord Strange's company had been acting at the Rose Theatre (a theatre which had been originally built by Henslowe), and had had as their dramatists such famous writers as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Greene, and Peele. In this theatre Alleyn had naturally a large interest, but in 1594 Henslowe and Alleyn became joint lessees of the Paris Bear Garden, which was also situated on the Bankside. The Bankside was a favourite situation for play houses ; the Rose, the Hope, the Swan, and the Globe Theatres, and the Paris Bear Garden, all helped to attract a large crowd of sight- seers to the Surrey side of the river. What the traffic across the Thames must have been we can in part infer from the number of watermen who gained their living chiefly from ferrying passengers across. These "cannot be fewer" than 40,000, "the cause of the greater half of "which multitude," says Taylor, the water poet, "hath been the players " plajing on the Bankside." Further reasons are given by Taylor : — " Afterwards the players began to play on the Bankside, and to leave " playing in London and Middlesex (for the most part) ; then there went " such a great concourse of people by water that the small number of " watermen remaining at home were not able to carry them, by reason of " the Court, the Tearmes, the Pla3ers, and other employments, so that " we were inforced and encouraged (hoping that this golden shower " would have lasted for ever) to take and entertaine men and boyes, which " bo\'es are growne men and keepers of houses, many of them being " overcharged with families of wives and children." The number seems almost incredible, but it is well authenticated, and the "Water Poet" must have been an authority concerning his own profession. The fare, it is curious to notice, was fi.xed by statute at the sum of fourpence. The Queen herself kept her State Barge, as Paul Hentzner, a German RETURNS TO LONDON. 71 who travelled in England in 1598, tells us : — " Near to the Theatre, close " to the river : it has two splendid cabins beautifully ornamented with "glass windows, painting and guilding ; it is kept upon dry ground and " sheltered from the weather." It is surely not fanciful to suppose that this was the very State barge which Alleyn afterwards bought, in order to make out of the materials the mantelpiece still preserved in the College Library. Among the places that appear to have been visited b}- Lord Strange's Company when in the provinces, were Chelmsford, Bristol, Shrewsbury, Chester, and York. Late in 1593, the players were back in town, but were prevented playing at the Rose Theatre by the ro_\al proliibi- tion. It has been already seen from Taylor's petition, liow much the watermen suffered from this prohibition, and so we get a petition to the Privy Council that the injunction should be removed, and another of similar purport addressed to " my Lorde Hayward, Lorde Highe " Admiral of England, and one of her Ma'''=^ moste honnorable previe " Counsajle," by Philip Henslow and the Bankside watermen. The result of these various petitions was that about April, 1594, the Privy Council issued a warrant repealing the prohibition, and actually "enjoining them to plaie three dales at ncwington Butts;" the Rose Theatre was, at the same time, declared available for performances "so " longe as yt shall be free from infection of sickness." Soon alter the Bankside theatres were opened Lord Strange died, and his company passed to the Lord Chamberlain. Wn learn from Henslow's diary that in this year (1594) the Lord Chamberlain's and the Lord Admiral's men played together. The references to .\lleyn by name m this diar_\- do not add very much to our knowledge, but .Mleyn's signature appears very often as witness to a loan. Under the supposed date of 1596 we have a list of the " Inhabitantes of Southerk as have complaned" including the name of " Mr. Shaksper : " the document is forged, and indeed the onl}- I genuine reference to Shakespeare in tiie Alleyn papers is the purchase of the Sonnets in 1609 for 5d. In 1597, it is imagined, Alleyn temporarily retired from the stage, or " leafte playing," perhaps because his attention was wholly occupied with the management of the Bear Garden. In June and September, 1598, he 72 EDWARD ALLEYN. was staying \vith his wife in tlie country (in Sussex). Shortly after this he must have resolved on the construction of a new theatre, but his scheme met with great opposition. January 12th, J-||| the Earl of Notting- ham writes to the Justices of Middlesex, requesting them to give " his ser\ant," Edward Allen, the required authority ; and this interference from one of so high a rank procured the result desired. In 1599 the building of the Fortune Theatre was begun, the funds being provided by Alleyn and his father-in-law together ; and before 1602 the theatre was opened and plays performed. By 1601 Alleyn must have returned to the stage, as we have clear evidence of his performances in that year. On March 15th, 1603-4, '^he last appearance of which we have any distinct record,* in the character of Genius, he delivered a congratulatory address to James rst, when that monarch was entertained by the City. "Genius," writes honest Dekker, " b}- M. Allin (sen'ant to the young Prince) his " gratulatory speech, which was delivered with excellent action and a " vvell-tunde audible voice." It was in 1594 that Henslowe and Alleyn became joint lessees of the Paris Bear Garden, but the profits did not satisfy them. Most of the animals required were snapped up by the King's Agents, and the competition proved too much for the private lessees. Sir William Stewart had now succeeded Sir John Dorington in the office of Mastersiiip of the " King's Games — of Bears, Bulls, and Dogs." Henslowe and Alleyn insisted that not having a license they were subjected to greait losses, and could not put the Paris Garden to the use for which it was intended. They offered to sell the garden, bears, and dogs to Sir \\'illiam Stuart, but he refused ; and in self-defence the partners were driven to l)uj' out the King's Master for the sum of ^^450, in November, 1604. A few remarks on this noble pastime of bear-baiting may not be out of place here. The amusement was countenanced by royalt\- : it found a place among the " princely pleasures " in honour of Queen Elizabeth when she paid a visit to Kenilworth ; and she seems to have enjoyed such spectacle well, for it was not an unusual occupation with her. " Her Majesty is very well," wrote Sir Rowland White (Sidney Papers); "this day she appoints to see a Frenchman doe feates upon a rope in the ' So it is usually said, but vitic p. 79. THE PARIS BEAR GARDEN. 73 Conduit Court : to-morrow she hath commanded the beare, bulls, and the ape to be baited in the tilt yard." The amusement, if these miserable exhibitions can be dignified with such a title, was most usuall}' popular on Sundays. On some occasions the prices of admission were " one pennie at the gate, another at the cntrie of the scaffold, and a third for quiet standing room." Skelton, in a poem, gives a good description of the proceedings, but he (as does also the chronicler Stow) strongly disapproves of the "games." " What folly is this to keep with danger A great mastive dog and fowle ouglie bear. And to this end to see them two fight With terrible tearings, a ful ouglie sight. And methinkes those men are most fools of al, Whose store of money is but very smal ; And yet everj' Sunday they wil surely spend One penny or two, the bearwards living to mend. At Paris garden each Sunday a man shal not fail To find two or three hundred for the bearward's vale, One half-penny a piece they use for to give, When some have no more in their purses I believe. Wei at the the last day, their conscience wil declare, That the poor ought to have al that they ma}- spare. If you therefore give to see a bear fight. Be sure God his curse upon you will light." When the games were to take place, the public were informed of the fact by flags flying from the circular building in which the per- formances were held. The bears' keeper, moreover, with a musician, marched the animal through the streets so that all might see it. Paul Hentzner gives the best contemporaneous account of the games — an account which we do not know to be quoted in this connection by other writers. " There is still another place, built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of buHs and bears ; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs, but not without great risk to the dogs from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other, and it sometimes happens that they are killed upon the spot : fresh ones are 74 EDWARD ALLEYN. immediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his chain ; he defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands and breaking them. At these spectacles, and everywhere else, the English are constantly smoking tobacco." Paul Hentzner visited England in 1597, so that it relates to the time when Alleyn and Henslowe managed the bear garden, though they were not yet the King's " Masters." One of Alleyn's own advertisements has been preserved at Dulwich. " To-morrow, being Thursdae, shal be seen at the bear garden, on " the bank side, a great match plaied by the gamesters of Essex, who " hath challenged all comers whatsoever, to plaie five dogges at the " single beare for five pounds, and also to wearie a bull dead at the " stake, and for their better content shall have pleasant sport with the " horse and ape, and whipping of the blinded bear. Vivat Rex." Alleyn soon became personally known to the King. Very soon after the accession of James I. in 1603-4, " the King's Majesty lodging in the "tower of London on the 13th of March, after he had surveyed all the " offices, store-houses, and the Mint where both the King and the Queen "coined money and gave to divers persons there present; being told of " the lions he asked of their being and how they came thither."* They sent for "Allen (now sworne the Prince's man, and Maister of the Bear " Gardens, late servant to the Lord Admiral), and bade him fetch secretly " three of the fellest dogs in the garden." The dogs were sent in to the lion one by one. The first two were terribl}- mangled, but the third survived. " The last dog was well recovered of all his hurts and the " young Prince commanded his servant E. Allen to bring the dog with " him to St. James' where the prince charged the said Allen to keep him '' and make much of him, saying he that had fought with the king of " beastes should never after fight with any inferior creature." But even * " Stow's Chronicles;" edition 1C15, p. 835, col. b. THE MANOR OF DULWICH. 75 with the King's hccnsc, the business did not prove as profitable as the King's masters considered it should, and we find Henslowe and Alleyn asking for larger fees and privileges ; but it is hard to see how this petition could have been justified. Alleyn's fortune must have by this time become moderately large ; and tlie fees paid by the spectators at the Bear Garden must have reached a considerable sum. At any rate, in 1606, we find Henslowe and Alleyn entering into an agreement with one Peter Streete (the carpenter, who had built the Globe Theatre in 1593, and the Fortune in 1599.) for the rebuilding of the Paris Garden. The agree- ment is dated June 2nd, 1606, and the work, it is especially stipulated, was to be finished by September 3rd ; the building, hov\ever, was not completed till January gth, f^^. In the year 1605 we first find Alleyn bu}ing land in Dulwich from Sir Francis Calton (his " livery " being dated October 3rd, 1605). Concerning the early history of the manor of Dulwich, there is not very much to be said. In 1127 it was granted by Henry I. to Ber- mondsey Prior}', which gradually became one of the most important religious foundations in the south of England. Among the muniments of Dulwich College there are several deeds referring to sales of buildings on the manor in the early part of the 14th century, but these are of little general interest. On the suppression of Bermondsey Abbey in 1537-8, the land became Crown propert)-, but on October nth it was made over by Henry VIII. to a goldsmith, Thomas Calton. From the heir of the latter — Sir Francis Calton — Alleyn bought the manor in 1606, or a little later ; and altogether, with his subsequent purchases of the neighbouring lands, it has been calculated, it must have cost him over £10,000. In 1610, Alleyn became churchwarden of the Liberty of the Clink, a position which he must have held for some years, as the following entry in his diary attests: — "1617: Dec. 21. I went to London: water " {i.e. cost of boat) : and paid ye pore of ye Clink Lyberty a legacie " anualy to be paid : £2 o o." At this time (1610) both Henslowe and Allen lived within the liberty of the Clink in Southwark : "Mr. Allen " dwells harde by the Clynke by the bank syde, neere Wynchester-house ;" and they were both, naturally enough, very influential persons. Henslowe has occasion to mention the Clink once or twice in his diary, as he had 76 EDWARD ALLEYN. on several occasions to bail his actors out of the Clink Prison before his performances could proceed. " Lent unto Robert Shaw, the lo of Marche, " 1599, to lend Wm. Harton, to release him out of the Clyncke the sum "of los.;" and again: " Pd for the companye the 16 of Marche 1602 " unto the mercers man Puleston, for his Mr. John Willett deate, the "some of eight powndes and los., which they owght hime for satten and " charges in the Clynke, for arestynge John Ducke — ^^8 los. od." It \\as not till 1613, or after, that Alleyn removed to Dulwich. Philip Henslowe's diary ends in 1608, but the last entry is peculiarly interesting, as it affords materials for a comparison of the profits arising respectively from the Paris Bear Garden and the Fortune Theatre. The comparison fully bears out the theory that Alleyn retired from the management of the theatre because the Bear Garden was more profitable. " Rd : at the Bergerden this yeare 1608, beginning at Chrystmas holedayes, as foloweth : " Rd one monday St. Stevenes day - -£400 " Rd one tuesday St. Johns daye - - jTS o o " Rd one wedsdaye being Shilldermas daye - £3 13 o " Rd at the Fortewne this yeare, 1608, begenynge at Crystmas holedayes : " Rd one St. Stevenes daye - - - £^ 5 o " Rd one St. Johnes daye - - -£250 " Rd one Cheldermas daye - - - £2 4 9" At this time theatres were destroyed by fire even more frequently than in the 19th century, and this was only natural seeing that they were for the most part built of wood. On June 29th, 1610, the Globe Theatre was burnt down, and in the following July the Paris Bear Garden was converted by Henslowe into a theatre as well as a garden, the theatre being known by the name of " The Hope."* On May 17th, 1613, Alleyn and " John Benson of Westminster, " bricklayer," in the presence of one Thomas Bolton, a scrivener, signed an indenture for the erection of a hospital at Dulwich, containing a minute and exact description of the form and measurements of the buildings. It has often been stated that the famous Inigo Jones was the • Vide a valuable series of articles in "The Antiquary" for 1885. BUILDING THE COLLEGE. 77 architect of the chapel and buildings ; but this has been disputed by at least one modern authority. The cause for the doubt lies in the phrase " proportionably accordinge to a plott thereof made and drawen by the " saide parties." It is a remarkable fact, however, that Inigo Jones was present at the banquet given when the College was opened. It has certainly always been the tradition that Inigo Jones was the architect, and it is very hard to see why the " plott " (or plan) in question should pro\'c such a stumbling block. It obviouslw in semi-legal phraseology, refers to the subsequent part of the indenture itself — the part containing an accurate description of the buildings required. Moreover, Oldys, the antiquary, in the early part of last century, states it as an absolute fact : " Inigo Jones " designed the College.'" We need not hesitate to take it for granted that Alleyn was simply actuated by his benevolent impulses in founding the College. It is quite unnecessary to discuss the \alue of the absurd story hinted at by Fuller (in the word's " following Christ's counsel, or what forcible motive belongs not me to inquire ") that he was driven to it by terror because the Devil had appeared to him while acting in the part of Faustus. The story might well be a sneer from one of Alleyn's envious contemporaries, and was just the kind of accusation which would be picked up b\- Prynne to be retailed in the " Histrio-Mastix or Scourge of .Actors." "The visible apparition of the Devil," says Prynne, "upon the stage at " the Bell-Savage playhouse in Queen Elizabeth's days to the great amaze- " ment both of the actors and spectators whilst they were there profanely " playing the history of Faustus." Of .Alleyn's good nature we have ample evidence. Samuel Jenyns writes to beg Alleyn to contribute to the support of Chelsea College, the object of which institution was the education of " polemical " divines to oppose the Church of Rome ; while the number of " begging letters " preserved among Alleyn's correspondence is enormous. He was always being called upon to put his hand in his pocket and lend money, or else to procure the release of a friend from prison by paying his debt. Building was begun in 1613. Alleyn was himself to provide all the bricks, wood, and other material required, Benson simply supplying the labour. For the latter he was to receive £10 for every five rods of 78 ED WA RD A LLEYX. brickwork completed. The commencement of the work in Dulwich was verj^ probably the occasion of Alleyn's removal from Southwark to the Manor House, Dulwich (as tradition says*), which till quite recently was standing at the top of the Croxted Road. Here he could superintend the erection of the College and Hospital, which dragged on till the autumn of 1616. It was only when the buildings were complete that Allej'u's troubles began, for he could not get the letters patent that were required. But though the College was not formally opened till i6ig, poor people were admitted to the Almshouses, and on August 31st, 1616, Cornelius Lymar was appointed the first Fellow, while on the following day Arch- bishop Abbot consecrated the Cemetery and Church under the name of Christ's Chapel. On September 17th, the Earl of Arundell writes to Alleyn recommending to his notice "a poore fatherless boy." Alleyn must have been fairly well known to the Earl, for on April 17th, 1648, " I wase," he writes in his diary, " at Arundell House, where my Lord " shewed me all his statues and pictures that came from Italy." Shortly after this, Alleyn was brought into communication with one of the most extraordinary characters of that extraordinary age. Stephen Gosson had filled the parts of actor, playwright, and satirist ; then, being converted by a Puritan preacher, turned round on his former friends, wrote the book by which he is best known, "The School of Abuse, " containing a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, Jesters, and " such like caterpillars of a Commonwealth," and entered into holy orders. As Rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, he sends Alleyn three poor people for admission to the Hospital ; but one of these three proved so troublesome that he had to be expelled. Alleyn appears to have been equally unfortunate with others whom he chose to be recipients of his charity ; for a gentleman who rejoiced in the name of Mr. " Boane " comes before our notice as twice incurring a fine for being drunk, and (shocking ingratitude) this after he had received on New Year's Day, 1618 (according to Alleyn's diary) a capon and a hen — value 6d. In 1616 Philip Henslowe died, and apparently left his son-in-law a legacy, for we find John Henslowe suing Edward Alleyn, Agnes Henslowe, and Roger Cole, for conspiracy, as having defrauded him of his just inheritance. What the issue of this was we have no means to determine. • But see Chapter iii., Dulwich, p. 58. THE QUEEN'S BARGE. 79 On October 3rd, 1617, Alleyn records in his diary, " I went to ye Red Bull and rec. for ye younger brother but £i 6s. 4d ; " whether he received this fee for acting or in his capacity as manager does not appear. In Dec. igth, he appears in a peculiar light, for he enters "given balye Large in gratuitye for keeping me off Juries 5/-." On January ist, 161?, he gave Lady Suffolk a book, of which the total cost was £1^, an enormous sum as represented in the currency of the present day; while towards the end of this year (December 19th) ho "bought " of Mathewe all ye upper part of ye queues barge " for £2 zs. 6cl. To return to the College : we learn several facts connected with the management of the Hospital, between 1616 and 1619, from the interesting diary of the founder, to which we have already had occasion to refer. The entries in it cover a period of nearly five years, from December, 1617, to October, 1622. It was AUeyn's custom to receive the Communion with his almspeople on all the great festivals of the Church, and after- wards entertain them at supper. Thus, on December 25th, 1617, he writes : " Christmass daye. We received and dined ye pore people ;" and again ; " April 7th, 1618. We received ye communion wt ye pore dind " and suppt them." The College gained an organist on the 26th of March, 1618, in the person of John Hopkins, who, as we afterwards discover, received a salary of £2 los. od. a quarter. With regard to the salaries of the various fellows, we have two interesting entries during the year 1618 : these entries simply refer to a quarter's salary, and Alleyn appears to have omitted all reference to the other two quarters of the year : — "June 24 pd Mr. Yonge his quarter's wagis ... ;^'5 o o pd Mr. Harrisone his wagis £3 8 6 pd Mr Hopkins his quarter's wagis ... £2 10 o" With respect to the first two names, we should imagine that Young was 2nd Fellow, or Schoolmaster, and Harrison 3rd Fellow or Usher ; while the post of Preacher or ist Fellow is left vacant. But before the next entry Young has departed, Harrison (judging by the amount of salary he receives) seems to have been promoted to the post of 2nd Fellow, while Martin Symonds appears as 3rd Fellow. " Thus : Dec 29 : pd ye Collegiantes theire pencion Mr. Samuell Wilsine, preacher ... ... ... £^ 13 4 8o EDWARD ALLEYX. Mr. Js. Harrisone, scholemaster ... ... 3^5 oo o Mr. Martyne Symondes, usher ... ... £3 06 8 Mr. Tho. Hopkins, organist ... ... ... ;£'2 10 o" It will be observed that in this entry the Organist is styled Thomas Hopkins, whereas in a previous entry he was called John. The three years intervening between the building and the formal opening of the College were spent b}' Alleyn in endeavouring to obtain letters patent from the King. The Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon, was most obstinate in his opposition. " I now v.rite to give the King," runs a letter from Bacon to the Marquis of Buckingham, "an account of a " patent I have stayed at the seal ; it is of a license to give in mortmain " ;f8oo land though it be of tenure in chief to Alle3'n that was the player, " for an hospital. I like well that Alleyn playeth the last act of his life " so well, but if his Majesty give way thus to amortize his tenures, the " Court of Wards will decay, which I had well hoped should improve. " But that which moved me chiefly is that his Majesty now lately did " absolutely deny Sir Henry Savile for ^^200 and Sir Edward Sandjs for " ^Tioo to the perpetuating of two lectures, the one in O.xford and the "other in Cambridge, foundations of singular honour to his Majestj', and " of which there is great want ; whereas hospitals abound, and beggars " abound never a whit less." He suggests to the King to reduce the ;f8oo to ;f500, and then acquiesce in the demands of Saville for £200 and Sandjs for ;fioo. But the Chancellor's scruples were at last over- come, and on June 21st (the day still celebrated at the School as Founder's Day) the letters patent were granted. The document contains a list of the various lands, and it would be verj' interesting if the names could be now traced, but this unfortunatelj- does not seem to be possible. Among them we find Howlette (this was at Heme Hill), Hall Place, Nappes and Stoney Nappes, Perriefield in Duhvich (probably con- nected with the present Perr}^ Vale), Addington Mead, and some others. During this time Alleyn had had one or two little difficulties in connection with the management of the School; as for instance: "April " 25, 1619 .... this daye Mr. Wilsone fayld and no sermone in ye " afternoone and all so euerie Sunday sine Easter." An event somewhat similar happened shortly afterwards : — " Sept 19 Md yt Mr Harisine had leave to goe and preach att OPENING OF THE COLLEGE, 8i " Becknani and he stayd all night, \'t on ye morrow ye schoole wase " untaught and no servis read." But in spite of all this Alleyn's troubles were practically over by this time. The 13th of September was a great day at Dulwich. Alleyn, rejoicing in the accomplishment of his labours, formally declared the College open amidst much ceremonj'. Francis Bacon put his scruples on one side and came to hear. Among the audience there were also present Lord Arundell, Lord Cecil, Sir J. Howland, High Sheriff of Surre)- and Sussex, several representatives of the great families of the neighbourhood, such as Sir Ed. Bowj-er of Camberwell, Sir Thomas Grymes of Peckham, Sir John Bodley of Streatham, and moreover Inigo Jones, "Ye King's Surveyor." "They first," says Alleyn, "herd a " sermond, and after, the instruments of Creacion wase by me read, and " after an anthem they went to dinner." Then follows a minute description of the dinner, with the cost of everjthing carefull}- entered. The account is curious but very length)-. Though the dinner consisted of onl}- two courses, yet the total cost reached the enormous sum of £20 gs. 2d. including £2 for " Ye Buck with warrant and feching." Alleyn however was not content with this one benefaction but so soon as he had finished his hospital at Dulwich he turned his attention to other dis- tricts. He next provided for the inhabitants of St. Luke's, laying the foundation stone of ten almshouses there July 13th, 1620. On December 15th in the same year he bought the manor of Lewisham. "This day " I paid for the manor and parsonage of Lewisham ;^iooo, and on " April i6th, 1621, we find him holding his first Court at Lewisham " as lord of the manor." It must not be thought that the benefits of the school were confined even in these days to such boys as the " pore fatherless" protege of the Earl of Arundell. Other boys were admitted at certain fees ; thus to refer to our great authority the diary again : 1620, June 15th. Mem. that Mr. Rogers sent this daj-e his three sones at board and scholing for I2li per annum apeece. 1620, September 12th, Thursday. Mr. Woodward's sone came to sojorne and be taught here at 2oli per annum. It is in this year that we get the first notice of Alleyn's acquaintance with Dr. Donne : on August 20th. " I had doc Donne," 82 EDWARD ALLEYN. he writes " att Camberwell and after d3'ned with Sir Thos. Grymes " [at Peckham] , they and Mr. Angell came to Dullwich in ye afternoone." On April ist be it recorded in the annals of Dulwich, Alleyn invested in " an oz. of tobacko is." (=ios. of the present day). This is the only entry of the kind in the diary. Next year (May 22nd), Alleyn " baited before the King at Green- wich." This seems to have been one of the solitary occasions on which Alleyn returned to his former roles : for we have no direct references to any other occasions of the same kind, and it is probable that there would have been documents left referring to the matter in question if Alleyn had continued to take an active part as Master of the King's " Games and Bears," etc. But on the gth of December a serious event happened which is thus chronicled in the diary : " Md. " this night att 12 of ye clock ye Fortune was burnt." This must have been a matter of grave importance to Alleyn, for he seems to have been unable or unwilling to provide for the rebuilding out of his own pocket, and in order to raise funds he divided the concern into 24 shares, letting out each share for £^ 6s. iid. for a period of 51 years. He thus anticipated in a way by more than 200 jears the great businesses of the present day which have been converted from private concerns into public companies. We are now come to the last year of the period covered by the diar}-. But the entries in 1622 are not of an}' great importance, though they are interesting as showing us who were his friends ; for instance, on April 23rd he dined with Sir Edward Bowj'er at Camberwell, and on this occasion " apoynted ye officers for ye parishe." On April 26th " I dind with ye Spanish Embassador Gondomar," who was perhaps the best known foreigner in England at the time, and on July 7th " I dind at Detford with ye Countes of Kildare." But some of the entries are still more interesting to us as indicating how his friendship with Dr. Donne and his famih- progressed. On July 14th AUejn heard Donne preach at Camberwell. On September 4th " ye Lo Carone, Sir Edward Bowyer, his brother and friend, Mr. " Dennis, Sir Thomas Grymes, his lady and his son, and ye dean off " Pales dahter {i.e. Constance Donne, whom Alleyn afterwards " married), ye Lady Clarck, Mr. Austen his wiff and daughter dind DR. JJONXE. 83 " with us," while a few days afterwards Alleyn met the Dean of St. Paul's again, for on September 21st he enters " I went to Croyden " fayre, dind with ye Archbishop where wase ye dean off Pawles and " Sir Edward Sacltvile." It is easy from these repeated notices to see how Allejn regarded Dr. Donne and the issue will not be a matter of any surprise. Soon after the last entry the diary comes to an end with the following statement : — "This Booke conta3'nes the account of 5 years viz. from Michellmass " 1617 to Michellmas 1622. " The general disbursed for theys years is £8504 04 8i. "Whereof in particular as followeth :■ — £ s. d. " Howshould charge 0917 II 2 "The Colledge 1315 04 2 "Rentes 1547 19 2 " Debtes : building an repairing 5373 17 7 "Law 0207 8 li "Aparell 0078 18 8^ "Some of theys particulers ... £7410 ig o " other expenses. " In the3-s 5 years hath bene disbursed about building or repairing the " Colledge ;fo8o2 07 9 " Praysed be the name off our good God both now and ever through " Christ Jesus our Lord, amen." It was always Alleyn's custom to mark the year's end in his diary with some such pious exclamation, and he notes his birthdays in the same way. In the College his birthdays were always celebrated by a special service, followed by a feast. To quote as examples the first and the last occasions on which they are mentioned. 1618, September ist. " This day the pore people dined with us, " it being my birthdaye and my 52 j-ear owld : blessed be the Lord " God the giver of liffe. Amen." September ist, 1622, "Wee took the Communion, feasted the pore and "gave the 12 ther newe gownes, and this being my birthday I am full "56 years owld: blessed be the Lord God the giver of lyffe- Amen." 84 EDWARD ALLEYN. After the year 1622 our materials for a life of Alleyn are com- paratively scanty: the diary of 1617-1622 took us into his private life, and showed him as the man quite as much as the founder and master of Dulwich College. We cannot but suppose that Alleyn continued his practice of keeping a diary, but unfortunately all traces of any such document have long since disappeared. In 1623 Alleyn had the misfortune to lose his wife Joan, his " good "sweete harte and loving mouse," who died on June 28th. Aubrey who visited Dulwich about 1700, describes several monuments in the Chapel, which have been since destroyed. He mentions two inscriptions to Joan Alleyn, both on the south side, one on a free stone, the other painted on the wall. Reference has already been made to these, and the inscriptions copied in full in our chapter on Dulwich. However the worthy actor, though, undoubtedly fond of his wife^ did not waste much time in mourning for her, but soon consoled him- self for his loss by marrying Constance Donne, daughter of the Dean of St. Paul's. It has been thought that in acting thus Alleyn was moved by a desire to improve his social standing, and indeed this seems very probable if we consider the position of Dr. Donne. Like many of the writers of the day he had started in life destitute of all means of a livelihood, but a lucky theological pamphlet had brought him under the notice of James ist, who bade him take Holy Orders, and then made him a Royal Chaplain. In his new position he at once came to the front ; and on one occasion he is said to have had the enormous number of 14 livings offered him at the same time : but he was no less famous as a poet and satirist than as a preacher. It is at any rate certain that Dr. Donne was not satisfied with Alleyn as a husband for his daughter: he writes a letter to a friend bewailing the trouble caused by his children, for he saj'S* " We do but borrow children of God to lend them to the world. And "when I lend the world a son in a profession the world does not "alwaies pay me well again; my hopes are not always answered in that " daughter or that son !" The relations between Dr. Donne and his son- in-law were rather strained ; and there were many recriminations and much bitterness on both sides. That Alleyn was dissatisfied with his • Quoted by Blanch. ALLEYN'S DEATH. 85 social position we have very good evidence for in 1624 he writes to a friend saying that he should like "some further dignitie," probably meaning by that expression knighthood. In July 1626 his property at Dulwich, Bankside, Lewisham, Lam- beth, Blackfriars, and Cripplegate was increased by the purchase of an estate at Simondstone, Aysgarth, Yorkshire. One of the last acts of his life was a visit to this newly acquired property in the month of July, but his sta}- in Yorkshire does not appear to have been long. He must have already felt that the end was approaching : on Novem- ber 13th he made his will, and on November 25th he passed away in the 6ist year of his age. The date of his death has been a matter of some uncertainty. Aubrey and Lysons give November 21st, the tombstone in the Chapel asserts it was the 26th, but there can be little doubt that the real date was as is given above, that being settled by the the authority of Matthias, Alleyn then warden. By Alleyn's will which was made at a time when he was " sick "in body but of perfect mind and memory" the sum of £1,600 was left to his wife Constance ; various small legacies were bequeathed to different relations, but the bulk of the property passed to the College with the exception of the money required for the accomplishment of the following clause. " I will and require my executors hereafter " named, within two years of my decease, to build ten almshouses in "the parish of Saint Buttolphe without, Bishopgate, London for ten " poor people of that parish to be members of the aforesaid College, " and likewise ten other houses in Saint Saviour's parish aforesaid, for "other ten poor people of the said parish, to be likewise members of " the said College ; which said twenty poor people being placed in their " several houses, shall have such relief and maintenance as in the " statutes of the aforesaid College is set down." These almshouses made the third set founded bj- Alle\n besides his great hospital at Dulwich. Alleyn seems never to have been an author : there is indeed one entry in Henslowe's diary 1602 which may be thought to mean that Alleyn wrote two plays, but the probability is that when he recei\ed £4 for "two books Philip of Spain and Longshanks " if he had 86 EDWARD ALLEYN. anything to do with the composition of the plays at all, it was simply for the work of revision or preparation for the stage. We know that Alleyn was fond of pictures ; he left a considerable number to the College : but had he any taste for music ? We ourselves would say most decidedly Yes. It will be remembered that in the first notice which we have of the public life of Alleyn he is styled a musician : among the instruments he left to the College at his death there were " a lute, a pandora, a c\thera and six vyols." He is often found bringing lute strings, and his care for the music of the College is above all remarkable. Let us refer to our old authority the diary : We find a complete series of entries, first as to the organ for the Chapel : " 1618 March 27 : Bought a pair of orgaines for ye Chapell off "Mr. Gibbs of Powles " £820 " May 27 given Mr. Burwood for tuning ye orgaines 2s. 6d." " 1619 April 13 pd Mr. Burett for a dyapason stop to my organe "and other alteracions £^ 10 o." " 1622 October i pd Mr. Hamden for mending 3'e orgaines and " making 3 or 4 newe pipes for a djapason o 15 0." But Alleyn did not confine himself to the pair of organs ; on December i6th 1618 he bought "5 songe books for }-e boyes" for the sum of 4 shillings: and on nth 1619 we find an entry recording the purchase of "2 tennors and i treble vialls " {£1 15 o), a purchase which was augmented on May 17th of the following year by " another "tenore viall which makes six in all" bought for the sum of 13s. The above evidence appears to make out a very strong case. Moreover Alleyn still retained his interest in the stage : for often when he had friends to dine with him the bo}s of the School would appear and act before the company : thus we find such entries in the diary as "ye boyes made a shoe" (i.e. show — Jan. 7 1621) " }e boyes "played a playe" (Jan. 6 1G22). Alleyn's character as a man would seem to have been particularly noble : A thoroughly good man, an excellent husband and a kind friend he found time to attend to all : and it cannot be said that his friends and relatives neglected to take advantage of his benevolence. A large proportion of the letters still extant at Dulwich College are simply BEGGING LETTERS. 87 requests for loans : a needy plajvvriglit Robert Uaborne was one of the most obstinate offenders in this way : his prayers for the loan of a small sum became quite monotonous. On one occasion even Sir Francis Calton the former owner of the Manor of Dulwich writes to borrow £5 for a not very creditable purpose " to be the moytee (i.e. " portion) of a bribe I am in expectation to bestow upon one this " day." But Alleyn was sometimes called upon to render assistance in more delicate matters still, as the following letter will show : "Good Mr. Alhn, " I have ever found )-ou my good friend hitherto, and whicli makes me the bolder with you in my adversity to request so mucli loving kindness at your hands to lend me five pounds until our lady day next, and then as I am an honest poore woman, I will truly pa}- you ; furthermore I desire you to come to me that I may speak with you concerning my unkind husband. This being in haste, and ever remain, " Your poore friend, "ANNE POYNTZ." The contrast with the numerous epistles of this character is most marked when we come across a pleasant letter from a cousin, Elizabeth Socklen, living at Saffron Walden, in Essex. Strange to say there is no begging for money, but on the other hand, " I have sent you by " the bearer a little remembrance, a little cheese." Admirable woman ! Besides the applications of these relatives, the rank and number of Alleyn's friends testifies to his good qualities as a man and to the estimation in which he was held ; , but though we find him connected with man)' playwrights and actors it is hard to connect Alle\-n ^vith Shakespeare. In no less than four documents among the Alleyn papers we have references to Shakespeare himself, but it has to be admitted that each of these is forged. The only genuine mention of Shakespeare's name is one to which we have already briefly alluded. This occurs in a memorandum of expenditure made by Alleyn early in 1609 : under the heading, " Howshowld stuff," he records the purchase of "a book, " Shaksper Sonnetts, ^d." Thus it is but idle to imagine, as some have done, that Shakespeare ever visited Alleyn at Dulwich. It may be doubted whether Alleyn lived much at Dulwich till the 88 EDWARD ALLEYN. last years of his life. For a long time he kept up his home at Bankside, probably near or in the Paris Bear Garden. In 1612, six years after his purchase of the Manor of Duhvich, we find letters addressed to his residence at Bankside, and in fact very few letters addressed to him at Duhvich have been preserved ; one we find written to "Mr. Allen at Dulledge " on the subject of dogs or bulls for the Paris Garden. Many of the letters have no address attached to them at all, including most of those of the needy Daborne.* Constance Alleyn was a no less affectionate wife than Joan > among the Alleyn papers there is a prayer in her handwriting that she may prove a faithful wife. She survived Alleyn some j'ears, and after his death married Samuel Harvey, Esq., of Ebury Hatch, Essex ; it was at this house that Dr. Donne, t her father, was afflicted with his fatal illness. There are numerous references to Alleyn's worth as an actor in the works of his contemporaries. The first two which we shall quote point to two of the most important characters played by Alleyn. " Clodius methinkes lookes passing big of late, " With Dunstan's browes and Alleyn's Cutlack's gate. " What humours have possessed him so, I wonder, " His eyes are lightning and his words are thunder." Edward Gnilpin's Skialetheia 1598. " The Gull gets on a surplis, With a crosse upon his breast, Like Alleyn playing Faustus, In that manner was he drest." S. Rowland's Knave of Clubs 1600. • The language of this Daborne is often more forcible than poHte, but it is interesting to see he escaped from poverty by going into the Church, ha\ing induced Lord Willoughby to give him preferment t Isaac Walton relates the closing scene of his life — a scene so extraordinary that we are constrained to quote it : — " Several char coal fires being first made in his large study, he brought with him into " that place his winding sheet in his hand and having put off all his clothes had this sheet "put on him and so tied with knots at his head and feet, and his hands so placed as ■■ dead bodies are usually fitted to be shrouded and put into their coffin or grave. Upon "this he stood with his eyes shut and with so much of the sheet turned aside as inight " show his lean, pale and deathlike face, which was purposely turned towards the east, froin " whence he expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Jesus. In this posture he " was drawn at his just height, and when the picture was fully finished, he caused it to be "set by his bedside, where it continued and became his hourly object till his death." BEN JONSON'S SONNET. 89 There is, moreover, Ben Jonson's well known Sonnet to Alleyn, written so late as 1616 : — " If Rome so great and in her wisest age " Fear'd not to boast the glories of her stage, " As skilfull Roscius and grave Aesope, men " Yet crowned with honours as with riches then, " Who had no lesse a trumpet of their name " Than Cicero, whose every breath was fame ; " How can so great example dye in mee, " That Alleyn I should pause to publish thee, " Who both their graces in tlu'self hast more " Outstript tlian they did all that went before, "And present worth in all dost so contract, " As others speake, but only thou dost act. " Weare this renoune ; "tis just that who did give " So many poets life, by one should live." Among other testimonies to Alleyn we must confine ourselves to the following. Nash in his " Strange News" writes : — "Signior Immerito {i.e. Dr. Harvey), so called because he was and " is his friend undeservedly, was counterfeitly brought in to play a " part in that his interlude of epistles that was hist at, thinking his " very name as the name of Ned Allen on the common stage was " able to make an ill matter good." In an edition of Heywood's apology for actors, published in 1612, we read : " Yet I must needs remember Tarleton in his Time gratious with " the Queene his Soveraigne, and in the peoples generall applause, "whom succeeded Will Kemp as well in the favour of Her Majestj' " as in the opinion and good thoughts of the generall audience. " Gabriel, Singer, Pope, Phillips, Sl\-, all the right I can do them is but " this that though they be dead, their deserts yet live in the " Remembrance of many. Among so many dead let me not forget one " yet alive in his time, the most worthy famous Master Edward " Alleyn." So wrote Heywood. Cartwright (Alleyn's friend), in his edition of this tract, inserted another reference to his friend. " In his life time go EDWARD ALLEYS. "he erected a College at Uuhvich for poor people and for education " of youth. When this College was finished, this famous man was so " equally mingled with humility and charity that he became his own " pensioner, humbly submitting to that proportion of diet and clothes " which he had bestowed on others, and afterwards was interred in the " same College." Another wrote: " Alleyn and Burbage the best actors of our time; " what plays were ever so pleasing as where their parts had the "greatest part." " He was an ornament," said Gerard Langton of Alleyn, in his English Dramatic Poets in i6gi, " both to Blackfriars and to his " profession." In the Biographia Britannica, Oldys, the antiquarian, gives the following quaint character: " flexanimous genius, corporal agility, lively "temper,* faithful memory, fluent elocution." Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, addressed Alleyn in a poem " To his deservedlie honored friend Mr. Edward Alleine the first "founder and master of the College of God's Gift: " Some greate by birth or chance whom fortune blindes Where (if it were) trew vertue wold burst forth." They since not having can afford no worth ; And by their means do but condemn their mjndes, To honour such I should disgrace my penne, Who might prove more, I count them less than men. But thee to praise I dare be bould indeede, By fortunes strictness \\hilst at first suppress'd, Who at the height of that which thou professed Both ancients, moderns, all didst far exceede ; Thus vertue many ways may use her pow'r. The Bees draw honnie out of everie flow'r. And when they (thy) state was to a better changed That thou enabled wast for doing goode, • It is to be hoped that the reader will bear in mind that the meaning of a " lively temper" has changed since Alleyn's time. STAGE CHARACTERS. 91 To clothe the naked give the hiingrie foode, As one that was from avarice estranged Then (than) what was fitt thou scorn' d to seeke for more, Whilst bent to do what was design'd before. Then prosecute this noble course of thyne As prince or priest for state, in charge though none, For acting this brave part when thou art gone ; Thy fame more bright than somes more high shall shyne. Since thou turn'd great who this world's stage doe trace. With whom it seemes thou hast exchanged thy place." W. ALEXANDER. In conclusion, we must refer to the different stage characters so admirably personated by " Sweet Ned," Faustus in Marlowe's play of that name, and " Cutlack" have already been referred to : Orlando in Robert Greene's play of "Orlando Furioso," Tamburlaine in Marlowe's play of that name, and Barabas in Marlowe's "Jew of Malta" were perhaps his most famous roles. Mr. John Payne Collier published a list of Alleyn's stage costumes, by which it would appear that Alleyn acted the parts of Pericles, Lear, and Romeo in Shakespeare's dramas. But these especial references (though the body of the document is genuine) have been proved, like so much else printed in Collier's life of Alleyn, to be scandalous forgeries. However that may be, in each play in which Alleyn acted, we may take it for granted he took a pro- minent part, and in each won "The attribute of peerless, being a man, " Whom we maj- rank \\ith (doing no one wrong), " Proteus for shapes and Roscius for a tongue, " So could he speak, so vary."* The above is quoted from a Prologue to the " Jew of Malta," written by T. Heywood, for the edition of 1633. Xocal Celebrities, ^' T was on the first of February, 1756, that 1 OHver Goldsmith, having journeyed over a large part of Europe on foot, landed at Dover, with no available means or prospect of getting a livelihood. His career is one of the many examples of the part that poverty plays in calling out the powers of genius ; but his career is also a pitiful instance of the life of a literary man in the last century, ohnson. \\ith his pupil David Garrick, had some before reached London without a penny in his and now Goldsmith found himself in the great metropolis without a home and almost without a friend. The stor}' of his struggles is indeed pathetic. He became an assistant to an apothecar}-, Jacob, on Fish Street Hill, then he set up as a physician on Bankside, but his patients though they had the will were without the means of pa\ing for his services, and so he turned his attention to literature. " Early in January," wrote a physician who had known him well, " Goldsmith called upon me one morning before I was up, and on my entering the room " I recognised my old acquaintance dressed in a rusty full trimmed black " suit, with his pockets full of papers, which instantly reminded me of " the poet in Garrick's farce of ' Lethe.' " He had brought with him a tragedy half-written, which he proceeded to read to his friend, scrupu- lously erasing every word that was unfavourably criticised : he also informed the doctor of his intention to go to the East for the purpose of OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 93 deciphering the so-called " Written Maintains," his real purpose being to obtain the ^^300 per year that had been left for that purpose. But his tragedy remained unfinished, and his project of travelling was fortunately never carried out. A slight change took place in his fortunes, and he was appointed to the position of usher at a school kept by Dr. Milner, at Peckham, where we find him at the beginning of 1757. This Dr. Milner* was the author of Latin and Greek grammars, said to have been very popular in their day. At Peckham, Goldsmith stayed some time ; his cheerful spirits and musical skill made him a great favourite, but he was not altogether happy ; his experiences here inspired the many bitter reflections on the life of a schoolmaster to be found among his writings. Thus in " The Bee " (No. VL) we read " Is any " man unfit for any of the professions he finds his last resource in " setting up school. Do any become bankrupts in trade, they still set up " a boarding school, and drive a trade this way when all others fail ; na\-, " I have been told of butchers and barbers who have turned school- " masters. Everj- trick is played upon the usher — the oddity of his "manners, his dress or his language is a fund of eternal ridicule; the " master himself now and then cannot avoid joining in the laugh, and " the poor wretch eternally resenting this ill usage seems to li\'e in a state " of war with all the family." In the " Vicar of Wakefield " again he says, " I have been an usher " at a boarding school myself, and may I die by an anodyne necklace, " but I had rather be an under-turnkey in Newgate. But are you sure " 3'ou are fit for a school? Can you dress the boys' hair? No. Then " you won't do for a school. Have you had the small po.x ? No. Then " you won't do for a school. Have you a good stomach ? Yes. Then " you will by no means do for a school." But a release was to come soon. Dr. Milner was an occasional con- tributor to a paper called the " Monthly Review." One day its Editor and Publisher came to call at Peckham. Goldsmith was introduced to this important functionary, and was advised to give his services to the "Review" in return for board and lodging: to this he agreed, and thus passes out of the ken of our local history. * Dr. Milner's house at Peckham was demolished in 1876. 94 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. At Grove Hill, Camberwell, during the last centurj', there lived a very well known doctor, who thus describes his own home : " In Cam- " berwell village there are few poor inhabitants and not many overgrown " fortunes. Among those who may be deemed of the superior class, a " general equality prevails both as to exterior appearance and mental " cultivation. They consist chiefly of respectable merchants and trades- " men, and of those holding eligible situations in the public offices." John Coakley Lettsom was born in the year 1744, on the estate of his father, a planter in the West Indies. When only six years old he was sent to England, where he was educated by a Quaker minister named Fothergill. Having served his apprenticeship under a Yorkshire apothecary, he returned to the West Indies and fixed his home in Tortola, where he practised as a doctor. In five months he had earned ^2,000. With this small fortune he returned to Europe, visited the medical schools of Paris and Edinburgh, took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Leyden in 1769, and in the same year became a licentiate of the Ro3'al College of Physicians. He soon rose to the position of a " fashionable doctor " and began to receive the large fees which usually fall to these favoured individuals. In 1783 he earned £3,600; 1784, £3,900; 1785, ;f4,ooo ; 1786, £4,500; and after that on some occasions his income reached £12,000 per annum. He was thus enabled to purchase an estate of two acres and a quarter at Grove Hill, Camberwell, which he procured from the executors of a certain Mrs. Cock,* the last representative of an old local family. Here he built his house, and here he received his numerous friends. Among them came Boswell, to celebrate his host in mediocre verse : — 'b " My cordial friend, still prompt to lend Your cash when I have need on't ; We both must bear our load of care, At least we talk and read on't. " From him of good — talk, liquors, food — His guests will always get some. • Mrs. Cock's estate was bought at Christmas, 179Q, by a Mr. Wright and a Mr. Salter These immediately sold it in portion, and among the buyers was Dr. Lettsom. DR. LETTSOM 95 " And guests has he in every degree Of decent estimation ; His liberal mind holds all mankind As an exalted nation. " From terrace high he feasts his eye When practice grants a furlough, And while it roves o'er Dulwich groves Looks down — even upon Thurlougli." Scott — called the poet of Amwell to distinguish him from iiis greater namesake — had pleasant recollections of his visits to Grove Hill, and found expression for his feelings in verse — interesting in the description which it gives of the neighbourhood. " And now and then the glancing eye Caught glimpse of spot remoter still On Hampstead's street-clad slope so high. On Harrow's far conspicuous hill ; Or Eastward wander to explore All Peckham's pleasant level o'er, To busy Deptford's crowded shore. Or sought the Southern landscape's bounds Those swelling mounts — one * smooth and green, And onet with oaken coverts crowned, And one J where scattering trees are seen." The picture is a pretty one, but we are too familiar with the neighbourhood ; and our knowledge of the present state of " Peckham's " pleasant level," and the " scattering trees " of Forest Hill, proves too much for our imagination. But there is a third and far more ambitious attempt to describe the beauties of Dr. Lettsom's home. Thomas Maurice, of St. John's and University Colleges, Oxford, the learned historian of India and its antiquities, published anonymousl)' a poem of considerable length, entitled " Grove Hill," which begins as follows : — " Where shall the song begin since every place Invites alike and shines with rival grace ? From scene to scene the muse bewildered flies, While all Elysium floats before her eyes." • Nunhead. t Honor Oak J Forest Hill. 96 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. But, of course, such a subject cannot keep the author for long from sinking into bathos — the description continues : — " Far from these fields resound the voice of war ! Ambition drive far hence thy thundering car ; Hence discord to thy darkest deepest cell Here social harmony and Lettsom dwell." Dr. Lettsom. The plan of the poem can be sufficiently shown from the prose argument prefixed to the work, which will probably be found amusing. " The Grove, leading to the house described ; the catastrophe of " George Barnwell leads to moral reflections, in which the pains and dangers " attending avarice and ambition are contrasted with the pleasures result- " ing from domestic virtue and diffusive benevolence in the greater circle LETTSOM'S BENEVOLENCE. 97 " of societ}'." The "catastrophe" alhided to was a crime very famous in old days. A certain George Barnwell murdered an uncle to obtain his money, but there is not the slightest scrap of evidence to connect the deed with Camberwell Grove. The story was used to " point the moral " of the " pains and dangers " of avarice, and in the fashion of the day was made into a ballad, which may be found in Bishop Percy's well- known collection. It afterwards furnished the plot for a drama by Lillo. " The medical character," the argument continues, is " stated to " afford a more extensive opportunity than any other for the operation " of that benevolence." Then the Library and the Museum are described; next the "boundless" landscape calls for attention; then — and here we must allow the bard some credit for imagination — the poet sees " a fleet " from India sailing up the Thames." After this we are indulged in a disquisition on the telegraph,* because " no less than three are seen from " Grove Hill." A description of the grounds follows, and then comes the " conclusion " : — " Such are the soft enchanting scenes displayed In all the blended charms of light and shade Of Camberwell's fair grove and verdant brow, The loveliest Surrey's flowing hills can show ; And long may he whose bold discursive mind This sweet terrestrial paradise designed, Long may he view the favourite bower he planned, Its towering foliage o'er his race expand ; Behold them flourish in its grateful shade, And in their father's steps delighted tread ; Then full of years and crowned with well-earned fame, Retire in peace his bright reward to claim." But the last wish was, unfortunately, never fulfilled, for Dr. Lettsom's last years were shadowed by misfortunes, and he was forced to resign his much loved home. Whether the medical profession does or does not afford many oppor- tunities for benevolence, it is certain that Lettsom was a most benevolent doctor. In spite of his large professional income, it is said he might have made as much again had he consented to receive fees from his * This was, of course, before the days of electricity. g8 • LOCAL CELEBRITIES. poorer patients ; and he was pre-eminent in his time as a practical philan- thropist ; for in 1779 he appears as one of the promoters of the Royal Humane Societ}-, while the General Dispensary, the Finsbury Dispensary, the Surrey Dispensary, and the Margate Sea Bathing Infirmary were entirely due to his suggestion and active help. From these facts it is quite easy to account for his extraordinary popularity — which is attested by the fact that one local history notices Camberwell as being only noticeable "for the residence of Dr. Lettsom." The signature, J. Lett- som, which usually appeared on his prescriptions, gave rise to the following jeu d'esprit : — " When any patients call in haste, I physics, bleeds and sweats 'em. If after that they choose to die Why what cares I ? I lets 'em." The doctor was also well known in the literary world. In 1783 John Fothergill's works were published " edited with a memoir by J. " Lettsom." In 1786 he published memoirs of Dr. Fothergill, and fifteen years later he wrote " Hints to promote Beneficence, Temperance " and Medical Science." The two engravings extant of the house on Grove Hill do not present anything that answers to the expectations raised by Maurice's poem. They only show us a very plain " town" house of brick, while the garden immediately behind was planted in that very prim style popular in the last centur}-. There was however a fine library inside, and for that day a large collection of coins, minerals and fossils, while the observatory contained the instruments of Ferguson the famous Scotch astronomer. The next place we touch at in our imaginary tour is Sydenham. Here at the beginning of the present century we find Thomas Campbell the poet and Thomas Hill. The first information that we can find of Campbell's intention to move from London is in a letter dated November, 1804 : he was at that time 27 years old, and was then living in Pimlico. " When arriving," he writes, " at the height of Sydenliam, the whole glory of London " spread itself before us like a picture in distant but distinct perspective. THOMAS CAMPBELL. 99 " This view is within a short distance of my intended home. A " common, but not a naked one, in the heart of a lovely country " rises all around it. I have a whole field to expatiate over undisturbed' " none of your hedged roads and London-out-of-town villages around " me, but ample space and verge enough to compose a whole tragedy." Where his " intended home" was we do not think is known ; his biographer, William Beattie, describes it as situated on a gentle slope within a few minutes' walk of the village; but such a description is hardly enough to enable us to identify it. However, on November 30th, he informs his friend Dr. Currie, " I am safe at last in my "dulce domum" {i.e. on Sydenham Common). Here he obtained complete rest and quiet, and was thus enabled to devote himself thoroughly to his work for a short time. In April, 1805, he writes : " I have little to relate to you that is "either new or important;" but his life though, as he says, unimpor- tant was spent in important work. He was not however without troubles even in this paradise at Sydenham. He had now to support his mother in Edinburgh as well as his own family, and above all he fell a prey to disease : he was afflicted with continual sleeplessness. Owing to the drain on his income and his inability to enter on any prolonged work he had to sink to the level of a hack writer for the newspapers. It was at this period that he began his connection with the " Star" newspaper and the " Philosophical Magazine," both of which were conducted by a Mr. Tulloch. But he found time to finish some of those ballads, which nearly ever}one knows b)- heart, and among them " Lord Ullin's Daughter" and the famous " Soldier's Dream." The " Battle of the Baltic" was also written at Sydenham during this period. With Sir Walter Scott, Campbell had frequent correspondence, and on February gth, 1885, he writes to Abbotsford telling how he and his wife had been waylaid by a highwayman on a lonely part of Sydenham Common. The highwayman \\as caught, but was let off by an indulgent judge, and Campbell aired his grievances in a letter to the " Star." Campbell had now begun to contemplate the publication of " Specimens of the British Poets," and wrote to Scott asking for advice. In June 1805 he finds that Scott had settled on a similar lOO LOCAL CELEBRITIES. project and writes suggesting that they should undertake the work in common, but a publisher could not be found to give the required price and so the idea was dropped only to be taken up by Campbell alone after a short time. In this year the King granted him a pension of £200 a year, and he was thus freed from some of his worries. But in November, 1805, he was so ill that he had to leave the Common to stay in Pimlico for some time in order to be near the doctors whom he consulted. By the end of 1806 Campbell had decided on writing his " British "Poets," and had made the first sketch of "Gertrude of Wyoming." This poem was entirely written at Sydenham, and was so far finished at Christmas 1807 as to be read to his friends, but its publication was delayed till 1809 when its appearance was immediately greeted with enthusiasm ; Jeffrey in the " Edinburgh Review " acknowledged its worth, and its popularity was ensured. The other great poem written by Campbell at Sydenham was " O'Connor's Child" which has been described as " the very soul of song — tragic, romantic and passionate." In a postcript to a letter of 1805 he gives one very curious fact with regard to Sydenham, it was the time of his illness : " The cold " bath was advised to me at Sydenham, but woe's me ! our water is " brought on carts and costs two shillings a barrel, so that bathing " here is no joke." Campbell was deeply afflicted by the death of his youngest son Alison, and in January, 1813, again became ill himself; he suffered from " a bad attack of pleurisy from running two miles across the " common to fetch a surgeon." But in general his life here was happy ; he spent much of his time in visits ; we see in his letters how he went to see Lord Holland only a short time before the latter's death, and how he visited the famous actress Mrs. Siddons : while among the visitors at Sydenham were to be found Lord Bjron, Rogers the poet, Sidney Smith and some Sydenham friends, Thomas Hill and Mr. Marryat, M.P. for Sandwich, with whose second son the novelist. Captain Marryat, Campbell was associated in the working of the " Metropolitan." Owing to his appointment as editor of the " New Monthly Magazine " in 1821, Campbell disappears from Sydenham at that date. THOMAS HILL. lOI His neighbour Thomas Hill, who has been already mentioned, was a curious character. He was the proprietor of the "Monthly Mirror" and was "well-known for his quaint humour, social qualities, and warm "attachment to his friends." Southey describes him as "a gentleman " who is himself a lover of English literature and who has probably the " most copious collection of English poetry in existence ; " and his paper as "a magazine which first set the example of typographical Thomas Hill. " neatness, which has given the world a good series of portraits and "which deserves praise also on other accounts having among its con- " tributors some persons of extensive erudition and acknowledged talents." Among these contributors was Kirke White, who owed much to Hill's good offices. Hill was a well known figure in the literary world of London, and took great pride in being present at all private views ; so much so that it was affirmed he replied when asked whether he had seen a new comet, " Pooh ! pooh ! I was present at the private view." I02 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. Mrs. Mathews in her memoirs of her husband pleasantly describes the life at Sydenham in these words: "Our little carriage was in " readiness early in the afternoon to convey us to this rustic dwelling, " all simplicity without, all brilliancy within. There hebdomidally were "found a knot of the first talents of the day; and amongst the per- " petual advantages I derived from being the wife of a clever man I "was allowed the delight of always being a partaker of these intellectual " treats. Our excellent and kind friend's well regulated hospitality was " the theme of everybody's praise and pleasure who ever visited him ; " and with the one exception just made, his house was the resort of " the highest order of intellect and literary acquirements. The accom- " modation of Mr. Hill's house and table did not luckily admit of " more than could conduce to their mutual pleasure. Each party was " well chosen and assorted, never exceeding a dozen : and I had the " honour to occupy the only spare room." Thomas Hill was beloved by every one who had anything to do with him. The figure he presented seems to have been very quaint. He was the youngest looking man of his age we are told by one friend : and Samuel Rogers at a dinner once told his neighbour that "the phenomenon opposite " was one of the little Hills celebrated for their skipping propensities " in the Psalms." Hill retained his cottage at Sydenham till his death on December 20th, 1840. Coming down to Dulwich we do not find much to detain us now. The life of Edward Alleyn we have narrated at length ; and of the less famous of the masters at the school we speak elsewhere ; but John Allen is certainly entitled to a place among the " local celebrities." He was one of the very few masters of the school during the 220 years of the old regime who was at all remarkable for abilities, and became at all famous outside the precincts of the College; he was the most cele- brated of the Alleyns after the founder. John Allen was born at Redford, near Edinburgh. As to the exact date of his birth there is some doubt ; one account gives January, 1770, another February 3rd, 1771, and of these the latter is the more probable. He was educated at Edinbui-gh for the medical profession, but while still a boy lost his father, and was indebted to his mother's second husband for the means of completing his education. His stepfather's kindness JOHN ALLEN. 103 was amply repaid. We have it on the authority of Lord Brougham, with whom he was afterwards intimately associated, that " he stood far " at the head of all his contemporaries as a student of the sciences "connected with the healing art, but also cultivated most successfully " all the branches of intellectual philosophy and was most eminent in " that famous school of metaphj'sics for his extensive learning and his " unrivalled power of subtle reasoning." Allen served, together with Thompson the future Professor, as apprentice to a surgeon at Edinburgh named Arnot. In 1791 he took his degree as Doctor of Medicine, and according to one authority soon came to be considered one of the best lecturers on physiology in Europe. In 1811 Allen was made Warden of Dulwich College. Five years afterwards we find him applj-ing for the post of Solicitor to the parish beadle — a curious appointment as it would seem to us; but the beadle was then a very important personage and represented the whole parish. Allen however by the end of the second day had only polled 63 votes against the 403 of his opponent, and retired from the election. In 1820 Allen in due course obtained his promotion to the post of Master of Dulwich College, succeeding Lancelot Baugh Allen, who resigned on May 5th of that year on account of his marriage. He now divided his attention between Dulwich and Holland House : his acquaintance with Lord Holland was of long standing, he had travelled on the continent with Holland's son in 1803-5, 3-nd when the whole family again went to Spain in 1808 Allen and Lord John Russell accompanied them. At Holland House he must have often met Lord Byron, who in his Journal under date, Monday, December 13th, 1813, writes " Called " at three places — read and got ready to leave town to-morrow. Allen " (Lord Holland's Allen — the best informed and one of the ablest men " I know — a perfect Magliabecchi — a devourer, a helluo of books — an "observer of men) has lent me a quantity of Burns' unpublished " letters. They are full of oaths and obscene songs. What an " antithetical mind ! " Allen was at an early period connected with the " Edinburgh " Review " (which was started in 1802), but at what precise time we 104 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. cannot determine. Among his contributions to that periodical was a review of Lingard's History of England which came out between 1819 and 1830. Allen also published among many other works "An Inquiry " into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England," " a Short History of the House of Commons with reference to Reform" issued in the year preceding the great Reform Bill, and a " Vindication "of the Ancient Independence of Scotland" (1833). Though he was thus versed in the constitutional history of the country, and a consummate statesman, he took no active part in politics. The only post he filled was that of Secretary to the Commissioners for treating with America in 1806, five years before his election as Warden of the College. Major-General Fox described his old tutor as follows: — "I first remem- " ber and never shall forget John Allen when he came to Holland House " in 1802, recommended to my father by the late Lord Lauderdale, as a "medical friend and companion for the continental tour, which we then " made during three years in France and Spain. He was a stout strong " man, with a very large head, a broad face, enormous round spectacles " before a pair of peculiarly bright and intelligent eyes, and with the "thickest legs I ever remember. His accent Scotch; his manner eager, " but extremely good natured ; all this made a lasting impression on me, " then a boy of six years old." Allen's friend, Sidney Smith, also remembered the legs: "I am sorry," he once wrote, " to hear Allen is not well, but the reduction of his legs " is a pure and unmixed good, they are enormous, the}' are clerical." We cannot discover whether Allen ever met Campbell while they both lived in the same neighbourhood, but the chances are at least very much in favour of such an event having occurred. Lady Holland had Allen's portrait painted by Sir Edwin Landseer ; a copy of the picture being presented by General Fox to Duhvich College, where it now stands in the Board Room, while the original afterwards passed to the National Portrait Gallery.* David Cox, the famous artist, also spent some years at Dulwich at the beginning of the present century — years of hard struggle and many • Mr. Collier, in the Introduction to his publication " the AUeyn papers," refers to John Allen in these words : — " The Collection of the materials for this small work was commenced " in the time of the late learned, liberal and accomplished Master, John Allen, to whom many "of our literary associations are more or less indebted." DAVID COX. 105 disappointments. As to the exact site of his home there seems to be some doubt, but it was probably on Dulwich Common, though some authorities imagine it was in Croxted Lane. Cox came to this neighbour- hood about 1808, soon after his marriage, and in the words of his biographer, " took a small cottage in the neighbourhood of Dulwich'' and " there resided several years, making drawings on the Common, at that " time the frequent resort of the Gipsy tribes — and of the surrounding " scenery. In fact he scoured the country round in search of subjects on " which to exercise his skill." On one occasion he had the misfortune to be drawn for the militia : he had not the means to provide a substitute, but openly defied the law, and seems to have been let off. His struggles to get a livelihood while in this neighbourhood were very severe, though we are told that on the whole " he passed a happy life at Dulwich for five years." He left his home here in 1812, having obtained an appointment to the post of drawing-master at the Military College at Farnham. It is not generally known that Mr. Ruskin has spent more than fifty years of his life at Heme Hill and Denmark Hill. Yet this is the fact and it is only recently that the house bought by his father has passed out of his hands to be occupied by Mr. T. Lynn Bristowe, M.P. for Norwood. In " Praeterita," Mr. Ruskin's as jet unfinished autobiography, the preface of which, it may be mentioned, is signed as written at Heme Hill, 1885, there will naturally be found many allusions to the condition of this neighbourhood in the earlier days of the present century — allusions which insist with cruel re-iteration on the unhappy change that has taken place in this now sadly over-built suburb. Mr. Ruskin in his boyhood attended two schools near Heme Hill, one of which he records was kept by Dr. Andrews and another by a Rev. M. Dale, in Grove Lane. But of this side of his school days he has little to say : he derived what must have been a more real education to him from his walks in the country round about his home ; and that indeed was really country in those days. One day he drew some trees in Dulwich, with a view of the bridges over the Effra, leading from Heme Hill • This would seem to bear out the view of his cottage being situated in Croxted Lane, which, as we have already pointed out, like Lordship Lane, was a separate district, and so might perhaps not be regarded as being a part of Dulwich proper. io6 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. into Norwood, and " this sketch," he sa} s, " was the first in which I " was ever supposed to show any talent for drawing." One of the chapters in the " Praeterita " is entitled " Heme Hill " Almond Blossoms." Of almond blossoms at Heme Hill there are now, alas, very few : but the changes Mr. Ruskin has to chronicle in Croxted Lane are even more marked. "In my young days Cro.xted Lane was a " green bye-road — little else than a narrow strip of untilled field, separated " by blackberry hedges from the better cared-for meadows on each side of " it." In another place : " I have already noticed with thankfulness the "good I got out of the tadpole-haunted ditch in Croxted Lane;" while in later years he tells us this same path across the fields was his well loved retreat when he wished to think over any "difficult passage" in the com- position of his books. From his home on Denmark Hill he could see how "East and South " the Norwood hills, partly rough with furze, partly wooded with birch " and oak, partly in pure green bramble copse and rather steep pasture, " rose with the promise of all the rustic loveliness of Surre}- and Kent in " them, and with so much of space and height in their sweep as gave them " some fellowship with hills of true hill districts." And with this pleasant yet melancholy glimpse of Norwood in the days of old we must pass on to one who stayed a short time in Norwood itself some fifty j-ears ago. A little more than half a century ago, Mendelssohn, the great com- poser, came to Norwood to recruit his health with fresh air and quiet. The village must then have presented an appearance very different to its present condition, as will be seen from Mendelssohn's letters. This first visit to Norwood was in 1829 ; three years afterwards he was again in the same cottage. On May 25th, 1832, he writes to his father : — " You will receive this letter from the same villa whence I wrote to " you three years ago last November, just before my return. " I have now come here for a few daj-s to rest and to collect my " thoughts, just as I did at that time, on account of my health. All is "unchanged here; my room is precisely the same; even the music in the " old cupboard stands exactly on the same spot. The people are quite as " considerate and quiet and attentive as formerly, and the three years have " passed over both them and their house as peacefully as if half the world " had not been uprooted during that period. MENDELSSOHN. 107 " It is pleasant to see ; the only difference is that we have now gay " spring and apple blossoms, and lilacs and all kinds of flowers, whereas " at that time we had autumn with its fogs and blazing fires ; but how " much is now gone for ever that we still had ; this gives much food for " thought. I feel just now as I did at that time when I wrote to you " saying little save ' farewell till we meet.' It will indeed be a graver " meeting, and I bring no ' Liederspiel ' with me, composed in this room, as " the former was, but God grant I may only find you all well."* Men- delssohn was at this time onh- twenty-three years old, and had as jet written none of his great works with the exception of the Overture to the "Midsummer Night's Dream." His oratorio, "St. Paul," was not begun till two years after. In 1842 Mendelssohn was in London again, and found time to pay this neighbourhood a hurried visit. " One day lately we saw first in the " morning the Tower, then the Katharine Docks, then the Tunnel, and " ate fish at Blackwall, had luncheon at Greenwich, and home by Peckham : " we travelled on foot, in a carriage, on a railway, in a boat, and in a " steamboat." Five years later his overworked life was ended at the early age of 38, an age peculiarly fatal to musicians. The close connection of Dr. Johnson with Streatham is so well-known that it seems almost unnecessary to repeat the story : but for the sake of completeness, and also because the story is always interesting, we must narrate it briefly here. In 1854 there was published at Sydney, New South Wales, the diary of an Irishman, Dr. Thomas Campbell, written during a visit to England in 1775. He was introduced to the Thrales, and on some occasions dined with them when Dr. Johnson made one of the party. On March i6th, 1775, he describes Johnson in the following words : — "Johnson, you are " the very man Lord Chesterfield describes : — a Hottentot indeed, and tho' "your abilities are respectable, you never can be respected yourself. He has " the aspect of an idiot without the faintest ray of sense gleaming from " any one feature — with the most awkward garb and unpowdered grey " wig, on one side only of his head — he is for ever dancing the devil's jig, • Mendelssohn's Letters, translated by Lady Wallace, Vol. I., pp. 345-6. io8 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. " and sometimes he makes the most drivelling effort to whistle some " thought in his absent paroxisms." He then goes on to describe John- son's awkwardness at table and his rough manners. But what strikes us most is the extraordinary self-conceit of the man who styles Johnson's abilities as respectable : let us imagine that he had not had time to come under the fascination of Johnson's conversation. However, the information Campbell gives with regard to Mrs. Thrale's influence on Johnson, if correct, would prove the world to be much more indebted to Mrs. Thrale than it has acknowledged. Her works, and especially her anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, were depreciated by the narrow-minded Boswell, because he feared in her a dangerous rival ; and so her authority has been impugned to a greater extent than has been borne out by circumstances. In one passage Campbell observes : " The " ' Tour to the Western Isles ' was written in twenty days, and ' The " ' Patriot ' in three, ' Taxation no Tj^ranny ' within a week — and not one " of them would have yet seen the light had it not been for Mrs. " Thrale and Baretti, who stirred him up by laying wagers." Johnson was naturally indolent and required some incitement to make him work. It was in 1765 that Johnson was introduced to Mr. Thrale by Arthur Murphy who afterwards wrote the doctor's life. Some time after this, when Johnson was ill, Mr. Thrale carried him off to Streatham and according to Mrs. Thrale the change of air saved his life ; but this assertion must be received with some reservation. Thus the intimacy was begun, and it increased year by year. Johnson must have been a very tiresome guest, and it speaks well for Mrs. Thrale's kindness that she continued to invite him. He often saw Dr. Burney, the historian of music, at Streatham, and on these occasions they would talk far into the night sitting up "as long as the fire and candles "lasted, and much longer than the patience of the servants subsisted." When there were no other visitors in the house, the trouble he caused was still worse, for he would keep Mrs. Thrale up half the night making tea for him. In the morning he was not often seen before twelve, but then the process of tea drinking would be repeated and kept up till the bell rang for dinner. His great delight was in travelling and he would keep Mrs. Thrale driving him along the Surrey roads for hours together. At one time Mr. Thrale and he set up a SAMUEL JOHNSON. 109 chemical laboratory at Streatham, but the household went about in such fear of accidents owing to Johnson's blindness that this amusement had to be prohibited. At other times he would fancy himself ill ; and then " Sir Richard Jebb (the physician) was perpetually on the road " to Streatham, and Mr. Johnson seemed to think himself neglected if " the physician left him for an hour only." If all this be correct, Mrs. Thrale must have been an admirable woman, and we can well believe the latter part of Lord Macaulay's description of her as being then "at the height of prosperity and popularity, with gay spirits, quick wit, " showy though superficial acquirements, pleasing, though not refined " manners, a singularly amiable temper and a loving heart." Nearly all the anecdotes that are narrated of Dr. Johnson, point to his strong sterling common sense, though it did not always express itself in the politest way. One Sunday morning at Streatham a friend was looking out on Streatham Common lamenting "the enormous " wickedness of the times " because some bird-catchers were busy there. Johnson's reply was : " While half the Christian world is permitted to " dance and sing and celebrate Sunday as a day of festivity, how " comes your puritanical spirit so offended with frivolous and empty " deviations from exactness ? Whoever loads life with unnecessary " scruples, Sir, provokes the attention of others on his conduct and " incurs the censure of singularity without reaping the reward of " superior virtue." At another time " a young gentleman," also a visitor at Streatham put an absurd question, though he was quite a stranger to the doctor. " Mr. Johnson, would you advise me to marry ?" "Mr. Johnson" gave the stinging reply, "I would advise no man to " marry. Sir, who is not likely to propagate understanding," and then got up and left the room. One Sunday morning a lady, who, says Mrs. Thrale, was little used to contradiction, was dressed for church in a manner that did not commend itself to Johnson. On his sharply reproving her, and to the surprise of all, she left the room returning in a short time with the offending dress changed for another and thanked the doctor for his advice. Johnson usually spent the middle of the week at Streatham, going home to Fleet Street on Saturday and returning late on Monday. In spite of his indolence he was always resolving to work ; the no LOCAL CELEBRITIES. following words found in one of his note-books speak for themselves; "August gth, 1781, 3 p.m. aetat 72 in the summer-house at Streatham. " After innumerable resolutions formed and neglected I have retired " hither to plan a life of greater diligence in hope that I may yet be " useful, and be daily better prepared to appear before my Creator " and my Judge from whose infinite mercy I humbly call for assistance " and support. My purpose is to pass eight hours every day in some "serious employment. Having prayed I purpose to employ the next " si.x weeks upon the Italian language for settled study." And this at the age of 72 only three years before his death ! Mr. Thrale had died on April 4th, 1781, and next year the home seems to have been broken up for a time : at any rate Johnson was last seen in Streatham in October, 1782. On October 7th he writes : " I was called early. I packed up my bundles and used the foregoing " prayer (one relating to his departure) with my morning's devotions " somewhat, I think enlarged. Being earlier than the family, I read " St. Paul's farewell in the Acts and then read fortuitously in the " Gospels, which was my parting use of the Library." About the same time he records : " Sunday I went to Church at Streatham. " Templo valedixi cum osculo." At Streatham there was a large collection of the portraits of the Thrales' friends painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, Gold- smith, Baretti and others. When Johnson's was added to fill up the only available space, Mrs. Thrale commemorated the occasion in some verses. " Gigantic in knowledge, in virtue, in strength " Our company closes with Johnson at length ; " So the Greeks from the cavern of Polypheme past, " When wisest and greatest Ulysses came last. " So his comrades contemptuous we see him look down " On their wit and their worth with a general frown. " Since from Science proud tree the rich fruit he receives "Who could shake the whole trunk while they turned a few leaves. " His piety pure his morality nice — " Protector of virtue and terror of vice ; " In these features Religion's firm champion displaced " Shall make infidels fear for a modern crusade." SIR RICHARD BLACK MORE. iii At Tooting there stood in the last century the country house of Sir Richard Blackmore (1658-1729), an eminent city physician who took to writing poetry as an amusement for his leisure hours. He was educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and afterwards studied medicine under the famous Dr. Sydenham. He was a thoroughly good doctor, but it is unfortunately impossible to call him a thoroughly good poet ; he was in fact very much the reverse, and in his writings is perpetually showing "the inhabitant of Cheapside whose head cannot " keep his poetry unmingled with trade." He received the questionable honour of an allusion by Pope in the Dunciad (1728). " She saw old Pryn in restless Daniel shine And Eusden eke out Blackmore's endless line"* And again : — " But far o'er all sonorous Blackmore's strain " Walls, Steeples, Skies bray back to him again. " In Tot'nam fields the brethren with amaze, "Prick all their ears up, and forget to graze; " Long Chancery Lane retentive rolls the sound, "And Courts to Courts return it round and round; " Thames wafts it thence to Rufus' roaring hall, "And Hungerford re-echoes bawl for bawl. " All hail him victor in both gifts of song " Who sings so loudly and who sings so long." t The reference to his brethren with the long ears is unkind ; but though Pope always was unkind it must be admitted he had a very good cause in this case. Blackmore was very often dull and alwa3'S too long winded. Pope justly gives his reasons in a note to the last quotation : " This," he says, certainly not with \ery great modesty, " is " a just character of Sir Richard Blackmore who (as Mr. Dryden " expresseth it) ' writ to the rumbling of his coaches' wheels ' and whose " indefatigable muse produced no less than six Epic poems : Prince and " King Arthur, twenty books ; Eliza, ten ; Alfred, 12 ; the Redeemer, six ; " besides. Job in folio ; the whole Book of Psalms ; the Creation, seven " books ; Nature of Man, three books ; and many more. 'Tis in this " sense he is styled afterwards the everlasting Blackmore. Notwithstanding * i. 103. t ii- 259 - 268. 112 LOCAL CELEBRITIES. "all which Mr. Gildon seems assured 'this admirable author did not "think himself upon the same foot with Homer.'" It is certain Blackmore lived at Tooting, but which of these immense folios, if any, were the result of his leisure hours there we know not. Pope himself refers to the Tooting house, and at the same time gives his idea how Blackmore proceeded to the work of composition : — " Blackmore himself for any grand effort " Would drink and doze at Tooting or Earl's Court." Apart from this we have to trust to imagination to connect the poet with Tooting. It seems to be quite unknown where his house stood ; all we know is that he had a house here and that he frequently used it, especially when his City practice grew smaller. But Tooting was for some time the home of a far greater man of letters than the everlasting Blackmore ; and with regard to his connection with the place we have no such obscurity as in the former instance. Defoe was born in 1661 and was the son of a Dissenting butcher in St. Giles, Cripplegate ; he was thus a Dissenter by birth, and it is in this character that he is still remembered in the neighbourhood. The date of his first appearance at Tooting may be determined with some probability. In 1685 Defoe fought under the unhappy Duke of Monmouth at the battle of Sedgemoor, and after the defeat of the rebels fled the country for his life. He was back in England before the end of 1687 and was settled with his wife at Tooting. In 1688, on the landing of William of Orange, he again offered his services as a volunteer against James II., and rode from Tooting to meet William's army at Henley. It was in this year that he founded the Chapel in Tooting, now known by the name of the " Defoe Memorial Chapel ; '- but in spite of his early training for the ministry he never acted as pastor, though all his life an eager apostle of nonconformity. He succeeded in gathering a congregation and his final care was the dis- covery of a man worthy to hold the post of Minister ; his choice at length falling on Joshua Oldfield, D.D. Defoe has thus left a permanent memorial ot himself at Tooting. During his stay here he occupied two different houses ; the first while DANIEL DEFOE. "3 the Chapel was building, being situated close to the present Defoe Road, the second on the Mitcham Road. As has already been shown he was an ardent admirer of the Rebellion of 1688, and of William of Orange. Every year the anniversary of the downfall of James II. was kept by him on November 4, and the first of these celebrations (i68g) is mentioned as having been held in his house at Tooting. Defoe at the time of his residence here was of course very young and had as yet written none of those works which were afterwards to give him such a high position in the literature of England. Robinson Crusoe (1719) and the Journal of the Plague Year (1722) were as yet not even thought of; but he seems to have made his first appearance in the literary world about this time by the publication of a series of small pamphlets including one on " The Young Academies " and on the war between Austria and Turkey, which however never gained any great popularity or favour ; among these there appeared in 1687 and very probably were written at Tooting — " Reflections on His Majesty's "declaration for Liberty of Conscience" and "A Tract against the " Proclamation for the repeal of the penal laws." Misfortunes fell to the lot of Defoe in 1692, for owing to losses incurred in some mercantile ventures, he became bankrupt and had to fly from Tooting to Bristol in order to avoid imprisonment. Hppenbicea I. RICHARD BURBAGE. It is advisable to give a brief account of this famous actor here, he being a friend of Alleyn. His portrait and another picture, both painted by himself, hang in the College Gallery, and moreover the Governors of the School have in their wisdom called one of the newest roads in Dulwich by his name. James Burbage, his father, was the builder and owner of the " Blackfriars," the first theatre erected ni England. At what date his more famous son was born we do not know, but it must have been about 1567. In Elizabeth's days female parts were acted by boys, and it was in such a character that young Burbage first appeared on the stage, but before he was 21 he was one of the best known actors of the day. Collier, in his " History of Dramatic Poetry,'" has printed a document (in which Burbage's name appears) purporting to be a counter petition to the Queen against a petition of some inhabitants of Blackfriars, who prayed Her Majesty not to allow the restoration of the Blackfriars Theatre. This document was authorita- tively declared by the best experts at the British Museum (including Messrs. Palgrave, Madden, Brewer, and Duflus Hardy) to be a gross forgery, and curiously enough it has since disappeared from the State Papers, among which it was supposed to have been discovered. In 1597 James Burbage died, leaving his sons Cuthbert and Richard, with their sister, joint heirs to the Theatre. Richard also owned the Theatre in Shoreditch (where was his home), but owing to some trouble with the owner of the site he removed the building, and together with Shakespeare built the Globe playhouse in Southwark for use in summer, the Blackfriars being reserved for performances in winter, when the playgoers would not care to cross the river. Burbage was now universall}' acknowledged to be the greatest actor of his day. Indeed it would not be far wrong to say that from 1595 he created the chief part in all the most important plays. In 1602, in a play called " The Return from Parnassus," he is introduced under his own name, with Kempe,* the popular comedian of the time, instructing two students in the art of acting. In 1603, we find him mentioned with Will Shakespeare and other actors in the warrant issued by James I. to the Lord Chamberlain's company, giving them the right to call themselves the King's Players. Burbage was the original personator of twelve famous characters in Shakes- peare's plays — and the long list speaks well for his versatility : Hamlet, Romeo, Prince Henry (Henry IV.), Henry V., Richard III., Macbeth, Brutus, Coriolanus, Shylock, Lear, Pericles, and Othello. Besides these he acted in most of Ben Jensen's dramas, and in many by Marston ; but his most famous rOles were * See the title page of the " Knacke to Knowe a Knave," reproduced on p 68. APPENDICES. 115 Hamlet and Richard III. The host at Leicester, in the " Iter Boreale " of Bishop Corbet, says : — " When he would have said King Richard died, And call'd ' a horse, a horse,' he Burbage cried." Burbage was of course intimately connected with both Shakespeare and Alleyn, and his name is frequently mentioned in conjunction with that of England's greatest dramatist. In March, 1615-16, performances of plays were strictly forbidden, but the order was disobeyed by some ; and among the actors summoned before the Privy Council Burbage held the foremost place. In 1616, Shakespeare, in his will, left " to my fellows, John Hemynge, Richard " Burbage, and Henry Cundell, twenty-six shillings eight-pence apiece to buy " them rings." In 1619, Richard Burbage died at the early age of 50, and his contemporaries were at once loud in his praises. Jonson, in " Bartlemy Fair," speaks of him as " your best actor." Sir Richard Baker, in his chronicle, tells of " Richard " Burbage and Edward Alleyn, two such actors as no age must ever look to see " the like." Middleton lionoured his memory with an epitaph ; elegies were published mourning his loss. Camden called him a second Roscius ; while an anonymous friend wrote that pithy and very theatrical epitaph, said to be the shortest in the world : " Exit Burbage." His fame has not yet died. Mr. Irving has recently called him the first great English actor, and ranks him with Betterton, Garrick, and Kean. But Burbage, besides being an actor, was also a painter. His portrait, said to be painted by himself, hangs in the College Gallery, and a female head, also in the Dulwich collection (No. 68), is attributed to him. Flecknoe, in 1672, wrote : — " The praises of Richard Burbage, Who did appear so gracefully on the stage. He was the admir'd example of the age, And so observ'd all your dramatic laws. He ne'er went off the stage but with applause : Who his spectators and his auditors Led in such silent chains of eyes and ears. As none, whilst he on the stage his part did pla}% Had power to speak or look another waj'. Who a delightful Proteus was, and could Transform himself into what shape he would ; And of an excellent orator had all In voice and gesture we delightful call ; Who was the soul of the stage ; and we may say 'Twas only he who gave life unto a play ; Which was but dead, as 'twas by the author writ, Till he by action animated it ; And finally he did on the stage appear, Beauty to the eye and music to the ear. Such even the nicest critics must allow Burbage was once, and such Charles Hart is now." ii6 APPENDICES. II. LIST OF CHAPLAINS AND MASTERS. The following is a complete list of the Chaplains and Masters of Dulwich College since its foundation : — Masters. Chaplains. I6I9 Thomas AUeyn. 1619 Samuel Wilson. I63I Matthias Alleyn. 1620 Robert Vance. 1642 Thomas Alleyn. 1622 ohn Gifford. 1668 Ralph Alleyn. 1623 William George. 1677 ohn Alleyn. 1626 oseph Reding. 1686 Richard Alleyn. 1628 "Robert Welles. 1690 John Alleyn. 1629 Matthias Turner. I7I2 Thomas Alleyn. 1630 _ ohn Blemell. I72I ames Alleyn. 1 63 1 3avid Fletcher. 1746 _ oseph Allen. 1634 Simon Mace. 1775 Thomas Allen. 1639 Francis Hooke. 1805 William Allen. 1644 John Crofts. I8II Lancelot Baugh Allen, 1645 Stephen Street. 1820 John Allen. 1658 (John Harrison. 1843 George John Allen. 1 William Carter. 1660 Henry Byarde. 1857 Rev. Canon Carver. 1670 George Alleyn. 1883 Rev. J. E. C. Welldon. 1672 Robert Bond. 1885 Mr. A. H. Gilkes. 1677 ames Alleyn. 1679 _ oseph Church. 1680 ohn Mawde. 1689 Benjamin Bynes. 1690 Richard Pritchard. 1696 Thomas Baker. 1701 ob Brockitt. 1706 oseph Billington. 1723 ■ :iobert Bolton. 1725 Richard Done. 1733 Richard King. 1738 George Thorpe. 1 741 John Hilar)'. 1766 William Swanne. 1785 Thomas Jenyns Smith 1830 John Image. 1841 Charles Howes. 1857 Rev. J. R. Oldham. 1866 Ven. Archdeacon Cheetham. 1883 Rev. G. W. Daniell APPENDICES. 117 III. A CURIOUS TRIAL. In the Guildhall Library there is a copy of a very curious trial which occurred in 1779. Humphrey Finniniore, " reputed to be worth ^'40,000," was tried at the Townhall, Southwark, on Thursday, January 14th, 1779, on the charge of stealing five turkeys, the property of Thomas Humphries. Humphries kept " the sign of the Gipsies," at Norwood {i.e., the Gipsy House), the defendant also living in the Wood. In a curious passage, which is most interestmg to us, the Counsel for the prosecution said : " My client lives in a wood ; has lived there a long time, so long "that he has become rusticated ; at least his manners are not the most refined ; in "short, he is not a courtier. {You shall see him presently.)" The accused party also lived at Norwood, and called as witnesses to his character, Catley, who kept the Horns tavern, and also " Dr. Allen, formerl)' Master of Dulwich College, and "Mr. Allen, the present Master." Finnimore was convicted by the jury, but the magistrates disagreed with the verdict, and, on petition to the King, the sentence was reversed. The explanation of this most extraordinary trial is that Finnimore was a miser of the old approved kind: — "You are possessed of more than ^1,000 per "year (you confirmed the above as you stood at the bar in the Town-Hall) ; it " is said you never expended in one year a hundred." IV. NORWOOD INSTITUTE. Reference has been accidentally omitted to the Norwood Institute. This picturesque building, situated in Knight's Hill Road, was erected in 1859 to afford accommodation for lectures, etc., for which purpose it is hired from time to time. Various clubs and classes now find a home there. J. Temple, Esq., is the present trustee. ii8 APPENDICES. NOTES ON LOCAL NAMES. Etymological and Historical. Note.— In this brief Dictionary will be found an outline of the topographical history of the neighbourhood. We have advisedly gone further afield than might perhaps be expected in a History of Dulwich and Norwood, but the interesting nature of the subject will more than repay the little space required. The great importance of Rocque's valuable Map of London {1746) in treating of this matter must again be noticed. Beiilah Hill. — The original form of this name was Beuly or Bewly, probably derived from an owner of the district in old days. In Rocque's map we find Bewly Farm, and Bewly Wood. In the present century it passed into the form Beulah, and thus originated Beulah Spa. The Spa was opened in 1831, and though the pleasure grounds have passed away, they have left the name of Beulah Hill. In a plan of Norwood (1808) it appears as Beaullieu Hill. Burbage Road. — This new road, leading from Turney Road to Half Moon Lane, has wisely been named by the College Governors in memory of Burbage, the great Elizabethan actor. It is extremely probable that Burbage visiteci Alleyn at Dulwich. {See Appendix, p. 114.) Camberwell. — " I can find nothing satisfactory with respect to its etymology ; the termination seems to point out some remarkable spring." Thus wrote Lysons. The only derivation suggested appears rather fanciful. Cam, it is generally agreed=crooked, and we are told the whole means the well of cripples. This is supposed to point to some ancient religious foundation in the parish — almshouse or hospital. Calton Road. — Of very recent origin, but designed to keep in remembrance the Calton famil}', who purchased Dulwich Manor from Henry VIII. From Sir Francis Calton it was bought by Alleyn m 1606-7. Champion Hill, named after Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, a former owner. Court Lane and Court Farm, Dulwich, survive, though Dulwich Court has disappeared. We have traced Dulwich Court from 1605 to 1844 {see Hist, of Dulwich, p. 56) but after that we lose sight of it. Alleyn very probably lived in this house, and not as is commonly supposed in the Old Manor House, (p. 58.) College Gardens occupy the site of a part of the old garden attached to the Old College, which was always left in a wild state. Croxted Lane. — A letter has been preserved from Alleyn to " Mr. Page at " Croxted," who was a tenant of Alleyn. But this seems to have little connection with Dulwich. In Rocque's map of 1746 it appears as Crooksed or Crocksed Lane, and then, as now, extended from Heme Hill to the Manor House of Dulwich. Dulwich. — Old forms : Dilwisshe, Dullidg, Dullage, Dilwik. The origin of the name is to be traced to De la Wyk, who held land in Camberwell Parish about noo. APPENDICES. 119 Dulwich Common. — This road traverses what was formerly the Common. But it must be allowed it was never really Common or Folk-land. Dulwich Wood Park. — Formerly, when Dulwich Wood formed part of the great Northwood, this was in the heart of the forest. Effra Road, Brixton. — The Effra stream was a tributary of the Thames. It crossed the Norwood Road and ran by the side of Croxted Lane. A piece of water in the grounds of " Belair," Gallery Road, Dulwich, was formerly an arm of the Effra. Of course, Queen Elizabeth is said to have travelled up this stream to visit Alleyn at the Manor House. As we have said before, Alleyn perhaps never lived at the Manor House, and more probably still, Elizabeth never came to Dulwich. Forest Hill. — Formerly part of the Northwood. Gipsy Hill. — So called from the gipsies who frequented the Northwood, or per- haps from Margaret Finch, their Queen, who had a cottage somewhere near there in the last century. The " Gipsey House " on the hill appears in the plan of 1808, and was well known before that. Heme Hill. — Heme is said to be derived from "herons," who are supposed to have frequented the Effra and other streams that formerly existed in the neighbourhood. Honor Oak. — From the Oak of Honour Hill, so called because Queen Elizabeth is said to have dined under a tree that formerly stood at the very summit of the hill. It is curious to notice that in Rocque's map of 1746 the hill is called Oak of Arnon Hill. Knight's Hill. — We have elsewhere suggested that this name arose from " Mr. Knight," who held 30 acres of land from Alleyn in this neighbourhood. It is marked in the map of 1746, and in every map since that date. Knight's Hill itself, however, was not purchased by the College authori- ties till recently. Norwood. — North-Wood, so called from its position with regard to Croydon. The earliest appearance of the name of Norwood (i. e. as distinct from Northwood) that we have yet seen is in Defoe's Journal of the Plague, (1722): "And as I have been told that several that wandred into the " country on Surry side were found starv'd to death in the woods and " commons, that country being more open and more woody than any " other part so near London ; especially about Norwood, and the " Parishes of Camberwell, Dullege, and Lusume, where it seems no " Body durst relieve the poor distressed people for fear of the infection." We also notice it in Salmon's Survey, 1746. Perry Vale. — There is a lease of the 14th century preserved at Dulwich, mentioning Perryfield. In Alleyn's deed of grant, Perryfield, a messuage with 13 acres, is stated to have been bought from one " Thomas Turner, of London, Gentleman," and to have formerly been part of the Manor of Dulwich. Spa Hill and Road, of course, are derived from Beulah Spa. I20 APPENDICES. Streatham. — Strata-ham, the dwelling on the street ; the street being an old Roman road. It is thought Streatham was originally a Roman military station. Sydenham appears as Cipenham in ancient documents. Thus in 1332, in the Annals of Bermondsey Abbey, we learn that " mquiry was made at " Cippenham for 60 shillings due annually tu the Church at Bermondsey " from the Manor of Cippenham, viz. from the land called Dillehurst." Tooting. — Four deriviations of the name have been suggested. (i) Theou, a slave, and ing, a meadow. (2) Teut, a form of the name of the Celtic God Thoth. (3) Toot (cp. Tottenham, etc.)^a hill. (4) The best view refers the name to the Saxon tribe " Totingas." It certainly appears in old records as Totinge. Thurloia Park. — From Lord Thurlow, who owned Knight's Hill and Leigham Court Manor. His property extended almost from Heme Hill to a short distance from Streatham. Tulse Hill. — W'e can find nothing to account for the origin of this name. It occurs on a map prefixed to a Guide to Beulah Spa in 1832. Wells Road, Upper Sydenham. — So called from Sydenham mineral waters These were discovered in the 17th century, and were generally called by the name of Dulwich Wells. Evelyn, in a passage of his diar}' already quoted in part, gives them their right name : " I came back by certaine " medicinal spa waters at a place called Sydnam Wells in Lewisham " parish, much frequented in Summer."' Sept. 2, 1675. INDEX. 43. 63. Allen, Dr. Benjamin Treatise on Wells. Allen, John Allen, Joseph . . Allen, Lancelot Baugh Allen, Thomas Alleyn, Edward : — Life of. By Fuller By Oldys ,, By Collier By Blanch By Ellis ,, By Warner Described as a "musician," 67 — Rivals Bentley, 6S — Goes on a provincial tour, 69 — Retires temporarily, 71 — Owns the Bear Garden, 72— Becomes King's Master of Bears, etc., 74 — Buys land at Dulwich, 75 — Builds the College, 76 — Difficulties in the way of getting letters patent, 80 — College opened, 81 — Loses Joan, his first wife, 84 — Marries Constance Donne, 84 — Dies, 85 — His will, 85 — Testimonies to Alleyn's character, 86, 88, 91 — Roles performed by him, 88-91 — Pictures left by, 47. Alleyn, George Alleyn, James . . Alleyn, James . . Alleyn, Thomas Alleyn's Almshouses , Alleyn as a " musician ' Almshouses, Alleyn's, St. Luke's Arundel, Earl of Aubrey, quoted on Northwood PAGE. 102 43 103 42 64 64 66 66 66 66 41 41 42 66 85 86 81 78 3 Bacon, Lord Chancellor, delays letters patent 80, 81 Baggalay, Ld. Justice . . . . . . 22 Barnwell, George, Catastrophe of . . 96, 97 Barry, Charles .. .. .. ••45 Bates, the musician . . . . . . . . 7 Bear Baiting . . . . . . . . 73, 74 Beattie's Biography of Campbell . . • • 99 Beckenham Church . . . . . . . . 10 Benson, John, the contractor for building the College . . . . . . . . 76 Beulah Spa . . . . . . . . 13-14 Beulah Spa. Postal arrangements, circa 1835 15 Beulah Spa, View in Beulah Spa. Analysis of Waters . . Beulah Spa, Guides to Beulah Spa. Description of Grounds Bew's Corner Bishopsgate. St. Botolph's Blackraore, Sir Richard Blanchard, S. L. Blew House, The Boswell Bourgeois, Sir Francis Bowyer, Sir Edmund Bridget, Gipsy Queen Brockwell Green Browne, Sir Humphrey Bull Baiting by Alleyn Burbage, Richard Byron, Lord . . 51 PAGE. . 16 • 14 13-15 15-16 • 54 ■ 56 • in • 22 55. 56 • 94 • 49 55.82 10 ■ 17 • 55 . 82 . 114 54. 103 Calton, Thomas .. .. .. 55,118 Campbell, Dr. Thos. quoted .. .. 107 Campbell, Thomas, the poet, at Sydenham 98, 100 Capper's Topographical Dictionary . . 6 Cartwright, W, . . . . . . . . 47 Carver, Canon Catley Catley, Anne . . Clayland Coppice Clink Prison . . Clink. Alleyn Churchwarden of Collier's Life of Alleyn, false details incor porated in Common, Dulwich . . Common, Norwood . . Court, Dulwich Court Lane Cox, of the " Green Man ' Cox, David Cromwell Crowquill, Arthur Croxted Lane Croxted Lane, about 1880 Croydon Daborne, Robert Davidge, G. B. Defoe, Daniel . . Desenfans, Marg. Desenfans, Noel "Dodipoll, Dr." • • 45-6 6, 117 6, 7, 8 6 • 75 75 68, 71, 65 91 59 2 56 56 53 104 3 22 61 106 87 20 112 49 49 69 122 INDEX. Donne, Dr Donne, Constance Dowell, Richard Dream Books Dulwich College Opening of List of Masters . . ,, of Chaplains Dulwich Common Wood Dulwich Common Dulwich Manor Dulwich Village, View in Dulwich Wells " DuUidg Wells, Strange news from Dulwich Wood " Edinburgh Review " Edwards, Mrs. Effra Elderhole Coppice . . " Elfrida," a play Elizabeth, Queen Essex, Countess of . . Evelyn quoted Finch, Margaret, the Gipsy Queen Finnimore, Humphrey Five Fields, Dulwich Fortune Theatre built ,, ,, burnt Fox, Major-Gen., quoted French Horn, Dulwich Fuller's Life of AUeyn Garrick, David George HL visits Gipsies at Norwood Gilkes, Mr. AH Gipsies Gipsies at Dulwich .. Gipsy House, View of Gipsy House, The . . Gipsy- Queens : Margaret Finch Bridget Elizabeth .. Glennie, Dr. . . Goldsmith at Peckham Gondomar, Spanish Ambassador Gosson, Stephen " Green Man," The .. Greenfield, Rev. W. F. Grove Hill Guilpin's Skialetheia Hall Place (See Manor House) Harrison's History of London Henslowe's Diary Henslowe, Agnes Hermit, The Dulwich Heyword's Apology for Actors Hill, Thos „ portrait of 62 PAGE. 81 84 43 13 34-46 81 116 116 55 6 75 48 50 51 9. II 103 23 105 6 8 62 16 50 117 61 72 82 104 61 63-4 69 II 46 9 61 12 D, 117 10 10, 38 [O, II II 92-93 . 82 • 7S ■ 53 • 45 • 97 • 58 49-50 . 64 . 6S • 59 . 8g . lOI . lOI Holland House Horn's Tavern Hospital, St. Bartholomew's Houses, Famous : Blew House Manor House ,, Ricottes ,, Lord Thurlow's House 17, Hume, Rev. James . . Huntley, Rev. B. C. Humphries, Thomas.. Inns : Bew's Corner . . French Horn, Dulwich Green Man . . . . . . • • 53 Horn's Tavern, Norwood .. 6, 117 Pie Inn . . . . . . . . 64, 66 Gipsy House .. .. .. 10, 117 Jew's Hospital . . . . . . . . 23 Johnson, Dr. .. .. .. .. .. 107 Jones, Inigo . . . . . . . . 77 Jonson's (Ben) Sonnet . . . . . . 89 Kearney, Kate . . . . . . . . 20 " Knacke to knowe a Knave, A " .. ,.68 Knight's Hill 17 Knight's Hill Common . . . . . . 17 Knight's Hill Farm . . . . . . ■ • 17 Knight's. Origin of the name . . . . 18 Knight's Hill Pound . . .. .. •• 17 Landseer, Sir Edwin . . . . . . 104 Langton's Dramatic Poets . . . . . . 90 Lascelles, General . . . . . . . . 9 Lee, Alexander . . . . . . . . 20 Lee, Sir Robert . . . . . . . . 56 Leigham Court . . . . . . . . 17 Lettsom, Dr., at Grove Hill, Camberwell, 94-98 Lettsom, Dr., Portrait of .. .. ..96 Lewisham, Alleyn's estate at .. .. 8i Linley, Rev. O. T. . . . . . . 43, 44 Lower School . . . . . . . . 45 Lonsdale, Earl of . . . . . . . . 22 Lordship Lane . . . . . . . . 50 Lymar, Cornelius . . . . . . . . 78 Lyson's " Environs" quoted .. 10,56 Macklin 7 Malone . . . . 64 Manor House, Dulwich, View of . . . . 52 Manor House, Dulwich, alias Hall Place . 58 Mantell, G, Geologist 22 Margaret, Gipsy Queen 10 Marryatt 100 Matthews, Samuel •• 59 Matthews, Mrs, quoted 102 Maurice, " Grove Hill " .. .. ..95 Mendelssohn .. .. 106 Mile End 23 Mill, Dulwich 58, 60 PAGE. .. 103 6, 117 •• 54 51. 55. 56 52. 50 55 18 42 45 117 54 61 INDEX. 123 Mill Pond, Dulwich . . Milner, Dr., at Peckham Murphy, Arthur Nash, Pierce Pennyles Nash's strange news . . New College, 1890, View of Dulwich Northwood ,, Map of Norwood Cemetery PAGE. 57 93 108 67 89 41 3.6 5 20 20 Chapels in Famous people buried 20, 22 "7 Pastoral at Covent Norwood Institute " Norwood Gipsies,' Garden .. .. .. .. ..11 Norwood Common enclosed . . . . 6 Norwood Mineral Waters . . , . . . 14 ,, Subscriptions to .. .. ..14 O'Keefethe Dramatist, reminiscences quoted 7, 9 Old College, 1790, view of . . . . . . 40 Oldfield, Joshua, D.D 112 Osbaldiston, D. W .. ..20 Paris Bear Garden . . 72 Park, Dulwich .. .. .. ..61 Picture Gallery, Dulwich . . . . 47, 49 Pie Inn .. .. .. .. 64,66 Pepys quoted .. .. .. .. ..10 Peters, John. Treatise on Wells .. •• 51 Poyntz, Anne .. .. .. .. ..87 Pope, Sir Thomas . . . . . . • • 55 " Privileged Parishes ' .. .. ..46 Prout, Samuel, painter .. .. ..22 Reading. John .. .. .. ..42 Red Bull Theatre . . . . . . • ■ 79 Rhodes, John . . .. .. .. ..41 Ricottes .. .. .. .. •■ 55 Robson, comedian . . . . . . . . 20 Rocque's Map of the Environs of London 3. 4. 5. 61 •• 45 69, 71 Rogers, Rev. W. Rose Theatre . . Rowland's Knave of Clubs . . Ruskin, Mr ,, " Praeterita " quoted Russell, Lord John .. 62, 105 . . 106 .. 103 Sadler's Wells rAQK. •• 55 St. Luke's, Parish of .. 19 Church .. 19 ,, ,, Incumbents of.. .. 19 ,, ,, View of . . 21 Selborne, Lord •• 47 Scott, Sir W .. 99 Shakespeare . . •• 71 Shakespeare's Sonnets .. 87 Sinclair, Archdeacon, quoted .. 43 Smith, D .. 14 Smith, Rev. J. H ■■ 45 Smith, Rev. Thomas Jenyns •• 43 Socklen, Elizabeth . . .. 87 Sprague .. 61 Stipends of the Fellows of Dulwich •■ 79 Stirling, Earl of 90, 91 Strange's (Lord) Players .. 69 Streatham .. 107 Street, Mr. (Architect) 20 Suflolk, Lady ■• 79 Sydenham .. 98 Talfourd, Sir T. N . . 22 Taylor, the Water Poet .. 70 Theatres : Blackfriars .. 114 „ Fortune . . 72, 82 Hope .. 76 Rose 69, 71 Red Bull •• 79 Shoreditch .. 114 Globe .. 114 Townley, John .. 66 Thrales, the, at Streatham . . . . 107 Thurlow, Lord • • 17 Tooting . . Ill Turner, Sharon . . 22 Vicar's Oak 2 Visitation of Commissioners to Dulw ch . . 40 Wakefield, Priscilla, Perambulations • • 54 Walpole, Horace 8.43 Weatherheads Guide to Beulah Spa •• 13 Webster, Dr •■ 53 Welldon, Rev. J. E. C .. 46 Wells Lane . . 50 Westmoreland School . . 22 Westmoreland Society .. 22 Wood, Dulwich ■• 59 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. }^AR -i Q f9f59 4PR 101962 Form L9-2m-6,'49(B4568)444 tJC SOUTHEHrj HEijlONAL llbhMn FAM ll ll, 1 ll III III III 11, li II III III III D 000 451 200