cS o Uk/I ■ * ^>^ ':^ U bfl < 1 •J'-' I k ■ n rt A r\\ i ^ C3 3> lVJ-dO>' 0>' ^^il^DNV-SOl-^" iivFRV/-, ,^v,insANr,eifj> All' ? ' 1 kJL— >" — n > IVSOV^ %{!]AINn3WV . f-T-l III FO/?^ X.OF C/> '"' ^\\E■l'NlVERS/^ >- ex: < c-> ^ c-> ££ IIVER% ^lOSANCElfj> ■^ C A :0 ir I . .r- ri I PADDINGTON : PAST AND PEESENT. WILLIAJI EOBIXS. '• Give me the liberty to kno-.v, to utter, and to argue freely according: to cuubcience, above all liberties." — Milton. PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY ARTHUR AXD WARREN HAM,, C A X T O N STEAM P R I N T I N (J <) F T I C K S , 10, CAMlilllDGK TKUUACE, CAMDKN TOWN, AND SOLD UY ALL bOOKSliLLKKS. 73 ~Vi2>1^6 PREFACE AND DEDICATION. History is valuable, not merely for tlie facts wticli it records, but in a much biglier degree for the lessons it teaches ; for tbe Future will be benefited by tbe Past and the Present, more in proportion to the amoimt of truth developed and error eradicated by their teaching, than b}' the number of circumstances preserved. To judge of the facts of history, it is necessary to liave the libert}' to know them ; but it has often hap- pened that historical facts have been so discreditable to the actors of the history, that the facts have been hidden, and fiction put in their place ; and liberty to know has been refused to all, except the few who were to become participators in the actions. There may be a few who know the history of Padding- ton well ; but by far the greater part of those who now live in this parish have no clear notion of those circumstances which have influenced its past, and which affect its present condition. That Paddington has been transformed into a city of palaces, from a quiet rural village, is known to all; but by what agency that change has been effected — how the profits of that change 614999 ENGLISH LOCAL IV. PREFACE AND DEDICATION. have been dispensed, and who have the greatest moral, if not legal, right to the chief share of those profits — is not so clearly understood. In ffivina: utterance to the facts contained in the follow- ing pages, I have argued freely, according to my con- science, on the effects produced on my own mind by the facts I have recounted ; and I have not failed to shew how the rights of the people have been invaded, at almost every step, in the various changes which have occurred in Paddinijton. It is true that the facts contained in this Work, have not been collected under the superin- tendence of the lords of the soil ; neither are they now published imder their patronage. My sketch might have been more attractive, had the records in the possession of the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, been consulted ; but I had no desire either to be refused the favour of inspecting them, or to have my hands tied by accepting it. The Records in the various Public Record Offices are open to all; and to those Officers of the Rolls' Chapel, the Tower, and Carlton Ride, as well as those at the British Museum, who kindly assisted me by direct- ing my search for facts relative to Paddington, my best thanks are due. I am also indebted to several kind friends for advice and assistance, during the progress of this Work through the Press. Mr. B. H. Smart, the well-known English scholar, kindly suggested to me, some time since, the possibility of the word Paddington being derived from Padre ing tun, the Father's toicn- meadoiD ; and Sir Harry Dent Goring, of Bayswater House, was so good as to suggest another derivation, PREFACE AXD DEDICATION. V. which I think it right to acknowledge in this place. In a note Sir Harry writes to me on this subject, he says, ' l Pad is a Sussex word now in common use for Pack -Horse * * * ^gs we have in that county by hundreds. H^ovr, the carriers to the great City may have lodged, and had meadows for their Pack-Horses here. I humbly suggest, therefore, may not Pad- dington mean the Village at the Pack-IIorse Meadows ?" It is to Dr. R. G. Latham I am indebted for pointing out to me Mr. Kemble's opinion as the most probable origin of this word. With these additional remarks I must leave the decision of this question, of the origin of the name, to those learned linguists and antiquarians who desire to enter more deeply into the subject. I regret not having been able to spend more time, than I have done, in researches for this Sketch ; but I hope my efforts to discover facts, relative to Paddington, have not been so fruitless as to render this attempt entirely undeserving the attention of the inhabitants of this parish. The only apology I can ofier to my readers for the faults in the Work, is, that the facts were sought out, and the ideas jotted down, in moments snatched from the performance of more important and more harassing duties. Should any one wish to know how it ever entered my head to give my friends and myself so much trouble, the reason is readily told: Having lived in Paddington from 1838 to 1847, in perfect ignorance of its history, I was aroused, like the rest of the rate-payers, who lived in the parish, in the latter year, to a consciousness of the existence of some moving Power in tlu' parish, l>y a sudden, and to me VI. PREFACE AND DEDICATION. unaccountable increase in tlie demand on my purse. Having seen a considerable diminution in the number of houses for the poor, and a considerable increase in the dwellings of the rich, I was ver}^ anxious to ascertain the cause of this call on me for an increase in my contribu- tion to the parochial burdens. I found that a re-assess- ment of the parish had been made ; that my rates, and many others, were increased as much as 6^d. in the pound on the former rental ; that the assessment was most un- equal and unjust ; and that it was not at all reqiured for the purpose for which it was said to be made. The excuse given for re-assessing the parish, was, that the comity magistrates had raised the assessment ; but I found, on looking into that question, that one half-penny in the pound per annum, taken on the old assessment, would have raised the extra sum required by the coimty. I came to the conclusion, therefore, that the governing body had not chosen to give out to the rate-payers the true motives for their actions ; and finding that they had carried out their resolution in a most unjust manner, I thought I should not be doing my duty by discontinu- ing the enquiry at this point: I proceeded, and the following pages are the result of my subsequent investi- gations. To shew how Paddington has increased, both in popu- lation and wealth, I have subjoined an abstract of the Census Returns since their first establishment, and some extracts from the Rate-books since 1838. For the amount of Rental for 1847,-48,-49, I am indebted to calculations made by Mr. Aveling, the Vestry-Clerk; but the amounts for those years do not include the assess- PREFACE AND DEi:)lCATI02s. Vll. ment for the empty houses; for wliicli £10,000 per annum may be added. The enormous increase in the Rental in the 3'ear 1847, arose chiefly from the extra sum laid on by the re-assessment made that year. The sums in the second colmnn of that table represent the amoimts levied by the two half-yearh' rates. CENSUS RETURNS FOR PADDIXGTON. Houses. Population. Years. Inhabit. Uninliab. Building. IMales. Females Persons. 1801 324 33 870 1011 ISSl 1811 879 24 32 1994 2615 4609 1821 1139 13 28 2852 3624 6476 1831 1933 104 93 6278 8262 14,540 1841 3479 221 390 10,784 14,425 25,173 1851 6103 416 222 18,784 27,521 46,306 TABLE OF RATES AND RENT.iL. Years. Rates levied. Rental. £ s. d. £ 1838 14,418 12 8 118,540 1839 16,860 10 lU 130,631 1840 16,780 11 lU 141,145 1841 18,244 12 lOi 159,412 1842 19,469 11 H 178,060 1843 22,798 15 111 196,030 1844 25,272 5 214,357 1845 25,928 1 1 238,712 1846 28,261 2 5 260,001 1847 32,319 16 lU 317,739 1848 35,878 9 10 332,557 1849 38,619 11 1^ 343,006 1850 41,855 2 6 374,036 1851 37,792 10 5 390,732 1852 34,554 3i 410,617 These Tables clearly shew that the simile used by Canning — " Pitt is to Addington, As London is to Paddington — " VUl. PREFACE AND DEDICATION. no longer retains tlie force it did, when uttered by that great statesman. Few, indeed, can now tell where London ends, and Paddington begins, or define the con- necting links which now unite these once distant places. Paddington, too, is becoming, year by year, of still greater importance ; and at the present time there are not many who wovdd deny to it, any more than to any other portion of that undefined place called London, its just share of the privileges of " The City." When we reflect on the vast riches which in the process of time must accrue to the Church from the in- significant gift of the Boy-King to Nicholas Ridley ; and when we contemplate what sums have been received, and are likely to be received by the present occupant of the See of London from that "little farm in Pad- dington," which has been claimed by that See ; the Future of Paddington becomes worthy of a moment's thought. I have deemed it to be my duty to S23eak freely of the management of those lands in Paddington, which were claimed for the performance of certain specific purposes ; and the nature and the amount of that income from those lands, received by the present Bishop of London and his lay lessees, have been spoken of with a freedom, which some may not admire. But I need not fear con- demnation, for a former occupant of the See of London, thus addressed the over-paid bishops of his day ; " Come ofi", ye Bishops; away with your superfluities; yield up yom' thousands ; be content with hundreds." Many changes have occurred since Dr. Ayhner penned those words ; and much imin'ovement has taken place and is PREFACE AXU DEDICATION. IXr taking place. Why then do we complain ? A ready answer is furnislied by one of the most accomplished statesmen of our time. Mr. Macaulay truthfully tells us that "there is constant improvement, precisely because there is constant discontent." Let not my readers think, then, I have complaiaed for the sake of complaining ; or that because I speak of actions which are past, thi& exposure will have no influence on the future. I can most conscientiously say, that should a single good result from what I have wT-itten, I shall be amply repaid for any trouble it may have cost me to collect the materials for this historical sketch : and in dedicating the fol- lowing pages to the Inhabitants of Paddiugton, I can say with the learned John Strype, " In what I have writ, I have endeavoured invariably to follow the tract of truth ; and have related things as I found them." And like him, too, *' I may perhaps be censured for this plain and impartial way of writing ; and blamed, that I have not put some veil or varnish upon some things, and been whoUv silent of others." But "we are not writing a Panegyric, but a faithful account." WILLIxiM EOBINS. OxroiiD Terrace, May 20th, 1853. CONTENTS. PllEFACE lU— IX. PAllT T.— THE L.'lND. Chapter T.— Abbey Lands. — Fabulous stoiy of Edgar's grant ; Forced Charters of Edgar and Dunstan ; the Doni Boo or Domesday Book; the Middlesex Forest and its Rivers — the Fleetc, the Tybouru, and the Brent ; Tybourn and Westbourn the same streams ; Site of Paddington ; Eoman Roads ; Concord between the Abbot of AVcstminstcr and Richard and William of Paddington ; the Abbot "Walter's Anniversary and its Modification ; Probable origin of the term " Bread and Cheese Lands ;" Mode of dispensing the pi'oceeds of Abbey Lands in the 12th and 1 3th Centm-ies ; the Ecclesiastical Taxation of Pope Nicholas ; the whole of the Temporalities of Paddington given in Charity 1 — 19 Ch.vpter II. — The Makors of Westbourx and Paddington. — Definition of the word Manor ; neither Westbourn nor Pad- dington mentioned in Domesday; Probably included in the ]\Ianf)r of Tybourn ; Quo Warranto respecting them ; Walter of Wenlock fined for acquiring lands here without the licence of the King ; three Inquisitiones ad quod Damnum tcmpus Edward Second ; Grant of a head of water to the Mayor and Citizens of London 19—27 CiiArTEK III.— The Possessions of the Church, thi; Crown AND THE People. — Division of the ancient Manor of Ken- XU. CONIENTS. sington ; Grant of St. Mary's Lauds to the Dean and Chapter of \Yestminster ; the Manor of Kuightsbridge and Westbourn ; the Manor of Xotting-Barns ; Purchase and Bequest of this Manor by the Countess of Richmond ; Property of Lord Sands and Thomas Hobson purchased by the Crown ; Elizabeth Massey ; Inquisition, shemng that the Manor of Xotting Barns was a portion of the Parish of Paddington ; "Westbourn purcliased by Henry the VIII, of Robert "^Tiite ; other Lands purchased by tlie Crown ; Westbourn and other Lands sold to Dr. Thomas Hues, and left by him to Merton College, Oxford ; Description of a portion of this property, once in the possession of Lord Sands, and belonging to Chelsea Manor — but forming no part of Chelsea Parish; What has become. of Dr. Hues's bequest .'' the Manor of Malurres ; Ecclesiastical Valuation of Henry the VIII ; the Manor of Paddington valued at £19 per annum ; Dissolution of Religious Houses ; Lease of the Manor and Rectory of Paddington to Sii- Edward BajTiton and his wife ; Grant of the Manor to the Bishop of London, one-fifth being reserved for the uses of the Crown ; Descent of the Manor of Paddington as given by Lysons ; additions to his description ; Sale of this Manor by the Parliament ; Dr. Sheldon's Lease of it, and the Rectory, to his nephews, after the Restoration ; leased to Sii- John Frederick for three lives ; Property of private owners; Commons and "Waste 28 — 5& Chapter IV. — Charity Laxds. — Abstract of Returns made to the House of Commons, 1786-88; Report of the Commiissioners for Enquiry concerning Charities, 1826 ; Bread and Cheese Lands; Johnson's Charity ; Dr, Compton's Charity; Margaret Robertson's Charity ; Alms' Houses and School House ; Chirac's Gift ; Arbuurne's Charity ; 1st and 2nd Vic. cap. 32, An Act to enable the Trustees of the Freehold Charity Estates to . tBawdwen's translation of the Record called Domesday. Middlesex, &c. Doncast. 1812. jSomc writers have been unable to account for this diminution in the value of land ; but I think the writer of the article Donicsday in tlie Penny Cyclopivdia has satisfac- torily accounted for this decrease in referring it to the revolution produced by the Conquest. JEdward de Sarisberie held Cherchede or Chelchcd for two hides. b3 6 ABBEY LANDS. named. A manor of "Padendcne " existed at this time, and is mentioned in the survey, but it was situated in the county of Surrey ; and singularly enough was shortly after held by the same family — the Dc Veres — who held Kensington, and who aftc;rwards, also, held TyboiUTi. "Were there, then, no dwellings, no cultivated lands in Mid- dlesex known by the name of Paddington, in 1086 — the date of the Conqueror's survey ? Was Paddington at this period an uncultivated portion of the great Middlesex Porest ; or did a few of the King's cottagers live here, unnoticed and unloiown, before this scrutiny discovered them ? Were the broad acres, subsequently claimed by the monks of "Westminster, accoimted for in the territories of the neighbouring lords ; or did they form but a portion of the home domain of the Convent ? Was the village, and the land, known by any other name ? Of all these possible suppositions, which is the most probable ? To enter fully into a discussion of these questions would requii'e a greater amount of antiquarian knowledge than I possess; and woidd occupy more space in this work than I can spare. To obtain an answer to the last question satisfactory to my own mind, it is tiiie I have made some researches, and I will, as concisely as possible, convey to my readers the opinions at which I have arrived ; detailing in this place only so many of the topographical facts as may be necessary to shew upon what foundations those oj)inions have been formed. We know, from Pitz Stephen, that an immense forest, "beautified with wood and groves," but "full of the lairs and coverts of beasts and game, stags, bucks, boars, and wild bidls,"* existed even in the twelfth centiuy at no great dis- tance from what then constituted London. Small portions only of this forest appear to have been, at any time, the property of the cro"\vn. It formed a part of the public land which was entrusted to the charge of the elected governors of the people. In it the citizens had free right of chase, preserved by many royal charters : it was disafforested by Hemy the third in 121 8. f And during the Saxon period it would have been no difficult matter to have obtained a settlement even in the most desirable parts of it. To shew the extent of this forest in Middlesex, and the paucitj^ of fixed inhabitants in it, when for the purposes of government, families arranged themselves into tens, and hunch-eds, we have only to remember •This " Description of London " -which Stowe printed as an appendix to his History, is translated and pul)lishcd with i\jinotations. Lond. 1772. iMaitland's Uistory of London. See also Park's Topography of Hampstead. ABBEX LANDS. 7 that the Hiuidi'cd of Ossulston occupied nearly half the coimty; although it iuoluded both Loudou aud Westminster. The rieete, the Tyboiu'u, and the Erent, were the three notable streams which carried the waters from the hills north of the Thames thi'ough this forest to the great recipient of them all. And it is probable that the Saxons early settled on the elevated banks of these streams, finding there a more healthful and safer retreat than could be found on the banks of " the silent highway " which was so frequently traversed b}- the Danes. Another powerful inducement existed in this locality to fix the wandering footsteps of the emigrant. Two roads made thi'ough the forest by the skill of the previous conquerors of the country, united in this spot; and remained to show the uncultivated Saxon, what genius and i:»erseverance could effect. These having served the purpose of a military way to conduct the Roman Legions from south to north, and from east to west, were now ready to be used in aid of ci^^Llized life. And it is scarcely conceivable that a spot so desirable could have remained long unoccupied by the seekers of a home. This locality is the present site of Paddington by whatever name it was then called. And it was, in all probability, at a verj" early period of our history occiq)ied by the Saxon settler. The question whether those who settled here were conveyed with the soil to some spiritual, or temporal, lord, previous to, or immediately subsequent to, the Norman conquest, cannot be so satisfactorily determined. Traditions are at variance ; docu- ments are not trustworthy ; and names have been altered ; so that two opinions may be entertained about the things described even in the instruments which exist. There is, how- ever, one general ride which will assist us in coming to a cor- rect decision as to the boiuidarics we find laid do-sm. "When the science of making and interpreting artificial signs had acqufred all the potency of a black art ; when the acquisition of this art was strictlj' guarded by all the rules of a craft; and when this art was used to describe a title to lands, and to define the extent of those lands, it still remained necessar}-, for the safety of those who held this hook-land, that the natural signs should be used, if any Icnowledge of these things was to be preserved by the people, who were carefully excluded fr'om any dealings with so subtile an agency q,s the lawyer's quill. And I think we may safely conclude that the most pnjmincnt and permanent objects, natimd or artificial, would be invariably chosen to i)oint out the bounds of an 8 ABBEY LAKDS. original settknnent, when the time had come to render hmd nKU'ks necessary. We might expect, therefore, to find that the "Westminster monks, in car^ang out for themselves a comfortable and compact estate, would choose for its bomidaries the most prominent and permanent objects in the neighbourhood. And in Edgar's first Charter — that dated six years before Edgar ivas Kiyig — we do find, with some additions, the Thames chosen for the southern boundary; the Eoman road for the northern; the Fleete for the eastern; and the Tyboiu-n for the western. And if we take the largest stream between the Fleete and the Erent to have been the Tyboum, we can readily explain how the convent claimed a manor in Chelsea; and we can clearly imderstand, too, how the Norman monks read this Saxon Charter so as to make it include the manor of Padding- ton — as that portion of land, bounded by the Eoman roads, and the boxu-n, was at one time called. Mr. Saunders, in his " Inquiry, &c." has come to the con- clusion that the ancient Tybourn was the stream which has been recenthj kno\^Ti by that name. But I think those who "RT-ll take the trouble to examine this subject thoroughly will come to the conclusion that on this point that inquirer has been deceived. It is evident the facts which came under Mr. Saunders's notice, in the course of his inquiry, did not entirely square ^A'ith the supposition which he has adopted. And aiter all, he is obliged to admit that Westminster extended, and ex- tends, to the stream farther westward than the one he has accepted as its western boundary. This West-boum, or brook, I take to be the ancient Tybourn — the western boundary of the district described in the charter, dated 951 ; and the western boundaiy of St. Margaret's parish, as defined by the Ecclesiastical Decree of 1222. Lysons, writing at the end of the last centuiy, described the stream which crossed the Tyboum road, now Oxford-street, as a "small bourn, or rivulet formerly called Aye-brook or Eye-brook, and now Tyboum- brook." In the maps of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centimes we find but one stream delineated as descending from the high gi-ormd about Hampstead. In Christopher Saxton's cm'ious map of 1579; in Spcede's beautiful little map of 1610; in John Seller's, of 1733; in Morden's; in Scales' s; in Ilocque's acciu-ate surv'eys; and in others of less note ; we see this stream takes the course of that brook which ABBEY LANDS. 9 A\as at ouc time called Westboum, and which I believe was anciently called the Tybourn, and discharges itself into the Thames at Chelsea. The Eye brook on the other hand scarcely appeared before it came to the conduits built by the citizens of London ; it then crossed Oxford-street in the valley west of Stratford-place, and emptied itself into a reservoir at the north- eastern corner of "The Deer Park," or as it is now called "The Green Park." It appears to liave been originally very little larger than the Tychbourn which ran down the Edgeware- road ; the former carrying the waters from the southern side of Prinxrose-hill, the latter from the south of Maida-hill. The Eyeboiu-n, however, was very much increased in size when the superabundant supply fi'om the conduits, which were fed by the water brought from Tybourn, and from springs near the callage of Eye, were emptied into it. When the reservoir in the Green Park was enclosed with brick and supplied by the Chelsea Water-works Company from the Thames, this brook was covered in, carried beneath the old reservoir, and converted into a sewer, and is now known by the name of the King's Scholars Pond Sewer; while the larger stream to the west, the Tybourn or Westboiu-n, has degenerated into the Panelagh Sewer. There is another fact also worthy of note : Holinshed, when speaking of the execution of the Earl of March, which took ])lace in the reign of Edward the third, says, that in those (lays the place of execution was called " The Elmes," but was kno-mi in his day by the name of " Tiborne." At the present time enough of "Elms-lane"* remains, at Bayswater, to point out where the fatal Elm grew, and the gentle " Tibome " ran. Dr. Stukeley, and other learned antiquarians, are of opinion that the Edgeware-road, and the XJxbridge-road, represent, very nearly, the sites of the ancient Eoman roads. Now if the Tybourn was, in truth, the same stream as the West- Ijoum, the monks of Westminster had only to follow its course fi'om the Thames till they came to the second "broad military road" which crossed it, instead of stopping at i\ic first tliey met with, fand the charter smjs nothing about the first or second), and in their ascent up this stream, and descent by the •Klms-lanc is tho first opening on the risht hand after p;ettinf; into the Uxbridffe road from the (;rand. Junction road, ojjposite the head of tlie Serpentine; theSerjien- tini' itself beinfr formed in the bed of the ancient stream wliich 1 laliliiii(/i/ Sol!, of this year. $Vide Faulkner's account of the descent of this manor, p. 592. Sir H. Anderson, an Alderman of London, pave £3,400 for this manor the same year in which " the Queen's pardon" was obtained. In a presentment made of the manor of Abbot's Kensington, 1675, we find Sir R. Anderson's land set down at 400 acres, Free, but then said to be included in that manor. — Ibid 598. THE CROWIf, AND THE PEOPLE. 37 •and by private mdividuals ; and so this portion of tlie Lady Margaret's gift was disposed of. Eut with "the messuage called "Westboume, and the lands purchased of Robert White," we have something more to do. Thomas Hues, esquire, doctor of medicine, one of queen Mary^s " principal physicians," purchased of that queen and others, a considerable (j^uantity of land, in this and the adjoin- ing parishes, fully described in Escaet, 2. Eliz. part 2. No. 23, which he gave to his wife for her life, " And in remaiader to the "Wardens and Fellows of Martyn (Merton) college in Oxford, for the purpose of founding within the said college for evennore two apt and meet persons to be Fellows of the Fellowship of the said College. Or else three scholars, or four, as the land will extend unto, at such times as the same shall come to the hands and possession of the said Warden and Fellows of the said college or to their successors for the time being ; to have continuance and succession within the said college as fellows or scholars thereof for eveiTQore. There to be found, governed, and used with the revenues of the said lands, and to be brought up and educated in virtue and good learning according to the rules, good order, and diet of the said College, wherebj^ other the Fellows or Scholars of the said House have in time past been well governed, ordered, ruled and brought up." By Pat. 2. Mary, P. 1, we learn other particulars respecting the messuages, tenements, &c., which were purchased by Dr. Hues. We find the cost of the whole to have been three hun- di'cd and forty-six poimds, one shilling and eight-pence half- penny; that they were purchased of various owners; and that "a message and tenement called Westboimie" was in- cluded in the purchase, and that "four closes of land called by the names of Darking Busshes, Holmefield, Balserfield, and Baudeland, and six acres of arable land Ipng apart in the common fields ; and six acres of arable land lying apart in the fields called Downes, all in the parish of Paddington" were purchased of the crown. As a desfrijjtion of these four closes of land is still pre- served in the Harleian M.SS. No. 606, f. 46 b., I have thought it right to translate and print it in this place, it is as follows: — " A parcel of the possessions of the late lord Sands. County oi'' Middlkskx." " An account of four pastui'e closes in and near Paddington d3 38 THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHUECH, in the county aforesaid, containing, by estimation, fifty acres, laucly in the tenure of Jolm Kellet by indenture for a term of years. " One. — A close called Darldng Busshes* lying between the close called Simha-u'es on the southera side, and between the field called Wrenfclde on the northern side, and extending in length over the green called Kellsell Greene on the eastern side, and over the land belonging to Notting-bams called Dorkinghemes on the western side. " Another. A close called Homefelde and extending above the road leading from Paddington to Harlestone on the eastern side, and above the close called Reding-mcadc on the western side, and abutting upon the close called Church-close on the southern and western sides, and upon the angle of Eeding- meade aforesaid on the northern side. " Another close called Balserfeld, extending in length upon a piece of land called Lytle Balserfeld on the northern side, and upon a close called Horsecreste and Ponde-close on the southern side, and on one head of the land abutting upon the west-lane on the western side, and upon Eeding-meade aforesaid on the eastern side. " Another close called Bandelonds lying between the close called Swanne lease and Three acres on the northern side, and a close called Downes on the southern side, and one head abutting upon a close called Abbot' s-lease, and upon the Green-lane or Kingefelde-green on the eastern side, and upon the close of If otting-bames on the western side. They are worth £4." The following memorandum is added to this description : — " iTem. — That the rent of tlie premises is paid to the haylijfe of Chclsey albeit it li/ith nother icithin Town nor parisshe of Chelsey hut ivithin the p)arisshe of Paddinyton, ij myle from Chelsey. What myncs, leade, or other commodytes ar apon the premisses I know not. The same are no parcel of th' auncyent de- means of the Crown, or of the Duches of Lane, or Comewall, the Queue hath no more loud in Paddyngton but only these iiij closes. Ex. per me Alexandrum Hewes superius." " xiii mo. of Male 1557 Rated for JVIr. Hues one of the Queues mties phicisions. *This field in " A Perticular Booke of Chelsey Manor," is called "Darkingby Johes." — Vide Faulkner's Chelsea, vol. i. p. 313. 39 " The clere yerely value of the premesises iiii li whiche rated at xxvi yeres purchace ammountethe to ciiij li. "The money to be paid in hand viz before the xxvi of Male 1557. The King and Quencs ma., do dischardge the purchacer of all thinges and iacumbraunces made or don by theu- majesties except leases. The purchacer to have the 'ssiies from the test of Th' annuncyation of oui" Lady last past. The pm-chaser to discharge the King and Quenes majesties of all fees and reprises goying out of the premisses. The tenm-e in socage. The pm-chacer to be be bound for the Tvoodes. The leade and belles to be excepted. Ex. Willm Petre. Fraunceis Inglctield. Jo Bakere." These were the closes in Paddington then, which belonged to Lord Sands ; and it will be seen by this memorandum, and by the patent, that although this land was considered a part of Chelsea manor, it was no part of Chelsea parish at that time."^' •Having- by the production of these documents sadly damasjed the numerous stories told about these fields, "Chelsea Reach," as they are called, the least I can do will be to attempt to preserve two of those I have heard. Supposing,' the second to have any truth in it, the first will shew how the jieople may be kept in ignorance by the use of words whicli have a double meaning-— how the ignorant may be kept iu ignorance by telling them a story which they are to read one way, and that according to the common acceptation, while the knowing ones, the fraternity who have become philosophers, and have been admitted into the secret, may read it in another. " A Chelsea Pensioner having been to visit a poor lame grandchild who was being educated in good and sound learning at the Free School, established by John Lyon, at Ilarrow-ou-the-hill, was so much delighted with his visit, that to celebrate the occa.sion in a proper manner he iLrank to the memory of the generous founder a little too often and a little too deep. Tlic ale continued" to affect his upi)cr story till he passed the seventh mile stone, (and it must be known that the mile stones on this road were numbered from Harrow, and not as on every other road from London,) mistaking a wliite line of water, the Paddington Canal, for the road, at this point, he found, when it was too late, tliat a man was not destined by his Maker to walk on that element ; his corps was not found for some days. When it was discovered no one would own it ; and what was worse no one would bury it, till at length it became necessary for the civil magistrate to interfere ; he sent for the Chelsea clergyman, directed him to read the proper ser^^ce, and bury the corps wlierc it was lying. Before the clergyman consented to do this, however, he insisted that it should be carried round a certain number of fields which he pointed out. That magic circle constitutes this dry "Chelsea Reach;" and within it, and in con- sequence of this incident, the Chelsea Rector always claims tithe over it. Beneath the piece of ground not claimed by eitlier parish the corps lies buried." This, as any story-maker will readily perceive, is a sad hodge-podge. But this is the story for the ignorant, perhaps made by them. The knowing ones liave their simple story :^ "A certain prebend, of a certain Cathedral, seeing this land without an owner kindly took it under his care. It became his curpfi. He grew birclies on it for tlie boys in his school ; and when his occupation was gone, his relatives clauned the land as liis freehold." Whetlier there is any, and if any, what amount of truth in either of these stories, I mu.st leave the reader to discover. A key, ))erha|is, may be found to the latter in another story whicli is told of the ])urcha'sc of this land of the descendants of Dr. Jiusby, and by the fact of a Dr. Busby having held the jirebendal corps of Boxgrave, which was situated in Westbome in thr Cdiintii nf Si/ssfx. It would ajipear that these closes, " coutaiiiing by estimation fifty acres," -were all that remained in Paddington of the Old Chelsea "Manor : but as we have already seen 137.J acres are now claimed by Clielsca as belonging to that parish. 40 THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHTTRCH, In 1536, Lord Sands alienated the advowson of Chelsea and his manor of Chelsea to the King, in exchange for other lands. By the words of this transfer, which is printed from the original docimient in Faulkner's Chelsea,* we find, that the hereditaments conveyed to the King lay "in the parish of Chelcheth aforesaid and Paddington." And in "A peticiilar booke of Chelsey manor 1554," relative to the possessions of Queen Katherine, we find these four closes "in Paddington," mentioned as having been then let at four pounds per annum, to Henry "Wliite. Faulkner speaks of the transfer of the manor of Chelsea to Edward the sixth by the Duke of Northumberland, and of other sim-enders backwards and forwards ; but neither in his works nor in Lysons can I find anything about Dr. Thomas Hues' purchase; or one word about his gift to Merton. Neither can I find any notice of this liberal bequest in any of the Histories of the University of Oxford which I have examined. What " arrangement," then has been come to respecting this property ? Are any learned fellows or poor scholars benefitted by this physician's bequest ? Or, is this estate like the other portion of the Lady Margaret's gift, safely lodged in private hands ? I must confess that I am not able to answer these ques- tions. But it would appear that the large and valuable estates bequeathed by the Countess of Richmond and Dr. Hues do not include the whole of the " College Land " in Paddington. Lysons in his Environs, and Chalmers in his History of the University of Oxford, tell us that the Manor of Malurees, " consisting of some houses and about one hundred and twenty acres of land." situated in the parishes of Willesden, Pad- dington, Chelsea, and Fulham, was surrendered by Thomas Cliichele to King Hemy the sixth, who granted it to the Warden and Fellows of AH Souls College in Oxford ; and this grant has not been wholly lost to this College, for I believe that down to the present day a rent is paid to All Souls for some portion of this land. One of the most important preliminaries to the great Reforma- tion was the institution of a new valuation of church property. The King and people, saw how inefficiently Pope Nicholas's taxation represented the value of church property in the sixteenth century, for if it had not progressed in value *Vol. i. p. 310-11. THE CEOWN, AND THE PEOPIE. 41 in the same proportion as other property-, still the differ- ence between the values in Edward and Henry's time, was very considerable; and it required no conjuror to tcU that the clerg}' had ceased to pay their fair quota towards the national cxpenditiire. Yet the difference between the Pope's valuation and the reforming King's, is far less than the actual value of church property in Queen Victoria's reign and that which is entered on " the King's books." It is ti'ue that the clergy are now taxed differently from what they were before the Eeforma- tion; and that ''the first fruits and tenths" no longer go into the national exchequer. But "the Queen's bounty" would find the benefit of a valuation taken in our Queen's reign ; and if this payment of first fruits and tenths was anything like what it pretended to be, the whole of the first year's income, and the tenth of all future years, those who dispense that boimty would not have to be so parsimonious in their assistance to the poorer clergy. To the Eecord Commission we owe the publication of that valuation which was taken by King Henry the eighth, as well as that taken by Pope Nicholas the fourth. In addition to the quotation I have already given from the former valuation, the following entries are to be found in it relative to Paddington: — Officium Saccristi Westm' Midd'. £ s. d. Rector' de Padington ,, 46 8 Of&cium Elemosinar' Westm' Midd'. Valet in bosc' apud Padington coibus aimis . ,, 20 ,, Ofiicium Custod' Capelle Beate Marie Midd'. Vendic' bosc' apud Padington coibs annis . . ,, 20 ,, Novum Opus Westm' Maneriu de Padington ,, 19 ,, ^o^ The year after this survey was taken, all monasteries, priories, and other religious houses, whose possessions did not amount to two hundred pounds j)er amium, were given by the twenty-seventh of Hemy the eighth, chap. 28, with all their manors, lands, &c. to the King and his lieirs for ever. P)y tliis Act, the hinds belonging to Kil])iium Prioiy became the property of the crown ; and in tlie following year these lands were exchanged to Sir William Weston, the prior 42 TUE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHUKCH, of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, for the manor of Paris Garden in Southwark. The twenty-eighth of Henry the eighth, chap. 21, which recites the indenture relative to this exchange, states that the demesne lands of the said priory were " in Kylbourne aforesaid, Hamstedd, Padyngton and Westbourn." And besides these demesne lands, other lands and wood, with " one woode conteynying by estimacion twenty-nine acres," are also said to be " set and beynge in Kylborne and Padyngton aforsayde." So that it would appear the nuns of Kilboui^n as well as the monks of Westminster had possessions in this parish. By the thirty-first of Henry the eighth, chap. 13, the larger monasteries shared the same fate as the smaller ones had done, and the Abbey lands of this place, and those formerly belonging to the priory, reverted again to the crown. In the accoimt which was rendered to the King by the ministers appointed to receive the revenues which came to the crown on the dissolution of Religious Houses, we find the value of the other church propertj^ in this parish, set down thus : — £ s. d. Knyghtsbrydge et "Westbome Pirm' Terr'. 2 6 8 Knyghtebiydge, Kensyngton et \ Firm' . . 5 14 11 Westboiu'ue j Pquis Ciu" . 6 4^ I have extracted this account from the Monasticon Angli- canum, vol. i, page 326, where these sums are repeated thus: — £ s. d. Maniu de Knyghtebridge et Westbourne . ) o c o Pirm'"TeiT' j ^ b » Westborne, Knightsbridge et Kensington ) f; 1 4 1 1 Man Redd et Pirm ) Pquis Cur 6 8i But the Crown had other possessions in Paddington besides those which fell to it by the suppression of Eeligious Houses. We have already seen that Henry the eighth obtained land here by exchange and purchase, from Lord Sands, Thomas Hobson, John Dunnington, and Robert White. We have also seen that those lands which were purchased of Lord Sands and Robert White by the crown were sold to Dr. Hues, and given by him with other lands to Martyn College, Oxford. Some part of those lands piu'chased of John Dunnington went to increase the park made by Henry the eighth, viz. THE CKOWX, AND THE PEOPLE. 43 Hyde Park ; but -what became of the remainder I bare not been able to discover. "\Miat Hemy the eighth did -^-ith the manor and rectory of Paddington vri\l be seen by the following translation of a por- tion of a legal instrument still preserved in the Eecord Office, Cai-lton Ride.* " Inrolments of Leases 35. 36. Henry YIII. P. 65. " On the seventh of January, in the tliirty-second year of his reign, the King, by an indenture and release, bearing that date, did, by the advice and counsel of the court, for augment- ing the revenues of his croA^-n, demise, grant and fann let, to Edward Baynton, knight, and Isabella his icife, all the site and capital messuage of the manor of Padpigton, in the coimty of Middlesex, and all houses, edifices, barns, stables, dove- cotes, orchards, gardens andcurtilages adjacent to the said site and capital messuage. And also all lands, meadows, pastm-es, commons, and hereditaments, commonly called the demesne lands of the manor aforesaid ; and another messuage and tene- ment with appurtenances in the tenure of Edward Korth, esquire, situate and being in Padyngton, in the coimty afore- said. And all lands, manors, feedings, pastures, commons, and hereditaments whatsoever in Padyngton in the county aforesaid to the said messuage and tenement belonging and appertaining, or with the messuage and tenement occupied and being. Also all the rectory of Padyngton in the said county of Middlesex ; and all and eveiy tenth, oblation, profit, commodity, and cmolimient whatsoever to the said rectory in any sort belonging or appertaining; which said manor, rectory, messuage, lands, tenements, etcetera, were part of the posses- sions of the late dissolved monastery of St. Peter, "Westminster, and wliich were formerly let to the aforesaid Edward North, for a term of years ; but excepting always and reserving for our Lord the King, his heirs and siiccessors, all large trees and wood of and upon the premises growing and being, to have and to hold all and singular the premises above S]:)ecified with their appurtenances, except as before expressed, to Edward and Isabella, and their assigns, from the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Vu-gin Mary, next following, until the end of the term, and for a term of twenty one years next following and fully completed ; rendering thence annually to our Lord the King, his heirs and successors, forty-one pounds, six-shil- •A New Record Office is bcinsr built at the back of the Roll's Chapel so that it is to be hoped the valuable documents now kept in this sfcible will soou find a better lodjfint'. 44 THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHURCH, lings and eight pence, legal English money, at the feasts of St. Michael the Archangel, and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or within one month after the said feasts, in equal portions, to the court aforesaid, during the time afore- said, &c., &c." This indenture and release, which, so far as I know, has not been noticed before, and which certainly is not spoken of in any of the private Acts of Parliament relating to the manor and rectory of Paddington, is recited at length in another indentui-e and release, which is generally referred to, which was made and dated the twenty-iirst day of December, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry's reign. The manor and rec- tory of Paddington, and that other " messuage and tenement with appui-tenances in the tenure of Edward IS'orth, esquii-e," being by it demised to Eichard Rede, of London, salter, for a new term of twenty-one years. The large trees and wood, as was usual in such cases, being again reserved for the uses of the crown. "We have already seen by the entries in the Valor Ecclesi- asticus, taken by order of this King, that in the twenty- sixth year of Henry's reign, twenty shillings per annum, half the rental of the wood spoken of in this indenture, which was then thirty acres in extent, was set apart for charitable pur- poses; that the other half was appropriated to the Blessed Mary's Chapel ; that the manor, bringing in nineteen pounds per annum, was dedicated to "the New Work," probably Hemy the seventh's chapel ; that the rectory was valued to the Abbey at two pounds, six shillings and eight-pence ; that the tenement formerly belonging to the Countess of Richmond was valued at ten pounds ; and that the lands at Knightsbridge and "Westboume were valued at eight pounds, one shilling and seven-pence. We see, also, the possessions in Paddington formerly be- longing to the chiu'ch produced the same rent within one shilling and seven-pence, as these lands were valued at six years before.* But the crown was not in receipt of these reserved rents more than three or four years after Henry's death; for his son, *At the time of the Reformation, as I have before observed, ministers were appointed by the Cro\\Ti, to take and keep the accounts of all monies derived from the lands which had belonged to relig-ious houses. Many of these ministers accounts are still preserved and contain much valuable information. According to these accounts (vide Monsticiu7i Anfflicnniim, vol. i. p. 326-27) it would appear that for the first year the Crown received only £31 6s. Sd. from the church lands in Pad- dington, and for the next year the same sum with the addition of 2s. rent charge, for the conducion of water; but in the 36th and 37th of Henrv the VIII., I find the minister returns the Crown Rent of this manor and rectory, at £41 6s. Sd. THE CROWN, AXD THE PEOPLE. 45 then about thii-tecn years of age, by Ms letters patent, granted the manor of Padclington, with several other manors and rectories, together, "of the clear annual value of five hundi-ed and twenty-six poimds, nineteen sliilliiigs, and nine-pence farthing," to Nicholas Ridley, then Bishop of London, and to his successors in that see. The following ai'e the words in this patent which refer ex- pressly to Paddington — "Necnon to turn illud Maneriu nrm de Paddhigton in dco com m-o Midd cum suis juiibs membris et ptien imiveis nup Monasteio Sci Pctii Westm modo dissolut dudam spectan et ptinen ac parell possessionu et revencionu ejusdem nup Monastei dudam existcn." Xewcourt, in his Pepertorium, page 703, says " The manor and rectoiy of Paddington (which of old did belong to the Monastery of Westminster) were by Edward the sixth, in the fourth year of his reign, upon his dissolving the Bishoprick of Westminster then lately erected by King Henry the eighth, given to Dr. Mcholas Ridley, then Bishop of London, and his successors for ever." Prom this one might imagine that Pad- dington had formed part of the possessions of that short-lived see ; which, indeed, Lysons, in his Environs, and Mr. Brewer, in his " London and Middlesex," distinctly state, but of this I find no evidence whatever ; and the words of the patent itself, convey a different impression. There are in this patent other places mentioned as having formed part of that see, but as it -will be observed, Paddington is stated to have formerly belonged to the Monastery. It will be observed too, that the rectory is not mentioned in the extract from the grant which I have given, neither do I find it anywhere else alluded to, specially, as is the case with certain other rectories given by this patent. But the spiritualities in all the places named, appear to have been given in general terms to the Bishop. "Wlien, -nith Xewcoui't, we use the word " given," we must not do the advisers of the young King the injustice to suppose that no reservation of the rights of the crown was pro\'ided for in this open letter; that indeed would be an injustice, for besides the pa}Tnent of certain specified sums, to certain specified persons and officers an aimual rent equal to one-fifth of the sum remaining to the Bishop was to be paid by liim to tlie King, at his Court of Piist Fruits and Tenths every Christmas day. Wliicli annual rent was in lieu of the first fruits and tenths paid by all bishops and incumbents.* _ •HoTin- thp VIII, finding tliat the cI. 31. 'I'lic oriffinal MS. fiom -which this Kiirvpy is printed is in the llawlinson collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, No. 2-10. tllnd, vol. i. I). 287 ; or additional M.SS. British Museum, OniO, p. 37. j; 50 THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHTTECH, it is very evident from the directions given in his will, which is dated twenty-eighth Decemher, 1661, that he was desirous of doijig so. I found Sir Oliver's will at Doctor's Commons; it was proved on the twenty-eighth of June, 1662. He therein directs the sale of certain estates for the purpose of pajnng his debts, and for enabling his tinistces to take another lease of the manor, '' wliich he held of the Bishop of London in Paddington" at that time, and the lease was to be taken either for three lives, or for twentj'-one years. But the new bishop had nephews, to whom, it appears he was more "tailing to grant a lease of this manor than to those whose ancestors had purchased it, and in whose family it had remained for upwards of a century. It would appear that Bishop Sheldon's relatives received the profits of the manor and rectory of Paddington for nearly eighty years ; but Lysons has made a mistake in stating the manor was purchased by Sir John Frederick in 1741 ; for in the preamble of the first Act of Parliament* which I can find relative to these lands it is stated that a lease bearing date the fifth of August, 1740, was granted by Ednnuid (Gibson), then bishop of London, to Sir John Frederick, during the lives of Judith Jodrell, widow; John Afliick; and John Crosier. f This in all probability was the date of Sir John Frederick's first lease ; and as this may be considered the starting point in the modern history of the manor and rectoiy of Paddington, now, pa/r excellence, "The Paddington Estate," I shall reserve what more I have to say on this subject for a future chapter. On the ninth of November, in the thirty- eighth of Henry the eighth, an inquisition was held on the property of Henry Home, who was found to have died, seized of " one capital messuage, three other messuages or tenements, and one close of land containing by estimation six acres, vdth appui'tenances, in Paddington, Avhich were holden of the lord king, as of his manor of Paddington by fealty, and twelvepence rent for all services, and not in chief ; and they are worth by the year three pounds ten shillings." Escaet 38th Henry VIII. *26 Geo. 2. c. 43. i-Judith Jodrell, wife of Sir Paul Jodrell, was a daufjhter of Mr. Daniel Sheldon ; and it appears her life was the last of that family in the estate. I find by a private Act of Parliament, that the family of the Sheldons were oblifjed to sell tlieir estates at Ditchford, in Worcestershire, to pay their debts, and it is probable that their life interest in the manor and rectory of Paddington was disposed of for the same purpose. « This practice of granting church lands for three lives appears to be very ancient. It was the conunon practice of Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, at the end of the tenth century ; and for doinsj which he was accused of wasting the revenues of the church. — Mr. Kenible' s Introduction, p. 34. THE CKOWK, AND THE PEOPLE. 51 In the second year of the sixth Edward, William Francis was found to have died seised of " one messuage in Pad- dington, situated between the highway called Watlyng- street, and b('}ond tlie eastern side ot tlie pont called Paddington pond ; of two messuages called the Bridge-house, and of one orchard to the said two messuages adjacent ; of four tenements upon Paddington-green ; of one messuage called Blasers in Paddington aforesaid, -^-ith a garden ; of two acres of land ; of one croft in Paddington aforesaid ; of half an acre lying between the tenements of Henry Prowdfoot, late of London, mason, and the ponds there called Paddington ponds on the south side, and the land late of John CoIjtis on the north side, and abuts on the king's highway called Watlyng- sti-eet on the east; and the jurors find that the aforesaid messuages and other premises in Paddington aforesaid are holden of Richard Kede of London, as of his manor of Padyngton, in the county of Middlesex, by fealty, and tliree shillings rent for all issues and demands." Escaet2; Edw. 6. part 2. No. 23. Armigell Waad had licence to alien to Wm. Cecil, Knight, " A messuage and one hundred and twenty acres of land in Kentish Town, Padintun, Hamstcad, and St. Pancras." Pat. 5. Eliz. p. 7. For these references I am indebted to Edlyne Tomlins, esq., and with the exception of those ah'eady given, they are all I have been able to procure relative to the estates of private holders of lands in olden times ; and of the more modem estates in Paddington I have not much to say. The names still retained by several plots of land point to their pre\'ious owners. Desborough House ;* Little Shaftsbury House, and Dudley House, speak for themselves of their former occupants. Denis Chirac, jeweller to Queen Anne, built a large house en Paddington-green, which was called Paddington house. And by an entrj^ in the vestry minutes for May, 1821, I find lie was admitted a tenant of the manor on the twenty-fourth of April, 1753, and was permitted to inclose the portion of tlie green in front of his house. This house was situated at the east-side of the green, very near to the Harrow-Road, and the piece of land enclosed was a narrow strip along the southern- side of the old green. Lysons tells us " Lord Craven has an estate in this parish •The Doshoroiiffh fstate was leased by i5ishop Porteus and his lessees to the Grand .lunttion Canal Coinpany ; but how the Bishop and his lessees became possessed of this estate 1 do not know. 52 THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHTTECH. called Craven-hill, on which is a small hamlet very pleasantly Bituatcd ;" and that this nobleman " whose himiane exertions during the dreadful calamities, the great fire and plague of London, are so well known, observing the difiiculties which attended the burying of infected corpses in 1665," gaveapieceof ground in the parish of St. Martin' s-in-thc-fields, cast of Regent street, as a burial-place during any future sickness^' Camaby market and other buildings, were erected on this Craven estate, and Lysons adds, "when this groimd was covered with building, it was exchanged for a field upon the Paddington estate, which, if London should ever be again visited by the plague, is still subject to the said use." This land was not used, however, during the plague of 1848 — 49 ; and at the present time a grand London-square, called Craven Gardens, alone indicates the site of the Padding- ton pest-house field. This property consisting of two messu- ages and nine acres of land was purchased by the trustees of this charity-estate of one Jane Upton, widow, and her son, with consent of the minor's trustees, for fifteen hundred and seventy pounds, f The poor inhabitants of the parishes of St. Clement's Danes, St. Martin' 8-in-the-fields, St. James's, "Westminster, and St. Paul's, Covent Garden, were to be specially benefitted by these houses and this land. But I must refer those who wish to know more of this charity to the private acts concerning it. Mr Orme, formerly a print-seller in Bond-street, purchased property west of Craven-hill. Mr. Neild is the lessee of all the land claimed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster in this parish ; and is said to have purchased land in and near Paddington, of the descendants of Dr. Busby. A Mr. White now owns land at Westboum ; the Grand Jimction Canal Company ; the Grand Junction "Water Works Company ; and the Great Western Railway Company, are large proprietors. Many pieces of land have been given, and purchased for charitable uses ; and in 1852 no less than fifty persons claimed to be registered as county voters for freehold land held by them in Paddington. It is not, however, the object of this work to exhibit the *JI/r. Macanlay, in his History of England, -when speaking of London, as it existed in 16S5, describes this Pest-house Field as heins; the place used as a burial place for many of those who died of the plague twenty years before ; but from the account g-iven by Lysons, and from the Acts of Parhament relating to this charity estate, I am induced to believe it was purchased after that calamity and for future use. +A plan of Upton Farm, taken by William Gardner, in 1729, was presented to the parishioners of Paddington by Mr." Thomas, a surgeon, who lived in Brown-street, and it is still preserved in the Vestry-room. co:m:moits aijd waste. 53 title deeds of private owners of land in tliis parish ; or to re- cord aU tlie names of the owners of the soil ; neither woidd I have it thought that I wish to constitute myself a judge of the value of those claims which have been set up by corporations, aggregate, or sole. But the rights of a whole people cannot be set aside by the single fact of possession; neither can indi- viduals be permitted much longer to eni'ich themselves, and then- immediate relatives, by applying to their own uses the proceeds of lands consecrated to the people. COMMOIS^S A^B WASTE. Commons originally were those lands which had not been brought into ciiltivation by the spade and the plough, over which, all who used the spade and the plough had certaiu rights in common. When the rights of the people over the soil were more limited by the law, there was attached to eveiy portion of arable land a certain portion of waste, over which these common rights extended ; and these lands were as much, in proportion, the property of the poorest occupier as of the richest holder. Commons have also been defined to be " wastes and pastures which have never been exclusively appropriated by any individual, but used in common by the inhabitants of a parish or district." In Paddington, the commons were ia more senses than one, " commons without stint," for they were not only used by the inhabitants aU the year round, but the quantity assigned was, for centuries, amply sufficient for all theu* wants ; and these commons in Paddington were not confined to that " universal right " called " commons appendant," for the people here had the riglit of taking the material from the neighboiuing wood, for their fii-e as well as for the repair of their houses, carts, and hedges. To those who had obtained the lordship of the soil, the preservation of these commonable rights was of much less im- jjortance than to the people, for that which was gaiucd by the labourers' toil from the waste, and the wood, went to increase the domains of the lord, or to cnricli some private o\vner. To the lords, the lloman law which "considered the individual member of the state," was much more in\dting than the ancient law of England, which "based itself upon the family bond." The better to secui'c individual rights, so acfpiired, the cultivated land was enclosed. But this enclosure of lands 1^3 54 COMMONS AND WASTE. proceeded so rapidly that the rights of all the poor in England, those who could not find means to enclose, were in danger of being annihilated. The state was at length compelled to interfere, and the law provided that enough commonable land should be left in each manor to provide for the fulfilment of the usual commonable rights ; and at the time of an enclosure it was, as it still is, the custom when the poor had the right of gathering their fuel from the waste and wood, and of turn- ing their live stock on the common, to set apart a portion of the laud for their uses, as a compensation for the loss of those rights. Where the allotment for the poor of Paddington was situated; when it was set apart ; or what was its extent, I have not been able to discover from any positive evidence now existing ; but my impression is that the little piece of charity land remaining in Westbomm indicates the site of a much more extensive portion of the common field which was set apart for the uses of the poor. It is a popular notion that the lord of the manor is entitled to the waste, but this is by no means the case in every manor. In the neighboiu'iug manor of Abbot's Kensing- ton, we find that "the commons" Avere "presented" with " Notting-hill, the waste by the highways, and the Gravel Pits," as lately as 1672;'^" and in the ancient manors of Tybourn and Lilestone, there was pasture for the cattle of the villagers, and the fruits of the wood for their hogs.f The usual proportion given to the lord for his right in the soil is one-sixteenth. :j: Whether the lords of the Paddington soil were content with this proportion we need not enquire. We know that theu' demesne lands have extended far beyond their original dimensions ; and there is very little doubt that the land of the poor diminished as the lord's land increased. Other individual holders, too, have carved out for themselves portions of that which was set aside for purely public pur- poses, but the great delinquents have been the lords of the manors — " those relics of feudal slavery and mediaeval bar- barism;" and these before long will be known only in history. It is true that waste land, and a common field existed in Paddington down to a recent date ; and it is equally true, that some kind of right over this land was acknowledged to be A^ested *Vide Faulkner's History of Kensington, p. 59G. +Thc hog was one of the most important possessions of the cottager, and as this ani- mal obtained the chief part of its food in the wood, this right of the wood was of more consequence than the right of pasture to the poorer villagers. tPenny Cyclopwdia ; article — "Commons," COiraOXS AND "WASTE. 55 in tlie inhabitants of this parish ; for as -sve shall presently see, when this right was found to interfere with the designs of the lords and their lessees, a portion of it was bargained for and sold. The common field appears to have existed on each side of the Westbourn, extending, with the poor allotment, from that which is now called the Uxbridge-road to a considerable dis- tance north and east ; the portion on the western side the stream being called the Westbonrn, or Bayswater, field ; the portion on the eastern side, the Town field, corrupted into "Do^\^les?" On the Paddington side, all that remained of the common waste was the Village-green ; and for this the villagers must have had the greatest atfection. It was their Home-field ; on it then- forefathers had made merry, and here they had trodden by hereditary right. Yes by hereditaiy right ! And seeing that the title of the noble has descended by law to his feeble sou, and the estates of the frugal man to his spendthrift heir ; how highly must the people of Paddington appreciate that justice which has preserved to them so magnificent a portion of their ancestors possessions ! * Unfortunately for the reputation of the past there are but few places to be found where the rights of the weak have not been most shamefullj^ encroached upon by the strong ; and the little village of Paddington affords not the least remarkable ex- ample of these glaring defects in the working of "our glorious constitution." Here, as elsewhere, might has usiu'ped the place of right ; cunning has lent a helping hand, and documents which would the most plainly bear witness to this fact have been destrojed. However, the one great fact that "land has been lost" remains to speak for itself; and the " eternal remedy " will assuredly come sooner or later, although the "wi'onged be now cast down, and the wrong doer walk so seemingly secure. " The blessings which civilization and philosophy" have brought with them have been undoubtedly a great benefit to the poor as well as to the rich ; and one of the most powerful writers of the present day has thought it necessary to point out how those benefits offer a compensation for the loss of many ancient rights and privileges.! But civilization and philosophy are not content with their past or present doings, for there •It is snid that evon for the russet spot whieh is still, for auld laiif,' syne, called Paddington-i^een, tlie parishioners arc indebted to the generosity of a private gentleman. ■tMacaiday's History of England, vol. i. page 421. 56 COMMONS AJfD WASTE. are many ci\'ilLzed people, and. philosophers too, who believe the present aifangements give the lion's share of those benefits to the rich ; and there are those who believe that present enactments are so unmse as to facilitate the accumulation of riches by the least deserving members of the state. Further ^'compensation,^' therefore, they believe to be necessary, if the blessings wliich civilization and philosophy are destined to work out in the beneficent decrees of universal love and justice are to be of present use to the people. The tales told of the robberies of public property in Pad- dington are more fitted for the pages of a romance or a novel, than a sober history. And as to these robberies in Paddington, the dramatist, the novelist, and the "writers of romance, have done much more than the historian to expose and correct the vices of the past. One of Ml'. Charles Oilier' s novels'^' contains so many allu- sions to this place, that the reader is obliged to believe the elucidation of its history formed one of the chief objects of the writer. And if the incidents connected with Paddington Green and its neighboui'hood had not been more melo-dramatic than farcical, one might have imagined that the little farcef in which Mr. Buckstone lately delighted the Haymarket audiences had some reference to this place. Let those who believe the villagers' green to be the least altered place in Paddington, turn to Chatelain's beautiful little delineation of it, as it appeared to him in 1750, or to a larger print published in 1783. :|: "Linney" would as soon find out his " eight acres," if he could now pay us a visit, as would the present inhabitants of this place discover any like- ness of that wliich was, to that which now is, Paddington Green. In 1783, the enclosed green included all that land which extends from its present eastern extremity to Dudley-house on the west ; that is to say, all the present Green, and aU the land south of the pathway, from the Green to St. Mary's Terrace ; and from the Harrow-road across this green there was a pubHc foot path to the church, the old church-yard and some houses. *Fcrrers — a romance of the reign of George the second. 3 vols. 1842. +" The woman I adore ;" in wtuch Mr. B. appeared as " Paddinglon Green." :tlt may be asked, why these prints have not been copied for this work ? My answer is, that if these had been inserted others could not have been left out ; and as my object was to keep down the price of this edition, so as to bring it within reach of every rate-payer, I was very reluctantly compelled to leave out all pictorial illustra- tion. COJIMOJS^S AND WASTE. 57 From Chatclain's print we see that the Green, though not enclosed so far westward in 1750, extended northward to the old Church-yard, including the land on which the houses on the north side of Paddington- Green have been built. A large pond existed on the Green at that date, which was drained into another, south of the Harrow-road, and as many of the present inhabitants know, it has not been filled up many years.'''" And between these ponds, to command the road from Harrow, the people erected, during the Commonwealth, one of those detached ramparts which they built up by the side of every entrance into the capital, as a sign of their determina- tion to protect the liberties of England from the advance of that tjTanny which they had driven out, and which they deter- mined never again to endxixe.f Although the Green has wasted to its present dimensions, and although the " commons and waste," in Paddington have vanished, the following notices, which I have found on the minutes of the Vestry, will shew that the parish has received some compensation for the inclosure of certain pieces of waste, besides those purchased by the bishop and his lessees : — Extracts from the Vestry Minutes. — 1794, September twenty-second : at a meeting of the inhabitants, held this day, Itrs. L. le Brown, of Black-lion lane, was permitted to fill up a ditch and enclose the space of feet by feet, upon condition of paying ten shillings per annum to the parish. At the same meeting, Mr. Crompton presented the parish with two plans, one of the entii'o parish, the other of the waste and charity lands ; both appear to have been taken in 1772, by Mr. Waddington, land surveyor. J ♦The Char ty School and St. Margaret's-terrace now occupy the site of this pond. tThis was nut one of the forts belonging to t;ie entrenchment wliich encircled London and Westminster, for as is shewn in Maitlritid' s Jlisturt/ of London, the con- tinuous fortification was much nearer those cities ; but it was a small detached outwork, a portion of which remained in Chatclain's tune, and is represented in his enpraving. jln the " lleport of the Committee appointed by the Paddington Parochial Associa- tion, institut<'d for the Reform of the Parish abuses," printed 1834; it is stated, "at the present time, only one of these maps is forthcoming, that wliich contained the plan of the whole ])ansh, and this when enquired for, was brought in a tin case from the house of the Vestry Clerk, who said when it was handed over to the Com- mittee, that he could not tell whether the maps were or were not in it. On opening this remaining map, it was found to be defaced, there having been evidently erasures made on the face of it ; the absence of the niaj) of the waste and charity wa.s enough to excite the susi)icion of the committee ; that at some period, dislionesty on the part of Home one, if not more, had occasioned this loss ; but when they found that the alterations ujion the remaining map were connected witli the waste and charity lands, they could no longer doubt of wrong doing somewhere, especially as an entire leaf had been torn out of the A'cstry Minute 13ook, which related to the Bamc subject, viz. Charity and Waste Lands." 58 COMMONS AND WASTE. 1795, March lltli: Resolved that the parish do accept the offer of the lessees of fifteen pounds per annum, as a compensation for the waste belonging to the parish included in the bill now pending in Parliament, provided the public and private roads are left of the usual breadth prescribed by law. 1801, July loth : Mr. Cockerell applied to enclose part of the waste of Westbourne green, north and east of the Harrow-road, and agreed to place in the hands of the trustees enough money to produce a dividend of three pounds per amium. On the eleventh of November, in the same year, Mr. White proposed to transfer one hundred pounds to the names of trustees, for the use of the poor, for permission to enclose a piece of land near the Harrow-road and by the side of the canal. The permission was granted. Mr. Kelly also made an application for another piece, but it was resolved that, "as it woidd have a tendency to establish a precedent for the indiscriminate alienation of the waste, this application cannot consistently with the interests of the parish be complied with." 1 802, October 20th : Mr. Harper is allowed to enclose a piece of waste, the quantity not stated; but the rent to be three pounds per annum, per acre.* In this year four hundred pounds were paid by Mr. Cockerell, and one hundred pounds by Mi\ White, for the land they had enclosed. 1803, April 12th: the Parish apply to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster for a piece of waste near Westbouru- green, on the south side of the Harrow-road. The application refused. The minutes of the same month, twentieth — notice that the Bishop of London and his lessees had refused to allow the parish to enclose that portion of the Bayswater field belonging to the parish. 1812, September 1st : Mr. Hicks is allowed to enclose a piece of waste, 440 feet long, by 25 feet in breadth, extending from the Uxbridge-road along the south and Avest side of Black Lion lane ; and this he is permitted to do without pay- ment, in consequence of the services he has rendered to the parish for forty years. In September, 1818, there is a letter from George Gutch, •This Mr. Harper was a tenant of the bishop and his lessees ; and the fields he rented chiefly for arrazing, were called for many years, "Harper's Fields." On the ex- piration of his tenancy I do not find that his landlords made any compensation to the parish for this waste land, for which Mr. Harper had paid rent. COMMONS AND WASTE. 59 on behalf the Grand Junction Canal Company, to ask leave to fill up part of the pond to make a street from the north Whar!'- road, which the Vestry agreed to, provided a slip of land, 116 feet long, by 13 feet 6 inches north and 12 feet south, adjoining the Alms' houses, be given to the Pai'ish by the Company. Tn 1825, forty-eight pounds, six shillings and six-pence was paid by Mr. Jenkins, for permission to enclose a piece of waste land near his groimds. When Mr. Jenkins's land was sold, the parish attempted to establish their claim to this waste, but the claim set up by the bishop of London and his lessees, as lords of the manor super- seded it. There is a notice on the minutes this year for the first time respecting the interference of the lords of the manor in the disposal of the waste lands. But although these lords at this time claimed for themselves " its entire control," the vestry, nevertheless, gave their permission to Mr. Orme to enclose a piece opposite his land, near the second milestone on the Harrow road. No mention is made of money paid on this occasion. As late as 1830 an application fi-om Mr. Kield was laid before the vestry, for pieces of waste adjoining property leased to and purchased by him ; and on the seventh of June in the follo\ving year, the Rev. chairman reported " that Joseph Xeild, Esq., M.P. had paid to the treasuTer the following sums for waste lands : " 1^0. 1. Braithwaites' Executors 152 10 Consols. „ 2. Open Waste, adjoining ) on lo a Chelsea Reach, . . j ,, 3. Open Waste in front of ) ir, i^ p AVilliams' Eield, . . j £203 What took place with respect to the waste lands previous to 1 794, there is, untbrtunately, now no means of telling, for no vestry minutes are to be found previous to 1793. CHAEITY LANDS. CHAPTER IV. The question "'Whatliasbecomeof the Charity Lands?" wliich has been so often asked in other parishes, has been occasion- ally put to those in authority in this ; but so far as I can dis- cover, no satisfactory answer has been returned — unless indeed we may deem it satisfactory to hear "that charity has been so little needed here, that much of that land which was given for this purpose, has been lost." In the "Abstract of the returns of charitable donations for the benefit of poor persons, made to the House of Commons, by the ministers and churchwardens of the several parishes and townships in England and Wales, 1786 to 1788," we find the following answers returned by the minister and church- wardens of Paddington : Name of the person who gave the charity ? 1 — Unknown. 2 — Margaret Robinson, and Thomas Johnson. 3 — Dr. Henry Compton. "When given ? 1 — Unknown. 2 — Unlcnown. 3 — Uncertain. "Whether by will or deed ? 1 — Uncertain. 2 — Unknown. 2— Deed. Description of the charity, and for what purpose given ? 1 — For bread, cheese and beer to the inhabitants. 2 — For apprenticing poor childi'en. 3 — To the poor. CHARITY LAISDS. C 1 '\iMiether land or money ? 1 — Land. 2— Ditto. 3— Ditto. In whom now vested ? All in the chxirchwardens. The clear annnual produce of that given in land, after deducting the rents issuing thereout ? £ s. d. 1—21 „ „ 2— 4 10 „ 3—70 „ „ Aknost all is "unknown" and "uncertain," in this Eetum, and this is the more to he lamented, as it was about the time at which this report was made that the value of land in Pad- dington began to be known by those who intended to secure the sanction of the legislature to a measure which would enhance its value. Since that time, the " Eeport of the Commissioners for enquiring concerning Charities," (1826), has been published, and some little light has been thrown on this subject. This report contains, in fact, ahnost all that I have been able to discover relative to the Charity Lands ; and I cannot do better than reprint it in this place ; adding what little infonnation I have been able to obtain. " The parish officers of Paddington were unable to produce any deeds or other oiiginal documents relative to the charitable funds of this parish ; but they laid before us the minutes of vestry, in which under date the twelfth of April, 1803, is an entry stating that the vestry clerk produced an account of the estates, &c. belonging to the parish, written on vellum ; and also several extracts from Avills and other documents rela- tive to the titles of the said estates, which were compared and examined with the said account by the vestry; and it appear- ing that such account was con'cct, it was resolved that the same be hung up in the vestry-room, and that a copy thereof be entered upon and taken as part of the minutes of the vestry ; and which was so entered accordingly." The account referred to, was made out by the late vestry clerks, Messrs. Ilohcrtson and Partoii, both of whom are since dead. 62 CHARITY LANDS. From the account so entered on the vestry minutes the fol ■ lowing statement of the charities is chiefly taken : Bread and Cheese Lands. The lands thus denominated are said to have heen given by two maiden gentlewomen, for the purpose of supplying the poor with a donation of bread and cheese, on the Sunday be- fore Cliristmas. Neither the names of the donors, nor the date of the gift is known, but it is a very ancient one. The land consists of three parcels, viz. 1. — A piece of arable land lying in the common field, called Bayswater field, in this parish, containing two and a lialf acres, in the occupation (at the time of taking the accoimt) of John Harper, Esq., at the rent of five guineas per annum. This piece was formerly called Five Pieces, and afterwards Three Pieces ; it is now divided into two holdings ; one, being one and a half acres, is let to Samuel Cheese, as tenant from year to year, at a rent of thirteen pounds ; the remainder to Thomas Hopgood, as tenant from year to year, at the rent of four poimds ten shillings. This land lies intermixed with lands respectively belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, and the Bishop of London ; and there is a dispute existing among these parties as to the boundaries of their respective properties. The jjarish claim an acre as belonging to Hopgood' s holding, but they take fi'om the tenant rent for half an acre only, till the dispute be settled.* 2. — Another piece of land (formerly two), containing one acre, two roods, and twenty-four perches, lying on the south- west side of the Harrow road at Westbourne Green, and form- ing part of the lawn and grounds belonging to Westbourne- place, the property of Samuel Pepys Cockerell, Esq. This land, at the time of taking the account, was held by Mr. Cockerell at the annual rent of seven pounds. It has since been demised to him by the churchwardens and overseers, in pursuance of an order of vestry, together with a small piece of waste land lying between the above and the road, containing one acre and seven perches, which he has enclosed and added to his la^v^l ; making together one acre, three roods, and thir- *This " riispute " speaks volumes. That the Bishop of London and the Dean and Chapter of Westminster should "ilispute" the riffht of the poor parishioners of Paddington to half an acre, when the whole of the land around, for many acres, was, in all probability, assigned to the poor, could not be believed except on such au- thority as the above. CHAEITY L^VIfDS. 63 teen perches, for a term of pixty-thrce years from Christmas, 1805, at the annual rent of fifteen pounds. This lease is granted in consideration of the suiTcndor of a former lease, and of the charge which the lessee had been at in inclosing and cultivating the said piece of waste land, and of the sum of money paid by him to the parish on account of such inclosm'e ; and it is provided that the lessee shall keep up the nine stones, or land-marks, marked P. P. in the places where they now stand, to ascertain the boundaries of the land ; and that if the land, or any part of it, or any part of the lawn or groiinds adjoining to it on the west and south, and within thirty yards of the same, should, at any time diu-ing the term, be let for and used as building ground, it shall be lawful for the dnu'cli wardens and overseers for the time being, with the consent of the vestrj', to detennine the lease at the expiration of any one year of the said term, upon gi^-ing six mojiths' notice in writing. 3. — Another piece of meadow or pasture land, lying near Black Lion lane, in this parish, containing one acre or there- abouts, in the occupation of "William Ivinnard Jenkins, Es(j., imder a lease to Jacob Simmonds, for sixty-three years, from Clmstmas, 1802, at the rent of eight pounds, eight shillings ]jer annum. This lease appears fi'om the vestry minutes to have been granted to Mr. Simmonds, in consideration of his covenanting to lay out the sum of three hundred pounds at least in build- ing on the land, and to contain a reservation of all timber, Avith power for the grantors, (who are the churchwardens and overseers of the parish) and their successors, to fell and cany a-n-ay the same, and to restrain the lessees from digging brick-earth, sand, or gravel for sale, or from carrying such earth, sand, gravel or bricks off the land. Simmonds built a good house upon the premises, A\lii(]i have been materially improved by the present tenant. Mucli more than the stipulated sum has been expended tliere. It appears to us that all the foregoing rents are adequate to the present value of the respective ])remiscs. AVith the rents of this land it was formerly the custom to purchase bread and cheese, which, on the Sunday before Christ- mas, were thrown do^vn from the church among tlie jjoor assembk'd in the chiu'ch-yard. J^atterly, a less objectionable mode of distribution has been adopted : bread and coals are now given by the minister and parish officers to poor families inlialjiting the parish, of whom a list is made out annually 64 CHAEItT LANDS. for the churchwardens, stating their residence and occupation, and the number of children under ten years of age : and we are assured that much care is taken in selecting those to receive this gift who are most deserving. One or two four-pound loaves, and one or two bushels of coals are given to each family, according to the number it consists of. No distinction is made between parishioners, and unsettled resident poor, nor between such as do not receive parochial relief. Johnson's Charity. The account above referred to mentions a rent-charge of one pound a-year, given by Thomas Jolinson, merchant-tailor, of London, issuing out of three houses on the east side of Pad- dington Green, and payable on St. Thomas' s-day in every year, in the following proportions : — Out of a house in the occupation of the Rev. Basil Wood, ,, 10 ,, Ditto in the occupation of Benjamin Ed- ward Hall, esq ,,5 Ditto in the occupation of Miss Morel . ,, 5 )> It is not stated when this benefaction was given, nor to what pur[)oses it was appropriated. In the returns of 1786, it is said that this, and Mrs. Robert- son's benefaction after mentioned were given for apprenticing poor children ; but they are not now so applied. It appears indeed that Johnson's rent-charge goes into the chm'ch war den's general account, and it is not the subject of any particular application. This seems to have arisen fi'om inadvertence, as it is understood to have been a charitable gift ; and we are assured that it shall in futui'e be con'ected. Dr. Compton's Charity. There is a copyhold estate in the Harrow-road, held of the manor of Paddiugton, and which is stated in the account to have been the gift of Dr. Compton, bishop of London, lord of the said manor, by the description of "one cottage and apiece of land." The estate now consists of six houses : one of these is at present occupied as a poor house, the rest are let and occupied in the following manner : — 1. — A public house, called the "Running- horse," held by Robert Cuthbertson, CHAKITT LANDS. 65 £ s. d. "under a lease granted to Eobert Hiillah, for tn-cnty-one years, from lady-day, 1806, at the rent of ...... 28 „ „ In 1802, the rent was £14. It is a very old house, but to be let as a public-house its value would be considerably beyond the present rent, if it were out of lease. The value of public-houses is rather of a fluctuating nature ; but even for any other mode of occupation, it seems probable that a few pounds more a year might be obtained. 2. — A house in the possession of Thomas Seabrook, as tenant from year to year, at the rent of 16 ,, ,, The rent of this house also, in 1802, was £14. It is a veiy old house, and the present rent seems a fair one. 3 and 4. — Two houses in the respective occupation, in 1802, of Joseph Mansell, and John Dyke, one at the rent of £11, and the other of £14; now on lease to Mr.William Smith, for twenty-one years, Irom Lady-day, 1806, at the rent of . . 32 , ,, The lease is stated to have been granted in consideration of the costs and expenses which the said William Smith had been put to in enlarging and repairing the messuages. 5. — A house in the occupation of Mr. John Buequet, as tenant from year to year, at the rent of 30 ,, ,, The occupier has laid out money in repair- ing these premises. The house is stated in the accoimt to have been intended to be leased as a school-house for the chaiity-childi'cn, and iu fact a school- room was built in the garden belonging to it ; l)ut the charity-school has now been established in another part of the parish, and this room has been annexed to the sixth messuage now used as a workhouse. r £106 }} >> 66 CHAEITY LANDS. It does not appear from "the account" wliat specific appli- cation was directed to be made of this property by Dr Compton. The rents are now applied, under a recent resolu- tion of the vestry, towards the maintenance of the charity- school in this parish. Before this resolution, the rents were carried to the overseers' general account, and an annual sum of fifty-pounds was paid by the parish towards the mainten- ance of the charity-school. The school is large containing two hundi-ed or three himdred children. The expense of it far exceeds the amount of all the rents now applied to its support. Successive admissions are found on the court-rolls of the manor of Paddington, of certain parishioners as tenants of tliis and the other copyhold property mentioned below, to the use of them, their heirs and assigns, in trust for the use and benefit of the poor of the parish of Paddington. The last of these entries bears date the 1822, when the late Francis Maseres, esq., John Symmons, esq., the Rev. Charles Crane, D.D., Samuel Pepys Cockerell, esq., Joseph Neild, the younger, esq., John White, esq., and Benjamin Hall, esq., were admitted tenants in trust in the form above stated. Margaret Eobertson's Charity. It appears from " the accoimt " that Mrs. Margaret Eobert- son, by will, dated sixteenth September, 1 720, gave for the use of the poor of this parish, a copyhold estate, on the west side of the Edgeware-road, consisting of a messuage and garden. Tliis property now comprises five houses lately erected tmder an agreement, dated first March, 1823, whereby in consideration of the siu-render of a former lease for sixty-two years, from Lady-day, 1 763, at the rent of three pounds ten sliillings, the trustees agreed with Stephen Haynes, that they would, as soon as the five messuages, therein agreed to be built, should be covered in, grant to him a lease of the said premises, for the term of twenty-one years, from Lady-day, 1824, at the rent of fifteen pounds, clear of all taxes, with the usual covenants for repairs ; and the said Stephen Haynes covenanted to pull down the old buildings, and erect thereon five sub- stantial messuages, according to the specification therein con- tained. These premises lie at the jimction of the Harrow and Edge ware roads, and adjoin two small houses newly erected, which come up to the point of junction, belonging to another proprietor. CIIAKIXY LA^sDS. 67 This rent is applied, under the orders of the vestry, to the support of the charity-school. Alms' Houses and School-house. There is in the parish a set of alms' houses, copyhold of the manor of Paddington, consisting of seventeen dwellings, containing one apartment each. Thii'teen of these, as appears by an iascription in ti'ont of the building, were erected in 1714, at the expense of the inliabitants, for the poor past their labour. The four additional dwellings were built by Samuel Pepj's Cockerell, esq. : two of them to be occupied as alms' houses, and two for the master and mistress of the charity- school. The alms' houses are inhabited by paupers placed there by the parish. The charity-school has been built near these alms' houses, upon copyhold land, granted for the piu-pose by the present bishop. The expense of this erection was defrayed from subscription in the parish, and by the appKcation of certain monies received by the parish as a consideration for the enclosure of some waste land. Chii-ae's Gift. Denis Chirac, esq., by his will, dated ninth August, 1775, gave to Francis Maseres and Peter Paget, esqrs., one himdi-ed pounds to be laid out or applied as they shoiild think proper for the use and benefit of the charity children of Paddington. This legacy was applied by Mi". Baron Maseres, together with one hundred and twentj^ pounds, a year's rent of his own estate in the parish, towards the building of the school-room. Aboume's Charity. George Aboume, esq., by will, dated fifth August, 1767, gave, after the death of certain persons therein named, the dividends of three hundi-ed pounds in the four per cent, con- solidated bank annuities, in meat and bread to as many poor families as might have eight poimds of good beef and a half- peck loaf a-piece, to be given twice a-ycar, every Michaelmas and every Lady- day, for ever ; and aU the butchers and all the bakers of the place where he should be bmicd, to take their turns in serving the meat and bread. This legacy is now three hundred pounds three per cent, reduced annuities, standing in the name of the testator, George Aboume. The dividends, nine pounds a year, are received by Benjamin Edward Hall, esq., as executor of James Crompton, F 2 68 CHAEIXY LANDS. the surviving executor of Benjamin Crompton, who was sur- viving executor of the testator, George Abourne. Mr. Hall distributes the amount annually, on the twenty-fourth of January, among poor persons of the parish of Paddington, where Mr. Aboume was buried, by tickets, each entitling the bearer to four pounds of meat and a loaf of the same weight. The number of persons receiving them varies according to cvc- cumstances; they are selected either upon Mr. Hall's personal knowledge, or the recommendation of respectable inhabitants ; preference being generally given to the most aged and infirm, or such as are encumbered with the largest families,* ]\ir. Hall furnished us with a statement of the receipts and expenditure from the time that the charity came into action in 1 792, from wliich it appears that, one year with another, more has been given than the amoimt of the dividends." The poor of this parish owe much to Messrs. E-obertson and Parton for the trouble they took to preserve the memory of those rights which remained at the time they accepted the office of vestry-clerks. Had it not been for their exertions, I very much question, judging from what had taken place and from the state of affairs when they were appointed, whether anything respecting these lands would have been known now ; and there can be no doubt but their "accoimt" was a very im- perfect one. All those who were benefited by past pecula- tion, would studiously avoid giving these gentlemen the benefit of their knowledge ; and even now it is exceedingly difficult to obtain any traditional information on this subject. One of the oldest tenants of the charity-lands plainly said to me, with a blimt honesty I could not but admire, " You'll excuse me, Sir, but if I could tell you any thing, I wouldn't." I have ah'eady mentioned my notions respecting the origin of the term "Bread and Cheese Lands." The tale which is told, and which has hitherto been generally received, is to be found in the London Magazine, for December, 1737 : — " Sun- day, 18th, this day, according to annual custom, bread and cheese were thrown from Paddington Steeple to the popidace, agreeably to the will of two women who were relieved there with bread and cheese when they were almost starved, and Providence afterwards favouring them, they left an estate in that parish to continue the custom for ever on that day." This custom was continued down to about 1838; a single slice of cheese and a penny loaf, being, at last, all that * " The account states that the will directs £9 per annum to be given to poor families every Lady-day and Michaelmas day. CHARITY LANDS. 69 was thrown ; the old method of dispensing alms having been foimd to be anything but charitable alms' -giving. The Sunday before Cluistmas was, in fact, in the last eentiu-y and beginning of this, a sort of fiiu'-daj', for the stiu'dy vagabonds of London, who came to Paddington to scramble over dead men's bones for bread and cheese. The dispute about the half-acre is settled, as I am informed, by the bishop having established his right to it; and the whole of the second portion of the bread and cheese lands, mentioned in this Report, was sold to the Great "Western Eailway Company for £1,200. There remains, therefore, of this charity-estate only a portion of the first, and the third parcels, reported on by the Committee of the House of Commons. On the twenty- seventh of July, 1838, the fii'st and second Victoria, Chap. 32, "An Act for enabling the trustees of certain lands situate in the Parish of Paddington, in the coimty of Middlesex, to grant building leases of the said lands and for other purposes," confirmed an order of the Coiu't of Chan- cery relative to the appointment of ti'ustees, and the disposal of the proceeds of this freehold estate. By this Act six trus- tees are appointed, and futiu'e appointments are to be made by the vestry, whenever the number is reduced to three; and to these, and theii* successors, power is given to grant building leases. And after the payment of all costs and charges re- lative to their trust, they are directed to "pay and apply the rents and profits arising from the said Charity Estates, in manner follo^^-ing, that is to say, the same to be di\-ided into five equal parts, three-fifths thereof to be applied towards the support of the Paddington Parochial National and Infant Schools, for the instruction of boys and girls, children of poor persons residing in the said parish of Paddington ; one other fifth-part towards apj)renticing or instructing in business, for their future support, boys and girls, the childi-en of parish- ioners of and not liaAing received j^arochial relief from the said parish; and the remaining one-fifth part in the disti'ibution of bread and cheese, coals, blankets, and other necessary articles, at the discretion of the said trustees, for the beneiit of and amongst poor parishioners of the said parish not receiving parochial relief." ]3y the ninth section of this Act, the money paid into the Court of Exchequer for that portion of the estate sold to the Great Western Hail way Company, was assigned to the applica- tion for and expenses incurred in obtaining this Act. The schedule which is annexed to tliis Act describes the T-3 70 CHAEITT LANDS. bread and cheese lands, then chximed by the ti'ustees, as follows : — " All that piece of Garden Ground fonnerly lying in the common field, called Bayswater field, containing tlu-ec roods, six perches, and three quarters, being in the occupation of Thomas Hopgood, as a yearly tenant; and also all that piece or parcel of Garden Ground, contiguous to the above-mentioned piece of Garden Ground, containing one acre, two roods, and fifteen perches, now in the occupation of Samuel Cheese as yearly tenant ; and also all that piece or parcel of meadow- land, with a dwelling-house thereon, lying near Black Lion Lane, containing one acre or thereabouts, now in the occupa- tion, of Robert Nevins, for a term of sixty-three years, from Christmas, one thousand, eight hundred and two." Messrs. Hopgood and Cheese are still the tenants of the land north of the Uxbridge-road. The house and grounds, situated " near Black-lion lane," are now in the occupation of Mr. G. P. Shapcott. "With respect to what Bishop Compton gave to the poor of this parish, little appears to be known. The deed of gift can- not be foimd; but trom many circumstances, I am inclined to believe it was the land on which the Alms' -houses now stand, and not that estate which is situated at the entrance of the Harrow-road, for which the poor are indebted to this bishop. The houses, described in the report imder "Dr. Compton' s charity," were pulled down ten or eleven years ago, and the ground was let on building leases ; six large and handsome houses, including the public-house, were built on the ground on which the old poor-house, &c. stood; and., as I have been infonned, these houses pay to the the trustees of the charity- estate a ground rent averaging forty pounds per house. By the cash accounts, it will be seen that the " Enfi-anchised Copyholds" have for many years past produced an annual income of upwards of five hundred pounds. The " Freehold rents" appear from the same accoimts, to be seventy-one poimds and a few shillings per annum.* Of the trustees mentioned in the report as having been admitted tenants in trust for the copyhold estates, in 1822, only one, I believe, is now living. *By the cash accounts, published annually, by order of the Vestry, It wiU be seen that for many years past, only five shillings per annum liave been paid from one of those houses which are spoken of under "Johnson's Charity." I have made search for the merchant-tailor's will but it has been a fruitless one. Should any gentleman into whose hands these pages may fall, discover this, or any other document relative to I'addington, he would confer on the author of this work a very great favour, if he would take the trouble to communicate with him. CHAEITr LANDS. 71 Mrs. Margai-et Eobertson's \nll is still existing, and to be seen at Doctors' Commons : it is dated sixteenth of December, and not September. The messuage and garden Avbich she gave, apijear to have joined the Eed Lion, -which was also in her possession, and which she left to Mr. Gee, The will does not express the donor's desu'c respecting the disposal of her charity, excepting that it was ''for the use of the poor." iSTew leases have been granted for ''Margaret Eobertson's chai-ity," and also "Dr. Compton's charity," by trustees appointed under an order of the Court of Chancery. These charities are now called "The Enli-anchised Copyhold Estate." I am infomied by the Eev. Mr. Campbell that the proceeds are apphed in the same manner as the rents of " The Freehold Estate," but that a separate trust exists. I was very desirous to have ascertained the exact dimensions of these separate estates, now held for the benefit of the poor of this parish ; but, unfortunately, on my application to the trustees I foimd they had held their half-yearly meeting. Lysons, wiiting in 1794 or 5, says, "A benefaction of five pounds per annum, given by Mrs. Margaret Eobinson, for the purpose of apprenticing poor childi-en has been lost." This charitj- must not be mistaken for a donation of five pounds, which is recorded on the panels in front of the gaUery of St. Mary's Chui-ch. On the vestry minutes, I find two entries relative to the copyhold charity-estates; one in October, 1800, the other in_May, 1821. From the first entry, I leani that each of the said premises therein described was held at a quit-rent of six-pence per annum. The piece of ground belonging to the alms' houses is described as "a piece of gromid, formerly waste, lying upon Paddington-green ;" having 80 -feet of frontage, and 90-feet of depth, which was increased by two other pieces; one "in front of the alms' houses," 13-feet 10-inches in breadth, by 70-feet long. The other on the east of the alms' houses, 24-feet broad, by 113-f'eet 9-inches from north to south. If to this latter piece we add that which was to be given up by the Grand Jimction Canal Com- pany, (13-feet by 116 feet) we shall get at all that has been known of the alms' -house land during this centuiy. Eut these minutes shew there were otlier pieces of copyhold formerly held in trust fur tlie poor, which have "escheated" into the lord's domain, or "merged" into other private hands. THE PADDINGTON ESTATE. CHAPTER V. The policy which has raised the manor and rectoiy of Padding- ton to its present vahie* — three-quarters of a million sterling ; "which has efFectually transferred, (so far as private Acts of Par- liament can transfer,) two-thii'ds of the interest of this "small estate " into private hands ; and which at the same time has kindly permitted the rate-payers of Paddington to saddle themselves with almost the entii'e "costs and charges" of those duties for which the whole of this estate was originally designed, may be said to have had some show of a legalised beginning exactly a centiuy ago. In 1753, Thomas (Sherlock), then bishop of London, and Sir John Frederick, then lessee of the manor, were parties to an agreement with the parishioners of Paddington ; and procured for them, or assisted in proeui'ing, " An Act for enlarging the chm-ch-yard of the parish of Paddington, in the county of Middlesex;" which ratified that agreement. It had been agreed, and was now enacted, that " a certain piece or parcel of groimd, adjoining to the east side of the said chiu'ch-yard, containing from east to west, on the north side thereof, ninety-six feet of assize ; and fi'om north to south, on the east side thereof, one hundred and eighty four-feet of assize ; and from east to west, on the south side thereof, one hundred and twenty- one feet of assize ; and from north to south, on the west side thereof, one himdi'cd and thirty- two feet of assize" should "be annexed to the present cemetery or church-yard of the said parish of Paddington," for ever : The chui'chwardens, or one of them, pajing, after the twenty-fourth of June, 1753, during the continuance of *In a Report of the case of Thistlethwaj-te r. Gamier, heard hefore Sir J. Parker, in the Vice-Chancellor's Court, Jlay 4th, 1852, reported in tliC Times on the follow- ing: day, it is stated that the estimated value of seven-eighths of the lessee's interest, which "is two-thirds of the whole, is £430,000 THE PADDIXGTON ESTATE. 73 Sir John Frederick's lease, " unto the said Thomas, Lord Bishop of London, and his successors, or to his or theii* proper officer or agent for the time being, the annual rent or yearly sum of forty shillings of lawful money of Great Britain, at or on the feast-day of St. John the Baptist, in every year, during the contimiance of the said lease ; and also to the said Sir John Frederick, his heirs or assigns, the annual rent or yearly sum of ten pounds of lawful money of Great Britain, at or on the feast-day of Saint John the Baptist, in every year during the continuance of the same lease ; and li'om and after the expii'ation of the said lease, to the said Thomas, Lord Bishop of London, and his successors, and his and their gi'antces, the annual rent or yearly sum of twelve pounds of lawful money of Great Britain, at or on the feast-daj' of Saint John the Baptist in every year for ever:" the rent and all arrears being made recoverable by action at law with full costs of suit.* For defraj-ing the expenses of this Act and enclosing the said ground, the inhabitants were pennitted to borrow a sum not exceeding two himdi'ed and iilty poimds at foiu* per cent, interest. Sir John Frederick died in 1755, ha-\-ing made a will, dated twenty- seventh of Februaiy, 1734, in which he leaves his estate to his sons " in tail male, remainder to the heii's male of the testator's own body, remainder to his o-mi right heirs;" and added a codicil, dated April tenth, 1742, in which he notices that, since the making his said will, he had piu'chased the site and capital messuage of the manor of Paddington, held by lease for tlu-ee lives fi'om the Bishop of London, and " he thereby gave and demised the same to the trustees, in his said -will, their heirs and assigns, during the lives of Judith Jodrell, John Affleck, and John Crozier the yoimger, in the said lease named, and for the life of the longest liver of them, upon trust, out of the rents and profits, to pay the rent re- served by the said lease, and perform the lessees' covenants therein, and to renew the said lease as occasion should require, and raise the fines and charges for such renewals, and subject thereto, should stand seized of the said leasehold premises, in •At the end of 183.5, the present valuable apents of the Bishop distoveied, that havinR followed in tlie stejis of their i)iedecessors, they had eonnnittid a pave error in reeeivinft only the £10 which liad been reserved by this At, and su!ise(iu(nt Acts, for the Lessees ; and on the 1st of December, tliey addressed a letter to the Vestrv, calling' on thcni to jiav liis Lordsliij), the ])resent Bishop of London, the sum of ,€12 ; the rent whicli liad not been before oalled for, but wliieli was due to him for tlie ])ast six years. 1 believe an " action at law " was not coniinented for this sum, but a second lawyer's letter was sent and the demand was paid, and has been ever since. 74 THE PADDIIs'GTON ESTATE. trust for such and the same person and persons as should, from time to time, be entitled to his freehold land of inherit- ance, by vii'tue of his said wiR or codicils so far as the nature of the said leasehold premises would admit, and by the rides of law and eqiiity they might." His eldest son, Sir Jolm Frederick, held and enjoyed the same duiing his life ; and, as he died intestate and without issue, in the month of March, 1757, it came to his second son. Sir Thomas Frederick, who had two daughters. In 1763, the third year of George the third, Eichard, (Osbaldeston), then Bishop of London, and Sir Thomas Frederick, then lessee of the manor, agreed to " An Act for vesting certain parcels of land in Paddington, in the county of Middlesex, in the Eector and Chiu'chwardens of the parish of Saint George, Hanover-square, in the said county, and appropriating the same for a burial-ground for the said parish;" by which "five acres or thereabouts, lying at the west-end of the field called Tyburn Field," and a piece of waste, lying between the highway leading from London to TJxbridge, and the said field, were settled upon and vested in the rectors and churchwardens of the said parish, for ever. These lands being "discharged from the uses in Sir John Frederick's will, and annexed to the parish of St. George, Hanover- square;" and the life estate or interest in the said five acres of ground having been purchased of Sir Thomas Frederick, the chui'chwardens agreed, and were bound, to pay, after the decease of Sir Thomas, fifteen pounds per annum to the person or persons who shall be entitled to the site of the manor of Paddington, and the rest of the said leasehold pre- mises imder and by virtue of the will and codicils of the said Sir John Frederick, "during the present or any subsequent lease to be granted thereof;" and to "the Bishop of London, and his successors, diu'ing the time that the said site of the said manor, and the rest of the said leasehold jiremises, shall remain in the proper hands and possession of the said bishop, or his successors, and not in lease, to or for the benefit of any person or persons, claiming or to claim under or by vii'tue of the will and codicils of the said Sir John Frederick, the clear yearly sum of twenty-five pounds;" and to "the chiu-ch- wardens for the time being of the said Parish of Paddington, for ever, the clear yearly sum of forty- shillings, in lieu of all parochial rates, taxes, and assessments which may, or other- wise might, be due and payable to the said parish of Padding- ton, for or in respect of the said intended burial-ground, or THE PADDIIs^GTON ESTATE. 75 tlie lands therein to be contained." Actions are given to the several pai-ties for non-payment of these sums ; the church- ■wardens are to be allowed such payments ; and the rector to have the bui-ial-fees. In 1795, a j)rivate Act of Parliament, the 35th Geo. Ill, cap. 83, entitled "An Act for enabling the Lord Bishop of London to gi-ant a lease Avith powers of renewal of lands in the parish of Paddiugton, in the county of Middlesex, for the pm-pose of building upon," received the sanction of the legis- lature. "We are informed by the preamble of this Act, which occu- pies thirty-two Act of Parliament pages, and recites wholly or in part fifteen indentiu'es ■,'^'- that on the foiu-th of May, 1 768, the manor and rectory were leased to Gascoigne Frederick, his heirs and assigns, for three lives, and that in consideration of the surrender of this lease, " as also for divers other good causes and valuable considcratious him thereimto specially moving," the " Eight honourable and Eeverend Father-in- God, Richard,! by Divine permission, then Lord Bishop of London," granted iinto the aforesaid Gascoigne Frederick, of the Inner Temple, a new lease, for three lives, beariug date the foiu'teenth of August, 1776. We are fiu'ther infoiTucd, that this Gascoigne Frederick died intestate, IcaWng Maiy Frederick, Elizabeth Snell, and Susannah Frederick, all of Bampton, in the county of Oxford, his only sur-s-iving sisters and co-heirs at law. We are also iirt'oi-med, that in this lease of the foui'teenth of August, 1776, Gascoigne Frederick's "name was made use of therein only for the use and benefit of Elizabeth Frederick and Selina Frederick," and that they, with their husbands, applied to the ladies of Bampton to sell all the hereditaments and premises demised to the said Gascoigne Frederick, in 1776 ; and which these ladies kindly did for ten shil//)i(/s a-piece, as is witnessed by indentures, dated fifth and sixth of February, 1781, Mhieh re-convey the said lease and leasehold premises to trustees for tlie ])Uii)oses mentioned in the will and codicil of Sii' Jdhn Frederick, and in the mamage-settlenicnts of the grand- daughters of the aforesaid baronet. ]5y a "fine sur concessit," levied in Trinity Term, in the twenty-second year of George the third, "in order to dock, bar, and extinguish all estates, tail," &c., this estate was con- •The whole Act occupies fortj'-two pages. +lt was Richard Terrick, the successor of Ki(har i' rark-lano. + " Kcturn of tlii; nuiiilHTor District Surveyors ai)i)oint«l undor the Mptropolitun I>uil(lin<; Act, and iiniouiit of tlicir fees." liy this return I find tliat the fees received by the District Surveyor of I'addini^ton, for five years, IfSliK to 1S12 inclusive, au.ountcd to €(,2fil ! J'liiiiiiiiiiii/iir!/ J'li/iir, lSt:j. 104 GENEEAL AND MEDICAL tain 1,220 acres of land. Whether this return was made for the sake of giTing round numbers, or whether the parish has extended during this century, I cannot say ; but Lysons says that "Paddington contains, according to an actual survey in the possession of "William Strong, esq. (a former bishop's agent), 1197a. 3r. 30p." In the " Eegistrar- General's Eeport on Cholera in England, 1848-49," I find the " area in acres " of Paddington put do^vn at 1277. This estimate was given to the Registrar-General by Captain Dawson, E,.E. of the Tithe Commission.* Lysons tells us, " the soil in the neighbourhood of the village is principally factitious, having been much em-iched by great quantities of manure. On the east of a little brook which nms by Kilboum and Bayswater, the soil is a tliin clay upon a diy bed of gi'avel ; on the west side of this brook a deep clay, the springs Ijdng very far beneath the surface." In proof of which he states that a well simk by Mr. Coulson, of Westboum house, had to be dug 300 feet deep before water was foimd; the earth of the first 100 feet, he tells us, was a bluish clay, "then, a thin sti-atimi of stone, then, another bed of clay." In another well, dug in the same neigh- bourhood, water was found at the depth of 250 feet. These statements respecting the water must be taken to refer to the valley through which the "Westboum ran ; for on the eastern side of the brook, south of Maida-hill, and on the eastern side of Craven-liill which lies to the west of the stream, many wells existed which were not more than ten or fifteen feet deep.f Indeed, Lysons tells us, that " the springs at Bayswater lie near the surface, and that the water is very fine." In fact, the people of Paddington seem to have had no lack of water, nor any reason to complaia either of the quality or cost of this essential element of life. Previously to the present century, the most desirable spots in the district had been selected for the dwellings of the in- habitants ; and when the bishop's first building Act was granted only 200 acres were allowed to be built on, because the other portions of the estate were not considered ''fit for building purposes." But the modem builder's art despises any delicate notions about fitness or unfitness for the situation of a *Page cliii of this Report. tWhile the workmen were digging the gravel out of "Craven Gardens," I saw an old well which lay beside their excavation, the bottom of which didnot appear to have been ten feet from the surface. I also remember that there was a pond close to this spot, at the corner of the Pest-house Field, which was not so deep as this well, but which was not dry even in the hottest summer. TOPOGEAPHT. 1 05 house. A plot of ground shall be covered ; a street shall he built, says the money-making builder ; and, when the street is finished, who will know whether this or that particular house is bviilt on gravel, or clay, or mud ? "Who will take the trouble to ascertain whether the elevated road to his enti'ance- haU, or the spot on which his house is placed, was made by nature's laws, or by the scavenger's cart ? As to the drainage of the house, and the supply of water, these ai'e hidden mys- teries, with which no dweller in a house, except a master- builder, is expected to ti'ouble himself. Respecting any of these matters, the owner of the soil will be rarely foimd to interfere, excepting it is to take part with the builder ; for the value of his land has been enormously increased by that indus- trious speculator. Fortunatelj', however, those who live in houses, are beginning to find out that not only the healthfulness of their own dwelling, but that of their neighbours also, verj^ much concerns them. Fortunately, too, especially for the dwellers in large towns, men who have made hygeic science a study cannot be sneei-ed down, or "put down" by "practical builders." But until the people thoroughly understand the natiu-e of those requirements which constitute healthful dwell- ings ; and until they are dctcnnined to press upon the legisla- tui'e the enactment of those laws which are necessaiy to con- stitute them such, and to restrain, by more stringent laws, the lust after mammon of " the speculative builder," both their health and life will remain in veiy unsafe keeping. The biulder may say that the legislatru'e of a country has no right to interfere in an affair of so private a natui'e as the building of a house; that every man is able to judge for himself in what house he will live ; and that it is liis own fault if he take a bad one. So long as houses were built to last more than ninety-nine years, and were nearly a mile apart, all this may have been ti'ue, but expeiience has taught us that this docs not hold good when applied to towns ; it has taught us that cities would be in a much worse state than they now are but for those iuefficient laws which exist at the present time ; and it has taught us that to choose an abode in ignorance of almost all the necessary requirements which constitute a healthfid dwelUng is a species of ignorance by no means of the blissful family. To distinguish good from evil in every object which euiTounds us is one of the necessities of our nature ; to have " a foe under foot,"* a foe overhead, and a foe on every side, •Vide Household Words, No, 142, for a most powerful picture of the present con- dition of the common sewers. 106 GENERAL AND MEDICAL without a determination to subdnc this legion, does not say much for the ^visdom cither of the governors, or the governed ; and to care nothing about the expenditure of millions collected annually for local pui'poses, is no proof of confidence in the governors, is " no proof of the happiness or wisdom of the governed; it may however prove, that the people are "silly sheep "* who may be shorn by any tool, at the bidding of any despot. Experience has proved that no more healthful situation for a town can be chosen, than elevated ground above the banlc s of a pTire stream ; and those who fixed on the south portion of the Wcstboiu-n distiict, and on the site of the old \'illage of Pad- dington, as spots for their dwellings, coidd not have been ignorant cither of the material advantages such situations afforded, or of the effects produced both on the mind and body by the beautj^ and salubritj' of these localities. If we spoke of the beauties of Paddington to those whose acquaintance with this place is of recent date, they would natiu'ally think we were about to describe the gorgeous man- sions of the fashionable " Tyburnia." But the old village of Tyboum, or Westboum, and the new town of Poedings, were surrounded by a greater combination of natural beauty than those who have not studied the ancient topography of this dis- trict can well conceive. Out of thirty-seven districts, into which, for certain special purposes, the Registrar-General has aiTanged London and its vicinity, in a series of excellent tables contained in his very valuable Peport on Cholera, we find that there are only four parishes of greater average elevation than Paddington ; the estimated elevation of this parish above Tiinity high water- mark being seventy- six feet ; Pancras eighty ; Islington eighty- eight ; Marylebone one himdi'ed ; and Hampstead thi-ee hun- dred and fifty. On refeiTing to those accurate and beautiful surveys pub- lished by the Ordnance Map-Office, I find that the laighest point in Paddington, the peak of Maida-hill, rises to 120 feet 9 inches, while the lowest. Elms-lane, sinks to 57 feet. In *One of the prt'ca-t reformers of the sixteenth century — Luther — said " The Christian must he ohetlient to the commands of the Government, even thoupli it wrongs him, skinninfi: and flcecinp; him." Ad a^ain he says, " Christians, wliilst preparinp: for tlie eternal life, wilt remain in political thinfjs always stupid sheep, (Schaafe und Schoepse), they will never tjet heyond nonsense in the affairs of state." German reformers of the nineteenth century see the effect these oi)inions liave had on the world, and they reject thf se dogmas of tiieir ve>ieral)le reformer with the contempt they so well merit. Vide " TheTieformdt'iiiiuif tlic Nineteenth Centiirii,''' by.lolianiies Ronge, Part I. page 11). Deutsch and Co., Fleet-sti-eet, and Oswald and Covers, Lross-street, Manchester. TOPOGRAPHY. 1()7 fact, Padtlington consists chiefly of two hills, Maida-liill and (Jraven-hill ; the north-eastem slope of Notting-hill ; and a vidley, throiigh which the Tj'boum ran. In the south part of the parish this valley is very^ nan'ow, but to the north it spreads out into Maida Vale. AVoodiield road, and the neighbourhood, is another elevated spot in Paddington, but in the whole of that part of the parish, as well as in Maida Vale, the clay is immediately below the surface. In some places the surface has been raised by the earth dug out of the Canal, and in others, by deposits brought from other j^arts of London ; indeed the alterations which have taken place, inconsequence of the removal of the natural soil, and the addition of " made groimd," make it difficult to tell what is the natitral elevation of any pai'ticidar spot in the parish. The tables from which I have just now quoted, and other authenticated statistical accomits, tend to prove that the number of feet we live above high water -mark is an appreciable quantity in the account of health and disease, life and death. But eleva- tion is only one item, though an important one, in this im- portant account. The nature as well as the height of the soil on ^\•liich we live, influences the health and life of eveiy living being. A considerable portion of the ground, composing the south and south-eastern parts of Paddington, consists of sand and gravel ; the northern and north-western pai'ts being clay. Vast (]^mmtities of the fonner have been removed; and although the Paddington soil was sufficiently " factitious " at the time Lysons -wa'ote, it has become much more so since that time. Those only who have carefully watched the modes which have been adopted to raise the groimd for making new roads, and lor elevating the basement of houses in certain parts of this parish, can form any idea of the immense quantity of " rubbish " wliich has been ''shot here." As to the nature of a gi-eat deal of that rubbish, I will not offend my readers by attempting any description. Sixffice it to say, that thousands of loads of sand and gravel have been taken away since tlie Act passed which ])('rmitted the sale of this natural scjil, and vegetable and animal matters of all kinds, and in all stages of putrefaction, have been emptied into hollow places. Pesides the effect produced by llir; ])oisonous gases wliicli must arise from such factitious soil, oilier bad effects frecpieully follow the removal of the natural earth ajid the substitution (jf made groimd. vMl the house- drains which an; laid rm th(! latter, sink, and in a short time become either partially, or wholly, useless for tlie purpose fur 108 GENERAL AND MEDICAL which they were made ; and new drains, constructed at great expence and inconvenience, are necessaiy. When from this or any other cause, the drain does not empty itself into the com- mon sewer, it is emphatically termed by the men who work in the sewers, "a dead'un." Having for several years lived in a house which owned one of these dead drains, and having been very nearly " a dead'un " myself in consequence, I was led to enquire into this subject somewhat minutely ; and although the drainage of an immense city is too important a subject to be treated of by the topo- grapher in a sketch of a single parish, yet I cannot refrain from sajdng a word or two in this place on a point of such "vital consequence. The Thames having been most mischievously used as the great common sewer for London and its neighbourhood ; and Paddington which is so much above its level, having been drained into it, one would have imagined that the system of drainage here would have completely removed all debris from so elevated a spot. Such, however, has not been the case, as I have learned from the Reports of the Sewer Commissioners, and from a personal inspection of some of the sewers. Notliing worthy the name of a system of di'ainage, can be secured, till the great river, which was intended by its Creator to bring health and life to the people, instead of being made by man the instrument of his own disease and death, is freed from the sewerage of a whole meti'opolis : yet much good may be done in the. mean time, and at a comparatively small outlay. Thousands of drains, now existing, have been made of such porous bricks, and these have been placed side by side with such an unadhesive layer of dirt, that instead of acting as an impei'vious tube through which the soil could pass to its desti- nation, the common sewer, the bottom of the drain acts as a mere filter for its contents. Glazed earthenware pipe-drains have been introduced to obviate this and other great evils; and the dwellers in towns have seldom had a greater blessing befaU them, than this discovery. These tubular drains are cemented together, so as to fonn a hollow tube, and ai'e laid at so much per foot imder the regulation of the Sewers Office, by work- men who understand what a house -drain should be; audit must be imderstood that a hotise-dram and ajield-clram are two distinct things ; though veiy many builders have thought what would do for one, would do for the other. Why there is not a good system of main drainage for London ; why the Thames is still made the generator of disease and TOPOGEAJHY. 109 deatli, I do not know, except it be to shew the incflScIcncy of oui- governors ; but if the jS'ew Sewers Commission had done no other good, it deserves praise for the facilities it has given for the use of this more perfect system of house-di'aiaage ; and after all it is of more consequence that the drain to the sewer should be perfect, than that the sewer itself should be so, although the latter is undoubtedly essential. AU those who wish to live in a healthful house, will adopt tliis tubidar system of house-draiaage ; but those who cannot or will not have a perfect drain, may adopt a small part of the modem tubular system with great advantage and at a trifling •cost. At present, the great majority of drains open directly into the common sewer, and act as chimnies for the conveyance of poisonous gases into the interior of the houses, the water- traps only partially preventing this evil. Others enter the sewer so low, that when they are not performing this office, they frequently form a portion of the common sewer itself, and are iavariably filled with its contents, when ''flushing" is performed. A simple lid of glazed earth, hanging from the upper part of the mouth of the drain, provides against these evils to a very great extent ; and this precaution shoidd always be used, till a more effectual substitute is foimd. Some portions of Paddington which have been bmlt on, are amongst the most desirable spots, as places of residence, to be found in the immediate vicinity of London ; and these would be rendered unexceptionable by a perfect system of water supply and drainage. But, as yet that good time has not come even for the most healthful and most fashionable houses in Tybiimia. So much has been said and written on the subject of burying the dead in the midst of the living, that it would appear useless to add another word on this subject ; and at length some of the effects produced on living bodies by the poisonous gases which arise from church-yards are well known. We have afready seen that Paddington is blessed with two burying grounds, one of which was estabUshed for the benefit of the rector of St. George's, Hanover-square, and his rich parishioners ; and although this burial-ground was at one time extra-mural, the inhabitants of Albion-street, Upper Eerkeley- street, Connaught-square, and St. George's-row, have found out that it is no longer so. For some of the particular evils attendant on having this large burial-ground surrounded by hou-ses, I must refer my readers to "An account of the measures 110 ETYMOLOGY OF NAIIES, adopted hy the Medical Practitioners residing in the Western District of raddimjton, to obtain the Closure of the Bumal- Gkotjnd situated in the Uxbhidge Eoad," and to a Ectum on the Meti-opolitan Burials' Act, just i)rintcd by order of the House of Corumons. Por an exposition of the general evils of inti'a-mural intennent, and an account of sonic of the disgi-aceful Ijracticcs connected -with it, I cannot do better than refer to " Gatherings from Grate Yards," and Mr. Walker's other works on these subjects. To secure a healthful dwelling, then, it is necessary to know something of the elevation and the natiu'e of the soil; the qualitj' of the water ; the efficiency of the di'ainage ; the size* of the house relative to the number of its intended inliabitants ; and indeed, all those considerations which iniiuence the quality of the air we breathe, should be taken into account. But it is not my intention to enter into an examination of all the items which compose a healthful dwelling ; much less to count up those points which give an ideal value to a house on a " Bishop's Estate," though, judging from the puffing advertise- ments, which for years crowded the advertising columns of the Times, there must have been gi^eat and healing virtues in these magic words. In those adveiiisements, however, we saw no account of the contracted ai'ea ; the deep narrow back yard ; the thin and crumbling walls ; the gaping doors and windows ; the damp and ill ventilated basement ; the absence of drain- age ; the Avant of bath-rooms, &c. &c. ; — all such things had to be-tfoimd out by the in-coming tenant, and remedied at his cost. But for the want of these essentials, the " pretty paper," or the " handsome cornice," made but poor compensation, even in houses advertised for side at a few thousand pounds, "with a trifling gi'ound-rent of seventy -five pounds per annum." Many suggestions have been offiBred relative to the deriva- tion of the word Paddington ; but that suggested by Mr. I-Lcmble — one of the greatest living authorities on antiquarian topogi'aphy — seems to me to be the most deserving considera- tion. Mr. Kemble obsen'cs, in his preface to the third volume of the Codex Diplomaticus, that the Anglo-Saxon, like most German names of places, are nearly always composite words ; that is, they consist of two or more parts ; the second generally of wide and common signification ; the fii'st a kind of definition limiting this general name to one parti- cular application. The former portion of these compound names, he says, may be classed under various heads, as the names of animals, birds, ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES. Ill trees, fishes, &c. ; others refer to mythological or di\'iiic per- sonages ; and others contain the names of individuals and families. To this latter division ho refers Paddingtou in the first volume of his " Saxons in England ;" where he has infeiTod a mai'k — " Pa^dingas " — for the name of tliis place — Tun, the enclosure or to-nai, Poedingas of the Paedings. It is ti'ue, this is one of three names, of Avhich Mr. Ivemble appears to entertain some doubt ; but all other explanations I have met AN^ith appear to me open to more serious objections. Dr. E,. G. Latham, the father of the modern school of Englisli philology, tells us that " in the Greek language the notion of lineal descent, in other Avords, the relation of the son to the father, is exprc'sscd by a particular termination ;" and that this Greek mode of expression is very different from the Enghsh termmatiou, so)i, and the Gaelic prefix, mac ; wliich in fact make the words to which they are joined only com- pound words. But he asks is there anything in English corresponding to the Greek patronj-mics, and answers, " In Anglo-Saxon the termination ing is as tridj* patroujanic as IDES is in Greek. * * * In the Bible-translation the son of Elisha is called Elising. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle occur such genealogies as the folloA\dng : — Ida was Eopping, Eoppa Esing, &c. — Ida was the son of Eoppa, Eoppa of Esing, &c." The learned Doctor fui'ther informs us that "In the plural number these forms denote the race of— as Scyldingas — to tlic Sc}ldiugs, or the race of Scyld."* or Poedingas — to the Paedings, or the race of Pa3d. AYith other names in Paddington there is not much diificulty.- The bume, boiu'n, or brook, which ran through Paddington gave its name to a district. Tyboui-n I believe to have been the original name ; but the houses erected on the Avest side of tliis stream, Avith the district siuTounding them, Averc CA'cn- tually called by the name of Westboum ; tlie name Avhich Avas given to the stream. Ilespecting the origin of the word Bays water — a name given to a portion of the NW^stbuuru dis- trict — many suggestions have been off'ered; Imt tlu; first of tlie tliree given by Mr. ()sl)orne in his hotter to Mr. Urban, iu the Gentleman's Magazine, dated March 2.5tli, 1798, appears to me to be the correct one. He says " Perhaps tlic name of Bays is deriA'cd from tlie original OAvnor of the land;" and from the In([uiKitions taken in the early part of the fourteenth century, to be fouiul in the first pai't of this Work, it Avill be •The Kii|,'Ush Laii{fuu(fi', 3r(l edition, pane 281). 112 ETYMOLOGY OF NAMES. perceived that there was then a Juliana BaysboUe holding land in AVestbourn. At the end of the fourteenth century, we find from Tanner's note, before quoted, that the head of water given by the Abbot was called Bayard's Watering Place ; and although this may have been the name used in legal documents for the district surroim^ding it, yet Bays "Watering has been the name used by the people. There may, indeed, have been two watering places for the weary traveller; and mine host Bays, and mine host Bayard, may have been rivals for public favour ; the one living on one side of the King's highway, and the other on the opposite. Knotting, or Notting, seems to have been bxit a comiption of Nutting; the wood on and aroiuid the hill of that name, having for centuries being appropriately so called. KenseU, or Kensale, comes, as I take it, from King's-field. In the Harleian MS. (printed at page 38,) the green of this name is called Kellsell, and Kingefelde. In Mary's reign, we perceive by this document, also, that " the Green-lane " and " Kingsefelde-green" were the same place. And as "the Green-lanes" now exist — in name — we may ascertain with something like accuracy the situation of tliis field, or green, which formerly belonged to the King. The names of Squares, Terraces, Streets, &c., have been for the most part furnished by the names of the owners of pro- perty, past or present, their native counties, or country resi- dences. Spring- street. Brook-street, Conduit-street, Market- street, &c., point out the situations of objects formerly on, or near, those sites. " Tichbome-street," although not built in the time of Henry the eighth, reminds us of one " Nicholas Tychborne, gent., husband of the second daughter and co-heir of Alder- man Fenroper ;" of Alderman Tichboum, one of Cromwell's peers and King Charles's judges ; and of a dirty ditch which ran down the side of the Edgeware-road from Maida-hill ; and Maida-hill, itself, reminds us of the famous battle of Maida. Praed-street preserves the memory of the banker of that name ; one of the first Directors of the Grand Junction Canal Company; and of the lands they secured, as well for the purposes for which they professedly obtained them, as for the purposes to which they have been applied. The name of Frederick, once well known here, became so distasteful to the people of Paddington, that it is preserved only in a mews ; while the memory of the capacious generosity of OKtGIN. 113 the Lady Margaret, Coxintess of Richmond, to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, will be long preserved in Padding- ton by the Squares and Terraces of those names. There is now a Shelden-street, to remind us of a bishop's gift to hig nephews ; and a Porteus Road and Terrace, that we may not forget the good and generous Bcilby who gave away, or sold, two-thii'ds of the proceeds of the Paddington estate. Picker- ing-place and Terrace preserve the memoiy of a fonner curate, and of a friendly Chancery suit relating to the property here ; and while all sorts of changes are rung on the names of the living, it has been thought expedient to place Blomiield and Cromwell Terraces in a continuous line in the highway to a Public School. The civil di'STsion of the land, recognised by the Anglo- Saxons, were the Mark, or March ; the Ga, or Shii-e ; and the Hid, or Hide. To understand these divisions, as Mr. Kemble has described them, is to comprehend the natui'al origin of every inhabited place in this coimtiy ; and the origin of all oiu" constitutional law. The Mark he describes to be the smallest and simplest division of the land which was held by many men iu common, or by several households under settled conditions, the next in order to the private estates, the bids or alods of the markmcn. "As its name denotes, it is something marked out or defined, haviug settled boundaries ; something serving as a sign to others, and distinguished by signs. It is the plot of land on which a greater or lesser number of free men have settled for the purposes of cultivation, and for the sake of mutual profit and protection ; and it comprises a portion both of arable and pasture land, in proportion to the numbers that enjoy its pro- duce."* Other meanings were attached, to this word, Mark, which are thoroughly examined by this learned historian, and to his works I must refer those of my readers who wish to obtain a complete insight into the ancient divisions of the land, and the manners and customs of our Saxon ancestors. Tlie Ga or Shire was but a number of these marks imited imder one general government. The Hid or Hide was " the estate of one household, the amount of land sufficient for the support of one family." By a series of learned calculations and investigations Mr. Kemble has proved that the hide was a stated (piautity of arahh land, not much over thirty Saxon acres, equal to forty Xoj-mau acres; he shews that the Saxons had a large •Saxons in England, vol. i. page 30. I 114 OEIGIN. and a small acre, and explains, by this fact, how the liide came to have been considered one hundi-ed and twenty acres. He shews that the forest, meadow, and pasture-land was common property ; and that it was attached to the hyde as of common-right. But, for a complete exposition of this • subject, I must also refer my readers to the foiu-th chapter of the first book of Mr. Kemble's history. The fact of Paddington in Surrey, or ''Padendene" as it was called, being mentioned in the Conqueror's survey,* while Paddington in Middlesex was not noticed, inclines me to believe the dene, or den, in Surrey, was the original mark of the Paddings ; and that the smaller enclosure in Middlesex was at first peopled and cultivated by a migration of a por- tion of that family fi'om the den when it had become incon- veniently full. I do not mean to say the Siirrey valley was too crowded when this migration took place ; but the lord, or his man, one or both might have pressed a little too hard on some of the young cubs in the Surrey den ; and as they had no Press through which to make their wrongs knovni, they may have thought it best to move off before any other wrongs were inflicted. At what period this migration happened, it is impossible to say ; biit there is very little doubt that the fii'st settle- ment was made near the bourn, or brook, which ran through the forest. And this brook, thoi;gli now a deep imder-ground sewerf which has been made, by the aid of the mason, to give a few more groimd-rents to the bishoj) and his lessees, while it carries its hidden pollution to the capacious bosom of " Pather Thames," — once gave life to a most beautiful valley, and was itself, at times, no insigTiificant stream. At the beginning of this century it was a favourite resort for the young fishermen ; *" William (son of Ansculfe) holds Abincebourne — Abingcr. The same William holds Padindene. Huscarle held it of King Edward. At that time it was rated for four hides ; now for three. Hugh, William's man, holds three hides." In Abinger parish there were three manors — Abinger; Paddington-Pembrokc ; and 1 adding- ton, otherwise Faddindean, sometimes styled from a former owner, Paddington Bray. There was also another manor of "Padinden" in Ltngfield parish in tliis county. Vide Manning and Bray's History of Surrey, vol. ii. page 13G and 347. tUnfortimately this, the Ranelagh Sewer still remains open in some parts of its course. In a letter from Dr. AlcUs to the editor of the Times, September 7th, 1852, we find that it is open in Chelsea ; and that "its present open state answers two pur- poses, one for the exhalation of noxious elfluvia, the other for the drowning of little children happening to fall into it, an instance of which recently occurred." And though the greater part of this sewer has been covered in and built vpo?i, tn " the bishop' s estate, ' ' yet there is a considerable portion which is not yet covered in in this parish. Building, however, is now progressing close to this open sewer so that I presume it will not be long before this portion of the ancient Ty bourn is for ever bidden from mortal ken. OEIGIK. 115 and, as depicted in Xorden's Map of Middlesex, ••' we see what it was in the time of Elizabeth, when the waters, taking their natiu'al coui'ses from the hills of Hamjostead and Highgate, found theii' way into it. AMiat amount of disease and death has been caused by the impurities it has been made to hold since that time is a mystery ; but one into which those have had a peep, who have taken the trouble to read the disclosures which have been made respecting the Serpentine,! into which it was for yeai's made to pom* its many abominations. By the side of a pure and then beautiful stream, at a later jicriod named the AYestboiu'u, the first "clearing" was made; and in all probability on the eminence above this brook,perhaps on the very spot where the first Chri'stian temple was raised, the inhabitants of this Mark fii'st ottered up theii" adoration to that God which their intelligence had taught them to worship ; and let not those who occupy their places in well cushioned pews near this spot, decry or despise that worship; tor it was the sincere and spontaneous act of the unenlightened mind, immixed -n-ith the sins of a cold formality, or the hypocrisy of a political sham. However misguided our ancestors were, they were sincere, and they wanted not the support of the State to bolster up theii' peculiar dogmas, but freely consecrated a portion of the Mark to the services of religion. And the present chi'istian Bishop of London, and his lay lessees, may now have the honour of receiving the proceeds of land once deflicated to Pagan worship.;]: The Mark included a considerable extent of the forest around the portion cleared ; and this portion of the Mark, the forest or waste-land, was, as we have seen, the common property of the inhabitants. To protect their rights in this common pro- perty against powerful and ambitious individuals, was for centuries the constant care of the people, as it was the special object of many of our ancient laws. How these laws were evaded; how by force or fraud " the lords of the soil " managed to transfer those lands to their own keeping ; and how cunning 'Speculum Britannia;. ^■Lancet, vol. 2, 1848. Reports of public meetings in the daily papers. And Dr Tilt's various researches on this subject, published in a separate pamphlet and in the Lancet. jMr. Kemble thinks everj' mark had its religious establishment, its "faniuu" or "hearth;" "that the priest or priests attached to these heathen cluinhcs had lands, perhaps free-will offering's too, for their support ;" and further, " that tlie Christian Jlissionaries, acted on a well prounded plan of tuniintr the i('li},'-io. loci to account ;" and that " whenever a substantial buildinjr was found in existence, it was taken possession of for the behoof of the new reUgion."—Saxo^n,s in £n!/land, vol. ii. p. 424. 116 omoiN^ and designing men have over-reached them in return ; so that^ at last, scarcely a scrap of all their former rights remain to the public, for public uses, I have made some attempt to tell, so far as the Paddington Mark is concerned. But a complete history of these transactions remains to be written. The formation of the Mark, and the reception of its occu- pants into the family of the state, were not the work of a day : and these long preceded the parochial arrangement ; which latter, indeed, was an ecclesiastical division of the land, said to have been introduced into England in the seventh century by Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbiuy : but this is evidently one of those errors so common in history, where one man is often credited or debited with deeds which belong to, and should be fairly divided among many individuals. It is this error, as Mr. Kemble has most strikingly pointed out, wliich has frequently made a saint, or a devil, when no heroic quality belonged to the person so set on high for admiration or detesta- tion. Modem research has made it pretty certain that the ancient parishes, " parochial, " of England were the districts adopted by the several teachers of cluistianity who first promulgated the truths of the gospel in this countiy. These divisions, made for securing the spread of the " Good News " through the whole of the coimtry, miist necessarily, at first, have been very rudely defined — but then there was not, at that time, any fear that these overseers, or bishops, would set people by the ears about territorial titles. They were much better occupied, by the promulgation of God's tidings, than to trouble themselves about those things which have lately become of so much more concern to christian bishops than the conversion of the heathen ; and when those earnest and good men were assisted by others whom they had imbued with their religious spiiit they lived in one house, in common, on the free-will offerings of a grate- ful people. — The overseer of the district being their overseer, and his parish, their parish. As the religious wants of the people increased, these centres were found to be inconveniently remote from the circumference. The teachers, too, considerably increased in numbers ; they demanded as a right that which had been conceded as a favour; and ambition creeping into their community, as their riches in- creased, separate spheres of action because additionally desi- rable. So at length, and by degrees, our present parochial system arose ; the sub- divisions bearing the same name, diocese, or parish, as the original divisions had done. CHAPTER II. TffE P.VBSOX ORIGIN AXD USE OF TITHE — P,VIlSONAGE, RECTORY, OR VICARAGE — APPROPRL\TION, AND DIPROPRIATION A LIVING ^A SINE- CURE A CURACY WrrHOUT THE JIEANS OF CURE. " A Paeson, persona ecclesiae,''^ says Blackstone, " is one that hath fiill possession of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson, persona, hecause by his person the church, which is an invisible body, is represented ; and he is in him- self a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the church, (which he personates,) by a pei-petual suc- cession. He is sometimes called the rector, or governor, of the church : but the appellation of parson (however it may be depreciated by fa m iliar, clownish, and indiscriminate use) is the most legal, most beneficial, and most honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy; because such-a-one (Sir Edward Coke observes) and he only, is said vicem seu personam ecdesiae genere. A parson has, during his life, the freehold in himself of the parsonage-house, the glebe, the tithes, and other dues. But these are sometimes appropriated ; that is to say, the benefice is perpetually annexed to some spiritual cor- poration, either sole or aggregate, being the pati'on of the liWng ; which the law esteems equally capable of providing for the service of the church, as any single private clergyman. This contrivance seems to have sprung from the policy of the monastic orders, who have never been deficient in subtile in- ventions for the increase of their own power and emoluments. At the first establishment of the parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a four- fold division ; one for the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabrick of i3 118 OEIGIN AND USE OF TITHE. the clmrch, a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became other- wise amply endowed, they were prohibited fi'om demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the division was into three parts only. And hence it was inferred by the monas- teries, that a small part was sufficient for the officiating priest ; and that the remainder might well be applied to the use of their own fraternities, (the endowment of which was con- strued to be a work of the most exalted piety,) subject to the burthen of repaii-ing the church and providing for its constant supply. And therefore they begged and bouglit, for masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the advowsons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of their own coi-poration. But, in order to complete such appropriation effectually, the king's licence, and consent of the bishop, must first be obtained : because both the king and the bishoj) may sometime or other have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to the benefice ; which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of a corporation, which never dies : and also because the law reposes a confidence in them, that they vnll not consent to any thing that shall be to the prejudice of the church. The consent of the patron also is necessarily implied, because (^as was before observed) the ap- propriation can be originally made to none, but to such spiri- tual corporation, as is also the patron of the church ; the whole being indeed nothing else, but an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the chui'ch."* The great modem historian of our ancestors — Mr. Kemble — also informs us that the tithe — that property which cunning and selfish in dividuals in the course of time, and little by little, appropriated to their o^ti uses — was originally divided into thi'ee portions : one for the reparation of the chiu'ch ; a second to the servants of God ; " and a third to God's poor and needy men in thi'aldom." And Mr. Kemble further states that when the accidental oblations were replaced by settled payments, whether land or not, they were directed to be applied in definite proportions to these objects. So that the maintenance of the place of religious worship was as much provided for as the clergy who were to do duty therein ; the poor, too, were equally taken care of, at the same time and by the same means ; for to use the emphatic * Commentaries, Booki. chap. 11. OKIGIN- AND USE OF TITHES. 119 words of this great historian, " the state had a poor-law aud the clergy were the reHoving officers." Mr. Barnes, the re- gistrar of the diocese of Exeter, in his examination before the select committee of the House of Commons, on the fourth of July, 1851,-^ says, that he believes Blackstone was mistaken in attributing the charge of the repair of the church to the tithe J but I think Mr. Kemble has fully established the truth of the position taken up by that learned Judge. And this was not all, the bishops, and clergy, wore to feed the poor out of their owti incomes. A parson who possessed a superfluity and did not distribute it to the poor was to be excommunicated. And the clergy were to practice handi- crafts, "not only to keep them out of mischief, but to help to feed theii' poor brethren." Many of them were masons; and Mr. Kemble is of oijinion that more churches existed in the tenth century than at the present time. Before that time there appears to have been " a tendency to speculate in chm-ch-building ;" for the sake of obtaining "the oblations of the faithful;" the builders claiming for themselves that portion of the church — the altare — on which the offerings were laid. To ensui-e the support of the churches so built on specula- tion, the bishops found it necessary " to insist that every chm'ch should be endowed with a sufficient glebe or estate in land : the amount fixed was one hide, equivalent to the estate of a single family. A\Tiich, properly managed, would support the presbyter and his attendant clerks." And this glebe-land the bishop could not afterwards interfere with, or alienate fi'om the church to which it was given. Mr. Kemble also tells us that by the time of Eadgiir it had become quite a settled thing to pay tithe ; " the English pre- lates ha^dng laid a good foundation for the custom long before they succeeded in obtaining any legal right fi'om the state." He also states that " cyricsceat," (as the chiu^ch-tax was called,) was " originally a recognitoiy service due to the lord from the tenants of church-lands. But that in process of time a new character was assumed for it, and it was claimed of all men alike as a due to the clergy." And then those who refused to pay were \'isited by the king's reeve, by the bishop's, and by the mass-priest of the minster, f and they took " by force a tenth part for the minster whcreunto it was due." A ninth part only was left for the refractory subject. While •Hcc lieport on Church Rates, pape 401. 11. C. 1851. 541. +.Minstor and .Monastery, wcru iiairies auciontly apiilio'l to all parish-churches. Sed ct uiiivcrsim ccclcsiu; omncs nionastcraj dicttu. IJu Ca|,'uo's Glossary. 120 ORIOm AND USE OF TITHE. the other eight parts were divided into two. And of this says the ordinance, " let the landlord seize half, the bishop half, he it a king's man or a thane' s."f I think it not at all unlikely that those who cultivated the soil in Paddington received no fi-iendly visits from, the tithing man till the time of Edgar. Dunstan, at this time Abbot of the Monastery he had restored at "Westminster, looked, without doubt, pretty keenly after the the loaves and fishes which were to feed his little flock ; and as the enclosure of the Paedings was not too far north to escape his acute glance, he might have been the fii'st who took tithe here. When Bishop of London, which he was at the time of his pretended gift of the little farm, he might, too, have obtained property here, as elsewhere, by the means above indicated. For, if any of the accoimts we have of him be true, he was evidently not the man to fail in carrying out any scheme of aggrandisement which he had once planned, even when the law was not, as it was in this case, in his favour. And even so late as the tenth century of the Christian era, some inhabitant of this place might have been found, whose refractory and pagan spirit prevented his seeing all the justice and good policy there might be in giving up quietly the tenth portion of his produce to the monks of Westminster. Those monks, in Dunstan' s time only ten in number, though able to visit Paddington occasionally, were too much engaged at West- minster to pay that attention to this little settlement which was required to teach the inhabitants all their christian duties. If this saint, who so honoured the old gentleman's nose, did in truth first tithe Paddington, he may, in one sense, be said to have bestowed on his monks a small estate here ; for this im- post remained from his time to the Conquest as a fixed charge on the land. And those who first received tithe here (being, in all probability, sufficiently impressed with the necessity of appropriating it according to law) may have built a chapel in Paddington, with that portion which was legally assigned for the support of a material stnicture in which the services of the church might be performed. There is yet another "probable supposition," \dz. that a specu- lating builder existed among the Paedings, even in those days, who, for the sake of what he could get for himself, built a chapel here ; and the clever Dunstan, or some other bishop, having caught him in thus defrauding God, and God's poor, made him give a hide of his land to endow the place he had built for his own profit : and who knows, if this were *Anglo-Saxon History, vol. ii. pages 422, 501, 546. PAKSONAGE, B.ECTOKT, OR VICARAaE. 121 SO, but that this chiui (ceorl) was aping his betters in some other mark, by aspiring to be greater than he really was ; for by a hxw of Atheist an' s a fii-eeman "who had the pos- session and property of full five hides of land, and had a church, a kitchen, a bell-house, and a hall, was henceforth entitled to the rank of a Thane."* We have already seen that a chapel was built and endowed in Paddington before the ecclesiastical decree of 1222 assigned this district, with those of "Westbourn and Knightsbridge, to St. Margaret's, "Westminster. And one may well suppose, if no Tybom-n rector interfered, that a parson was appointed to the cure, and a district assigned to him, whenever this building was erected ; and to say that one of the monks who lived in the Convent at Westminster, under the laws and regulations of St. Benedict, was the person first appointed to this cure, does not, sm-ely, invalidate that supposition. Paddington, therefore, may have existed as a rectory and a separate parish, before the beginning of the thirteenth centurj- — before the decree of Stephen Langton, and his brother-priests, converted it into an appendage to a vicarage. But this benefice having been thus appropriated to the use of their own corporation by the company of Benedictin monlvs, the rectory, if there had been one, became a sinecure ; and the poor soids in Paddington were transferred to the tender care of the vicar of St. Margaret's. How long Paddington remained in this unenviable condition I cannot say ; but we are told by Blackstone, that the appro- priating corporations served the chiu'ches " in so scandalous a manner, and the parishes suffered so much by the neglect of appropriators, that the legislature was forced to interpose : and accordingly it is enacted by statute 15th Richard II, cap. 6, that in all approi)riations of churches, the diocesan bishop, shall ordain (in proportion to the value of the church) a competent sum to be distributed among the jjoor parishioners, annually ; and that the vicarage shall be sufficiently endowed." And this great Judge adds, "It seems the parish were frequently sufferers, not only by the want of divine service, but also by witholding those alms, for which, among other purposes, the paj-ment of tithes was originally imposed : and therefore in this Act a pension is directed to be distiibuted among the poor *Dr. Cove' s Essay on iJie Revenues of the Church of England, p. 72 ; and Wilkitts's Anylo-Saion Lairs, p. 71. The extracts from Mr. Kemble's work shew how this encouragement to church building was abused ; and how little the parvenu aristocracy, thus made, knew of moral obligation. 122 PARSONAGE, EECTOKT, OR VICARAGE. parochians, as well as a sufficient stipend to the vicar." And he goes on to say, " but he being liable to be removed at the pleasui'e of the appropriator, was not likely to insist too rigidly on the legal sufficiency of the stipend : and therefore by statute 4, Henry IV, cap. 12, it is ordained, that the vicar shall be a secular person, not a member of any religious house ; that he shall be vicar perpetual, not removable at the caprice of the monastery ; and that he shall be canonically instituted and in- ducted, and be sufficiently endowed, at the discretion of the ordinary, for these three express pui'poses, to do divine service, to inform the people, and to keep hospitality. The endow- ments in consequence of these statutes have usually been a por- tion of the glebe, or land, belonging to the parsonage, and a particular share of the tithes, which the ai:)propriators found it most troublesome to collect, and which are therefore generally called privy or small tithes ; the greater, or predial, tithes being still reserved to their own use.""* And thus, the appro- priators of those days were compelled by statute to provide, in some sort, both for the souls and bodies of those, from whom proceeded the revenues of the church. But before these statutes could be obtained, the voice of Wickliffe had been heard not only at Lutterworth, but in London and Westminster ; and the degenerate Chui'ch, which this worthy rector denounced, could no longer resist some of those reforms, which the State had long seen to be necessary.f We have seen by Tanner's note that Paddington was spoken of as a parish in the time of Richard the second, and by the Valor Ecclesiasticus of Hemy the eighth that the rectory, no longer an appendage to St. Margaret's, yielded, like the manor, a separate revenue to the Abbey. Since, then, the ancient laws were totally disregarded, and tithe, and other church property, was perverted to in- dividual uses for so long a period with perfect impimity, we cannot be surprised to find these more recent appointments were gradually evaded, or abused; so that, step by step, the doings of that chiirch, which still boasts of its rule and guide over millions of minds, was so utterly detested in this country that even the genius of a Wolsey could not save it fi'om per- dition. * Commentaries, book 1. cap. 11, p. 387, tenth edition. tThe statute against tliis "new heresy," which "had been surreptitiously obtained by the clergy;" the citation of Wickliffe before Courtney, bishop of London, and rousing the populace against the Duke of Lancaster and Lord Piercy who protected him, were all of no avail ; the truth which Wickhtfe advocated advanced, and when he was cited before the Lambeth Synod, even the people of London saw their previous error, and protected him.— Vide J?WOTe. ''■ Miscellaneous Transactions during Richard the Second's reign." ArPEOPETATIOX AST) IMPEOrRIATIOX. 123 And what secures and sustains the present structure ? How has the church in Paddington been supported since the Ee- formation ? AYe have ah-eady seen that the rectory was disposed of, with the manor, by Henry the eighth, to Sir Edward and Dame BaATiton. It thus became mpropnate.^' ISut it was again appropriated ; this time by a corporation sole. For, when the bishops of London claimed the rectory of Paddington as a " member and appiu-tenance " of the manor, did they not become the real rectors of the parish ? Certainly, from time to time, since Bishop Sheldon's day, if not before, they have leased the rectory with the manor, and exercised the right of appointing the ciu-ate here. Are they not, then, accotmtable for the proper application of the rectory revenues? And how have these revenues been applied ? We are infoiTaed that the foxu'th protestant bishop of London thought Paddington would make a comfortable retiiing pension for his porter; and the enemies of Bishop Ayhner brought this misdeed as one of their many accusations against him. His faithful biographer, Strype, admitting the fact, thus defends the bishop: — "As for the charge, that the bishop made his porter a minister ; all things considered he thought it to be justifiable and la^\-fully done, and not to lack example of many such that had been after that sort admitted, both since the Queen's com- ing to the crown, by many good bishops, and by soimd histories ecclesiastical. That where churches, by reason of persecution, or multitudes of Hamlets and free chapels, had commonly very small stipends for theu' ministers, honest godly men, upon the discretion of the governors of the church, had been, and might be, brought in to serve, in the want of learned men, in prayer, administration of the sacraments, good example of life, and in some sort of exliortation. And this man therefore when the bishop fouud him by good and long experience to be one that pleased God, to be conversant in the sciiptures, and of very honest life and conversation, he allowed of liim to seiwe in a small congi'egation at Paddington, where (commonly for the meanness of the stipend no preacher could be had ; as in many places it came to pass, where the parson- age was impropriate, and the provision for the vicar or cm-ate veiy small. Aid how that good man behaved himself there, time and trial proved him ; for he continued in that place with •sir n. Spelnian says impropriations are so callrd "as hcinpr inijir-ojirrh/ in iho hands of laymen ;" others say, impropriation is a corruption of iu-appropriation. * 124 A LIVrNG. the good liking of the people eight or more years till he grew dull of sight for age, aud therehy unable to serve any longer."* "What Fletcher, Bancroft, Vaughan, Eavis, Abbot, and King did for Paddington, I cannot tell. But the truth is, that the protestant bishops, no more than the popish abbots, have applied the revenues of the church to their original purposes. It is true that much of the revenue of the church vanished at the Eeforma- tion. The great Reformers of the Church did not possess the princely fortunes of their predecessors ; or of the present bishops. f But the reformed bishops did not relinquish the old practice of receiving fines, for granting life-leases, when the impropriate leases dropped in. Eectory lands, and tithes, were still badly managed; and the fines raised by leasing them were appropriated, as heretofore, to individual uses. To such an extent was this " waste of church lands" carried that the people saw little good had been done, in this respect, by that revolution which had been sanctioned by Henry the eighth. During the next reformation another survey of ecclesiastical property was made. Commissioners were appointed in 1649, by the parliament, to enquire into the nature of ecclesiastical benefices ; and ixom their report we learn the condition of the " living of Paddington " at that time. The following siuwey is printed from the original still ex- isting with the Eecords in the EoUs' Chapel. The portion in italics being so much defaced in the original document as to be illegible, I have been enabled to supply from the twelfth volume of the Lambeth Manuscripts, by the kind permission of the Archbishop's secretary. Survey of Church Livings. MIDDX. " PAnDiXGTOK. — Item there is a reatonj and a manner and Tythes and other oblations and gleabe Lands with certeyne houses thereto belonging of which a home for two tennants called the vicarage house all which is at the rate of fortie-thi-ee pounds per annu or thereabouts A^id Wee are informed that the Tythes houses and lands ie/ori? menconed was let by George 'Wovaitaigne late Bishopp of London to Sir Eowland St Jolm and Sybyll his "Wife and to Oliver St John their sonne for *Sirxipc's Life ofAylmcr, original edition, 1701, p. 212. Oxford editition oiStrt/pe^s Works, p. 140. tThe present Bishop of London has returned the gross income of his see " for the seven years, ending 31st Decemher, 1850, at the comfortable sum of £123,985 0*. lid. the net income being £115,591 I9s. Ud. Vide Blue Boob, No. 400, 1851, p. 385 ; and Sir B. Hall's Speech in the House of Commons, July 1st, 1851. A nrmo. 125 tlieir lives and that the said Bishop bound them to noe cer- tayne stijyench or took any nor for the cure of souls butt left it tmto his Tenants and that the said S? Rowland S' John had heretofore a reading minister or E-cading ministers who served for ten pounds per annu in Paddington and Marybone at the like sallary of Mr. Forsett and that of late years S?' Rowland St! John paid for a preaching minister twentie eight pounds per annu which is the Rent of the Tythes of that land in tJie parish that doeth not belonge to the Bisshopp And that there is a minister that preacheth twice every Lord's Day one Mr. Anthony Dodd and that ive humbly think that the Parish of Marybone and Paddington is very fitt to be united in one and that both the Chiu'ches may be pulled down and both made one and sett on Lisson Greene And that we verylie believe that the whole Tythes of Paddynton is worth one hmidred pounds per annu if it were lett at the true value And we humbly desii'C that a godly able preaching minister may bee placed to serve for the Parish of Paddington and Maribone and settled Tsdth mointeynance not lesse than one himdred pounds per annu as you in your great wisdomes shall thinke fitt And that we are informed that there is a right of Presentation to the Rectory or vicearidge in one Mr. BroAvne that hath pur- chased the mannor by vertue of a grant to him from the trus- tees appointed by Parliament for the sale of the Bishopps Lands. Signed William Roberts John Uroione Richard JDowton James PascaU Edward Martin John Thorowgood^' This authentic record is something more than a mere curi- osity. It establishes several important facts ; and enables the reader to form a just estimate of the care taken of the cure of souls in Paddington, by bishop IVFountain. 1 think it not at all improbable that the " Vicarage House " had been made into " a house for two tenants," by Sir Rowland St. John ; for, so far as I can discover, he was the first lessee who resided on the Paddington estate. The lords of the manor had preferred to live in the monastery, and the ejiisco- pal palace ; and their lessees were only middle-men, whose object was — as the object of this class very frequently has been — to get as much out of tlie land-workers as possible, and give as little as possible in return. 126 A siNE-crrnE. It is my opinion, however, that Sir Eowland St. John added very considerably to the parsonage-house ; and adopted it as his own residence, (no uncommon thiag at this period), by which it arrived at the dignity of a manor-house ; and, as the bishop had "left it imto his tenants" to do what they pleased for the cure of souls, Sir Eowland, also in compliance with the fashion of the time, kindly gave house-room to some poor half- starved curate, who had never taken upon himself the ministry as a money-getting profession, or having done so had found his expectations most woefully deceived. The pay of his "reading minister" may astonish those who do not re- member the account given by Mr. Macaulay, or some equally trust- worthy author, of the condition of the great majority of the clergy in the seventeenth ccntiuy. The learned historian just refen-ed to, states, what one may readily believe, seeing what the lords of Paddington and Mary- lebone paid the minister of those places, that " for one who made the figure of a gentleman, ten were menial servants;" and he adds, " a large proportion of those divines who had no benefices, or whose benefices were too small to afibrd a com- fortable revenue, lived in the houses of laymen." " The Ordinary," in his " discretion," or in his hurry to secure a more lucrative preferment for himself — -the see of London in Dr. Mountain's time was not the richest in England, and therefore not worth sticking to — had forgotten to make any provision for that cure of souls in Paddington, which devolved on him, and for which he was paid. " The reading minister;" and afterwards Mr. Anthony Dodd, the preaching minister," were glad therefore to become tenants in the great man's house; having no rectory-house to themselves, and not being provided with a sirfficiency of the rectory profits "to do divine service, to inform the people, and keep hospitality." At this time, indeed, " a young Levite, such was the phrase in use, might be had for his board, a small garret, and ten poimds a year, and might not only perform his own professional fimctions, might not only be the most patient of butts and of listeners, might not only be always ready in fine weather for the bowls, and in rainy weather for the shovel- board, but might also save the expense of a gardener or a groom. Sometimes the reverend man nailed up the apricots, and sometimes he cunied the coach horses ; he cast up the farrier's bills ; he walked ten miles with a message or parcel; he was permitted to dine with the family, but he was ex- pected to content himself with the plainest fare, he might fill A CUHACY WITHOUT THE MEAXS OF CTJllE. 127 himself Anth the corned beef and the caiTots, but as soon as the tarts and cheese-cakes make their appearance he quitted his seat, and stood aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast, from a great ptu't of which he had been ex- cluded."* This certaiuly was not a veiy cheerful state of things for the working clergj- and the people ; and, although the high diipiifaries of the church had few kind words to bestow on Cromwell, or the Commonwealth, it will be observed that the clergy and the people of Paddington had no reason to regret the establishment of the Parliamentary Commission. The com- missioners wished to see the tithes let at something like their real value : a new church built out of the rectory funds ; and " a godly able preaching minister " appointed, whose pay was to be something more than the paltry stipend allowed by the lessee, previous to the Eevolution ; or thau poor Mi\ Anthony Dodd's liberal salary of twentj'-eight poimds per annum, for his two full services and two sermons "every Lord's day." But, if the suggestions of the commissioners were not com- pletely carried out, the report of 1649 was not entu'ely im- heeded, even after the restoration of the episcopacy ; for the trustworthy public notary, Newcourt, tells us that Bishop Sheldon bound his nephews " to pay the curate here eighty poimds per yetu", at the fom- most usual feasts, viz. twenty pounds per quarter ;" and he also informs us that "The chm'ch w'as but small and being very old and ruinious Avas about the year 1678 pulled down and new built fi'om the groimd, at the cost and chai'ges of Joseph Sheldon, knight, sometime Lord Mayor of the City of London, and his brother, Mr. Daniel Sheldon, then lessees of the manor of Paddington." And one would have thought that the memory of these events would have been presei-ved in less crazy heads than Mr. Dick's; that the good example set to his successors by Bishop Sheldon would have been followed ; and as the popidation of this place increased, and the value of the rectoiy-lands was thereby increased, the religious wants of the people would have been provided for out of these increased fimds. Two hundred pounds per annum, and the quantity of waste land for which Bishop Porteus and his lessees agreed to give the palish hlteen pounds a-yeai", is, as we have ah'cady seen, all that the liberal bishops of London, for the last century, have provided for the cure of fifty thousand souls, f out of an *^^acflulal/'s lii.stori/ of Unr/land, vol. i, ]). 397. tAt till- time I am writing, tliis number must very nearly represent tlie inhabitants of this parish ; but the actual number, whatever it may be, is daily increasintf . 128 A CURACY WITHOUX THE MEANS OF CUBE. estate which now yearly brings in thirty thousand pounds ; and which, like the popiilation, must increase for many years to come. Such paltry provisions for the cm-e of souls in Paddington will be a lasting monument of disgrace to all parties concerned in these transactions. To smooth down the unmitigated selfishness developed in the several private Acts of Parliament, which we have ex- amined in a previous part of this Work, it has been said " the system was in fault." But when it was enacted, that two hundred acres of land which had been claimed by the church might be occupied by human beings, instead of cows and cabbage; "the system" could as easily have provided suitably for the religious education of the contemplated dwellers on this soil, as it did for the increase in the stipend of a single curate ; or as it did for the transfer of two-thirds of the estate into the hands of lay lessees ; and, when permission was given by another Act, to extend the power of granting building leases to four hundred acres of this estate, we find the rector of the parish, the lord of the manor, the bishop of London — three important personages in one — content with providing out of that estate an increased salary of eighty pounds a-year for a single curate ; and with obtaining permission to give, "in case of need or convenience," land which cost the owners of this estate fifteen pounds a year, I think the most charitable must say, that the inliabitants of this parish are not in- debted to " the system " alone, for all the paternal care which their governors have bestowed on them and the ciu-e of their souls. Newcoui't tells us Paddington " is exempt from the Arch- deacon, and wholly subject to the Bishop of London and his Commissary;" and that the church is a donative of curacy in the gift of the bishops of that see, and is supplied by a curate by virtue of the bishop's license, wherein is committed to him the cur a aninmrumr Whether Paddington has lost much by not having been overlooked by the archdeacon — " the bishop's eye " — I cannot l^retend to say ; but we see that the rectory of Paddington, like that of many other places, overlooked by archdeacons, has been allowed to become a sineciire ; and the curacy to exist without the means of cure ; that the parson is a triune body ; and that the rights of the parochial chui'ch belong much moi-e to the bishop, and Ms lay lessees, than to the excellent miuister, to whom the " cure of souls," with a stipend few gentlemen could live on, and none perform the necessary A CtTRACT ■WITHOITT THE MEAXS OF OIRE. 129 duties with, is so considerately bestowed. And, with suth scandals as this daily staring us in the face, is it very sur- prising that the law, which heretofore reposed confidence in bishops, and assumed, "that they will not consent to anything that shall be to the prejudice of the church," should have at length begun to discover, that its confidence has been some- what misplaced, and that all bishops cannot be trusted ? It certainly has been discovered that Parliamentaiy enquiries are necessary in our day ; and it has been found out, even by ecclesiastics, that the appointment of ecclesiastical commis- sioners could no longer be delayed if the chm'ch was to be saved. But ecclesiastical commissioners are but men; the people, therefore, in every parish in England should themselves look into their OAvn ecclesiastical affairs ; and demand with one united voice the fulfilment of those religious duties to God and God's poor, which devolve on those who claim the lands of the church. Sooner or later a demand so just must be fullj- recognised ; and governors will assuredly arise, who will have both the power and the will to execute justice. Such malversations as those which have been recently ex- posed by the Eev. Mr.Whiston, and others, cannot last for ever ; and the sooner the whole system is altered, if it be the system that is in fault, the better for all parties. By retui'ns moved for by our honoiu'able member. Sir B. Hall, (to whom the whole country is deeply indebted for the infonnation on ecclesiastical afi'airs which he has brought to light,) we find that the portion of the " BEVENrrEs of the SsEof LoNDOX, for the seven years ending thirty-fii-st December, 1850," arising fi-om the "Shake of Paddington- Rents, &c." amoimted to £56,939 Is. 6fZ., while the " share of the various payments in respect of share of Paddington estate," for the the same period, amounted to £1742 10s. 3d. The correct- ness of that return is certified to, and signed "C. J. London."* The lay lessees received double this sum, as per agreement, so that for seven years £170,817 4s. 6d. has been paid, chiefly in the shape of increased house-rent he it observed, by that portion of the people of Paddington, who have had the felicity of living on " The Bishop's Estate." A law, which already exists, will affect the income of the next occupant of the See of London, and therefore his rela- tions to the rectory of Paddington ; and it has been hinted that something may be done, in that event, for this parish. ?turns — Ecclesiastical Commission ; and Archbishoprics and Bishoprics, by the House of Commons, to be printed IGth Jiuie, 1851." No. 400. •" Retii Ordered 1 . 130 A CURACY -WITHOUT THE MEANS OP CURE. But the people of Paddington do not desire such patchwork arrangements. They want that which the whole country is asking for, and which cannot be much longer delayed — a law to regulate the whole of the estates of the church ; and there is one pleasing anticipation for the people of Paddington in the contemplation of such a measure; viz. that, whatever may be the effect of that law, it cannot make their position worse than it is at the present time. CHAPTER III. AKCrEXT CHURCHES ACT OF PARLIAMENT CHURCHES AND CHAPELS— CHURCH- YARDS — CHURCH-RATES PARSONAGE-HOUSES ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS — -PLACES OF WORSHIP BUILT AND SUPPORTED BY VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS, UPHOLDING THE STATE RELIGION ; AND THOSE DISSENT- ING THEREFROM. It is not worth "wliile to enter into an elaborate enquiry, to shevr that the parish of Paddington was at one time included in the parish of Tybourn, and that the ancient Tybourn church was the mother-church of the whole of those districts, now included in the parishes of St. Mary Abbot's Kensington, Pad- dington, and Maiylebone ; but the facts and arguments which have been already adduced to prove that Westbourn and Ty- bourn were but synonymous terms ; and that the modem manor of Paddington was but a portion of the ancient Tybourn manor, may serve to sanction such a supposition. Maitland, Lysons, and other authors, tell us that the ancient church of Tybourn was situated near the present Marylebone Court-house — i. e. beside the modern Tybourn ; but the only evidence these authorities condescend to give in support of their opinion, is, that in 1729, "a great qiuxntity of bones were dug up at this place." They otfer no proof, however, that these bones belonged to the inhabitants of the ancient village of Tybourn ; neither do they attempt to sliew that they were not the remains of some of those who had died in London of the plague, which raged there in the previous century. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, part 1, p. 315, 1809, seems to me, to be quietly quizzing those anti- quarians who accepted this story of the bones, when he tells 132 ANCaiNT CHI7ECHES. the public that "in all ancient documents, Mary la bonne (Mary the Good) is called Sancta Maria de Ossibus, (Saint Mary of Bones)." Lysons, however, does not see the joke, for he gravely replied in his second edition, "I have never seen any in which it is so described." It may be worthy of remark, that the ancient Tyboum church, wherever it was situated, was taken down in the year 1400^ by order of the Lord Chancellor, Bishop Braybrook, when the honors and estates of the noble family who built and endowed this chui'ch, were in the keeping of a youth barely seventeen years of age ■,'^' and that the Westminster monks never, either by hook or by crook, obtained possession of this ancient advow- son. A rival establishment, however, was built either for them, or by them, on their newly acquii'ed property at Pad- dington, and, as we have already seen, the spiritual direction of the Paddington district was assigned to them as early as 1222; previous to which time a place of worship had been built here ; and for upwards of six hundi-ed years this small house, erected both for public worship and public instinic- tion, was deemed sufficient for rich and poor, saint and sinner, and to it an unbought spot of consecrated ground was annexed, the quiet restiag-place of all those who had lived ia Pad- dington. So pretty was the chui'ch, and so tranquil seemed this country burial-place, not a century siace, that many of those who witnessed the abominations committed in the consecrated grounds of London and Westminster, longed to secure for their corruptible bodies a nook in this village church-yard ; and so manifest was this desii'e, during the whole of the last century that, though the population of Paddington was increasing, the burials here far exceeded the baptisms. In Lysons' "Environs," this fact stands exemplified thus — ■ Years. Years. Average Annual Baptisms. Average Annual Burials. 1702 to 1711 101 33io 1140 )} 1749 16? 193«, 1780 }■> 1789 lel 192fo 1790 >} 1794 36? 244| *The Tyboum church was built by and belonged to, the De Veres ; the excuse given for taking it down was, that "it stood in a lonely place near the highway, and that in consequence of its position it was subject to the depredations of robbers, who frequently stole the images, bells, and ornaments." The most lonely place " near the highway," was beside the ancient Tyboum, where the gallows and gibbet were formed out of the adjacent elm, and near this spot, as I imagine, the ancient Tybourn church stood. ST. KATHEETNe's, and ST. JAMEs's. 133 And this addition of motionless mortality to the soil, like the develoj^ment of its resources by the increase of active life, formed but an additional inducement to its insatiable lords to increase their demands upon the people ; for I find from records still preserved,'^ that after they had obtained the Act wluch bound the inhabitants of Paddington to pay a rent-chai'ge for their " pretty church-yard ;" tuid alter the infamous Act of 1 795, the lord and his lessees were m-gent in their demands for a share of those fees, which were obliged to be levied on the relatives of the dead, to secure the performance of those duties which these rectors were akeady well paid to perform. Of the earliest Christian temple erected in Paddington, I have nothiL-g more to say than what I have already said, ex- cepting this, that in all probability it was built and endowed by the first possessors of " the Paddington Estate," whoever they were ; and, whatever were their sins respecting that estate, they must be exonerated from that amount of refined selfishness which has enabled others to take the property dedicated to God, and God's poor, and leave the people to theii' own resources for providing themselves with jjlaces of worship, and " the cup of charity " for the aged and infirm. St. Katherine's, and St. James's. The "old and ruinous" church, pulled down about 1678, was, in the opinion of that accm^ate observer, Newcom-t, dedi- cated to St. Katherine ; for, says he, "I observed the picture of St. Katherine to be set up in painted glass, at the top of the middle panel of the east window in the chancel, where often- times the Saint, to wliich any church is dedicated, is placed." Newcourt does not tell us to whom the church, " new-built from the ground," was dedicated; but he saw none of the causes at work which ensured its destruction in rather more than a century ; and it could not have been imagined by him that a policy would be inaugurated, and completed, within a century and a half of the time at which he wrote, which would be sorely puzzled to account for the existence of a chui'ch built by those who were in receipt of the rectorial revenues. Such a puzzle was not allowed to exist. Doubtlessly, New- court thought the name would have existed more than one hundred and ten years — the time the church was allowed to stand — and indeed it does now exist in the new parish church; but Xewcouit omits to give it. •Vestry Minutes, August, 179G. K 3 134 ST. mart's. We find, however, by "Willis's Thesaunis of 1763, and by Lysons, that the Sheldon chui'ch was dedicated to St. James. This country church served Hogarth and Jane Thomhill for a Gretna-Green ; for here they were married, much against Sir James's will, it is said,* on the twenty-third of March, 1 729. Chaterlain's series of views, dated 1750, contains two of this church; a near north-west view, not mentioned in, the King's Catalogue, British Museum; and a distant view from the green, a copy of which is to be found in the King's collection. St. Mary's. On the twenty-sixth day of February, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, George the third, granted by his letters patent to the E,ev. Thomas Hayter, the cui'ate of the parish ; the Eev. John Shepherd, the assistant curate ; and certain others; the power to beg "from house to house throughout England, our town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, &c." to enable them to rebuild the parish chiux-h, which this Brief, and the pre- amble of the twenty-eighth Geo. Ill, cap. 74 — " An Act for rebuilding the parish church of Faddington, in the county of Middlesex, and for enlarging the chui'ch-yard of the said parish," — tell us " is a very ancient structure, and in such a decayed state, that it cannot be effectually repaired, but must be taken do"\vn and rebuilt ; besides which, the same is so small, that one-foui'th of the present inhabitants within the said parish cannot assemble therein for Divine worship." Down to this time, the lords of the Paddington soil, or their lessees, had furnished the tenants, who lived on this church- land, with some sort of church accommodation ; but another church was now required and was to be built, although this very ancient and decayed structure was but one hundred and ten years old ; and the question natui'ally arose, who was to build it ? The then lessees ; as the lessees had done in 1678 ? The " Lord of the manor of Paddington ; " as the then bishop is called ? Or these together ? jS^either the one, nor the other, nor the two combined. It is no longer those who hold " the rectorial and other lands," and whose income from those lands has been increasing ever since the time of Bishop Sheldon, who are to build chui'ches in Paddington. The lord and his lessees •The great Sir James's notions of marriage and Ms stupidity in not recogiiising in his son-in-law one of the greatest geniuses of his, or anj- other age — notwithstand- ing all Sir Joshua has said— perhaps gave the hint for the execution of those ex- quisite moral lessons which adorn our National Gallery. ST. mahy's. 135 know their duty better than that. Begging boxes are to be sent "from house to house throughout England ; " and as that does not succeed, those to whom a portion of the increased accommodation is to be offered, are to be induced or compelled to furnish the necessary funds. Moreover, at the expense of the people, (for the Act expressly declares the pews shall be "rent-free,") comfortable accommodation, "in or near the chancel," is to be provided for the lord of the manor of Pad- dington, "or his or their lessee or lessees." And although there is now no Dunstan's bailiff to dread, let those who doubt that the law had power in Paddington at the end of the last century, as it has now, " to take by force " this extra and new church-tax, look to the fourteenth, thirty-fom-th, and other sections of this public Act ; the Jirst of the Paddington church building Acts. Up to one shilling in the pound, on " the yearly rent of lands, houses, shops, warehouses, vaults, mills, and other tene- ments," forty-five ti'ustees — six of whom were clergymen — "or ajijjive or more of them," they, and their successors, had power to assess, and for the sum assessed had power to distress, " in order to accomplish the good and pious purposes of this Act." Provided always, that the sum raised by this and other means set forth in this Act, " shall not exceed in the whole the sum of four thousand five himdred pounds, including the charges in the enclosing the said waste ground and other inci- dental charges, and of the procuring, obtaining, and passing this Act." " The said waste ground," here spoken of, being a portion of the enclosed green^ nicely measured and carved out — vide Act — which "The Right Eeverend Pather-in-God, Beilby, Lord Bishop of London, is willing and desirous" to give; and which he does give at a rent of six shillings a year. Pii'st, having in this Act, and for the first time anywhere, so far as I can discover, put in his claim to be "entitled to the waste gi'ound within the said parish (subject to common- age thereon)." But the sum to which this Act limited the taxing, was found to be insufficient; and another Act was required, " for enlarging the powers of, and rendering more effectual, an Act, made in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled. An Act for re-building the Parish Church of Paddington, &c., &c." This, the thirty- third Geo. Ill, cap. 43, dated thirtieth April, 1793, contains all the •Vide Print of Paddington-Grcen, published by R. Saycr, and J. licnnett, in 1783. 136 ST. maey's, whining for further powers, which so commonly saluted the ears of his Majesty's faithful Lords and Commons when church-bixilding Acts had to be separately passed.* And the prayer of those who asked, was answered ; and a further sum was to be raised by the means provided in the previous Act; but with this additional screw — "That in every case where a justice or justices of the peace shall grant a warrant or wan-ants of distress, for recovering of any rate or assessment made under the said former or this Act, and a suffi- cient distress cannot be found, it shall be lawful for such justice or justices of the peace to commit the person or persons, against whom or whose goods and chattels such warrant or warrants of distress may have been issued, to the cormnon gaol or house of correction for the said coimty, there to remaiu without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding one month, or until payment of such rate or assessment, and the costs and charges attending the recovery thereof ^ — Section 2. Fui'ther, desecration of the chiu'ch-yard was pennitted; and in spite of all the thought which had been bestowed on the monuments and tombstones in the previous Act, any decayed vault, tombstone, or grave, which offended the sight of the officials, was now to be taken down, or removed, after six months' notice to repair had been given to " the owner or owners of such vaults." And the churchwarden or chui'ch- wardens, for the time being, were empowered " to sell and dispose of such vaults for the best price that can be got, and to apply the money arising therefrom towards rebuilding or repaii-ing the said parish church." And why were these extraordinary powers granted ? Because the inhabitants of Paddington were not "capable of raising without the further aid of Parliament," or were not wUlingto raise, " a further sum of one thousand five hundi'ed pounds," to defray the expences required to finish the church -yard; and to pay " a considerable sum of money due on account ;" and because those who took the profits of "the rectorial and other lands," did not think it their duty to pay it for them. How much more than these sums Saint Mary's has cost, I cannot say ; but I presume they very nearly covered all the *No lei5s than 291 local and private Acts of Parliament, connected with building, enlarging or repairing churches ; and procuring, enclosing, or enlarging parish church-yards, were procured from 1750 to 1850. For their titles, see report of select committee on church rates. — Blue Book, 1850 ; No. 541. And one would think that by ttiis time, enough general Church Building Acts existed, seeing that their manu- facture commenced on the 30th of May, 1818, and that up to the 7th of August, 1851, not less than nineteen have been turned out of hand. — See 14thand 15th Vic. cap. 97. ST. maht's. 137 original expenses, as Lysons was infonned by a most excel- lent authority — a gentleman, who, in imitation of the manifold offices held by the lord of the manor, was assistant ciu'atc, parish- clerk, sexton, and yestry-clerk at the same time — * that the total sum expended, amounted to £6000. So much admii'ed was this chvu-ch at the time it was built; and so pictiu'esque an object it is said to have been, " particu- larly fi-om the Oxlbrd, Edgeware, and Harrow roads ;" that almost all the periodicals of the day take some notice of it. The Universal Magazine for January, 1793, gives an en- graving of it, and the village-stocks, by Eastgate, from a drawing by Earl; and in the same Number there is an account of the building, in which the first stone is said to have been laid "on the twelfth of August, 1788, and the consecration to have been "in Easter week, 1790." Lysons, however, tells us, Saint Mary's was consecrated on the twenty- seventh of April, 1791; the first stone having been laid, according to him, on the twentieth day of October, 1788. As to the date of consecration, Lysons is certainly right, as most likely he is in the other statement, having had so good an authority as the cui'ate, parish-clerk, &c., &:c. to furnish >iiTn with these and other facts which occurred in Paddington about the time at which he wi'ote. On the day this church was consecrated, a sermon was preached in it, and a collec- tion made for the benefit of the Sunday School. The following description of this church, given by the writer in the Universal Magazine, was, in all probability, nearly correct, when written: "It is seated on an eminence, finely embosomed in venerable elms. Its figure is composed of a square of about fifty feet. The centres, on each side of the square, are projecting parallelograms, which give recesses for an altar, a vestry, and two stair-cases. The roof termi- nates with a cupola and vane : on each of the sides is a door. That facing the south is decorated with a portico composed of the Tuscan and Doric orders, having niches on the sides. The Avest has an arched window, under which is a cii'cular portico of four columns, agreeable to the former composition." * From this gentleman the chiirchwardens could pet no account of the burial-fees received by nim for several years ; so that they complain in vestry of not being able to pay the salaries of other persons engaged about tlic church, or the bills sent into them. And in 1798, he vestry resolved that he should no longer hold tlic situation of sexton and vestry-clerk. In 1801, there is an entry in the minutes to the etfect, that the o ce of clerk is still held by this tenacious gentleman, " although he htm left the parinh." No wonder that with such rectors, or governors as we have described, and with such a dei)uty-governor as this, the vestry minutes were lost ; the charity- lands were lost ; and the parish funds were misappUcd ! 138 ST. MAuy's. Mr. John Piaw, of King Street, "Westminster, is said to have been the architect in this account ; but Lysons, and Tennant, say Mr. "Wapshot, designed this mixed specimen of Tuscan, Doric, and non-descript architecture. The European Magazine, not to be behind its contemporaries in delineations of the picturesque and beautiful, has an etching of the "New Chiu-ch at Paddington" by Malcolm; in which he has also she'W'n what one of the Paddington ponds, already spoken of as existing in the time of Edward VI, was " in the good King George's reign." The old church and the new church are both engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine, supplement, 1795. The notice of the church there given, seems to have been taken from Lysons, perhaps it was supplied by him ; but there is this additional statement, viz. — that the monuments which existed in the former church were placed in a light vault under- neath the present structure. And this church which has been built but sixty-one years and a few months, has been for the last three or four years in jeopardy — not of falling, but of sharing the fate of its prede- cessor ; the same causes having been at work to effect its dissolution, which led to the removal of the Shddon church : — Yiz., a population ill provided vsdth church-accommodation — a new parish church built — architects and builders, anxious to shew their skill, still fui'ther — influential inhabitants in- terested in the furtherance of their schemes, ready and willing to vote the requisite suppHes out of their neighboui's' pockets — a tempting piece of ground in the immediate vicinity, " doing nothing" — a notion, in some minds, that sundry reminiscences, connected therewith, might thus be obliterated — and the prospect of an increase in burial-fees and pew-rents. Fortunately, however, better counsels have prevailed ; and this amount of consecrated property is not yet doomed to be destroyed. St Maiy's, though no longer the parish church, is to remain, a standing monument to the erudition of those who once governed Paddington. These guardians of the church and poor, not only knew which way the wind blew without the assistance of a lettered vane ; but understood Greek ; as the unlettered vane, and the inscription on the facade, testify. But as all the multitude who have attended St. Mary's since it was built, have not been able to sing, in the original, that song of the heavenly host which contains the essence of Christianity ; and as the English church does not profess to teach people unknown tongues, or object to CHTOCH-TAIUDS. 139 their worshipmg God in their own, it -svould have been as ■well to have given them some key to those golden characters, which are so conspicuously placed on the facade of this Pseudo- Greek temple. Those who desire, or require a translation to that divine announcement, which has been so long hidden in the original, will find it in the English edition of Luke's epistle to Theophilus, second chapter, tmd fourteenth verse. ■ The chiu'ch-yai'd was enlarged, as already noticed, by virtue of the powers of the fiftieth Geo. III., cap. 44. This Act, which was obtained on the eighteenth of April, 1810, states, that whereas the population of the parish of Paddington, hath lately much increased and is likely still further to increase, it is expedient that the Chttech-tard of the said parish should be fiu'ther enlarged." Biit not a word about the enlargement of the chiu'ch, or increased church-accommo- dation, not-withstanding the then present, and future state of of the parish, is so clearly seen; and although St. Mary's could now no more hold one-fourth of the inhabitants, than St. James' had done. Seven himdred and forty pounds had been for three yeai's the average annual income fi'om this grave-yard ; the half of which was received by the curate, to make up for the mean stipend allowed by the rectors ; the remaining half being paid to the rectors themselves, for their land ; so that to endanger this source of income, was a thing not to be di-eamed of. This appropriation of the burial fees, continued till the whole of the chiu'ch-yard was paid for ; since which time the half of the fees has been applied to the ordinary expenses of the chm-ch ; the other half going, as before, to the incumbent ; and this may account for the fol- lowing entiy in the Churchwardens' accoimt, for 1840. " Paid to parish solicitor, his bill in respect of various cemetery-bills in Parliament, £144 9.s. Oc?." This yard, no longer the villagers' unbought resting-place, in which the almost sacred yew-tree"^' grew, had now become necessary foi- the support of the church ; it must be increased therefore, and every inch of ground must be made the best of. Besides securing this income, another object was attempted to be gained by this Act. The trustees were empowered to contract for the purchase of any quantity of land, ''not ex- ceeding three acres in the whole, icith or without huildings thereon;^' and " coi-porations, &c., were empowered to sell and •Beside a very ancient yew tree, -which was carefully protected by a raised mound of fartli, tliere ^rtw in the old church-yard, a double-leaved elder tree which enjoyed a far-famed reputation. 140 PAESONAGE-HOUSES. convey." The ''house for two tenants called the vicarage house ;" had long since been converted into the manor-house;" and occupants, more profitable to the Paddiugton Estate, than the cui'ate, had been found for it ; and the house which I believe was afterwards biult for a " Parsonage -house," — a house still standing close to the spot where the old church stood, and which is depicted in John Carey's map of 1797, as the " Parsonage," — had been, before this time, converted into the "manor farm-house."* In fact, the curate had no resi- dence provided for him in the parish. But at the time of passing tliis Act, the old manor-house had been unoccupied for some time, and was rapidly falling to decay for want of a tenant, whose interest it was to keep it in repair ;f and the bishop and his lessees haviug no further use for it, were anxious to sell ; and so the manor house, with a portion of its grounds, was purchased by the church trustees. The inhabitants, now, much to the chagrin of the schemers, began to fijid out which way the wind blew; and seeing, (when it was too late,) how their birthright had been sold, resolved to take this little bargain into their special conside- ration— -determining, if possible, to make the best of it, as it had been bought, and to have some Control over the receipts and the mode of levying the income which was to be derived from the purchase. This resolution had the efi'ect of producing many parish squabbles, into some of which even the venerable diocesan himself was dragged. In attempting to regulate the fees to be paid for burials in " the new ground," certain resolutions were passed by the inhabitants in vestry assembled, by which the bishop "feels himself affronted;" and he declares, he "will not consecrate the new ground, till the offensive resolu- tion is rescinded." The resolution is not, at once, rescinded. It is resolved that it shaU not be. But the bishop is to be informed no offence was intended. All, indeed, that was intended by the people of Paddington, at that time, seems to have been expressed by a resolution of May, 1813; to the effect that "it would be a derehction of their duty not to leave to posterity the same privileges they have enjoyed." But to speak of privileges now, was thought to be a joke by those who had to deal with people, who, either in their »Tliere is an edition of this map dated 1827, now hanging up in the Vestry- Clerk's room, from which this fact has been effaced ; and not content with this erasure, half the parish has been rubbed out by the despoUers. + For an excellent description of the dilapidated condition of the old manor house see Mr. Oilier' s Novel of Ferrers. PAESOXAGE-HOUSES, 141 innocence, or ignorance, had permitted themselves to ho cajoled out of fai- greater pri-\-ilegcs than this. Most assm-edly, one could scarcely expect that such people, though repentant, would be listened to; and the matter was ended by a peremp- tory message from the bishop, in which he declares, "he knows of no privilege belonging to the parish of Paddington, or any other parish respecting the settlement of their own fees;" and that such fees will not be legal, unless conlinned by his Court. So, although the act for pxu'chasing this ground passed on the eighteenth of April, 1810, no portion of the new bm-ial groimd was consecrated till the 9th of November, 1813 ; and the notion of inducing the parishioners to give up the manor-house for a parsonage-house — which appears to have been the scheme of the sellers, and some of the purchasers, — was not entirely abandoned till 1825; but it was never con- sented to by the vestry. The predecessor of the present minister was obliged to be non-resident, for a considerable time, because he coidd find no house in the parish to live in. He was anxious to be amongst those whose souls had been given to his charge; and in September, 1820, we fin.dhe offers to give £200 out of his own pocket, towards purchasing the manor-house, and promises to endeavour to obtain a loan from Queen Anne's Bounty Fund for the rest of the sum, if the parish will but sell the house. Even a large subscription-list was got up to pui-cliase it. The inhabitants, howevci', will not now give their consent even to a sale of the property. Ha^-ing wit- nessed what the bishop and his lessees got by purchasing the waste, " in the Lanes and Road Ways dispersed in, about, and within the said Parish of Paddington ;" perhaps the in- habitants fancied that, by having purchased the very kernel of this estate, they might have also become possessed of some of those tegumentary portions of which their predecessors had been so considerately relieved. But nothing daimtcd by their refusal, either to give, or sell, and thoroughly kno^ving their own powers, the managers of the parish bring this question again before a meeting of vestry, held the foUomng month, and the Chairman then declares it to be carried; but on a poll being demanded, and taken, the motion was found to have been lost. This degree of independence did not at all satisfy the now losing party. That the paiishiorun-s should begin to be awake to their o^\^^ power, was a thing not to be endured, and u local Act was devised for them, into which trap they feU. In this 142 PAESONAGE-HOTTSES. Act, four rambling clauses are inserted as to what may, and what may not, be done with the manor-house. And it may,- if a special meeting of the vestry shall think fit, " be thence- forth for ever held and used as and for the parsonage-house and glebe-lands of the said parish, or as a residence for the perpetual curate of the said parish and his successors." So impressed, however, were those vestrymen who had been so recently elected under the detestable principles of Sturges Bourne's Act, with their duty to their fellow-parishioners y and with the necessity there was not to outrage the general feeling thus publicly expressed, that no sanction to part with their purchase could be obtained even from them. But the old manor-house, which had been let by the parish to a lady,, who for some time kept a boarding-school there, was doomed to destruction. Occupation did not lay the spectres who had claimed this dwelling for their own. It was pulled down ; the materials were sold, and the ground on which it stood, with that portion of its pleasure-ground which remained, was consecrated on the tenth of August, 1825, for the purpose of further increasing the size of the chiuxh-yard. As all, rich and poor, young and old, were now crying shame on the spiritual governors of the parish, for not finding their deputy with a suitable residence, the bishops' building Act of 1825, — acknowledging the scandal, in these words, ''and as the present curate of Paddington has not any house attached to his ciu'acy" — ^finds out " that it would be proper that the said Lord Bishop of London, &c., should be at liberty to set apart, appropriate, and to settle in free alms> part of the demised property, as the site for a residence, &c ;" and by the seventeenth clause of the sixth Greorge IV., cap. 45, it is enacted, that the said William, Bishop of London, &c., within five years from the passing of this Act, by indenture, "enrolled in the High Court of Chancery," should grant to Charles Theomartyr Crane, or his successors, any quantity of the Paddington estate, "not exceeding one acre," to hold for himself and his successors for ever in fi-ee alms, and that he, the said curate, shall be " a body corporate for the purpose ;" and that he may "receive, take and hold such ground with any messuages and buildings thereon, notwithstanding any of the laws against Mortmain, &c." Soon after this an acre of ground, a small portion of " The Parsons Pield,"* was granted and settled on the curate for the purpose named* * Adjoining this field was the "Church Field," names well remembered by many now living. BAYSWATEK CHAPEL. 143 By aretiuTi granted by order of the House of Commons, twenty- first of March, 1848, of all monies borrowed from the trus- tees of Queen Anne's Bounty, and not re-paid, I find that on the eleventh of October, 1830, St. Maiy's Paddington curacy, borrowed £1,820. That £1,243 13s. 4d., had been repaid, as principal, and £693 3s. Od., as interest. This sum, and upwards, I presume, was spent on this acre of freehold ground. A comfortable looking residence, not six stories high, was built; and for many years used as "the parsonage-house." It is no longer, however, the parsonage ; having been sold with the land belonging to it, soon after St. Mary's ceased to be the palish chm-ch. This bargain was secm-ed, as I am informed, by the district surveyor for £3,525 ; I have also heard there was some difficulty about effecting this sale ; and that it was at last managed thi'ough the agency of the church-commissioners, who out of the purchase-money paid upwards of £80 towards the expenses of the sale. The greater portion of the balance being applied, according to the benevolent wish of the present minister of the parish, in the purchase of two parsonage-houses; one for the new parish church, No. 13, Sussex-gardens, on the north side of St. James's ; the other for the old chiu-ch — No. 1, St. Mary's-terrace, the first of a row of eleven houses, built on a strip of the former parsonage pleasure-grounds. Bayswater Chapel. Down to 1818, Saint Mary's was the only place of worship, in connection with the State-Religion, for the whole of the parish of Paddington. So destitute of religious instruction and places of worship were the suburbs of London, and many other populous places at this time, that the State itself could no longer remain bHnd to the need. "A gi-acious recommendation" came from the throne to the Parliament, and the people ; and the fifty-eighth Geo. III., cap. 45 — " An Act for building and promoting the building of additional churches in populous parishes" — be- came a law on the thirtieth May, 1818. We are told by Mr. Faulkner, in his History of Kensington, that Mr. Edward Orme, of Bayswater, was the first private individual who built a chapel, after His ]\rajesty had pointed out this want of church accommodation ; Bayswater chapel, in St. Petersburg place, being built at his expense. This chapel is, as Mr. Faulkner observes, a plain building ; but "possesses some advantages over many modern built places of worship." 144 ST. John's. The stained glass window of which Mr. Faulkner speaks , has been removed from this church ; and the present pulpit would not, I imagine, be considered of the fourteenth century, to which period Mr. Faulkner attributed the one existing, when the History of Kensington was written. This chapel, which is "capable of holding twelve hundred persons, was opened on the fifteenth of November, 1818, by the Rev. Dr. Busfield," the first appointed minister. And from that day to the present, it has not cost the parish of Paddington one shilling for its support : a fact so impressive, that no comment or commendation is required. Badly enough must those who wished to see a state-religion preserved, have thought this chapel needed; for, from the returns made in compliance with directions given to the commissioners appointed by the above-named Act, we find that, at this time, in the parishes of Kensington and Paddington, " there are no less than twelve thousand persons more, than could be accommo- dated in the several places of worship." Connaught Chapel — ^now St. John's, For a single proprietor of the soil to have built one chapel which would hold a tenth part of this unaccommodated popu- lation, was something; but this could not satisfy the conscience of the good curate of Paddington, who saw the population of his parish every day increasing. From 1811, to 1821, the average rate of increase was two himdred souls, per annum ; fi-om 1821, to 1831, eight hundred; and although, early in March, 1826, Dr. Crane applied to the Church Commissioners for assistance, it was not till July, 1829, that the plan for Connaught Chapel was finally approved by them. There was no bishop, no lessees, who could see their curate's distress, and who would come forwai-d with the remedy. The want of the necessary funds to carry out the design; and the death of Mr. Cockerill, the bishop's surveyor, and the architect originally employed ; seem to have been the other chief causes of the delay. For immediately after the first application to the commissioners, we find that they " think a chapel capable of holding fifteen hundred persons, with seven hundred free sittings should be built;" and they offer, from the funds entrusted to them by Parliament, £5,500 to accomplish this object. Commimication and correspondence take place respecting this oifer ; and, within a week, the pro- posed grant is increased to £6,000, toith the assurance that one ST. JOHX'S. 145 third of the numier the chapel tcill hold will suffice for the member of free sittings. This was in March, 1826. By July, 1829, the voluntary subscriptions, amounted to £2,400 •,'^' which sum, -with £59 18«. &d., was placed in the banker's hands, in order that the building might be begun. Mr. Cockerill's first plan would have cost £1 1,020 ; this he was obliged to modify from the cir- cumstance of sufficient funds not being forthcoming. £8,000 was the amount of his next estimate, but this plan he did not live to carry out ; and with its execution his son, the present Eoyal Acadamician, was not enti'usted. To Mr. Fowler, we owe the design for the present building ; his final estimate for which was £8,592 5s. Od. Several ineffectual attempts have been made at different times, since this church was finished, to induce the vestry to gi-ant funds for its enlargement. But in July, 1 848, when the chiu'ch-rate was in full play, the demand could no longer be resisted ; and on the fourth of that month, it was resolved by the vestry, unanimously, that the west galleiy of St. John's be enlarged, but at a cost not to exceed £700. The enlarge- ment was effected, and, so far as my knowledge goes, this is the onlj- resolution of the vestry, respecting the expenditiu-e of money for church-purposes, that has ever been observed. This chiu'ch, however, even in its brief existence, has been some expense to others, besides those who have been accommo- dated by it. Down to 1839, the minister received the stipend appointed him by the Chiu'ch Commissioners ; the siu-plus pew- rents being paid to the chm-chwardens towards the expenses of the church. Since that date no pew-rents have been paid to the churchwardens of the parish, but they have had to pay out of the palish funds upwards of £4,800, including the sum above-mentioned. St. John's is not a copy of anyparticular period of middle-age art, being built in the style designated pseudo-gothic. But it • However odious it may ajipcar I cannot help contrasting here the generosity of a private gentleman, unconnected with the parish hy ties of property, with the "meanness" of the lord and his lessee. Mr. Tillard, of Canterhury, gave, through llr. Crane, £500 towards the erection of this chapel, while £300 sufficed for the lordly donation, and £200 for the lessees — to which, in justice to a lady connected hy birth with the latter, I must mention a donation of £100 by MissThistlethwayte. Tlie Grand Junction Canal Company gave £200 ; and Dr. Crane, Mr. Orme, Karls IVrrars, and Shannon, and the Dean and Chapter of Westmin«itcr, £100 eacli. The architect, Mr. Fowler, gave £50, and the remainder was collected in sums under a hundred from the ))arishioners, and some of the neighbours. Mr. Tillard's gift of £20,000 and interest, (at first it was only a loan) towards the erection of the Mary- Icbone churches, also deserves mention, in order tliat it may not be imagined he Bhewed his favours to Paddington only. Ilis other generous deeds need no mention here. t 146 ST. James's. is not necessary to give any particular description of this buUding; for I saw by a model of it, which was honoiu'ed with an excellent place amidst the multitudinous and never to be forgotten beauties of the Great Exhibition, that Mr. Fowler's original design was not completely carried out. Its exterior, as finished, presents to us nothing offensive; and the in- terior is well proportioned, well arranged, and, with the exception of the painted window at the eastern end, contains nothing iucompatible with a religious feeling. Although every one who wishes to receive instruction from the \asible remnants vof the past, must admire the works of art as preserved to us in. the brilliant colours, and quaint symbolic designs, which modify " God's light" as it attempts to enter into the ancient temples dedicated to his service ; and although every one who can so feel, must detest the barbarity of a Barebones — who is said to have thanked God every time his zealous and mischievous weapon was raised from the demolition of the Canterbury windows — yet I think it would be difficult to find any satisfactory reason for the re -introduc- tion of stained glass pictiu'es, and tinted glass, into the church windows of our day. Every reason I have ever heard in favour of "the dim religious light," or " the scriptural story," is equally powerful in favour of all other modes of teaching by " stealing the senses." If painted glass, why not jiainted canvass ? If one picture, why not a himdred ? If candles on the altar, why not lighted ? If Puseyism, why not full-blown Romanism? But this is only one of the many ''first step to Rome." And as in the case of St. John's window, which was the origan of this remark, these fii'st steps are not completed at once. How long it took to fill up the whole east wiuclow of St. John's I do not remember; but there were only a few Apostles there at one time ; and the "naughty boy" — who went to this church, more I fear to look at this window than to say his prayers, or hear the very excellent and learned ministers who preach there — asked his Ma, one day, "why they did not write down the names of tJwse men, so that he could find out who they were ?" When he was told they were the Twelve Apos- tles — he said " Oh no, that can't be, there are but ten, for I count them every Sunday." The New Parish Church — St. James's. Twenty years ago, the bishop's building Acts were beginning to tell in real earnest; and from 1831 to 1841, the increase in the population of the parish of Paddington, averaged above sr. JAHEs's. 147 one tJwKsand per annum. Yet the eiTors of the past were unnoticed by those who never wish to see errors in high places; for it was not till the fifth of December, 1837, that the local governors of Paddington saw the necessity, created by this annual addition of a thousand souls to the parish, for increased means of religious instruction, and public worship ; and then their attention to this necessity was aroused by their Reverend Chaii-man, who, on that day, stated he was desired by the Bishop of London to call the attention of the vestry to ihe gi'eat want of additional chui-ch room there was in the parish — or more coiTectly speaking on his estate. The bishop sent word "that he and the trustees had resolved upon a site for a new church ; and that he would submit the case, (of the destitution of this parish), to the Metropolitan Church Com- mittee ; and would himself subscribe £300 !"* The vestiy, in obedience to this message, resolved " that an additional church would be highly beneficial to the parish at large;" and a committee, with full powers to cany out this resolution was at once appointed. Expressions of praise escaped some lips; and the vestry did not break up, as their minutes shew, without thanking the bishop for the plot of ground on which the new chm'ch was to be built, and the liberal subscription offered by him. Whether any one in the vestry remembered the words of the polished noble- man, who said, " Praise, when it is not deserved, is the severest satire and abuse," I do not know ; I am inclined to believe that the majority of those who tendered their thanks to the bishop, were sincere. But how oddly do those praises and thanks come upon the reader, who has studied the history of the Paddington Estate-! This new Paddington church was to be built b}' subscription on a site fixed by the o^vners of the Estate, at the western ex- tremity of the Grand Junction-road. And on the eighth of Jime, 1840, the committee report " that a design adapted to the wants and means of the parish has been selected by the vestry," subject to the appropriation of the two great subscribers; "the Metropolitan Churches Committee," and " Her Majesty's Commissioners for building new chui'ches." • Findinpr the Commissioners did not come down so handsomely as on the previous occasion, only £1000 tliis time, it was necessary to ajipeal to the Metropolitan Com- mittee. This Committee pive £3,000 ; and the hishoj) afterwards increased his dona- tion to £500. Mr. Thistlethwayte pave £200. Upwards of a thousand pounds were suhscrihfd by the builders. Tlie Rev. Minister pave £200 ; (a whole year's stipend ; if the bishop and his lessees had but done this !) and the fjreater portion of the remainder was raised by voluntary subscription from those who did not know the history of the Paddington Estate. 148 ST. James's. Plans were advertised for, and thirty-eiglit designs were received. "Five of the most eligible" were selected; and the one with the motto, " Let merit bear the Palm," was especially recommended by the Committee to the vestry. On this, as on many another occasion, however, merit was jostled out of the field by mediocrity, or something worse, and Mr. Lindsey's design was rejected on account of his having been induced to increase the detailed cost of the building far beyond hia original estimate. The structure, as it now stands, is said to be the result of the combined genius of Messrs. Gutch and Goldicutt ; and wc are fur- ther told that this precious specimen of "Brummagem Gothic,' ' was originally designed for a Grecian building, but was altered to suit the " taste of the times." Mr. Yulliamy, one of the gentlemen who had responded to the advertisement, felt his talent to be so scandalized by the acceptance of this clumsy design, that he printed a letter, which he addressed to the vestry ; in which he points out that the successful candidate is very improperly, as he thinks, an influential member of that board. This gentleman, was the bishop's surveyor, and the district-surveyor — two ofiices totally incompatible. But who could be supposed to know better the tastes and wants of the people of Paddington ? So little did he know, however, that his second, or amended design, was found to be so obtru- sively iigly that those who had adopted it could not see it carried out; and, although, the original estimate for this de- sign was fixed at £8,600, another thousand was readily added, in order that the deformity, which had been so unanimously fixed on, might be again amended ! This cluu'ch in all its present taste, the vestry agreed should become the parish church ; but it was not till March, 1845, that the Beverend Chairman reported to the vestry that the Church Commissioners had executed the deed to transfer the rights, &c., from St. Maiy's to St. James's. A distinct imderstanding was come to at this time that the old chiu'ch should be enlarged. And "by these means," says the report of 1840, " accommodation will be provided for four thousand persons, or including Bayswater chapel, which may hereafter he made a parochial chapel, for more than five thousand persons, in a parish supposed to contain twenty thousand souls." The report goes on to state that each of the four districts, into which the parish will be divided, " will be placed imder the immediate care of its respective minister or ministers ; and these important results wUl have been obtained without any compulsory levy on the parishioners ^ ST. JAiEEs's. 149 Besides a miscalculation of at least four thousand in the then actual population of Paddington, these reporters must have been veiy ignorant of the previous history of the parish, or they must have had veiy bad memories. We have seen how St. Maiy's was built, and how it was paid for ; and a church- rate enforced by warrants of disti^ess, and these again backed up by 'the certainty of imprisonment, till the rate and all expenses were paid, I think one may call a compulsory levy. Even those who lived in the parish the year before this report was written, had felt the twitch of this clerical scoui'ge, — not the last they were to feel by a great number ; for on the twenty-foui'th of Apiil, 1839, a chiu'ch-rate was made, and the Cash Accounts for the year ending, April, 1838-39, shew that £850 5s. 9|(7 had been collected by " compulsory lev}"," in these years, "to pay off Mrs. Jenks's last Church Bond Debt." But how these reporters could have for- gotten the day ever memorable in the annals of the present vestiy of Paddington, I cannot imagine ; nor how that on this fifth day of May, 1829, when the chiu'ch-rate was in danger, the Bishop of London, the Viscount Bernard, the Honourable Mr. Mac'Donald, theEev. John Joseph Pike, and nine others, — ba^TJig taken the oath of office, to execute faithfully, im~ pai-tially, and honestly, according to the best of their skill and knowledge, the several powers and authorities reposed in them — proceeded at once, with other vestrymen, to make a church-rate of threepence in the poimd; for so far as I can dis- cover, this is the only time the vestry of Paddington was ever honom*ed, at its sittings, by a visit from the spiiitual and temporal lord of the parish. This congratulation of the Committee, respecting all the good that had been done without any compulsoiy levy, was only the warming up, under more favourable ciix-umstances for the instant, of one that had been tendered to the parish, when the first subscriptions for St. John's were annoimced. But for that half year, 1826, sixpence in the pound Avas the amount of the church-rate levied, the full sum allowed by the law. And, although there was no compulsoiy le\y at the time this report was written — none from 1839 to 1842, — yet there was one made in the latter year, which continued to be made twice-a-year, down to 1851, continues to be made annually now, and must be continued for years to come. On the eighth of February, 1843, "the Committee for building the new church in this parish, have the satisfaction of inibnning the parishioners, that the church is neaiiy com- l3 150 ST. James's. plcted, a: d will be opened for Divine service, on or before the lirst ul i\ ay next, provided siijpcient funds for that purpose are previou6(t, collected^ So, "the immediate aid of those per- sons -nho have not subscribed to this important undertaking" is solicit c d, ''to defray the whole exj)ense, for which a con- siderable sum is still required." But even St. James's was not finished without a " compul- sory levy;" for on the thirtieth of Juno, 1843, the committee report that after paying £10,000, other expenses had been incurred, and were about to be incurred, which they hoped to raise by subscription. No flu-ther subscriptions were forth- coming, however J and in August, 1844, the committee state to the vestry that £950 is still due ; that the clock and organ were not subscribed for, as anticipated ; and that there are other additional works estimated at £300 more ; all of Vhich they beg to transfer to the especial care of the rate- payers. These, as well as other sums, were paid out of the church-rate by order of the vestry. "The churchwardens' account for the year 1843 — 44" shews the " total expenditure for Saint James's chui'ch, for the year ending April, 1844, to have been £2,190 12s. 5d., the whole of which, with the exception of £200, "the fii^st annual payment fi-om the pew-rents," was paid by the Churchwardens out ot the parish funds. This, however, was not all the Churchwardens paid towards St. James's; for in "the church-rate account" for the ensuing year, the follow- ing item occurs, "January thirtieth, 1845, Paid Mr. Bishop, for organ at St. James's Church, £497 \2s. 6d." There are other items, too, — balance of architect's commission, church plate, and printing — which bring the sum paid this year up to £753 85. 4.d., over and above the ordinary disbursements, which are this year £100 more than the pew-rents paid to the churchwardens. Neither was' this church, which ivas to have leen huilt without "compulsory levy,''^ paid for yet; for in the next year's account, we find a " Cross Wall" in the vaults paid for; roofing over the vestry room, at St. James's church; build- ing new porches to the lobby entrances; and the " TiuTet clock." These four items amoimted to £662 19s. ^d., the ordinary expenses being increased by £246 14s. \\d., above the receipts, for other church fittings. And on the twenty-fourth of December, 1847, there is another £100 paid for re-glazing the windows with ground-glass ; so that before St. James's was fairly done with, it had cost the rate-payers over and above all subscriptions, £3,850 at the least — to say TRTNTTY. 1 1 nothing of interest of money borrowed, at a veiy high, rate, to j,ay these sums.'"' Tiinity. " The Holy Double Trinity," as I once heard it called by the showman, who pointed with his wand to the young lady Tith two triangles on her breast, who is perched wdth that orna- ment, or symbol, in full view of all who enter by the south door ; her duplicate being in the same position over the northern entrance. But for this notification, this church naight be taken to belong to saints of the masculine gender ; the western door beiig decorated by a gentleman on either side ; one with the cross-keys, the other with the cross- swords. But these Guardian Saiits are not the only images set up for oiu- love or hatred; confidence or fear; instruction or bamboozlement ; on the walls of this chiu'ch, or they would not be noticed here. TiTiity, "thepet chiuxh of Paddington," the chiu'ch on which chui'ch-goers pride themselves as something that is worthy of this great and important parish, is in fact, garnished all over with images, or symbols, and may be considered a creditable mimick of antiquated masomy on a small scale. On this building, both ai'cjitect and mason appear to have exhausted all the skill of their craft, to produce an edifice, which shall transport the sense of sight, if not the mind it influences, to those glorious middle ages, for the revival of which some few enthusiastic ladies and gentlemen of the nineteenth century are working so desperately. To be obliged to work with the materials of the nineteenth, must be a sad di'awback on theii' enthusiasm. These artists devise all kind of means to give the charm of antiquity to their works, it is tiiie ; but there is an air of newness about Trinity, and such like buildings, which is any thing but pleasing, and which ill assorts with any notion of veneration. Some centuries hence, if Triaity does not share the fate of the Sheldon church, children may look on it with something like awe ; and grown- up persons with pity for that generation, whose genius — able to make the lightning-force subservient to its willf — able to contrive machines to cany the material form to which that genius is linked, sixty miles an hour Anth certainty and safety — able to raise structures which sui-pass in size and beauty, anything the genius of man ever before created, was • Vifle cash accounts. + While we admire the wonders hcing -worked out by the electric telegraph, the simple rod of steel must not be discarded, or despised ; for the want of this simple liffhtnii K conductor, the clumsy steeple of St. James's Church was struck by what would a short time ago have been considered the vengeance of heaven. 152 TEnsriTT. yet unable to erect a house in which to worship its God, except in mimickry of forms suitable to the intelligence of past and darker ages.* At a distance, in Trinity, we see fair proportions and ele- gance of form, pleasing to the eye of all who admire the architectural art ; on closer inspection, nuns and monks, and bishops, and kings, and monsters with faces which disgrace humanity ; and beasts so detestably ugly, or so ridiculously gro- tesque, that young and old are arrested in their progress, and compelled to ask the meaning of it all. I have asked many persons, but none of them, being either masons or priests, could tell. This, however, every sensible man is beginning to lell to his neighbour, and pretty plainly too, that no priest or mason shall drag him back to the decorations and deformities of the fourteenth century, of which Trinity is a sufficient example. " The Holy Blessed Tiinity" is not understood wl.en it is suiTounded bj' an imintelligible mass of defonnity; and taat which has no meaning for the people, must be as repulsive in a material structui'e, as it is in a Divine Thought. " Freemasons of the Church" do tell us, what those vho are not freemasons, can easily imagine, viz., that many of the grotesque and disgusting gothic carvings, which still exist in and around the ancient chui'ches, were placed there by monks, or monkish masons, as caricatui'es of their secular brethren, and others, who had offended them. I^ow, if the monsters with heads as large as life, who grin and gape with horriWe contortions from the six pinnacles on each side of tkis church, are intended to be the monumental effigies of twelve of the preceding owners of the Paddington Estate, (those who have most grossly mismanaged and abused it,) let us be told so ; and then I have no doubt some of the people of Paddington would enjoy the joke, as much as any Grand Master of the masonic craft ; but it is reallj' too bad to stick up unintelligible sj-mbols, on and about that which is called a religious temple, and leave all the uninitiated to guess at their meaning. The days for such unenlightened and selfish craft are numbered ; and the splitting of the foundation walls of Trinity, may be looked upon as an emblem of their fulfil- ment,f The people must he taught; and that, too, without • For some most excellent remarks on the London Churches in general, see "London exhibited in 1851," by John Weale. + For a full description of the splitting- of the walls of this church, and the cause ■which produced it, see The Builder, for 1846, pages 589 — 615. There is an error in a previous notice of this clmrcli in the Builder, Vol. IV., page 395, which may have led to the belief, that it did not much concern the rate-payers of Paddington, how it was built ; the printer of this notice having made the church commissioners give ten thousand pounds, instead of one thousand — the actual amount given. TRINITY. 153 any preA-ioiis oath-taking. Colleges, and crafts, if they are worth preserving, will endiu'e without the pledges given to secrecy ; if they are not, no preliminary swearing will enable them to maintain their ancient ascendancy. Priests and masons may fancy they still rule the world ; and it may be that they do ; but however much they may wish it, their reign will not be long, even if it is not now wtually ended. A third element has been admitted to power. People are teaching themselves the essentials of all government, and they must ultimately rule. Obsein-ers have long since discovered, that unfettered genius has done more for the world, than the most reno^Tied systems ; and they are no longer willing to assist in upholding those educational establishments, whose veiy foundations are laid in secrecy, cliquedom, and dogmata. To know what kingcraft can do for us, we may consult the history of our own James's and Charles's; to know what priestcraft has done for the world, we have only to read William Hewitt's Popular History of it ; and to prove what the masonic ci-aft has not attempted to do, we have only to take a walk into '' Milton's Golden Lane,"* or any other of the many wi'etched lanes and alleys of this or any other large city. There is, how- ever, an Immaterial Essence in this world of ours which no craft or cunning can "put down;" and, fortunately for the world, it is not entirely in the keeping of any craft. The prelate who consecrated Trinity, is known to have been indulgent towards practices in the church, which had long since ceased to be observed. Preformation of some kind was found to be necessarj^, and practices distasteful to reformers, were introduced. Kone of those objectionable practices, how- ever, were ever witnessed ivithin any of the churches in Paddington ; and this I look upon as an additional reason tor inducing the people to ask the bishop, their appointed governor, to condescend to give them some satisfactory reason for the erection of these "ornaments," which he has conse- crated, and for which they have to pay. There is another coui'se open to the bishop, which scarcely any one, with the exception of the architect, would be grieved by his adopting. ]jut to erect this structm^e, fitted, to all extei^nal appearance, only for the performance of the gorgeous histrionical cere- monies of the most depraved period of the Roman or Anglican churches, the people of Paddington have been, and still are, obliged to subscribe by "compulsory levy;" and having been thus made instrumental, willing or unwilling, in assisting to 'Household Words, November C, 1852. 154 TRINITY. resuscitate the diy bones of a monster belonging to a former period, they were then asked, (like other people similarly situated) by their local governors, to assist them in laying the spectre that such follies as these had again presented to the mind of the English public. And how ; and at what cost was Trinity built ? In 1843, on the fourth of July, the Rev. Chairman of the vestry, informed that body, he had received a communication from the Rev. Mr. Miles, expressing his readiness to contri- bute £4000 towards the erection of an additional church in Paddington, upon a site akeady granted by the bishop and his lessees. This, the third site, provided out of the four acres to be granted, according to the bishop's last building Act, was a deep hole, which had been left at the point of junction of the Bishop' s-road with the Westbourn-terrace road; these roads having been raised by the Great Western Railway Com- pany, according to agreement with the owners of the estate, when the railway bridges were built. So deep was this hole, and so imfitted was it for the site of a church, that the parish- ioners would have been money in pocket, if the vestiy had politely thanked the bishop and his lessees for their kindness in granting it, and bought the land somewhere else. But then that would not have done for the bishop and his lessees. They knew, and the builders who took their land knew, the increased value a church would give to the neighbouring ground ; and, as it had been planned that the church would be better here than elsewhere, here it must be, or no where ; although the foundations did cost the parishioners above £2,000 ; and although another thousand " would not have been lavishly thrown away, had the proper authorities heen sufficiently liberal in grayiting it .'" On the tenth of July, at an adjourned meet'ng of the vestry, a committee was appointed to take Mr. Miles' s letter into con?ideration, to confer with the bishop, and to report to the vestry thereon. The only other important business done at this meeting, was, to agree to borrow £2,000, on the security of the church-rates, instead of £1,700, as had been previously proposed. This was to be raised to pay the debts of St. James's, and the other churches. On the twelfth of June, the Vestry had pledged themselves to raise £2,000 towards increased church-accommodation, if the churv^h commissioners would but pay the £2,000 they had promised. On the eleventh of December, in the same TKDaTT. 155 year, after receiving the report of their committee, the vestry agree to increase this sum to £6,000; " which they presume ■n-ill be sulficient for the erection of a suitable church, with Mr. Miles' s donation, and such other sums as may be raised by subscription, and obtained from the church commissioners." And on the second of January, 1844, a committee was ap- pointed, with full powers, to build the new chmxh. On the sixth of Februaiy, 1844, a letter was read from the church commissioners, consenting to make a grant of £1,000 towards the proposed new chiu'ch ; upon certain conditions therein mentioned. On the fourth of March, the new church committee report " that they find from the specification of the architect, that the expenses of constructing the foundation, on the site allotted to the church, will be so great as to prevent the possibility of erecting a suitable edifice thereon for the sum at the disposal of the committee; and they therefore recommend that £2,500 more be boiTOwed." On the ninth of March, it was resolved, that this fm'iher sum should be raised ; and on the fifteenth of January, 1846, it was resolved, unanimously, by the Yestiy, " That a sum of £13,000 should be raised under the provisions of the church building Acts, on the credit of the church-rate, for the erection of Trinity Church T^ To make assurance doubly sure, this sum was again voted towards the cost of building Trinity, on the twenty-sixth of March, 1 846 ; and by the final report and statement of the . committee appointed to build this church, dated twenty-ninth of March, 1847, we find the total cost of this building to have been £18,458 lis. 2>d. ; and says that report — " The chuich accommodates 1,582 persons; 982 in pews; 600 in fi'ce sittings. The Lord Eishop of London presented the font. The liev. John Miles, the incumbent, presented the large stained glass windoAV, and the encaustic tiles in the chancel. Heniy Monis Kcmshead, Esq. presented one of the stained glass windows in the chancel ; the other three were by sub- scriptions from various persons. Geoi'ge Gutch, Esq. presented the dial, fixed in the gallery under the organ. Thomas Cundy, Esq., the architect, presented the carved stone altar piece."* •Mr. ( undy's gtrercus gift did not save the parish the pajmert of "£38 for a carvid oak altar table tnd two chairs, supplied at Iririity ;" tlit quisticn of stoi.e or wood 1 avii.g Ltctinif of great in-ioitaiicc ; aid the wcod having carrkd it in this in^tanc•e. 156 ALL SAINTS. A substantial parsonage-house, built at the north-west comer of the piece of ground smTounding this church, is occupied by the minister, the Rev. Mr. Miles, who is said to have given, in addition to his other donations, £500 towards its erection. The extreme liberality in the contributions of the present incumbent of this church must be properly appreciated, even by those who do not admii-e being charged with church-rates to make up a sufficient sum to build a place of worship, into which they are never likely to enter ; and the greater part of the income from which has been previously secured on the minister, as a good investment for the capital he may have advanced — a plan of " getting up a chui-ch " now veiy much in fashion. All Saints. From 1841 to 1851, the population of Paddington increased on the average, above two tJiousand one hundred per annum; and the bishop's rents increased in due proportion; but as the new comers were almost all sti'angers to the parish, they had never, perhaps, heard one word of the History of the Paddington Estate. On this ignorance the owners of that estate must have relied, when they determined to saddle the rate-payers of Paddington with the expense of building and furnishing their churches, and with every other charge incidental to that Estate. But to enable the owners to carry out their project, the consent of the vestry of the parish must be first had and obtained ; and to give this consent the vestry were not unwilling; for on the very day they voted away £13,000 for Trinity, they also bound themselves to raise, by rates and subscription, or ly rates alone, £6,000 more for another chui'ch.* The site for this church — a portion of the old reservoir, — ^had ah'eady been given up by the Grand Junction Water- works Company, to ihe bishop and his lessees, as agreed upon, and enacted, by the 7th and 8th Vic. cap. 30. On the fifteenth of January, 1846, the vestry resolved, " that »It must not be imagined that this vestry represented the majority of rate-payers; for it did no such thing. At the annual public meeting of i-ate-payers, which was held after these great outlays for the church had been incurred, the names of the parish oificers who sanetio ed these proceedings were received with the most un- mistakeable marks of disapprcbation ; and at an election, which virtually tried the management of the whole body, a great majority of the rate-payers vote, this is sufficiently oppressive. These chui'ches, after all, ai'e not free : pew-rents are obliged to be taken for the support of the ministers ; the poor parishioners have less than one- third of the room allotted to them, and a considerable portion of this space is reserved for the best singers, and most showy scholars of the chm-ch schools. And after all this; after all the money raised "bj" com- pulsory levy" to build, fm-nish, ornament and decorate ; and after all the pew-rents are paid ; these churches do not pay their own ordinary expenses. 'No ; not after there is added to this income the portion of the burial-fees received by the chiu'chwardens ; but this soiu'ce of income, which has averaged for many years more than £350 per annum, must soon cease. So that dissenters and others, who reside even on a bishop's estate, have a fair prospect of being called on to pay a chui'ch- rate, after all the churches wliich the rate-payers have built, shall have been paid for. Towards defraying these ordinary expenses of the churches, the ministers of Trinity, and All Saints, contiibute fifteen per cent, of the pew-rents received by them; the minister of St. James's £200 per annum, the stipend set aside for the whole ciu'e ; the minister of St. John's, nil. "WTiile for the last three or four years the pew-rents of St. Maiy's have more than met the ordinaiy expenses of that church ; although there have been two Services pcrfonned in it daily diuing that period. And "increased chm'ch accommodation is loudly called for in Pad- dington!" How will the bishop of London, and his lessees, now answer to that call ? Will the rate-payers of Paddington be left to answer it ? Or, will the vestry of this parish, elected under the provisions of Sturges Bourne's Act, be allowed, of their own mere motion, (without any reference to the rate-payer, or without any efficient representation of tlie case " in all its bearings," to the bishop and his lessees), to take upon themselves to spend more of the rate-payers' ])roperty? \Ye shall sec. "Wliat can be done by those wlio care one pin about pre- serving a state-church ; by those who have ground-rents to preserve, and lands and houses to be benefitted by offering to in-coming tonauts chui'cli accommodation, we have ah'cady seen. ♦Vide Morning Pout, October, 5th, 1800. 160 lOCK CHAPEL, But another example of voluntary church-building and self- support exists in this parish. Mr. B. Macaulay tell us, when speaking of the revenues of the State, "experience has fully proved that the voluntary Liberality of individuals, even in times of the greatest excite- ment, is a poor financial resource when compared Txath severe and methodical taxation, which, presses on the willing and unwilling alike." Those who govern the state-church, have had experience on this head; and without stopping " vohm- tary liberality" they deem it necessary, so long as a state- religion is upheld, to use "severe and methodical taxation;" and they employ all the powers the law allows them, to compel the imwilliug, as well as the willing, to pay their appointed share of the particular tax raised for its require- ments. But it is questioned by some most sincere and learned churchmen, whether this is good policy ; whether the peo- ple love the church any better for being obliged to pay church- rates, when they see how the property claimed by the church is apportioned ; and where they see, as in this parish, church property, much more than sufficient to supply their religious requirements, used, not for their benefit, as it was originally intended, but for individual advantage. But to shew how thorouglily the religious forms of the state-church can be upheld by the volimtary system alone, even in a parish from which that chui'ch has derived vast sums of money, and to which it has retou-ned so little, it is only necessary to mention that The Chapel of the Lock Hospital, is not only self-supporting, but a portion of the income derived from the pew-rents annually goes towards the support of the hospital and asylum. The pew-rents of the Lock Chapel, for the year ending the thirty-first of December, 1851, amoimtedto £948 3s. 2fZ.,* and this department of a charitable Institution, " after bearing all the expenses incident to its services, yielded to the Institution, the sum of £348 19s. 2(^.," diuing the same period. Another such an example as this, a third, might have proved too much; and it was not allowed to exist, although the foundations of the building were laid, and the means were in hand to raise the superstructure. The correspondence between the proprietor of the intended chapel, and the Bishop of London, on the subject of this new church, proposed to be * Keport of the Lock Hospital Asylum, and Chapel, 1852. ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS. 161 biiilt at Wcstbourn Green, must be fresh in the memory of most readers of the daily joiu-nals; and it is only necessary to refer those, who wish to know the history of an attempt to erect another church in this parish upon the voluntary pria- ciplc, to that correspondence. At the present time, the parish of Paddington is divided into five ecclesiastical districts ; and the episcopal form of chui'ch-govemment and the present forms of the state-religion, are supported by accomplished clergymen, attached to the various places of public worship. The people of Paddington see in their own parish an ex- emplification of that state of chiu'ch economy, which is more or less prominently exhibited all over the country ; they know the extent of the chiu'ch-lands here ; they know how they were acquired; they know for the perfoiTaance of what duties these lands were granted; they see how the income from these lands has been disposed of; they know that the duties of providing for religion, and for the poor, have been transferred from the holders of this chuxch-land, to those who occupy the houses which have been built on it ; and they know that a second Reformation is inevitable. So that, if the church minis- ters of this parish could report to their* bishop, that no dissenter lived in this very profitable part of his diocese, it would convey to him no more accurate notion of the feeling of the people respecting the management of the state-church than the bishops conveyed to Laud " on the very eve of troubles, fatal to himself, and to his order," when they reported to him " that not a single dissenter was to be found within their jurisdiction."* That those dignitaries of the church, who have taken upon themselves the disposal of the chiu'ch-lands in Paddington, should have made such sony provisions for the promulgation and protection of their o^vn creed in this place, is much more surprising, than that they should have looked with no favour- able eye on the diffusion of doctrines which diff'ered, in any respect, from their own. To prevent, so far as in them lay, the erection of any places of worship, save those in which were taught the particular dogmas they reverenced, is but what experience teaches us, might have been expected, as it is well known to be the common practice of every dominant sect to permit no rival near its throne ; or, if a rival is to be tolerated ^dthout a systematic opposition, it must be one that is not seriously antagonistic to its principles. • Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I. page 88. 162 DISSENTIITG PLACES OF WORSHIP. The Bishop of London, in his last Charge to his clergy, while guarding them against a too great leaning to Popish practices, told them, there was less danger to fear from Rome, than from Germany. And, so far as danger to the peculiar dogmas, and the histrionic ceremonies we have seen spring up within the last few years, is concerned, all who kaow anything of the "Reformation of the nineteenth centiiry," as it is being developed in Germany, will readily admit. To get a good insight into the " Humane Reformation " now in progress not only in Germany, but in England and America, I must refer my readers to the little Work which has been published for the English reader by the great apostle of this Reformation, Johannes Ronge, and to which I have before alluded. The present Bishop of London and his predecessors, I am credibly informed, have considered it to be their duty to pre- vent, so far as in them lay, the erection of any Dissenting place of worship in Paddington. But some part of the Pad- dington Estate was leased without any restrictive provisions of this nature, therefore the whole of the land in Paddington is not now in the hands of a dominant chm'ch. In 1816, a chapel, capable of holding six hundred persons, with school-rooms on the basement story, was built in Praed- street, on ground leased by the Grand Junction Canal Company. This chapel, " The Tabernacle," is now in the hands of a congregation of Baptists, who, to purchase and repair it, in- curred a debt of £2,000. This they have paid off within the last ten years, over and above their contributions for the support of their minister. They also educate upwards of two hundred scholars ; and twenty- three teachers give their leisure on the day of rest for this purpose. There is a freehold chapel in the Harrow Road, at the entrance to Paddington Green ; the Wesleyans have a chapel in the Queen's Road, Bayswater; and the Roman Catholics are now building a large church at the western extremity of this parish, on a portion of that land, which was bequeathed by the Lady Margaret, to the poor. Another chapel, called " the Boatman's chapel," also exists in Paddington, on the ground leased to the Grand Junction Canal Company. This place of worship, which is capable of holding two hundred persons, was constructed out of a stable and coach-house, at the expense of a few pious individuals, who saw how much the poor boatmen wanted the advantages which accrue fi'om DISSEXTEN'G PLACES OF -tt'OESHIP. 163 religions instruction, and bow little likely they "vrere to get it in a parish-chnrch which could not hold one-fonrth part of the settled inhabitants. This little place of worship is in connection with " Paddington Chapel" — a place of worship belonging to the Independents. To attend the latter, the people of Paddington have to cross the Queen's highway; as they have, to go to the chapels in John Street, and New Church Street. These very commodious places of worship in St. Maryle- bone, are served by learned men, who believe that the religion of the poor carpenter's son needs neither rich bishops nor rich endowments, to preserve its existence in this world ; and they are supported in this belief by a very considerable number of tenants on the Bishop of London's Estate. CHAPTEE lY. SCHOOLS CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS AND US- TABLISHMENTS OF PUBLIC UTILITY. A Sttkdat School, in connection with the Church, was esta- bKshed in Paddington, during the last century; but it was not till the beginning of this, that any public means of in- struction existed for the children of the poor on week days. Lysons, in his second Edition, tells us that " A charity school for thirty boys and tliirty girls was established in this parish in 1 802 ;" and that it was "supported by voluntary contributions, and the collections at an annual charity sermon." Tliis public day-school for poor children was one of the first established in the outskirts of London ; and the school room was built on that land which is said to have been given by Bishop Compton. But this building was but small ; for it held only one hundred children ; and in 1816, it was discovered that there were 1508 children under twelve years of age, living on the south side of the canal only ; and it was supposed that foTir hundred of these were between seven and .twelve years old. The curate of the parish and other influential inhabitants, seeing this great field open for profitable cultivation, got up a Committee, to devise ways and means to effect so desirable an object. This Committee reported to the vestry, in March, 1818, that "the Bishop of London, as the most extensive proprietor as well as the patron of the church, &c." had been consulted on the propriety of establishing a school for three hundred children ; which they calculated might be supported for £175 per annum, while the expense of biulding the school room, was estimated at £650 ; and they further reported to the vestry, that the bishop expressed "his hearty good wishes for its success." But as "hearty good wishes" did not build or endow the school, it was not built till some years after thia time ; and then, not by the bishop, or his lay lessees. SCHOOLS. 165 As we have already seen, the proceeds of the sale of waste lands were devoted to this purj)ose ; Denis Chirac's legacy, which, with interest, now amoimted to £170 cs. lOd , and'a donation of £130 li'oni Baron Maseres, one of his executors, being added ; and in 1828, the vestry resolved to dovote two- thirds of the proceeds of the copyhold estate to the support of this school. "When the Act of 1838, relative to the freehold estates, was obtained, a re-arrangement of these funds was made; and three-tilths of the whole estates, freehold as well as leasehold, were appropriated " towards the support of the Paddington Parochial National and Infant Schools." The new school rooms were built in 1822 on Paddington Green, or rather on a part of the site of the "town pool;" and in 1831, other school rooms, in coruiection -with that system which is called National, were built at Bayswater. In 1840 the parochial school-rooms of St. John's district were erected in Tichboui'n Eow ; and the new schools, built at the back of Stanley Street, and St. Mary's Hospital, in the district of All Saints, were opened in Februaay, 1852. The Eev. F. C. Cook's "Eeport on Schools in the Eastern district," published in " Minutes of the Committee of Coimcil on Education 1845," contains a full account of those schools then in operation; and the following extracts are taken from it. In 1845, the number of scholars was as follows, viz., in the schools on Paddington Green, Apiil filth and sixth, "200 boys present, total 210; 115 girls present, total 131; 180 infants present, total 190." "Titchboiu-n Street, second of April, Boys present, 167; total, 190. Giiis present, 91; total, 109. Infants present, 151; total 200." "Bayswater, twenty-fifth AprU. Boys, 106; girls, 49; infants, 60." The masters and mistresses of these schools, and of the new school, have kindly furnished me with the niunbers now in attendance ; they are as follows : — Boys. Girls. Infants. Paddington Green 174 98 150 Bayswater 168 100 160 Tichboum Street 184 113 217 All Saints 140 666 138 449 174 Total 701 m3 166 SCHOOLS. Mr. Cook reported, that at the schools on Paddington Green, "the boys and girls are instructed in two rooms, well- built, warmed and ventilated. The building handsome, and well arranged. "Boys : instructed by master, with pupil teacher, seventeen years old, who was educated in the school. Arranged in six classes on the circulating system. The rewards for medals are books, which cost about £5 per anni;m. The attendance averages more than nine-tenths of the total number. Age of boys between seven and twelve, excepting ten boys near thirteen years. Many boys have been in school from infancy. There is an increase of fifty since the last inspection. The fluctuation in the nimibers not considerable. Boys are very healthy and cleanly in appearance. The discipline is nearly perfect. "The general proportion of instruction in the several classes is somewhat advanced since last year. In the first class of fifty boys, averaging eleven years old, and tkree years in school, twenty-five work a sum in practice, 9860874, at £35 10s. 6^d., with ease; the others compound rules and proportion. Write exceedingly well from dictation, and some good abstracts. Geography, grammar, and etymology well taught. Read History of England fluently, and are acquainted with the facts. Learn linear drawing, and music on Hullah's method. The lower classes are advancing in due proportion to age and time in school. The religious instruction through- out is good. "Generally speaking, methods of teaching are those of the National Society." " Girls : insti-ucted in two rooms, and four classes, by mis- tress, assistant and monitors. From seven to thirteen years old ; flfteen, between twelve and thirteen. " The manners of the girls are very pleasing, and the school is in good order. " All can read from easy narrative, to the thii'd book and History of England. Eighty read with ease in the third book. Good secular reading books in all classes. "Writing on paper, ninety in books, and from memory, neat and accurate. Ciphering to compound rules, with practical questioning. The first class learn geography and grammar very well ; the religious instruction in all classes is remarkably good. Needle- work is very well taught; thirty can fix a shirt." ' ' Infants, one hundred and eighty. Conducted by a mistress ; assistant employed in managing, not in instructing the children. SCHOOLS. 167 A handsome, ^vell-arrangcd. school, "svith abundant apparatus. All infants between two and six yeai's. The infants are cheerful, orderly, clean, and fond of theu' mistress. It is peculiar to this school that the mistiness teaches all the chilch'en to read, &c., without monitors. The result is that they are more advanced than in good infant schools conducted on the usual system ; seventy read in books ; twenty very well ; and twenty write sentences on slates, twenty, words ; and thirty, letters; all elementary subjects are well-taught. ChUdi'en are well acquainted with scriptui-al history, and give more intelligent answers on meaning of words and sen- tences than is usual ia good schools. The mistress is an able teacher, and devoted to her duties." Mr. Cook adds, "I have recommended many clergymen to visit these schools, as among the best and most complete in London." And he concludes this part of his report by saying, that "in addition to these nine schools, it is intended to erect others ia the neighbourhood of the new church, which will make altogether provision for the iasti'uction of 2000 childi'en, in a population of 25,000. The present schools cost nearly £1,300 per annimi." The expenditure of these schools varies, as a matter of course ; and this sum must not be taken as the present expenditui'e. The new schools will cost £400 per annimi , in addition to this sum ; and I find that in 1847 — 48, the total expenditiu-e of St. John's schools for the year, amoimted to £591 ; the income being made up of £336, subscriptions, donations, and collections; £140 paid by scholars in the form of "school pence ;" and £115 from other sources. By another report I find that the sum paid by the children at Paddington Green, amounted in the year- to £130. All these schools have received, and continue to receive, grants from the Parliamentaiy Piuid. For the year ending thii-ty-first of October, 1850, I find the schools on Pad- dington Green, had an award of £135 10s.; Bayswater, of £67 10s.; and St. John's, of £65 10s., "to apprentices and teachers, for their instruction ;" with an additional grant of £9 7s. 2ff/., to St. John's for "books and maps." The Government grant for the All Saints schools was £180; the cost of the site, £640, and the building of these schools amounted, altogether, to £2,173 7s. 0^/.; which siim was raised by donations and subscription fi-om the inliabitants of the parish, Avith the exception of the grant just mentioned, and one hundi'cd pounds given by the Bishop of Loudon. 168 SCHOOLS. But before these new schools were erected, the population of Paddington numbered upwards of 46,000; and 1816, is the actual number of scholars on the books of the twelve schools at the present time, (January, 1853). From the "Blue Book," which contains the answers to questions on education, printed by order of the House of Commons, twentieth March, 1835, we learn, that the first infant school in this parish was commenced in 1833; that it then contained fifty children of both sexes, and was supported principally at the cost of the individual who established it, but partly by the payment of two-pence per week from the parent with each child. We are also informed by this inquiry, that a school for fifty females was established at Bayswater, and supported by Mrs. Sutcliffe, of Orme-square. From this " Blue Book" we also learn, that to each of the foui" " day and Sunday National Schools," and to two of the Dissenters' Sunday schools a lending library is attached, a most excellent provision which has been extended since that period to the other schools; but the books are obtainable only upon the scholars conforming to certaia regulations. Although the reports of the Tichbom^n-street, and Bayswater schools, were not quite so favourable, in 1845, as the Padding- ton-green school ; and although from subsequent reports, we find the Paddington-green schools sufiered from change of teachers, while the others were more favourably reported on, yet the published annual reports of the Inspector, to which I must refer for further riifoiTiiation, shew that, on the whole, the schools of Paddington may be looked on as amongst the best of those which follow the peculiar methods of teaching laid down by the "National Society." The masters, and mistresses, and those who have the management of these schools, evidently do their duty; and the instniction given is highly valuable. But whether it was right to apply the proceeds of the sales of waste lands, and three-fifths of all the charity estates of this parish, exclusively to those schools which adopt the methods of teaching insti- tuted by the "National Society," may, I think, be justly questioned ; seeing that the greater portion, if not the whole of that property, was given to the poor generally, and not to those only, who were willing to have their children taught a particular Catechism, and a particular Belief. Out of Paddington there are systems of teaching, which do not base themselves on peculiar and sectarian tenets ; and in which, learning controversial portions of scripture, in " proof" SCHOOLS. 169 of the truth of a catechism, does not form, an essential element. Many learned men, whose religions principles cannot be called in question, do not aj)prove of this catechism, or of this teaching ; and they believe the first Society established, the British and Foreign School Society, advocate a system more natmial than that of the self styled National Society. '' Ra- tional Schools," too, ai'e not unknown — even within " a stone's throw of the High Com-t of Chanceiy"* — but Dr. Bu'kbeck's plan is too rational for the Parochial schools of Paddington. The foimdation stone of the "AVestbourne Schools," con- ducted on the "Glasgow Training System," was laid on the thii'ty-lii'st July, 1850. This excellent estabKshment, which is ia connection with the Lock Chapel, is built by the side of "the green lanes," (the old road which led from the Great Western-road to the Harrow-road,) and is now in full opera- tion. The different congregations of Dissenters, too, have schools attached to their respective chapels ; and the Roman Catholics have built a lai'ge school room in connection with their new chapel. There are, also, many excellent private schools in Paddiugton; but of schools strictly private, I have nothing to say. In July 1848, the " Paddington TNTiarfs Ragged Schools," for infants, girls, and boys, were opened in Kent's place ; but in December of the same year, larger premises in Church- place were taken. These have been found too small, and the Committee have incurred a considerable expense in making them more convenient. The average attendance is set down in the third annual report at one hundi'edand ten infants, thirty girls, and forty boys. In the adult schools there were twenty pupils ; and the scholai's in the evening and Sunday schools vary from forty-five to ninety. The current expenses for 1851, amoimtcd to £206 Is. bd. There are two small establishments at Bayswater for female orphans. The one called the "Orphan Asylum," was instituted in 1833, by Mrs. SutcKfi'e and other ladies connected with the private charity school, wliich was supported for many years by that lady's generosity. The other, called the "Bayswater Episcopal Female Orphan School," was established in 1839. The former of these establishments contained fourteen female orphans in 1851, the current expenses for the year, being £251 4«. 2f rf. In the latter, in the same year, there were six- • I'or an cxtoUent description of the method of teaching adopted at this school, See Jlou.schold Words. — December 25, 1852. 170 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. teen orphans, and the expenditnre amonnted to £335 17«. 6d. Both institutions are supported by voluntary contributions. Queen Charlotte's Lying-in-Hospital, now situated in the Kew-road, was origiaally established in Paddington ; Lysons tells us the Naval Asylum was removed to Greenwich from this place ; and the " School of Industry for Female Orphans," which was "instituted in Chui'ch street, Paddington Green, in 1786, for the maintenance and education of twenty- four children" is about to be removed to their new premises iu St. John's "Wood-road. " The Paddington Visiting Society," was established in the year 1838; its objects being "to promote the religious and moral improvement of the poor, in co-operation with the parochial clergy, to relieve distress and sickness, to encom'age industry, frugality, and provident habits, and generally, to cultivate a friencUy intercourse between the poor and the wealthier and more educated classes of society." It was proposed to eifect these objects by means of district visiting, in connection with provident institutions, and visiting so- cieties or church associations. The Provident Dispensary in Star-street ; Provident Funds, and lending libraries connected with the schools ; and the Paddington Savings' Bank, have arisen out of this parent Institution. And, although some of the distiict visitors may have been over ardent in pressing on the poor, the necessity of observing certain forms, as one of the conditions of their assistance, yet undoubtedly these associa- tions have done much good. I must refer to the annual reports of these charitable Institutions for the detailed account of their operations ; but I may mention here, that the church associa- tion in connection with St. John's District, collected during the year 1851, £1,105 IDs, 2d. besides £128 7s. Od., contributed to a fund, called the "additional curate's fund," "designed for the increased visitation of the sick and poor at their own houses, and the maintenance of a daily service in the church." The block of small alms-houses at present existing in the Harrow-road, said to have been built in 1714, on a portion of what had been Paddington Green, is the oldest charitable building in Paddington ; but the endowment, if there ever was one, has merged into other estates ; for no endowment now exists. Sixteen poor old women belonging to the parish, are still supported there out of the poor rates ; but the inmates think themselves not so far degraded as they would be, if obliged to become tenants of the great parish poor- house ; although in the latter they might have a less confined ST. maey's hospital. 171 crib, and perhaps, a more generous diet ; but there they would not be free. Xow they can ramble about at pleasure ; and when at home, for each little room is a home, they can dwell upon the remembrance of those pretty little flower gardens, which formerly existed in front of these almshouses, and which may hare attracted them in their younger days, when perhaps, they little thought of becoming the recipients of alms. "With the alteration of the Harrow-road, which added "thirty feet in depth" to the church-yard, and I presume the same quantity to that sti'ip of the Green, which was so kindly offered to the parish for four thousand pounds, and a portion of which was piu'chased for £2,000, these little attractions vanished ; and a considerable portion of the "thir- teen feet ten inches" of flower garden, which existed on the north side of this charitable institution, now forms a part of the altered road; while on the garden to the south, the vestry-room, the police-station, the infant-school, and other buildings, have been erected. The great charitable Institution of modem Paddington, ia St. Maiy's Hospital, situated in Cambridge-place. "Its estab- lishment was commenced in 1843, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert was pleased to lay the fii-st stone on the twenty- eighth of June, 1845." Thomas Hopper, Esq. made the design gratuitously; and Mr. Wiusland's tender of £33,787 was accepted for the building ; which, when complete, was intended to hold 380 beds. A portion of this building, " with aU the requisite appur- tenances, capable of containing 150 beds," was opened for the reception of fifty patients on the thirteenth of Jime, 1851 ; 332 patients were admitted into the wards of the Hospital, diuring the first six months ; the average duration of theif stay being twenty two days. Mr. "Winsland's original tender was for the whole building, included "in five separate divisions ;" and a certain portion was to have been completed within a specified period, but the sudden death of the contractor is said to have thrown some obstacles in the way of its progress. There must have been some alteration, too, in the original design, or some sad mis- calculation in the contract ; for instead of a building capable of containing 380 beds having been erectal for £33,787, I find by a " statement and appeal" published by " the Board of Governors" in 1851, that there had been expended by the end of that year £33,806 5*. 3(7. "on account of site and building," as it then exided : £1,776 6*. 9rf., in 172 ST. mart's hospital. addition, had been expended in fumisliing; and £1,223 3s. Id,., for the maintenance of the fifty beds for six months. The estimated sum "to maintain the establishment of 150 beds, and to defray the expense of out-patients," was calculated at £4,400 per annum; £300 additional being requii'ed to support the maternity department. At the present time there are 150 beds for patients, the total number the present building is capable of containing ; and attendance on the practice of this Hospital is now recognised by the medical examining boards — the medical staff having been complete from the fu'st opening of the establishment. This staff consists of three Physicians, and three Assistant Physicians ; three Surgeons, and three Assistant Surgeons ; a Physician- Accouch eur ; a Surgeon- Accoucheur; an Oph- thalmic-Surgeon; and an Aural- Surgeon; all of whom perform their respective duties gratuitously. There are also two resident medical officers, and a Dispenser. There is a paid Secretary ; an Assistant Secretary ; a Collector ; a Matron ; and a Chaplain ; and the establishment is managed by a certain number of Governors elected on building, special, house, finance, and medical committees ; subject to a code of laws, and, in most instances, to the will of the whole body of Governors. " Eveiy subscriber of three guineas or upwards annually, is eligible to be elected an annual governor ; and every indi- vidual, making a donation of thirty guineas or upwards in one sum, is eligible to be elected a life governor." "Every governor, in addition to the privilege of recom- mending in and out-patients as a subscriber, has the right to attend at all, or any weekly, quarterly or special boards, and to speak and vote on all questions, and to vote on all elections which shall come before such board ; &c.," but " no governor is entitled to vote on an election, until he shall have been a governor for a period of three calendar months." " Annual subscribers of twenty-five guineas, or donors of 500 guineas in one sum, have an unlimited right of recom- mending in-patients. "Annual subscribers of ten guineas, or donors of 100 guineas in one sum, may recommend an unlimited number of in-patients, one in-patient only at a time in the Hospital. "Annual subscribers of three guineas, or donors of thirty gidneas in one sum, may recommend three in-patients annually, and eighteen out-patients. " Annual subscribers of two guineas, or donors of twenty ST. jiakt's hospit.vl. 173 guineas in one sum, may recommend t\ro in-patients annually, and twelve out-patients. "Annual subscribers of one guinea, or donors of ten guineas in one sum to the maternity fund, may recommend three patients annually to that department ; and tlii-ee additional patients for each guinea annually subscribed, or each dona- tion of ten gitineas m one sum." But, although great sums have been abeady subscribed, and although these inducements to subscribe have been held out to the charitable, the Hospital is already in debt ; and the advertisements declare that '' to maintain the present number of in-patients, and to supply medicine for a very large number of out-patients, the amount of annual subscrip- tions is quite inadequate." From what has been seen in the previous part of this "Work, it may have been thought that the site of this Hospital, with the whole of its enclosed ground, was the gift of the Bishop of London and the trustees of the Paddington Estate ; bat from a printed statement, dated the tenth of July, 1846, I find that this is not the case. The gi'ound which was to be given up, according to the provisions of the 7th and 8th Vic- chap. 30, as a site for this Hos^Dital, is said to consist "of upwards of three quarters of an acre ;" "its value was stated to have been estimated at £3,885 ;" but " the trustees of the Hospital were required to pay £1,000, as an indemnity to the Grand Junction Water Works Company, to whom the ground had been leased." Further, the Committee " deemed it ex- pedient to purchase, at an expense of £2,000 two adjoining pieces of ground, in order that the future governors of the Institiition should not be restricted in their operations for want of .space." These pieces together, made " an acre and a quarter of land, being nearly half an acre more than the present site of St. George's Hospital." Within a fcAV yards of this large building, there is another charitable medical Institution, called the " Paddington Free Dispensary, for the Diseases of women and children." This Institution, also, is supported by voluntary contributions ; and a consulting physician ; a consulting surgeon; two physicians; a surgeon ; a dentist ; and a secretarj^ ; give their gratuitous services to this charity. The report of 1851, states that 6,280 patients had been " admitted during the last year;" the expenditure of the whole establishm(;nt being but £218 1 8«. Or^. in the same street — Market-street, — there is a " llefuge for 174 THE PAEISH POOE-HOTTSE, the Destitute" supported by voluntary contributions. Here the houseless poor, to the number of 100, may obtain a bed and breakfast during the winter months ; and here, winter and summer, the manager and his wife have been maintained for some years in very easy circumstances.'^' Por the regular poor of the parish, a very excellent house has been built, at a cost of £11,431 9s. lid., on a j)ortion of five and a quarter acres of "the Upper Readings," purchased of the Bishop of London and the trustees of the Paddiugton Estate for £5,168 15s. 0(l.\ — By an "extract from the statis- tical and financial statements of accounts of the Board of Guardians," I fijid that for the half year ending Michaelmas, 1851, the total number of paupers relieved was 1,054, viz. — in-door, 88 males; 126 females; 117 children. Out-door, 122 males; 289 females ; 312 children. The collective number of days being 37,171. I also find, from the same ofiicial docu- ment, that there was an increase of 36 in-door, and a decrease of 160 out-door paupers as compared with the corresponding half of the previous year ; that the total expenditure for the relief of the poor, amounted to £2,995 16s. O^d. ; that the sum of £1,130 10s. 8d. was repaid for " workhouse loan and in- terest ;" and that the whole cost of the establishment for this half-year was £4,237 16s. 8^d.— £4,500 having been called for to meet the expenditiu-e. The financial account closed with a balance in hand of £1,154 10s. Id. From the same kind of printed document, for the half-year ending lady-day, 1852, I find the total number of paupers re- lieved, was 1,070 ; viz., in-door, 70 males; 139 females; 101 children; out-door, 135 males; 290 females ; 335 children; being a decrease of 120 out, and 26 in-door paupers, as compared with the corresponding half of the previous year ; the collec- tive number of days, being 36,738. The in-maintenance and clothing for this half-year, amounted to £892 16s. 9d.; the "establishment and common charges," to £830 6s. 2|f?.; the out-relief to 1,056 7s. 10|fZ.; the limatic charges to £315 14s. 7d; and the extra medical fees to £27 4s. 0^., making the total expenditure for the relief of the poor this half-year £3, 1 22 9s. 5<:?. Payment of interest, registration fees, &c., increased this sum to £3,474 18s. lid. The amomit called for this half-year was £2,700 Os. Od., and £410 2s. Id., was the amount of balance in hand. * In consequence of the management of this Establishment not having been satis- factory to the subscribers, another Institution of a similar character has been established in the same street ; and it is to be hoped that this rivalry •wiU ensure the future good management of both. + These figures have been kindly furnished to me by Mr. Brown, the Clerk of the Board of Guardians, with their permission. THE LOCK HOSPITAL. 175 The Lock Hospital, which adjoins the Work-house, was removed from Grosvenor-phxce to its present site, in 18 42. This institution was founded in 1737, and no less tiian 60,502 patients have been treated at this Hospital since that date. The number of in-patients for 1851, was 388; of these 193 were females, and 195 males; during the same period 785 persons were attended to, as out-patients. Attached to this charity, and indeed forming an important portion of it, is "the Asylum." "The Lock Asylum was founded in the year 1787, by the Rev. Thomas Scott, the venerable commentator. It then occupied a building in connection with the old Lock Hospital. Li 1842, it was removed to its present site, and in 1848-9, enlarged to its present dimensions. When first founded, the Asylum received only sixteen inmates; in 1842, it was en- larged so as to receive twenty; it is now capable of con- taining 100. Since the foundation of the Asylum, 1,175 female patients of the Hospital have been admitted, a majority of whom have been provided vnth. situations, restored to their friends, or otherwise comfortably settled in life. There are now forty- seven in the Asylum. Needlework is taken in at the Asylum, and the payment for it constitutes a valuable addition to the receipts of the Institution. A laundry is open also for the washing of tliose families who may be willing, by sending the work, thus further to benefit the Asylum." Besides the chapel and the schools, which have sprung out of these charitable institutions, there are now connected with them and the chapel, the following societies, viz. The AVestboum Friendly Visiting Society, the "Westboum Provi- dent Bank, the Lock Sunday schools, the Chm-ch Missionary Association, the Juvenile Missionary Association, the Sunday School Children's Missionary Association, the Church of England Young Men's Society; and the London City Mission. The Public Establishments in Paddington, unconnected with particular forms of religion, are soon rocoimted : Here there are no places for rational amusement — unless indeed, we consider such places as "theElora tea-gardens," and "Bott's Bowling-green," to come under this designation. In that region of the parish still devoted to bull- dogs, and pet spaniels ; the bodies of broken-down carriages, old wheels, rusty grates, and old copper boilers; little gardens, and low miserable sheds; there is an establishment, \\'hioh boasts of 176 "WAIirT OF PUBLIC rNSTITTTTIONS. haying the tmlj attractive ghxss, in which " for the small charge of two-pence, any young lady may behold her future husband." But although such attractions as these exist, the youths who live on the celebrated Paddington Estate, have not to thank the lords of the soil for setting apart any portion of it for their physical improvement ; and yet for the efficient development both of mind and body, it is necessary that the physical condition of the young should be cared for. In Pad- dington, however, there is no public gymnasium; there is now no village-gi'een, worthy of the name ;* the young are not trained to use their motive powers to the best advantage; there are no public baths. And when, on the establishment of the baths and washhouses in Marylebone, the governing Body in Paddington was solicited to join in that useful work, that good office was rejected, and the people of Marylebone were permitted to carry out that necessary and useful undertaking by themselves. Perhaps the Paddington vestiymen thought there ought to be a bath, and a bath-room, in every house in Padddington ; if so they certainly thought rightly. But how many of these necessary adjuncts to a healthful home are to be found even on the Paddington Estate, and what steps have our local governors taken to supply this want in the houses of the poor ? In particular religious communities, the education of those who can no longer be called children, is beginnrng to be attended to, in some degree ; yet there is no public lecture room; no museum; no public reading room; no place of general instruction in Paddington, where Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, alike may meet to receive lessons from that foimtain of truth which ought to be open to all mankind, irrespectively of their private religious opinions. And yet in Paddington we see some of the most miraculous signs of the times. A city of palaces has sprung up on a bishop's estate within twenty years ; a road of iron, with steeds of steam, brings into the centre of this city, and takes from it in one year, a greater number of living beings than could be found in all England a few years ago. The electric telegraph is at Avork by the side of this iron road. And by means of conveyances, open to all who have any small change, from sixpence to a penny, the whole of London can be ti'a- * Kensington-gardens, and Hyde-pavk, are ^^ithin an easy distance of Paddington, it is true ; and the people see the necessity of mamtaining those true lungs of London ; so that these open spaces are not likely to be coYered by the mason. But these Royal Parks are kept for the promenades of those who can afford to ride on horses or in carriages, or who, if walking, can afford to dress well ; these therefore do not make up for the loss of the old village-green. PT7BLIC COMPANIES. 177 Termed in half the time it took to roach Holborn-bav at the beginning of this centuiy, when the road was in the hands of Mr. Miles, his pair-horse coach, and his redoubtable Boy. This coach and these celebrated characters were for a Ions: time the only appointed agents of communication between Paddington and the City. The joui-ney to the City was per- formed by them in something more than three hours ; the charge for each outside passenger, being two shillings, the ''insides" being expected to pay three. The delivery of par- cels on the line of road added very matei'lally to Mr. ililes's occupation and profit ; and I am informed that Miles' s Boy not only told tales, to the great amusement of his master's customers, but gave them some equally amusing variations on an old fiddle, which was his constant travelling companion, and which he carefully removed fi-om its green-baize covering, to beguile the time at every resting-place on the road. "When the Paddington omnibuses first started, the aristo- cracy of "The Green" were quite shocked at the disgrace thus brought on the parish ; and loud and long were their com- plaints to the vestry, and most earnest were their petitions to that body, to rid them of " the nuisance." Since that time, however, greater folks than those of " The Green " have not objected to be seated in these public vehicles ; and so useful and necessary to the ]niblic have they become, that one Company of Pi'oprietors of Paddington Omnibuses has had in use 700 horses at one time. And, if the Paddington omnibuses were improved, as they easily might be, they would be much more useful than they are at present. The gloiy of the first public Company which shed its influence over Paddington, has in a great measure departed ; the shares of the Grand Junction Canal Company are below par, though the traflic on this silent highway to Paddington, is still consider- able ; and the cheap trips into the country off'ei'cd by its means, during the summer months, are beginning to be highly appre- ciated by the people, Avho are pent in close lanes and alleys; and 1 have no doubt the shareholders' di^'idends would not be diminished by a more liberal attention to this want. If every one had their right, I am told thi-re would be a wharf, adjoining this canal, open free to the people of Pad- dington, for loading and unloading goods. It is certain that the old road to Harrow was never leased to the Grand Junc- tion Canal Company ; but a wharf, upwards of one hundred feet wide, now exists on a portion of that road ; and, as I am informed, the rent of this wharf is not received by the parish. 178 PXTBIIC COMPANIES, I was promised, twelve months since, that the claims of the parish to this wharf should be inquired into ; but as yet no such inquiry has been made. At the western extremity of the parish, there is an artesian well, to which the name of "the Western "Water "Works" has been given ; the water from which supplies the houses, which have been built on that clayey district. The west Middlesex, and the Grand Junction "Water "Works Companies supply the other parts of the parish. The Imperial Gas Company have supplied the paiish with gas, since its first introduction into Paddington, in 1824. A new station and hotel, now nearly finished, will make a fine terminus to the Great "Western Railway ; and add to the many showy buildings, which have been erected in Paddington, witiiiu the last few years. CHAPTER V. A REATl:-W OF THE CONDITION OF THE PAEISH AND THE PEOPLE, AT VARIOUS PERIODS OF THEIR HISTORY. Those people who have been the most completely governed by ecclesiastics, are proverbial for having made the slowest pro- gress in all the elements of knowledge which concern man ; and the people of Paddington formed no exception to that rule which has been found to hold good in other places. Here, as elsewhere, the spiritual governors of the people made but poor attempts to developc the mind; and those to whom they deputed this dutj-, took care to follow the example set them by their superiors. To keep the breath of life, the living soul, imder subjection by the agency of superstitious dogmas and by threats of ever- lasting pimishment, was attempted for ages, and is even now attempted ; but the world is freeing itself from the govern- ment of organised crafts; and it will soon be useless — ^in spite of all the vain efforts which are now being made — to attempt to teach the people that the greatest virtue is to helieve and ohey, without the exercise of reason ; and that the greatest vice consists in doubting the power of symbols to save. Although the people of Paddington lived at so short a dis- tance from the two rich cathedral marts of London and West- minster, they made no greater advances in civilization for many centuries, than did those who lived in the most remote village in England. Tlio few people who did live here, were wholly agricultural; and they owed every useful lesson of their lives, much more to their own intelligence and observation, than to any instruction given them by those who were well paid to bo their teachers. 180 POPULATION OF PADDINGTON IN 1524; Paddington, however, is no longer what it was ; the lay element, independent of all craft, has thoroughly diffused itself through the country; and its advent in this place, though attended with much cunning, was the real cause of the wonderful transformation which has taken place here within the last half-century. The Eeformation and the Revolution added to the numbers and importance of the people ; and the execrable act of that vain braggart, Avho wildly called himself the State, not only increased the population of Paddington, but brought out to useful purpose the christian virtues of the residents of this village. Here, on the revocation of the edict of IS^antes, many of the exiled protestants of Prance found a home, which had been denied them by their great King; and here, too, the memory of their sufferings and virtues will be kept green, so long as one of their graves shall be permitted to remain in the Old Church-yard. It is impossible to tell what number of persons live(i in this parish, at any one period proAdous to the present century. The oldest Parish Register, now to be found in Paddington, is dated 1701; and all the wiitten proceedings of the rate-payers in vestry assembled, previous to the second of April, 1793, are said to have been burnt, lost, stolen or destroyed. The only sources from which I have been able to form any conjecture respecting the ancient population of Paddington, are, there- fore, necessarily very imperfect, and open to many objections. By the Subsidy Polls, however, we discover the names of those who were rated in particular places, at different periods, when the respective subsidies were levied ; and although their tombstones may have crumbled inti di;st, or may have been removed by Act of Parliament, and iold " for the best price that could be got," yet in these tax-] ipers their names may receive a notice which will, for ci atvuics, preserve their memories. Prom the Subsidy Roll of the sixteenth year of Henry the eighth, I find that twenty persons, then living in Paddington, were taxed for the subsidy levied that year, although the amount of tax collected in this parish was but forty-eight shillings. All the heads of families might not have been included in this levy ; but, if we suppose that all Avere in- cluded, and that each of these twenty persons represented a family, and if we calculate finiher five individuals for each family, we shall make the population of Paddington, in 1524, one himdrcd; which in all probability, was not very much under, or over, the number at that date. AXD THE SYSTEM OF TAXATION. 181 The value of land, goods, and -wages, on which, this siim was assessed, amounted to £77 65. 8d. But if these descrip- tions of property were all charged in this Subsidj-, they were not taxed in the same proportion, on the capital sum assessed ; for, although the wages of the labourer were taxed, they were taxed at only onc-and-a-quarter per cent. ; wliile goods were charged two-and-a-half per cent. ; and land five per cent. So that, three hundred years ago, a more equitable property- tax existed, than that which is the result of present legislative wisdom. In the thirty-fifth year of the same reign, the valuation fOr this parish was raised to £272 13s. 4d. Fifteen families only, however, were included in the subsidy for this year — land and goods alone being charged. In a Subsidv Roll, of the thii-tv-ninth of Elizabeth, Maiw- lebone and Paddington are united, to produce a small sum. In a Subsidy made in the eighteenth year of James the fii-st, the name of Sir Eowland St. John occurs, as I have before observed ; and, as this is the first time I find the name of a lessee of the manor on these Rolls, I am inclined to think Sir Rowland was the first lessee, who lived on the Paddington Estate. It was not the son of Sir Rowland, but another OKver St, John, a relative of this EJaight of the Bath, to whom the people owed so deep a debt of gratitude. That man of noble birth and noble mind, ojijposed the Tyranny of his time, not only in thought, but in word and deed ; for he was one of the brave soldiers of that army, which fought and bled for the liberties we now enjoy ; and the people of Paddington who preserved the sacred mound of liberty, which they erected within sight of his relatives' windows, must have felt them- selves ennobled, when the Lion settle echoed his valorous deeds. The people of Paddington knew the value of liberty, if their lords did not ; and the public houses which were the only celebrated institutions in this rural village, were theh' debating clubs. Two, at least, were in existence, before " the house for two tenants " was occupied by the lord or his lessees ; for they claim to have been established before the Reformation. There arc three Lions still in Paddington, each contending for the most ancient origin. The "AYhitc Lion," in the Edgeware-road, was established, according to the date on its present facade, in 1524 — the year in which hops were first per- mitted to be imported, to preserve our beer. The " Red Lion," in the Edgeware-road, near the commencement of the Har- 182 PUBLIC HOUSES. row-road, claims a more ancient date for its establisliment. In one of its old wooden chambers, taken down some few years ago to make room for the present house, tradition tells us Shakspeare played ;* and many a story has been told of the haunted chamber in this house, as well as of that in the Manor House. The other ancient "Lion," also " Red," is situated in the Harrow-road, having taken up its present position as near to its old quarters, as the alteration in that road would permit. This house was formerly situated near the bridge which carried the Harrow-road over the bourn ; and was, as I conceive, the property described in an Inquisition, held the second year of Edward the sixth, — vide p. 51 — as the "two tenements, called the Bridge-House." There is a younger Lion, "Black," but still of some pre- tensions to antiquity, standing in the Uxbridge-road ; there is also an ancient "Pack Horse," in the Harrow-road ; and at the corner of Old Church -street, in the Edge ware-road, there is a " Wheat Sheaf," which has the credit of having frequently entertained honest and learned Ben Johnson ; so that, if learn- ing and science were not allowed to flourish in the chm'ches and other public buildings of Paddington, the ale houses, in some degree, attempted to supply the defect. From the Index Vtllaris of 1690, I find there were "more than thi'ee gentlemen's seats " in Paddington, at that date. Probably there were four — ^Westbourn Manor House ; Pad- dington Manor House ; Desborough House ; and Little Shafts- bury House ; the two latter names pointing out their original occupants. Although I am not now able to offer any positive evidence in proof of Desborough House having belonged to the celebrated Colonel, who was related to Cromwell, and whose doings in the Commonwealth are so well knoT^Ti, yet I have met vrith many circumstances which incline me to this belief. Lysons tells us that Little Shaftesbury House was built by " The Earl of Shaftesbmy, author of the Characteristics, or his father the Chancellor." There can be no doubt but the population of Paddington was considerably increased, when the manor and rectory fell into lay hands ; and by making the same computation as before — five members for each family, f we shall find that *The account of this tradition is preserved in "Ferrers." +Mr. Macaulay teUs us from the best authority, " that there were in the City at this time fifty-five persons to ten houses." But many causes would combine to make the families in a village less numerous than in a city ; I have therefore taken five individuals, instead of five and a half, in the computations 1 have made for the population of Paddington. POPULAnOli IN 1685. 183 by 1685, it had increased to upwards of three-huudrcd ; for, in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth Charles the second, sixty-two persons are charged for 267 fire-hearths in Pad- dington : John Ashley, the gentleman who made the greatest smoke in the parish at that time, being charged for sixteen, Jolin Hubbard is not included in this impost ; for he did not live to see all the good results produced by the Restoration, having died, according to his tombstone, in 1665, " aged 111 years."* Lysons has omitted to notice this patriarch in his list of cases of longevity. Whether he abstained from doing so, because John was m some way related to the venerable lady of that name, and because his tomb was too well known to require mention, I cannot say. Seeing, however, this tomb exists when others of more recent date are not to be found, I am inclined to believe some such historical interest must have attached to it, or it would have shared the fate of others. At all events, from John's Diary, if he kept one, many a story as good as Old Mother Hubbard's could have been made. In another part of the church-yard, on the end of a plain, flat stone, we may read these words : — Sacred to the Memory of Sarah Siddons, who departed this life, June 8th, 1831, in her 76th year. " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." Mrs. Siddons lived at one time in Paddington ; but Mr. Cunningham tells us, in his Hand-book for London, that the pretty little house and grounds which she occupied, were destroyed, to make room for the Great Western Railway; Desborough Lodge, however, in which I am informed she lived, still stands in the Harrow-road, a little south and east of the second Canal bridge. f Poor Haydon, who devoted " forty- two years to the im- provement of the taste of the English people in high art," lived in Paddington ; and his shattered corpse was placed near the spot, where Mrs. Siddons was buiied. At no great distance, Collins, the painter of English coast and cottage scenery, lies. And Dr. Geddes, the " Translator of the Historical Rooks of the Old Testament," was buried in Paddington Church-j'ard. • This is not only the oldest person huried in the chureh-yard, so far as is known, but it is the oldest tomb now existing in it. Some time ago, an engraved l oppcr-plato, in memory of Henry KenwTicke, citizen and mercer, was found several feet below the presi nt surface : he died December 23rd, lfi39, aged G3. + Madame Vcstris and her husband, Mr. Charles Matthews, also occupied this house for some time. 184 LAWS. His surviving friends could engrave on his tombstone the following sentence from his works : — " Christian is my name, and Catholic my surname ; I grant that you are a Christian as well as I, and embrace you as my fellow disciple of Jesus ; and if you were not a disciple of Jesus, still I would embrace you as my fellow man " Yet, because he dared to express his honest conviction, as to the real origin of the Books he had taken so much trouble to translate, he was condemned and despised by many zealots, who thought their hatred a Christian act ; and ' ' public censure was passed upon him by the Vicar Apostolic, of the London district." The Life of this great scholar, and good man, was published by Dr. Mason Good, in 1803. Banks the sculptor ; the elder George Barret ; Merlin the mechanist ; the careful sculptor Nollekins, and his father ; the Marquis of Lansdowne, Avithout a word to mark his tomb, and many other notables ; lie buried in this church and church- yard. But, although thoughts are to be picked up, by day as well as by night, in a ramble among the tombs, it is not my intention to copy all the grave-stones, or to encroach on the province of the biographer, or village barber, if there be one such useful gossip still remaining among us. For a sketch of a people, whether forming a parish or a nation, it is better to go to their laws, and observe the effects those laws have produced ; than to rely on any description of individuals, dead or living. With the exception of the ancient customs of the place, the common law of the land was the light which guided the people of Paddington, down to the middle of the last century. Then, as we have already seen, began the enactment of special laws, — laws which altered the relations between those who had duties to perform, and those who had rights and privileges to protect. Previous to 1753, the people of this parish managed their own affairs without external aid, the influential inhabitants exercising their influence here, as influential people in all quarters of the world have done, either for their own, or the public good, according as their selfish passions, or the Eternal Truth, prevailed within them. Eiches had their weight, as well as reason, even before Sturges Bourne and his system of plural voting, came to regulate and measui'e the powers of mammon in local elections. But in every system of govern- ment, the selfish rely on ignorance, more than on any other agent, for the preservation of their powers. When the igno- rant, however, as well as the Avise, were free to speak on local STUEGES BOTTRXe's ACT. 185 affairs, many unwelcome truths, M-hich did not fall from the lips of the ordained teachers, must have reached the eai's of "the jobbers," within the walls of St. Katherine's, St. James's, and St. Mary's. The meetings of the people, in these sainted places, for the transaction of their parish business, were open to all the inhabitants of the parish ; and no local biu'den could be imposed without the sanction of the majority. Xo wonder, then, that those who did not reside in the parish, but Avho had determined to impose burdens on all those who did, should call to their aid a power never before felt by the people of Paddington : one, against which it was useless to rebel ; and from the justice of which there was no appeal. Private Act followed private Act, for the regulation of property, over which the people saw and felt, they had no control. And, when at length their voices were raised in no measured cadence, some against this grievance, others against that, the church was said to be desecrated, and polite ears could no longer listen to such a babel of tongues. A gag was provided. " A select vestiy" was the instrument used. And among the many unjust and unwise laws " passed, to keep down the people, from 1817 to 1820, the most dis- graceful era in our legislation," " An Act for the regulation of parish vestries," better known as " Sturges Bourne's Act," is to be found. In this Act there arc, without doubt, provisions which were much required for the "regulation of parish vestries;" but I have never yet heard any reason, worthy a moment's consideration, for the introduction of the third clause into that Act. This clause gives "one vote and no more" to all persons rated for property "not amounting to fifty pounds," and adds one vote "for twenty-five pounds of annual rent, &c." But " so, nevertheless, that no inhabitant shall be enti- tled to give more than six votes." The principle, " that pro- perty should be properly represented," is thus absurdly carried out: all those rated at £50 per annvmi, have double the amount of influence of those rated at £49; while those rated at £500, have no more power in the local election, than those rated at £150. But to such miserable shifts as these must legislation condescend, as soon as it swerves from the eternal principles of justice. Is it not of as much concern to the poor rate-payer, as to the rich, that the parish funds shall be well expended ? And who can shew that the wisdom of a man can be measured by the size of his house ; or by the amount he contributes to the poor-rate ? On the fourth of April, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Crane, the Lord 186 THE LOCAX ACT. Bishop of Exeter, and other influential inhabitants managed to establish "a select vestry" in Paddingtou; in which they and their friends had all the talk as well as all the work to them- selves. But if this select body prevented the people talking, they prevented their eating also. The glorious parish dinners, at which the parish officers and their friends had rejoiced at the people's expense, were discontinued by the bishop and his fi'iends, in 1821 ; much to their credit be it spoken, seeing that at the beginning of this year it was discovered that there were no less than 824 persons in the parish who claimed relief as paupers — more than one-eighth of the whole population — and that out of these, thanks to the cottages, there were 635 legally settled on the parish. In May, 1821, a general meeting of the inhabitants was called to consider, amongst various other things, the propriety of petitioning the House of Commons for a general law, to regulate the formation and maintenance of the highways on the north-west side of the metropolis; and so much was such an Act required, that it was resolved unanimously to petition. But when the petition was read, and considered, it was found to be so objectionable that it was as unanimously rejected. And by the thirtieth of March, 1822, the inhabit- ants had seen quite enough of the select vestry system; for on that day, when called on to re-appoint it for another year, they would not do so. But on the first of April, 1823, power was given to a committee of rate -payers to procure a local Act. A draft-bill was prepared by an experienced Parliamentary counsel, which was left in the hands of the vestry-clerk, for the inspection of the inhabitants ; and it is said to have received " their cordial approbation." Whether that clause which has compelled the people of Paddingtou, to elect their local governors, under the system of plural votes, received their approbation, we are not told; neither is it brought down to us by any authentic record, how many read and digested an Act, which contains no less than one hundred and fifty-five clauses, and occupies eighty printed Act-of- Parliament-pages. Whether its provisions were understood or not, however, the fifth of George the IV., chapter 126, received the sanction of the legislature on the seventeenth of June, 1824, and since that date all the provisions which have met with the approval of those who have been elected under it, have been carried into effect. The cost of procuring this Act, is said to have been. £1,088 14s. 6d. SELF-GOVEEXMEST. 187 Diu'ing these two years of select rule — from 1820 to 1822 — tlie path had been paved for the introductiou of this local Act. A committee had been appointed early in 1822, to inquire into its expediency; spacious vestry premises and other offices had been built on a portion of the garden belonging to the alms-houses ; and other preparations had been made to eflfectu- ally take the management of the local afiairs out of the hands of the people. To find la\rs so comprehensive and wise, as not to require the tinker at every little exigency, which may arise in every little portion of the community, must surely be a proof of the wisdom of a people. To find it necessary, constantly to alter general laws ; and constantly to be called on to " stop gaps" by rotten bits of special legislation, which scarcely wear a single session, must as surely betoken want of foresight in the law-makers; or the approaching end of that system, which rests on so sandy a foundation. Five and twenty Acts of Parliament, at the least, have been passed specially to affect the property and people of Paddington ; and when we think of these, in connection with the laws which apply to the people in general, we may not be surprised to find, now and then, even a local governor, elected \inder the aristocratic provisions of Sturges Bourne's Act, lost amidst this heap of legislative wisdom. Local self-government, and local taxation, are questions of the day ; and are slowly, but surely, forcing themselves on the consideration of those who have to direct the affairs of " an Empire on which the sun never sets." Centralization, too, is under consideration ; and, although in the objectionable sense in which this idea is generally un- derstood, it has received the condemnation of the most acute thinkers of the present and past time, still it is supported by learned and powerful advocates, who profess to understand what government really is or ought to be. In every sense tlieso subjects demand the attention of the people — not only on accoimt of the enormous revenue annually raised by local taxation; but because all forms of government are in the crucible, and it is desirable for the benefit of all, that the best elements should be eliminated. For the inhabitants of a particular parish or district to be permitted to cany out a general law which has been enacted •by a whole people, according to the peculiar circumstances of their local condition, is a very different thing from giving to that district special pri\dlcges and laws, which may, and most 188 SELF-GOVEENMEIfT. likely would, become inimical to the public good. The cir- cumstances of almost every place in England have so changed — not to say since their ancient municijxil laws were enacted, but within tlie last few years — that radical alterations are abso- lutely demanded ; and tinkering must soon end. But the spirit of self-government, and the desire for it, can never die, so long as the people understand the true value of liberty. And no system of centralization for the management of local affairs, can ever be rendered so palatable to the people ot England, as to induce them to endure it, till mismanagement has attained a still higher point than it has yet reached — a consummation many causes are now at work to secure ; — or till the people have greater power over the actions of those who regulate the expenditure of the country — a principle of justice which must ultimately prevail. That the whole of the people of Paddington, Marylebone, and Pancras, (at the last census, upwards of 371,000 souls,) should have but two "places and voices," in the Commons' House of Parliament, while a few hundred in other districts, have the same direct power over the legislative and executive administration of this country, is so monstrous a wrong, that some may imagine the people, who quietly submit to such anomalies, have reached a point at which power may be safely centred in a few hands. These are they, however, who do not clearly discern the signs of the times. Any thing resem- bling the tyranny of an absolute monarchy, or the despotism of a well-paid and idle oligarchy, is as detestable now, as ever it was to that people, who from theii' childhood are taught to adore liberty for its own sake, as well as for the fruits it brings forth. The Saxon people are patient, and endure much ; but to educate their children to look upon thraldom as liberty, will never be permitted in England ; and cannot much longer be tolerated in. other countries. Till private legislation interested itself in the affairs of the people of Paddington, the local government must have been of the simplest kind. They had, indeed, little to trouble them- selves about on this score. Their church was provided for, very badly, it is true, by those who took care of the revenues which were given for its support; so that the churchwardens were not troubled with the collection of chui"ch -rates; and they had no archdeacon's visitations to attend ; so that no troublesome questions could be put to them by this once useful and important officer of the church. The overseer was equally unejnployed ; for at no time previous to the latter part of the THE PARISH IX THE LAST CENTTJKY. 189 last century, could there have been many poor. The cultiu-e of the laud, and its attendant duties, found occupation and a living lor all. Alms-houses for the aged and infirm were built, as we hare seen, in 1714 ; but no other sort of poor-house was requii'ed ; for the onlj- idle people in the ixu-ish were the few rich families, who were privileged to live on the industry of others. Ey the middle of the last century, nearly the whole of this parish had become grazing-land. In 1795, according to Lysons, there were upwards of eleven hundred acres of grass- land in Paddington ; eight)' four and a half acres only being arable, or garden-ground. And for a long period, the people who occupied the bishop's estate in Paddington, were as cele- brated for the quantity or quality of their milk, as they are now for the number and size of their houses. One persevering and handsome guardsman, who had contrived to gain the good graces of a grazier's daughter, congregated cows here to such an extent, that all London rang -R-ith the number. " Nine himdred and ninety-nine" could he keep, but the black boggles always killed or ran away with his thousandth. ■'• Whether these sprites were in league Avith, or in any way connected with, " Black Meggie," who always lay in the cow-shed at the comer of TybomTi Field, when not on duty, I cannot pretend to say. I am informed by a gentleman who was bom in this parish, and who is no longer young in years, that he has heard the Tripod, which is represented in llocque's maps, as standing at the junction of the Edgeware with the Ux- bridge-road, was only placed there when the good old English oracle had to execute her judgments thereon. And that this "three-legged mare," Black Meggie by name, was only a poor temporary substitute for the more ancient and formal "Tybourn Tree" which had been cut down by some daring fellows the « • This story was told of .several cowkeepers in the neighbourhood of Lon(;on ; and an old, and oft repeated tale, is told of one of this prazier's workmen. The young man who married the heiress, turned out a terrible old miser, and his penurious habits, as a matter of course, made liiin no great favourite with those whom lie em- ployed ; therefore his final exit from this world w as not much regretted by tlicm. " I'retty Jolinny," the Guardsman's son, was not of tlie same turn of mind as his father, and his failings and faults were looked (m with a more lenient ey by the people. What the father had saved with so much care, the .son delighted to spend ; and after the old gentleman's death, the magic number of live stock soon vanished from the fie'.ds. A few cows were sold to sujjiily any immediate want ; and after a greater demand on one oeca.sion, than ordinary, Pretty Johnny was not in the best of tem- pers. This lazy old fellow, who liad by some chance found out for what purpose the cows were sold, happened to cross his rath at this unlucky moment, and the grazier who saw the wicked twinkle in the fellow's eye, swore, if he did'iit get out of the ■way and go on with his work, he would send him to the devil. —The countryman nothing (launted, quietly rejoined, "You'd better not, master; for if you do, I'll tell daddy you've sold the cows." 190 THE PARISH i::? the last centttrt; night before it "vras to have been put in requisition for the benefit of a string of their friends. " Tyboum tree" had been removed from its old quarters, as we have already seen, and had been firmly erected, before Black Moggie's time, as one of the institutions of the country, on that which is now the Marylebone side of the Edgeware-road. At the beginning of the last century, next to the beautifixl fields and quiet village, the gallows and the gibbet were the principal attractions in Paddington. At the bcgiiming of this, "Tomlin's jSTew Town;" the collection of cottages, west of St. George' s-row ; a row of gardens, and a large bowling-green, by the side of the Edgeware-road, between Tybourn tunipike, and Paddington, were called into exist- ence. These changes, in conjunction with the grand canal of Paddington,* obliterated in a few years the work of cen- turies ; and succeeded not only in altering the whole aspect of the place, but in infusing another element of social life into the people. Lysons, wiiting in 1794, says "this parish being chiefly church-land, there has been but little increase of buildings till about four years ago ; since which time a number of small wooden cottages, to the amount of nearly one himdi'ed, have been erected a little north of Tybourn turnpike. These cottages are let at fr'om £7 to £12 per annum, and inhabited principally by journe^Tnen artificers who work in London, forming with their families a small colony of about 600 persons." In the second edition of Lysons' "Work, published in 1811, he tells us these cottages were begun to be built in 1790. And he was informed by Mr. Pickering, the cui-ate at that time, that before the second census was taken, they had in- creased to 600. In Horwood's large and beautiful plan of London, dated 1799, we find that a part of this colony, that lot of cottages built nearly opposite George-street, was called Tomlin's 'New Town. We see, too, that St. George's row was built at this time ; that to the west of it a large building, called Trafl^lgar, existed ; and that another plot of land had been covered with cottages. So that some portion of this colony was added to * BjTon has said "there •would be nothing to make the canal of Venice, more poetical than that of Paddington, were it not for its artificial adjuncts." Vide Cun- ningham's Hand-book. The artificial adjuncts of tlie Paddington Canal, from its first formation to the present time, have been any thing but poetical. It is true an imaginative Cockney might, in snowy weather, have Imbibed his notion of the Alps from what he then saw on the banks of this canal ; for immense heaps of dust and ashe« towered high above the house-tops ; and these artificial mountains are said to have been worth ten thousand pounds a-piece. AXB THE COiniEXCEMEXT OF THIS. 191 the people of Paddington, and these tenements to the Tyboum Field, before the bishop's first Building Act, was passed. "Whether these wooden houses were built in anticipation of that Act, by some one who had heard the tale of the tinker, who lit his fire, and boiled his pot, and erected his shed, all in one night, at the corner of old Church-street ; and who could not be dispossessed of that land which he had so magically acquia-ed ; (a tradition which appears to have some reference tothe establishment of Paedings New Town,) or whether these miserable sheds were built by the direction of the ground landlords, to give them a telling argument in favour of their private Act, — I cannot say. Both landlord and tenant, how- ever, found the power of a modern private Act of Parliament, and the "journeymen artificers" had to "move on," in order that Connaught-terrace, and better houses for the rich, might be built. The gTeater part of the enormous increase in the population between 1801 and 1811, was caused by the erec- tion of these cottages, so veiy ill-suited for preserving^ health and life. They were soon filled, however, by the poorer class from the crowded parts of London; for pm-e air is more relished by the poor, than that which is fetid and foul, whatever the rich may say to the contraiy. Give them but an opportunity of getting it, and see how greedily it is embraced; unless, indeed, the demoralizing effect of generations of bad education is brought into opera- tion, to counteract this natural instinct. As fast as these cottages in the open fields were built, they were occupied ; although those who were to reap the greater benefit of this more profitable occupation of the land, had made no provision for effective di'ainage, security from cold and wet, or for proper ventilation : — essentials, without which aU sanatary laws are put absolutely at defiance, however well the situa- tion of a town may be chosen, or however provident the bountiful Giver of all good may have been in sending storms and winds, to disperse the natural accumulation of uu whole- some gases in certain localities. Messrs. Pulford and Erlam, two surveyors, in their report to the vestiy on the state of these cottages, in 1816, say, "we cannot refrain from thus recording our expression of regret, that the ground-landlords sliould be so inordinate in their demands. Tlie effect of which is, the buildings are ill- calculated to afford shelter from the inclemency of the weather, and the want of drainage and conseciuent damp produce disease, filth, and wretchedness." And so, these Paddington 192 THE COTTAGES. cottages, which were for so many years so prominent a feature in the parish, and which were so. much sought after by the poor, as a sort of country-retreat, were in fact, the generators of "disease, filth, and wretchedness." During the long winter-evenings, the muddj^ roads which led to these cottages, were in total darkness, unless " the parish lantern" chanced to offer its acceptable light; and there is no doubt but that so long as these cottages remained they were the hot-beds of fevers and ague. A gentleman, who was for many years parish-surgeon, informs me that during the time these cottages existed, he was I'arely without cases of these diseases ; the latter disease was always endemic ; and at times the former put on a fearfully epidemic character. Still these detached and semi-detached cottages on the Bishop's Estate were better than ihe close streets of town, though these were more than sufficiently imliealthy ; but what cared those who profited by this disease and misery, and their natural accom- paniment, crime, so long as their rents were paid ? The poor and the ignorant did not know "the extent of their misfortune ;" or if they did, the majority "did not seem to grumble at their lot, or to think it hard." If a voice of com- plaint was occasionally heard, the generous landlord said, " it came from an ill-conditioned, discontented wretch, whom it was useless to attempt to satisfy ; and the sooner he left the parish, the better." Cries, indeed, from the feeble and the timid went up to heaven for redress, and heaven alone was left to answer them. The ground-landlords, at length, seeing the cottages had served their turn, made an attempt to remove this evil, by clearing them away ; and manj' a bitter curse was uttered by those who were evicted; for in the simplicity of their dealings they had made no legal provision for compensation for capital invested ; and, although some compensation was granted by the Great Western Railway Company to the small tenants they displaced, yet the ground-landlords did not follow their example ; and down to the present time, no dream of comfort- able and healthful lodgings for the poor on their estate, has even entered their heads; no, not even the idea of a "Thanks- giving Building," so far as we know by any sign that has been given. Another source of disease and death was to be found on the banks of the Paddington canal, which was opened with so much eclat, on the lOtli of July, 1801. Ko less than 20,000 people came to Paddington, to hurrah the POOE-EATES. 193 mighty men who so altered the aspect of this quiet village ; aad who, iu doiii^ so, offered to the Londoner a new mode of transit for his goods. Unfortunately, for the people of Pad- dington, on the banks of this canal were stowed many other commodities than " dry goods." Xot only the dust and ashes, but the tilth of half London were brought to " that stinking Paddington," (as it was now called,) for convenience of removal. The time of removal w.is made to suit the convenience of those who traded in these contaminating materials ; but the living sensitive nerves and active blood corpuscules of the people who dwelt near its banks, were not considered. And so, instead of having no doctor in the parish, as was the case within the memory of many now living in it, both doctor and sexton found full employ. That this is no over-drawn picture of the condition of Paddington for the first quarter of the present century, there is plenty of evidence to prove. The disbursements of churchwardens and overseers, in 1793, two years before the passing of the Bishop's Building Act, amounted to £402 6s. Ik^. ; but the overseer's accoimt alone, in 1815, amounted to £3,375 12s. 4.d. And although there were more to pay the rates, still, even at the later date, many of the cottages were not rated at all ; and the greatest difficulty was experienced in squeezing out of the hard earnings of the poor men who occupied them, the small pittance (to them a great sum,) which was at length obtained, towards defraying these serious local charges. In 1803, eight years after the Bishop's fu'st Building Act was obtained, the assessment of Paddington was £9,966 10$. and the first poor-rate, levied under this assessment, was one shilling and three-pence in the pound. This valuation, how- ever, was only one-thii'd of the rental of 272 tenements; the smaller tenements not having been rated at all. The over- seers' account, this year, amounted to £701 16.s. 7d.; and it increased annually till 1811, when it was reported to the rate- payers at large, at their annual meeting on Easter Tuesday, that the expenses of supporting the poor have increased foiu"- fold, in the last sixteen years. No wonder, then, that the sensible inhabitants of Pad- dington, Avho saw what the Bishop's Building Acts were doing for the bishop and his lessees, and who felt, in a verj' tender point, what they were doing for themselves as rate- payers, should be anxious that those, who derived so much benefit from the parish, should bear some share in the iu- 194 CONTEIBTITIOIf OF THE BISHOP. creased expenses. But alfhough all the expenses of tlie church, and the poor had been so considerately transferred fii'om the owners of the Paddington Estate, to the pockets of the rate-payers ; and although the additional claim of the poor was excessive, yet it Avas not till the twenty- seventh of October, 1807, that the rate-payers in vestiy assembled, "resolved that the Lord Bishop, in respect of the great tithes is rateable, and that he be rated accordingly." One Avould have thought that tlie bishop, and his lessees, knowing all this — knowing that the " expenses of supporting the poor, had increased fourfold in the last sixteen years (that is, since the Act of 1795, dui'ing which time their income from the land had increased, perhaps in a like proportion) and that the same has arisen, in a great measure, from the necessity of constant and casual relief to paupers residing in small tenements built upon the Bishop of London's Estate;" knowing that they had received £2,263 7s. 6d., for land to increase the burial ground, — a purchase made necessary prin- cipally on account of this great increase in the number of paupers, and the conditions under which they were placed : Knowing, I say, all these things; for to not one could they have pleaded ignorance, it is barely believeable that these legal protectors of the church and of the poor should have refused this legal demand. Yet most certainly they did so; and further, put the parishioners to the unpleasant necessity of applying to a barrister, learned in the law, for his opinion on this point. By the vestry minutes, dated November 3rd, 1810, we find that Mr. Const, " ajjjxrehends the Lord Bishop is liable to the poor-rate for the tithes both of the lands, belonging to the See, in occupation of other persons, and those for which a composition is received." And accord- iugiy in January, 1811, the Bishop of London is rated in the new assc^ Sinent made that year, upon £462, the esti- mated annual value of the great tithes. As the land became more valuable, this burdensome charge could not be endured. The agents of the bishop advise "merging," and "commutation;" and, after the performance of these feats, on the twenty- third of July, 1844, the vestry receive a letter from Messrs. Budd and Hayes, informing them, " the Tithes of the Paddington Estate have been merged, and that the rent-charge for the tithes of the rest of the parish is £166 13s. 8f^." And they considerately mention this, "in order that the futui'e rates may be assessed with reference to that sum, after mahing inoper deductions, and not on the amount they have been hitherto assessed upon." A^TD niS LESSEES TO THE POOR-RATE. 195 Whereupon tlie 'poor bishop and his lessees are relieved from some of the great chai'ges laid on them, for the support of the poor; the vestry resolving to assess " the tithes of the Pad- dington Estate in future, at £166, instead of £340, as heretofore !" At the end of 1810, it was found that out of a rental of £5,200 paid by the cottagers, only £535 of this Avas rated to the poor ; aud that the average of all the assessments in the parish, was but two-thirds of the real value ; some being rated at one-third, others at one-half, and others at five-twelfths of the full value. The value of the property, as assessed in 1811, was £28,597, the assessment having been t;tkcn on 865 separate tenements. From the census of this year, 1811, I find that 4,609 persons then living in the parish, constituted 1,083 families, occupj-ing 879 houses. In 1812, out of 935 dwelling-houses, only 393 were rated to the poor ; " the rest being miserable huts, occu- pied by paupers and very poor people." In 1821 there were 1,448 families in Paddington, four of whom are returned in the census of that j'ear as being agri- cultural. In the same year *here were 824 persons claiming relief as paupers ; and the sum of £37 7s. Zd. was paid weeldy for out-door and casual relief. In 1825 the assessment of this parish was £46,245 13s. \d. ; and in 1831 it had increased to £71,528 18s. The rates levied in the former year, amounted to £6,025 10s. 8|f^. ; in the latter, to £14,691 16s. b\d. The number of families, accord- ing to the census of 1831, was 3,493. In 1841 Paddington was in union with Kensington, Hammersmith, and Fulham, and I find the average of the establislimcnt charges for three years for Paddington, set down at £2,712. The transition-state from an agricultural ^dllage to the fashionable Tyburnia, was no very agreeable time for the majority of those -who lived in Paddington. "When the cot- tages were swept away, and the heavy poor-rates which they had entailed, were diminished, new burdens sprang up, scarcely less grievous. Rents became enormous ; the Highway, "Watching, and Lighting rates were excessive ; and these were rendered more oppressive on account of those, who received the greatest benefit from the causes which necessitated the gi'cater expenditure, not bearing their just share of this local taxation. And yet the local Act had made some sort of provision for an eqiiitaljle adjustment of these expenses. Unlurlunately, however, for the majority of the rate-payers, o2 196 CLAUSE or THE LOCAL ACT the election of those, who had to carry into execution the pro^dsions of that Act, viz., the election of vestrymen, was not in their hands. That clause of Sturges Bourne's Act, which gave four votes to those who were rated at £100; five votes to those who were rated at £125 ; and six votes to all those rated at £150 ; placed the election in the hands of the minority ; and, as that minority was much more interested in the success of the building-speculations which were in prcgress, than in that just and wise economy, which was advantageous to the majority of the rate-payers, one of the most impoitant clauses in the local Act, was for years, and still is, disregarded. This, the 132nd clause of that Act, is as follows : "And whereas it has happened and may happen that Houses and other Buildings within the said Parish have been or may be began to be built, but not finished nor let, and it is reasonable that such Houses and Buildings should be rated and assessed for the Purposes of paving, watching, and light- ing ; be it therefore further enacted. That until such Houses or other Buildings which noAv are or hereafter may be built or in building shall be finished and tenanted, (if the Street, Square, Lane, or other Place wherein such House or other Biiilding is or shall be situated shall be paved, repaired, cleansed, and lighted by virtue and in pursuance of this Act,) it shall and may be lawful--' to and for the said Vestry to rate and assess all such Houses and other Buildings situate within the said Parish as are or shall be erected and covered in, but not finished nor let, either by One or more distinct Assess- ment or Assessments, or by including them in any other Assessment or Assessments, at a Bate not exceeding Sixpence for everj^ Square Yard of Ground paved or to be paved belcnging to or lying before the Fronts or Sides of such Houses or other Buildings, and in like Manner and for the like Purposes to rate and assess all such Houses or other Buildings as last menticned which are or shall be erected but not covered in, at a Bate not exceeding Four-pence for every Square Yard of Ground paved or to be paved by virtue of this Act, and belonging to or lying before the Fronts or Sides of such Houses or other Buildings, until the same shall be covered in, as aforesaid, and then at a Bate not exceeding Four-pence for * In going through the Vestry Minute-Eooks, for the purposes of this Work, I foun'l an ojinion of Sir Frederick Pollocks entered in Kovtniber 1841 (at which time the builders and owners ot houses were attmipting to relieve themselves ot the charge of all J.mi.lij Lutes) to the tfl'cet that thtse words, "it shall a:id may be lawlul," created a duty. But I wis astonished to find the opinion mutilated by a bmnjiis atttiupt \^hicL bad been made to sciatch out the woius, ''and may." FOE KATI>G rXFlSISBED BtJILDI>'GS. 1'. 7 every Square Tard until the same shall he let or occupied ; which last-mentioDed Eates cr Assessments shall he paid by and recoverable IVoni the Proprietor or Proprietors, Lessee or Lessees, Owner or Owners of such House or Houses, Building or Buildings ix'spcctively, and shall be charged and chaigeabie on the said Premises ; and if the said Owner or Owners, Proprietor or Proprietors, Lessee or Lessees, shall refuse or neglect to pay the same, .upon Demand, then and in every such Case such Kate or Eates, Assessment or Assessments, and all Arrears due thereon, shall and may be levied on tie Goods and Chattels of the Person or Persons so required to pay the same in manner herein directed ; and in case the Owner or Owners, Proprietor or Proprietors, Lessee or Lessees of such House or Houses, Building or Buildings, shall not be known or cannot be found, then the said Eate or Eates, Assessment or Assessments made thereon, shall be and remain charged and chargeable on the said Premises until the Owner or Owners, Proprietor or Proprietors, Lessee or Lessees, can be found, and the same may at any Time be levied and recovered upon the said Premises in like Manner as other Eates made by virtue of this Act are made recoverable." Pour years ago, this forgotten clause of the local Act was introduced to the notice of the A-estrj'. It was admitted that it had not been observed ; and the Builders, who formed the most influential party in the vestry, thought it would be unfair to enforce it. A little ventilation of this subject, however, induced the majority of another vestry to believe, and to resolve, " that all the rateable property in the parish should be rated." But so much power have the Builders and the Proprietors of the soil in the vestry, that this good resolution has been from time to time set aside; and down to the present moment, the rate-paj^ers at large have received no beneht from it. So that, although the Yestry Minute-books are ci'ammed with applications to the vestry, to take under their protection, streets, squares, &c., and although the taking thereto has increased the local taxation veiy considerablj', and will do so, year by year ; yet none but the old inhabitants and the in-coming tenants have been taxed for all the wear and tear of old roads, caused by draAving building materials over tlum, and for all tlie additional expenses in w;itching and lighting, which every new house entails on the parish. If this tax had been levied from the passing of the Act, in 1824, down to the j)resent time, it would have saved IIk; rate-payers some thousands of pounds; and it ■would lunc 193 siivGLE versus pltjeai, toting fallen on those wlio have received the most substantial benefits from the parish, although they have paid the least towards the local taxation, viz., the Bishop of London, and the lessees of the Paddington Estate. Had this clause been in force, those who took the land for building on, would have pointed out this charge, and insisted on its due consideration. For this additional burden, then, as well as for the enormous ]wor-rate entailed hj the miserable .cottages, the dwellers on the Paddington Estate are, in truth, indebted to their old friends, "the lords of the soil," as much as to their local governors, and the builders. And this is not the only burden, connected with the roads, T/hich the owners of the Paddington Estate have attempted to throw on the people of Paddington. In 1828, and 1829, Avhen the Grand Jimction-road, which had been recently made, was in a miserable condition ; when it was ascertained that it would cost £400 a-year to keep it in repair ; and when only £ 7 were the amount of rate received by the parish from the inhabitants of Oxford and Cambridge terraces ; the owners of the soil tried, by force of law, to compel the vestrj' to appoint a surveyor to inspect this road, and take upon them the charge of its repair. The trial, hovf- ever, went against them, and the learned Lord Tenderden delivered an elaborate judgment in favour of the parishioners."^' But what the law would not compel the vestry to do, the vestry could voluntarily do ; and, as the election of vestry- men was virtually in the hands of a few builders and pre prie- tors, these few took especial care to elect those, and those only, whose interests coincided with their own. Thus, those who were m.ost deeply interested in the Paddington Estate, became the govevnoYS of t/ie parish ; and, as these personal interests were very frequently antagonistic to the interests of the rate- payers at large the public weal has had to snffer ; and "parish squabbles" have not been unknown in Paddington, even since the introduction of Sturges Bourne's Act. And discontent must continually arise, so long as the majority of the rate- payers know they are not fairly represented ; that they have a minority of votes in the election of their local governors ; and that the business of the parish is conducted with closed doors. Altl'.ongh this injustice was made legal, at the time Avhen Grattan and old Sarum sent Members to Parliament ; and when * How different this conduct of the Bishop of London and his lessees, from the liberality of John Lyon, who, after he had establishet his Free School at Hariow, purcb.ascd forty-one acres of land in Jlarylebone, for the purpose of keeping the road to London in repair for ever ! Vide 10 Geo, IV. cap. 59. IN LOCAL ELECTIONS. 199 a single nobleman had more influence in law-making, than the whole of the inhabitants of the largest cities, yet *' An Act for the better Regulation of Vestries, and for the appointment of Auditors of accounts, in certain parishes of England and Wales," — the iii'st and second AVilliam lYth, chapter 60, — better known as Hobhouse's Act, was passed by the reformers, even before the Parliament itself was refonned. This Act for the better regulation of vestries gives one vote, and one vote only, to each rate- payer; and it is scarcely believeable, that so just a principle could be refused to any parish, wliich had become too numerous to continue the '' good old English constitutional custom" of personal attendance in vestry ; where and when each iudividual rate-payer might express his opinions on any subject within its jurisdiction, and record his vote thereon. Yet it has been most strenuously opposed, from its introduction into Parliament down to the presefit time, by the vestry of Paddington ; and in consequence of its being necessary to obtain the sanction of two-thirds of the rate-payers who vote, and half those who are qualified to vote, before this Act can be adopted, the attempt to introduce it into this parish has twice failed. In 1849, there was a considerable majority for its adoption, but not the requisite proportion; and in 1853, it is said, the half of the qualified rate-payers have not voted. So that at the ])vesent time, Paddington enjoys the unenviable distinction of baing behind its neigh- bours in the adoption of a liberal policy in the election of those to whom are entrusted its local aftairs ; and those who conduct them, have the unenviable honour of being the repre- sentatives of a section only of their fellow-parishioners. Even the ancient rule of electing churchwudnis, by single votes, has been set aside in Paddington ; the Judg 's of the Exchequer Coui't sanctioning this proceeding, when t le vestry appealed to that Court, by writ of error, from the d cision of the learned Lord Chief Justice Denman, who had coniimied to the inhabitants of this place, their ancient right in this particular :* a right, which every inhabitant, who was not a lawj'er, must have believed, as that learned Judge did, the tenth clause of the local Act confirmed to him. This clause declares that the election of vestrymen shall not take place, until after the usual election of churchwardens; " Avhich election of churchwardens shall take place on Easter Tuesday, * For an account of these trials, ]\Iaund v. Campbell, and Cami)bell, v. Maund, See Adolphus and Ellis's Reports, Vol. v. p. 865, et seqq. 200 INJUSTICE TO THE MAJORITY. and be conducted from year to year in siich manner, as hath been usual in the same parish." The rule of phiral voting for vestrymen having been esta- blished by the adoption of Sturges Bourne's Act, vestrymen so elected could not sanction the election of church -wardens in the manner which had been usual in the parish ; viz. — by show of hands. Those gentlemen, who still govern Pad- dington, determined to take advantage of a legal quibble, to abrogate the ancient form of election ; but their proceedings produced an amount of ill-feeling, which lasted for years, between those who now really had the election of parish officers in their hands, and those who, in consequence of the introduc- tion of this j^ew principle, had nothing to do with parochial affaii's, except the payment of whatever sums of money were demanded. This feeling is indeed not yet allayed ; neither can it be till this act o. injustice to the majority, is for ever and entirely revoked. And justice must not long be delayed, if harmony is to be restored. Upwards of 2,000 rate-payers have this year voted in favour of that Act, which gives a single vote, and but one vote in local elections ; and it behoves all who pay towards the local expenses, all who are interested in the welfare of this parish, to think of this, and to co-operate by every means in their power, for the establishment of good government on the solid .basis of just principles. When this is done, all discord may cease ; for it will then be the fault of the majority if Paddington is badly governed. THE EXD. /c^^ A. & W. Hall, Caxton Steam Printing Office, 10, Cambridge Terrace, Camden Town 'JUJ/in»[i jv' ^, ^,/ \u««juie( ■* ■ ^ .rs. If /*»*ir/-\r% ,v -^0 ■^/^ij3AiNnmv --^Al IT UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 404 456 6 'AV <\AF!'VIVFPr/>. .v-ir .^WEUKIVERi"//, '/- ^^^ JJliJiV. ^Ul-^ <^HIBRARYG^ > -C^ ^F-CM!FOM{/. -/ >• ii ■<■ T- ^, ^(^Aavfjaiii^"^' ^^A ^WEUNr >-l(' <<:^i3DNvsoi^'^' "^/^ajAiNn ]Hv' 33 -< -C.^F IlK'IVFPr/,. . .in<:.Atjrrtrr. iiir