■ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES SOLD B~f ! J.T COOK Hit! St, ret I RICHMOND , I I RICHMOND AND ITS INHABITANTS FROM THE OLDEN TIME, p w o ^ H a w o (D , ITS ERECTION BV HENRY VII. — SUPPRESSED ABOUT THIRTY- FIVE YEARS AFTERWARDS — DESCRIPTION OF ITS SIZE — CLOISTERS AND CHAPEL — DESTRUCTION OF THE CONVENT BY HENRY VIII. — DESCRIPTION OF THE LAST REMAINING POR- TION OF THE STRUCTURE. THIS was another large religious establishment which once existed in Richmond, and was founded by Henry VII. about the year 1499 as a convent of Observant Friars. The information possessed of it is SITUATION OF THE CLOISTERS, CHAPEL, ETC. 127 very limited, as its existence was destined to be but a very brief one. It was suppressed about thirty-five years afterwards, and thus the ecclesiastical history of the convent terminated. It was a building of considerable extent ; and we are fortunate in being enabled to present to the reader a copy of a very rare engraving, which is probably the only one existing of this ancient friary. The boundary line and river frontage of the palace extended from the present Asgill House up to the corner of Queensbury-lane ; and it was from this spot that the cloisters and various other buildings, all appertaining to the friary, commenced, which con- tinued up to the entrance or commencement of Water-lane, including within its precincts all the piece of land on which are now erected the various houses known as Queensbury and St. Helena- terraces, the White Cross Inn, White Cross buildings, and other residences. The cloisters extended about half way round the entire space, and must, consequently, have been of considerable length, affording the friars ample extent for exercise and recreation. The gardens, which these cloisters enclosed, are shown as laid out in tasteful style; and the more important part of the building, the church or chapel, where these holy fathers worshipped, with its large gothic windows and heavy antique roof, must have stood almost immediately on the site of the present White Cross Inn. It is much to be regretted that we possess so Little information on the subject of this 128 SURVEY MADE OF THE PROPERTY. convent ; it must at one period of its history, although it existed or flourished for so short a term of years, have been of considerable importance ; hut when Henry VIII. commenced the destruction of the various monasteries, with other religious establish- ments, and likewise the alienation of their revenues, it is very probable that the friary, with the sister convents of Syon and Sheen, were among the earliest buildings which were destroyed, and " plucked up," as the chroniclers of that period termed the pulling down and entire removal of places of this kind. Perhaps the friars of Richmond may have pre- viously given Henry displeasure, as their brethren of the Observant order at Greenwich had recently done ; for they unfortunately had rendered themselves highly obnoxious to him by their determined opposi- tion to his divorce from their royal patroness, Queen Katharine. There is but little more to be told of the convent of " Observant Friars" of Richmond, excepting that which marks a state of degradation to which it had arrived. When a survey was made some years after- wards of the royal property adjoining, it appears that some slight part of the edifice had been preserved, as we read — " that the building adjoining is called the Friars — containing three rooms below stayrs and four handsome rooms above stayrs, and that it was then used as a ' chandler's shop.' " This must have been indeed a very insignificant portion which remained of the ancient convent. It is not unlikely that for the word " shop," that of " manu- ITS DEGRADATION. 129 factory" may be substituted — it may have been a " candle factory" — the difference in the term is truly insignificant ; but we seem inclined to stickle, if pos- sible, for some more respectable designation than the one which is here given by the chronicler to the only remaining fragment of the building which one hundred and fifty years prior to the period in which the survey was taken, constituted the " Convent of Observant Friers" at Richmond. L30 CHAPTER VII. THE PAEISH CHURCH. gift of henry vii. towards the building — inscriptions on the bells — gift of lands for benefit of the church in the reign of queen mary — the first vestry held in richmond, october 19, 1614 — arrange- ments for sittings in the church — determined behaviour of mr. savadge, and his usurpation of mr. dixe hickman's pew — his forcible expulsion there- from — commences a lawsuit in consequence against the vestry, who have to pay the cost of the same — various extracts from the old parish records as to repairs and enlargements of the church — contribu- tion by lady wright towards the church bell — the duke of vork, afterwards james ii. — his sittings in the new south gallery — piece of ground pur- chased of the messrs. collins for the enlargement of the churchvard— -sir geokge wright — his son's applica- tion in 1657 for assistance from the parish — ancient monuments — those of gilbert wakefield — his com- mittal to dorchester gaol — sufferings and death — the reverend thomas wakefield — lord brouncker, mr. and mrs. yates, and others — monument of thom- son — etc. etc. IN a manuscript account of some of the private expenses of Henry VII., there is the following : " Item. Given to ye Parysh Clerke of Richmonde towards ye building of his new Church," 5/. Of this church, to which the royal munificence was thus ex- tended in the erection, the chancel and tower are now the only remaining portions. LIMITED SIZE OF THE BUILDING. 131 As early as the year 1339, reference is made to the " Chapel of Schene ;" but it is not probable that any church or chapel at that period existed on the site of the present building, or indeed in any part of this village, which could then have consisted only of open wastes and fields, beyond the very considerable portion of land occupied by the park and grounds belonging to the palace, in which there would be a chapel for the household and retainers of the reigning monarch, Edward III. There would likewise be at no great distance from the Palace Chapel, another place of worship appertain- ing to the neighbouring monastery at Sheen. We may therefore consider that the tower and chancel of our parish church are the remains of the earliest building erected for public divine worship in this place. We have examined the interior and exterior of the church with close attention, and find that the ancient building reaching from the chancel to the tower did not much exceed in width that of the chancel itself, and that the present large wooden columns stand exactly on the foundation walls of the ancient church as at first erected. It is probable that, as the increasing population of the village re- quired additional church accommodation, the north and south aisles were added, and in after years the galleries. There are numerous and very interesting accounts in the old vestry books of the efforts made at recurring intervals of time to meet the increasing re- quirements of the inhabitants, from which arc here selected those which in recounting may prove most k 2 132 THE CHANCEL WINDOW. amusing to the general reader, and to which reference will in due course be made. The tower, with its embattled top and stunted height, has suffered much in its appearance from inju- dicious repairs and alterations which have, from time to time, been effected in the very worst possible taste. Notwithstanding this, there is a venerable appearance about this part of the fabric ; but, take the church as a whole, there is uothing about it to render it a striking object of admiration either to the architect or the antiquarian. The chancel has of late years been much improved by the removal of a very mean looking window, and the substitution for it of the present elegantly formed one, with its compartments in stained glass. Much criticism was at the time of its erection bestowed upon the design in this window. There was a very strong feeling on the part of the gentleman who was minister here at the time against the representation of any subjects which are usually selected for the ornamentation of windows in sacred edifices, which ob- jection operated unfortunately in influencing the com- mittee as to their choice of a design ; and so sombre and devoid of all beauty as to colour was the first embodiment of the taste of these gentlemen, that it was by unanimous consent decreed that it must be altered ; and the taste and skill of the artist who was employed in its manufacture being called into requisi- tion, he substituted much of the ruby tint where colours of a dull and dingy character had at first pre- vailed to a decidedly monotonous extent, — and the window as it at present exists was the result. But INSCRIPTIONS ON THE BELLS. 133 the appearance of our fine old chancel would certainly have been further improved had a design been adopted somewhat similar to those we look upon with so much admiration and pleasure at the recently erected church of St. Matthias. The arch over the entrance of the chancel from the body of the church has always been considered one of the very finest specimens of the Tudor style, but it is of comparatively modern construction to that part of the building to which it attaches. There is a fine peal of bells in the old tower, which would appear to have been placed there about the year 1680—1, and have been through accident or otherwise at different periods replaced by others. The following are the dates and inscriptions upon them — 1st bell 1740 2nd „ 1740 3rd „ 1740 4th „ 1680 5th „ 1742 6th „ 1680 7th „ 1681 8th „ 1761 Upon most of these bells are the names of the churchwardens of the period when they were cast, ex- cepting the 6th and 7th. On the 4th appears this sentence — " Lambert made me weake not fit to ring But Bartlett among the rest hath made mee sing." On the 6th and 7th — " James Bartlett made nice/' 134 THE CHURCH LANDS On the 1st — " Ex dono Gulielmus Gardener." " It was in the reign of Mary (1558),* that certain lands in the parish of Richmond were grven by one Thomas Denys for the twofold purpose of repairing and susteyning the parish church, as well as for the use of the poor of the said parish, in trust to two of the parishioners, with a letter of attorney to the said churchwardens to execute the deed by livery of Seisin, and both these deeds were entered upon the Court Rolls of the Manor of West Sheen, otherwise Richmond, in April, 1559. Between that time and the reign of Charles I. these lands came into the pos- session of one Mary Croome (how does not appear), but in the last mentioned year, in September, a commission issued under the Great Seal, as directed by the Statute 43rd Eliz b , cap. 4, entitled 'An Act to Redress the Misapplication of Lands, &c, given to Charitable Uses/ " — by virtue of which the Commis- sioners, having ascertained the foregoing facts, ordered Mary Croome to deliver up to the churchwardens of Richmond the said lands for the purposes expressed in Denys' original deed. In 1650 the churchwardens for the time being, con- veyed the property by deed of feoffment to Edward Prideaux, Esq., the then Attorney- General, and thirteen other persons described as parishioners of Richmond in fee — the new deed, strange as it may seem, not making any mention either of Thomas Denys or of the proceedings of the Commissioners in the time of Charles I. The churchwardens, indeed, appear to * Brayley's " History of Surrey." AND REVENUES. 135 have conveyed the property as though they had been the independent and absolute owners of it — the old trusts being entirely changed and new ones substituted. Under a clause in this deed the Church lands were from time to time conveyed to new trustees for a period of a hundred and seventy years, and some portion was sold for the redemption of the land-tax. Fortunately for the poor, a copy of the decree made by the Commissioners of Charitable Uses in the time of Charles I., was found among the papers of William Selwyn, Esq., one of the oldest inhabitants of the parish, and this was verified by the original in the Petty Bag Office, whereupon an application was made to Parliament, and an Act which received the royal assent, June 19th, 1828, was obtained, whereby the ancient trusts, created by the deed of feoffment of Thomas Denys, were restored. Since the passing of that Act orders have been made by the Court of Chancery for the better applica- tion of the rents and profits of the Church lands, and under these orders certain portions of the revenues have been annually allotted to the maintenance of the two churches of Richmond, and another portion, vested in the Funds, to provide for the cost of the alms- houses now building. At the present time the re- venues of this charity amount to about 530/. per annum, out of which small annuities are payable to a number of poor people. In 1820, an Act of Parliament was passed, au- thorizing the trustees to grant building and repairing leases for ninety-nine years, by which measures the 13f) ALTERATIONS AND REPAIRS. income has been considerably augmented. The ex- pense of repairing the old church in 1823 was whoUy defrayed by the charity, there being no " church-rates at Richmond." Lysons, in his " Environs of London," referring to Richmond Church, writes : — " This church is, as is well knowD, in the diocese of Winchester, it is in the deanery of Ewell ; it was a chapel dependent upon Kingston, and the curacy was in the gift of the vicar of that place, till, by an Act of Parliament passed in 1769, it was made a perpetual curacy, and the pa- tronage vested, after the death of the then vicar of Kingston, in the Hardinge family, who were then pro- prietors of the great tithes. The reversionary pa- tronage has since been alienated to King's College, Cambridge. It was presented by the Commissioners appointed in 1658 to inquire into the state of eccle- siastical benefices, that Richmond was a chapel de- pendent on Kingston, that the income was about 40/. per annum, and that it was without a settled minister. The Commissioners divided Richmond from the mother church, and uniting it to the hamlets of Kew and West Sheen, ordered that it should be called by the name of the Parish Church of Richmond." Various have been the alterations and repairs to which the steeple of this structure has been subjected during a long course of years, and almost entirely at variance with Gothic architecture or good taste have they ever been carried out. We believe that when originally erected it was considerably lower than at present, and that it was not raised to its present THE FIRST VESTRY HELD IN 1614. 137 altitude until the bells were required, or considered to be necessary, which requirement arose in the early part of the seventeenth century. It was in the year 1614, that " the Authority of Richmond Vestry was granted," and on the 19th day of October, in that year, the first vestry was held ; and although there will be numerous extracts made from these early records, of much that is interesting relative to the repairs, extensions, and management of the church, the names of the vestrymen and church- wardens by whom the orders were issued, will in most cases be withheld, as it would prove, perhaps, too much for the endurance of the general reader. But it is recorded that at the first vestry held in this town, the persons who had been nominated to act as vestrymen on the occasion were — 1. The Minister for the time being. 8. John Baker, Gent. 9. Alex. Prescot, Gent. 10. Thos. Phudds, Gent. 11. Thos. Lovell, Gent. 12. Wm. Pitts, Gent. 13. Georg Charley, Gent. 2. Sir Arthur Georg, Knt. 3. Sir Georg Wright, Knt. 4. Sir Wm. Hcyrick, Knt. 5. Walter Hickman, Esq. 6. Robert Clark, Esq. 7. Stephen Pears, Esq. Henry Cookncy, and Arthur Linton, Churchwardens. On the 10th day of August, 1622, the vestry issued the following order — " That they took into their con- sideration the necessity of building a gallery, and the means to effect the same. They gave order to Mr. Benham and Mr. Peer to confer with some workmen to make an estimate what it would cost, and to deliver IBS THE PEWS AND SITTINGS. the same to the vestry at their meeting. There is no doubt that the patience of the various members of the Richmond vestry must have been on numerous occa- sions sorely tried, and much of their time consumed, in the mere arranging how the various members who formed the congregation of the church should be seated therein. It would be wearisome were but a tithe part of the cogitations, bickerings, and squab- blings narrated which seem to have arisen, causing much bewilderment and trouble to these " anciente vestrymenne of ye towne." On the 31st of July, 1620, it was arranged, by the decision of these members, ten being present — "That upon the request of Mr. Sprmgham, Mr. Dixe Hickman was contented that Mrs. Springham and her daughter should sit in the next pew above the Pulpitt w th Mrs. Tomlins and Mrs. Lovett, until such time as they might be more con- veniently provided for. The second seat in the first 1 rancke' is appointed for Mrs. George Arlington." On the 4th of June, 1624, the vestrymen seem to have been quite disheartened at the ill success of their en- deavours to provide seats for the various applicants ; for they state, " that after some time spent by Mr. Lovett for the rectifying some misplaced, and placing others not as yet appointed seates in the church. After some time spent to little purpose, they were forced to conclude the remainder of the time for neces- sities thus," &c. &c. Among the various persons whose pews and " seates" on this occasion were ordered and settled by the fiat of these painstaking men, was one Mr. DISCONTENT OF MR. SAVADGE. 139 " Georg" Savadge, who seems to have considered his seat as a particularly uncomfortable one, or that he imagined the pew which had been formerly tenanted bv one Mr. Dixe Hickman as far more desirable : for we read on the 7th day of June, " that, notwith- standing a meeting bestowed on purpose on the 4th day of June, for the rectifying of such grievances, and notwithstanding an Order made for the case of Mr. Georg Savadge, the said Mr. Savadge seemed as yet discontented." It would appear that upon this parti- cular occasion they really used their most earnest en- deavours to render this gentleman comfortable at his devotions ; but it proved to be no slight difficulty, for they agreed " to take to their further considera- tion the means how the said Mr. Savadge, as also those new comers (into the town), might be seated to their better contentment." After an immense deal of altercation which took place as to the seating and re- seating of numerous individuals, on which occasion " Sir Wm. Seager is to have the seat in which Sir George Wright formerly sat, and Lady Seager is to sit with the Lady Wright, and Mr. Dixe Hickman is to be reseated elsewhere/' and so on with many other names, the vestry seem to consider they had settled the question at last by " fixing" the restless Mr. Savadge " in a pew which had become ' voyd' — a larger pew — along with four other gentlemen." Not so. On the 12th of July following, the vestry were given to understand that Mr. Savadge had broken open the pew which they had appointed to be nailed up, and had seated himself there with a resolution to 140 MR. SAVADGE FORCED OUT OF THE PEW- keep it, notwithstanding their order to the contrary. The vestry caused the churchwardens forthwith " to knock off the Lock w ch Mr. Savadge had caused to be set thereon, and to see Mr. Hickman's Lock to be thereon sett again, which Mr. Savadge had caused to be taken off, w ch was done accordingly." They gave orders likewise to the two churchwardens, " that they should, the next Sabbath, seat themselves in the said pew to regain possession, and that if Mr. Savadge should there seate himself, to remove him out were it even in time of Divine service, which they both un- dertook to perform." For some reason the two churchwardens on this occasion neglected to carry out the instructions thus given, for on the 5th of July these gentlemen were somewhat censured by the vestry, " that their orders for the displacing of Mr. Savadge had not yet been executed, through the negligence of Mr. Lea, the elder churchwarden, unto whom they once more gave orders for the execution of their decree," who again promised that before their next meeting he would displace " out of his usurped pew" the aforesaid obstinate occupant. Although there is no record of the actual displace- ment of Mr. Savadge, it appears that Mr. Lea no longer neglected the duty delegated to him by the vestry, and that on the following Sunday the removal by force was duly performed, to the no small amusement, as may be imagined, of some, and great regret and an* noyance of the greater part of the persons present. Let us pause for a moment and picture the ap- THE CHURCH CONGREGATION IN 1624. 141 pearance which the congregation in Richmond church presented about this time among the nobility and gentry of the town and neighbourhood there assembled. Among the ancient beaux and belles who each Sabbath- day attended there to worship would most probably be seen " the virtuous and religious Lady Wright." There would likewise be my Lady Margaret Chudleigh, " daughter of Sir William Courtney, of Powdcrham," and other right noble and stately dames ; ah, and they would have been found to be attired in the first style of fashion, too : in enormous wheel fardingales, standing collars, and brocaded silken skirts ; " their hair would be frizzled, and crisped, and tortured into wreaths and borders, and underpropped with forkes, wires/'' &c. ; there would be, too, the dames of the middle class in their hats, mostly steeple-crowned, with broad and flapping brims, cap kerchers, &c. &c. There would be seen among the male portion of the church congregation of two hundred and forty years or so since, seated in solemn state in the ample-sized pew of that period, the aristocracy of the place, among whom we may be sure might be distinguished the husband of the almost incomparable Lady Wright, Sir George Wright, Sir William Seager, Sir William Heyrick, Sir William Slingsby, and Mr. Lott Peere (whose names seem to us as household words after reading the proceedings of the vestry of the period) ; there would they be also seen in the full heavily- constructed suit which fashion, in her tyranny, forced upon those who lived in England during the era when its destinies were ruled by gentle King Jamie, costume 142 THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER'S DECREE. so cumbrous and so stuffed, so quilted and so capa- cious, that it was said to have been designed by the monarch in his timidity and cowardice, to save him from injury by a sword-point, or from the blow of an assassin. To resume our narrative of the singular proceed- ings in the matter of Mr. Savadge. The vestry had, in this case, to deal with no ordinary character — and to their cost they discovered the fact — this gentleman's resolve was quickly taken, and was as promptly acted up to. He at once appealed to the bishop of the diocese. It is more than probable that the statement of grievances which was laid before his grace abounded with the grossest exaggeration ; but be that as it will, the astonishment of the congregation on the follow- ing Sunday may easily be surmised, when there were published in the church, " Letters patent under the seals of the Lord Bp. of Winchester, declaring his lordship's pleasure that Mr. George Savadge and his wife should continue in peaceful possession of the pew belonging to Mr. Dixe Hickman." The vestry, no way daunted by the powerful assistance which Mr. Savadge had obtained, at once met on the 19th July, 1624, to take the matter into their serious considera- tion ; and they decided that the minister, Mr. Benham, and Mr. Lott Peer, should at once be the bearer of a letter to his grace detailing " how prejudicious the ambitious proceedings of Mr. Savadge might prove to the intended good work, the building of the steeple, and other good courses projected, and in present execution, for the good of the church/'' mr. hickman's pew destroyed. 143 It would seem that all their endeavours to " cir- cumvent" this very obstinate member of the congre- gation were of no avail, for on the 16th day of August following it is chronicled : " That the vestry, taking into consideration the indirect dealings of Mr. Gcorg Savadge, who had often violently broken open Mr. Hickman's pew in his absence, intending by a strong hand, and his possession thereof, to invest himself therein, notwithstanding the said pew was built bv Mr. Hickman and his ffather, and an inhibi- tion procured out of the High Commission Court, pub- lished in the church, forbidding the same, the better to cutt off his rude proceedings in so reverend a place, and to prevent suites, in law y* might be commenced by the said Mr. Savadge, who had practised the like in St. Forsters parish, Cheapside, London, from whence he came, it was thus ordered at this meet- ing : That Mr. Hickman surrendered up to the vestry all his right, title, and interest in the pew built by his ffather and himself, and the vestry to avoid further suit in law, and for the better accommodating those that sitt at the upper end and south syde of the church, who complained that they cannot get passage out of the church until all men have cleared the same. They ordered that the said pew be taken away, and to have a dore there made for the better conveniency of the parishioners; and for the confirmation thereof they have hereunto sett their Hands this day and yeare afforesaid." The destruction of the pew and the forming a passage where it originally stood, was at once effected ; 144 ACTION IN COURT OF STAR CHAMBER. and it -would be reasonable to suppose that here the controversy would have ended, and all further alter- cation prevented; but the unfortunate vestrymen and churchwardens found they had not yet attained to so desirable and peaceful a position, for Mr. Savadge forthwith commenced proceedings in the Court of Star Chamber against them. Of which we learn that at a vestry held on the loth day of June, 1625 : " There was a Ceasement made amongst those of the Vestry for the satisfying of the Solicitor's charges layd out by him in the behalf of the Vestry, upon a bill preferred against them in the Starr Chamber, by George Savadge, who pretended he was pulled out of his pew disgracefully with the consent of the vestry." The solicitor's bill, it appears, was 18/. 12s. Oof. It is more than probable that proceedings had in this case been withdrawn, but there is no further record of any tedious and annoying procedure on the part of Mr. Savadge. The sum was raised by subscription among the members of the vestry thus, as fol- loweth : — £ s. d. Sir Robt. Douglas gave for himself .420 For his brother, Capt. George Douglas 10 For Capt. Harry 10 For Robt. Douglas, his kinsman ..100 For his servant, Patrick Douglas ..100 Mr. Robert Kirkham, Esq., gave ..200 Mr. Dixe Hickman, Esq., gave ..200 Carried forward £12 2 ORDERS FOR REPAIRS OF THE CHURCH. 145 Brought forward . Mr. Stephen Peares, Gent., gave Mr. Benham, the Minister, gave . Mr. George Charley gave . Mr. John Stackhouse gave Lott Peer gave John Lea, one of the Churchwardens, was ceased at In all . £ s. d 12 2 1 10 1 1 1 1 10 £18 12 At a vestry held this day, October 21st, 1630, It was ordered — " That Ric Lovell and John Keele, churchwardens, doe take a view of the steeple to see by some man of knowledge, and to make an estimate of the same at the next meeting. " And Alsoe to take a viewe for the hauging up of 5 Bells whereof Sir Robt. Douglas did promise that hee would get of the King one Bell, and the Vestry did promise to contribute for the other." About this time we find the following allowances to poor people : — To Old Curtise and his Wife To Old Trippet and his Wife To Old Snow and his Wife To Widd w Gisby .... To Wid £1 17 10 But this conscientious carman, having no doubt first duly impressed the meeting with the correctness of his charges, afterwards informed all persons there assem- bled, " that because he understood the parish unable to pay old debts, and in hand to goe forward with the building of the steeple, he did not only give this, his * Tlie crane mentioned is shown in an old engraving of the liver-side to have stood on a wharf near to Asgill House, .-> 152 THE VESTRY COMMENCE THE WORKS. due debt, towards the intended work, but promised twenty shillings in ready money.'" The efforts made on this occasion to raise the requi- site sum for the repairs of the church seem in a short time to have been most successful. Strenuous efforts were put forth by the parishioners and tradespeople; and these, in conjunction with the subscriptions of those " who sojourned in the parish, and who under- writ their names in the Book" — the gift of good Valentine Leaver — the arrears of money in the hands of the churchwardens (which, by the bye, was an event of not very unfrequent occurrence at those periods) — with the stone presented by Sir Robert Douglas, enabled the vestrymen at once to commence the works, which really do not seem to have been of a very costly character, the mason — or " ffree" mason, as he is termed — one Henry Walden, agreeing to execute all the repairs in his own immediate branch for the sum of thirty pounds, which by the careful management of the parish paymaster was ordered to be paid him by instal- ments. He was to be paid twenty nobles when he deserved ten pounds of his money ; and so for the rest. True, the parish themselves found all materials; but, taking into consideration the value of money then and comparing it with that of the present period, this ancient " ffree" mason could not have been benefited to any very considerable extent by the profit realized from his contract. One William Halsey, a plumber, of London, is also named as receiving thirty-two pounds for the leadwork on the steeple; and it is very probable that by the CONTRACT WITH THE MASON. 153 time these accounts with the " joyners" and others had been settled, and the cost of the various materials requisite to carry on the repairs, the scaffolding, and other expenses had been arranged and paid for, no very considerable sum remained of the monies which had been subscribed towards the works. A set of bells formed a leading feature of the requirements for which the contributions had been solicited, but if we take the earliest dates upon the bells now in the steeple, we find one to have been cast in the year 1680, fifty-six years after the repairs of the steeple had been effected. Either bells were about the year 1630 placed in the steeple, which in due time succumbed to a fate which has befallen a celebrated one in our own era ; or, what is more probable, sufficient money was not raised for the purposes of building and bell-ringing in conjunc- tion. The contract made with the mason for the re- pairs of the steeple was thus worded — " First that he is to make ye Tower Table a plaine plenth, and to make the upper Table plaine with such stone as he shall find there in the Church Yard, and to make the rest of the battlement a plaine coaping answerable to the thicknesse of the wall. " To make the windows according to the Plott with a Champfurc on the outside and a Rabbctt on the inside, and a splay within, the walls to be two foot thick, or neer tberabouts, and to bring up the Buttresses answerable to the work, and to make a Table over the heads of the windows with such stone as shall be found there, to make it plaine and strong work. 154 LADY WRIGHT, MR. CHARLEY, AND THE BELL. " The masons work to be done according to this order — the church finding the materials, and scaffold- ing-stuff and tacklings for raysings, and to make ready the scaffolds." There seemed to be about this period no slight mystery as to the matter of a Bell, the property of the Church, or partly belonging to a Mr. Charley, and in part the property of " ye Lady Wright •" and no inconsiderable degree of muddle in the way in which the report of the proceedings in the vestry held July 8th, 1624, is rendered. " The vestry was this day given to understand that whereas there was in the hands of Mr. Charley a Bell belonging to ye Church, and that ye said Charley stood indebted to ye Lady Wright in the sum of twenty marks and y* he had j618 2s. 6d. interest in ye Bell. Ye vestry thought fit to have ye Lady Wright spoken to at her next coming to Town by some of the vestry to this purpose. That whereas her deceased Husband, Sir Georg, had in his hands £v. paid him by Mr. Beck towards a Bell, and y* the same Lady Wright had underwritt to give the Steeple five pounds part of ye debt due unto her, by the aforesaid Charley, that she would account the two ffive pounds part of the debt due unto her, and for the re- mainder the parish would hereafter as monies should come in see her Ladyship satisfied, w ch would be about five marks, w ch with <£4 14s. lOd. more would cleare the Bell from Charley." This Bell affair is in no way " cleare" to us ; there seems no small amount of bewilderment in the style of the report ; but we will CHARGES FOR TOLLING THE PASSING BELL. 155 assume that it was otherwise to those concerned, for in a few days after all doubts seem to have vanished, every difficulty removed, and a most comfortable settlement of the Bell business concluded at the next weekly meeting, which appears to have been highly satisfactory to those to whom these weighty matters were delegated. And is thus told : — July 12th, 162*4. — " There was a warrant granted by consent of the vestry for the payment of .€40 4.9. lOd. to Georg Charley in full satisfaction of a Bell in his possession, whereupon the said Charley is to deliver the Bell to the Churches use, so that there remayneth to cleare the Bell £3 17s. 8d. w ch summe the Vestry undertaketh to satesfie the Lady Wright." These meetings for the due management of church and parish affairs were held in the chancel of the church, and generally immediately after the afternoon service. Sept. 16th, 1650. — Ordered at a vestry held this daye for every stranger that shall die in this Towne or parish of Richmond there be paid for a passing Bell to the Clarke 12 d and to the parish use 12 d , and if it be desired to have an afternoon knell they shall pay therefore to the parish use five shillings. Here there is an account against the parish for sundry repairs. April 5th, 1651 : — £ s. d. Paid to George Wild for bread & cheese for the carters diggers & fellers La- bourers & Spredders for 5 dayes of the six they were employed about the mending of the llighwaycs ... 1 4 6 156 WALTER SMYTH CHOSEN x\S CLERK. £ s. d. Paid for them at Geo Carters for bread & drink for them the sixth day .. 4 6 Paid for mending Pick axes & Shovels .020 Gave the Colonels man that helped in with stones to pave 10 Paid to the Paviours for digging & helping to load 5 load of paving to pave the Church Layne and mending that Lane 16 6 Paid to Wm. Lever for carriage &c. of nine load of gravel & stones to Brew- ers Layne and the Church Layne .19 With other charges added amounting to £6 0s. 2d. October 4th, 1652. — At a vestry this daye Old Goodman Trippet did crave some relief out of Mr. Smiths money — he was promised that when the said money came in he should be first considered for a new Coate in the winter — and likewise that if the poor men who receeved the coates as part of Mr. Henry Smiths charity persist in removing the letters H S from them and wearing them in Church without the said letters the Coates will be taken from them and given to others. There is a due regard shown for the pockets of the ratepayers in the following order of vestry, May 9th, 1653.— After Mr. Smyth had made a " Tryal of his ability and was found to be an able man for the place as Vestry Clerk," — he is informed that he must col- lect all the pew-rents for the Churchwardens and THE CHURCH LANDS. 157 Minister without being paid for it, or receiving any reward whatever. "A note where the Church Land lyeth." Behind the Church half an acre between John Tomson in the West and Thomas Charley in the East. Att Dcadmans Bush Shote half a acre. Half an acre in Marsh Furs. In the Upper Dunstable Shote half an acre. Half an acre in the headland Butts upon Giles Hill. "West Bancroft one rood and 3 yards at the Red Conduit West. In Kew ffields 3 half acres. In westerly ware 2 Lotts. The Church Close lying near the Tyle hill. The churchwarden and vestrymen of this place two centuries or so since seem to have interfered in a singular manner in various matters, and to have issued edicts and orders of a most incongruous character. On the 15th January, 1654, they came to the con- clusion, " That they will lend the sume of Three pounds unto Edward Booth of the parish to buy him a Boate (out of Mr. Henry Smiths money), and to be paid back at the end of one Yearc, and that the said Edward Booth doe give security for the same." On the second day of April in the following year, after the transaction of other business, we read : — " And further it is ordered that Thomas Raymond 158 SIR GEORGE WRIGHT^ GIFT TO THE POOR. shall remove his Mother in law out of this parish at or before the Tuesday iu Easter week next, or come and shew cause to the Vestry to the contrary." It may be a malicious kind of suggestion, but it was perhaps with no great degree of dissatisfaction that the aforesaid Thomas carried out the order thus given. It is most probable that it was considered this worthy and elderly lady would at no very distant period become chargeable to the parish, and a burden on its resources ; and, if so, only an act of wisdom and parish prudence to order the unfortunate mother- in-law of Raymond to quit Richmond, and to seek in some more secluded hamlet that peace and rest which seemed certainly denied to her in this. At various periods of the history of the parish church the question of increased church accommoda- tion and repairs (some of them of an important character), are a frequently recurring feature ; of these, with any others appertaining to the arrangements made by the vestry relative to the subject of church manage- ment, no opportunity shall be omitted of giving extracts from the parish books. May 14th, 1(549. — "A deed bearing date the second day of February, 1617. — Whereas Sir George Wright hath given to the poor of the parish of Richmond the summe of twenty-six shillings yearly and for ever to be bestowed in penny loaves every Sunday in the church Qd. per week as by the sayde deed doth more playnley appeare."" In the following, allusion is made to a bridge at Marsh Gate : — ORDER FOR BUILDING THE SOUTH GALLERY. 159 April 7th, 1656. — Whereas Richard Burnham with a great deal of labour and paines hath taken oft" an in- dictment which hath layde for divers years upon the parish for want of repairing a Bridge at Marsh Gate and therein hath disbursed the sume of Eight pounds. August 6th, 1683. — " It was ordered that the con- sideration of the building of a new Gallery on the south Isle of the Church be made against the next meeting of the Vestry." There is no entry after this as to the proposed new gallery until October 8th, 1683. — " Also at this meeting the Vestry took into their consideration the great want of room in the Church and did thereupon order that the present Churchwardens should take the subscription of the parishioners what every one would subscribe to the building of a new Gallery in the Church for the making of more rooine." December 2nd, 1683. — " The only business of the Vestry this day was concerning the Gallery and Mr. Robert Rossington a very able Surveyor presented the Vestry with a draught of the said Gallery which was mtv well liked and approved of, and the Vestry un- derstanding that the Churchwardens had made a very good progress in the subscription wherein many of the parishioners had subscribed very Largely Did at this meeting desire the said Mr. Rossington to undertake the management of the said Gallery and to goe for- ward with it with as much speed as conveniently may be w ch the said Mr. Rossington did undertake and did likewise; desire the Churchwardens to gett in the sub- 160 DR. NICHOLAS BRADY, CURATE. scriptions as soone as conveniently they could that the said Mr. Rossington might have Fifty pounds thereoff to goe forward with the worke." The new gallery was accordingly commenced and in due time completed, but no further mention is made as to the erection of it, or as a finished work, until the 5th May, 1694. — " It was taken into consideration the placeing of severall familys in the New Gallery and it was ordered that Mr. Robert White servant to his Royal Highness the Duke of York (afterwards James II.) be placed in the ujjpermost pew at the east end of the said Gallery for his Highness the Duke of Yorks family and that Mr. Vertue Radford be placed in the next pew, Mr. Tyrebrace in the third, Sir Charles Lyttleton in the fourth, Mr. Hornby in the fifth, Mr. St. Johns in the sixth, and Mr. Robert Rossington in the seventh," &c. &c. It will be interesting to many of our readers to learn that Mr. Nicholas, afterwards Dr. Brady, held the curacy of Richmond for a period of many years, he being proposed for the office by many gentlemen of this place on the 4th June, ] 696, to which he was unani- mously elected as a " fitt and proper person ;" and on the 22nd May, 1698, there is the following :— " Wee the Gentlemen of the Vestry having seen a new version of the Psalms of David fitted to the tunes used in Churches by Mr. Brady and Mr. Tate together with his Majesty's order of allowance in Councill bareing date at Kensington the 3rd day of December, 1696, doe willingly receive the same and desire they may be used in our congregation." PROPOSALS TO ERECT THE FIRST ORGAN. 1G1 The necessity for repairing and enlarging the church seems at no very considerable intervening periods to have forced itself upon the notice of the parishioners, for after a lapse of fifteen years — viz., on the 21st May, 1699, it is again upon record, "That owing to the great want of convenient seates in our Parish Church by reason of the encrease of Inhabitants and his Majesty (William III.) having been graciously pleased to give unto the parishioners the sum of Two Hundred pounds towards the enlargement of our said Church, we doe at this meeting appoint Mr. Samuel Rohcrne our proctor in our bchalfe to appear before the Rt. Revd. Father in God Peter Lord Bishop of Win- chester or his Chancellor or Surrogate, humbly to de- sire a ff acuity or licence for enlarging the same Church, by erecting a new Isle on the north part of the Church to containe about Fifty feet in length and twenty feet in breadth." It was at this period that the pulpit was ordered to be removed from where it then stood, " to be joyned to the South East pillar between the Church and the Chancel." The " llaeulty or licence" was obtained from the bishop, and in a short time afterwards the north aisle as it now stands was erected. Soon afterwards, in the following year, 1700, one Mr. Renatus Harris,* an organist of London, forwarded pro- posals for the erection of an organ. Of the exact nature of these we arc not informed, but there seems an as- sumption of cool liberality in the following decree : — That he (Harris) have leave of the Vestry to put an * An organ-builder at tliat time of great repute. M <<• rp 16*2 DANGEROUS STATE OF THE STEEPLE. organ up at his oivn charge according to the proposals ;" and that " for the conveniency of the new Gallery there be a little paire of staires made next the Bel- ferev." Ordered likewise, " That Madam Hill be seated in the pew next Mr. Ewer in the new Isle. " That Mrs. Hickey be seated in the pew in the new Isle next but one to the doore. " That Mr. Moryote be seated in the new Gallery in the pew next Sir John Hoblon. " That Mr. Crisp be seated with Mr. Cock in the pew next Mr. Brady. " That Mr. Piggot and Mr. Pike be seated in the Gallery with Mrs. Wood Widow, " and so on. Repairs and expenses seem to have been at all times accumulating and pressing upon the attention of the churchwardens and others of that period to a most un- fortunate extent, notwithstanding the large sums ex- pended at various periods on " Isles/' Galleries, the Steeple, &c. It was announced on " Y e 19th of De- cember 1 701 that the roof of the Tower or Steeple was very defective, that the maine Girder was very much damaged and rotted, that the Frames, Gudgings, and Wheels of the Bells were so defective that it was dan- gerous to ring them," and that, as a climax to this un- fortunate state of things, " the Steeple was in danger of falling." One John Drew, " Joyner," was employed to remedy this concatenation of dilapidations, the ex- penses of which caused the rate to be raised from 2d. to Ad. in the pound. It is fair to infer that the following application for GALLERY ERECTED IN THE CHANCEL. 103 sittings in the church caused no little stir among the churchwardens and vestrymen of that time : — "May ye 15th 1 718. -Whereas the Rt. Hon ble Earl of Grantham was pleased to come to the Church in order to prepare a seat accommodation therein for theire Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales & his Lordship havcing made choice of three Pews in the south Gallery belonging to Mr. Iugram Dr. Cartesworth Mr. Tesdale and Mr. Labourn, the Vestry approve of the said choyce, and will endeavour to accommodate the forementioned proprietors during their Royal Highnesses' residence in the parish." The Prince and Princess held these pews until the vear 1726, when " Mr. Powell, Clerk to the Kitchen of his Roval Highness the Prince of Wales, informed the Senior Churchwarden that the Prince had no further occasion for the Pews which had been appropriated for his use." There was once a gallery in the chancel of the church extending across that part of the building from the north to the south wall, the erection of which is thus alluded to on the — 6th May, 1720. — At this vestry a petition to the Lord Bishop of Winton relating to the Gallery lately erected in the chancel — it was read and unanimously approved of, &c. &c. It appears likewise that a portrait either of the late or the reigning monarch was suspended on one of the walls of the church, as in one of the minutes it is ordered that Mr. Provo be seated in the pew in the old gallery under the king's picture. m 2 164 ENLARGEMENT OF THE CHURCHYARD. Likewise it is ordered at one of these meeting's that — " Mr. Twidele be seated with Mrs. Piggot. " Major Coock be seated at his own desire in Major Gardiner's seat. " That Mrs. Hoale be seated in Major Coockes seat. " That Mr. Morgan be seated in Mr. Crisps seat in the Gallery. " Ordered that the Churchwardens doe provide a decent flagg and staff for the use of the parish. " Ordered that the Churchwardens doe put the Pulpitt and Dcske in decent mourning with cloth not exceeding 10 writing on the part of the oppressed, or where his spiritual advice and assistance could be of benefit to a fellow-creature. Unfortunately for Gilbert Wakefield, he, in the year 1798, entered upon the paths of political writing, and thought fit to censure the policy of the adminis- tration in the war against France during the E evolu- tion. Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, published a pamphlet on the war under the title of " Address to the People of Great Britain/'' This work seems to have greatly excited the indignation of Wakefield ; and he immediately replied to it by writing another pamphlet, which he commenced and finished the same evening when he received and read the one by the bishop, and which he immediately forwarded to the press, entitled, " A Reply to some parts of the Ad- dress of the Bishop of Llandaff/' This reply was written in a rather angry and impatient spirit, and was in the end productive of the ruin and ultimate death of the earnest and gifted author. The small work or pamphlet referred to was printed and published by a Mr. Cuthill, of Middle Row, Holborn, who then kept a shop and repository for the sale of old books, and who frequently printed such small works as the one brought to him by Wakefield ; but no sooner did the " Reply" issue from the press than the bishop's attention was directed to it, and his resentment and anger was at once evident, as he commenced an indictment of the unfortunate jmblisher Cuthill for a seditious libel. On the 21st day of February, 1799, the case was tried, Lord Kenyon TRIAL AND SEVERE SENTENCE. 179 being the presiding judge. Cuthill was found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of thirty marks. Wake- field was soon afterwards tried, with a person of the name of Johnson. This Johnson was a bookseller, who had merely sold a few numbers of the book. There is no account given as to the nature of the sentence on Johnson, perhaps it was a lenient one ; but Gilbert Wakefield was sentenced to two years' imprisonment iu Dorchester County Gaol, and to give security for his good behaviour for five years after that time — himself in 500/. and two others in 250/. each. To Wakefield's credit, he paid all the expenses to which Cuthill had been subjected, amounting to 153/. 4s. Sd. This severe sentence created at the time an immense sensation, not only in the circle of his numerous friends and partisans, among whom he numbered such men as the Duke of Bedford, Lord Holland, Mr. Fox, and others, but generally throughout the country. A subscription was soon after his incarceration commenced among his various admirers, which in a short time amounted to 5000/. This sum was augmented a few months afterwards by a legacy of 500/. from an old friend, a Mr. Dodson. These munificent marks of the sympathy of his numerous friends and patrons enabled him to banish from his mind all anxiety for the support of his wife and family throughout his tedious imprison- ment. Among the many kind letters expressive of regret, containing the more solid proofs of friendly feeling towards him in his heavy misfortune, there is the following from the Duke of Bedford : — n 2 180 IMPRISONMENT IN DORCHESTER GAOL. " Bedford House, June 27th, 1799. " Sir, — I heard but a few days ago of the sub- scription for Mr. Wakefield, and have since been endeavouring to find out to whom I should address myself on the subject. I am happy to find it is likely to be attended with so much success. " I have added a draft on my banker for one hundred pounds, the amount of which you will have the goodness to appropriate to your very laudable design. " T am, Sir, " Your very obedient servant, "Bedford." During his imprisonment Wakefield exerted himself to the utmost to soothe and to mitigate the sufferings and sorrows of his fellow-prisoners in that gloomy abode of sin and misfortune. One who was silently a daily observer of his labours among them informed the writer of his " Life" that during the high price of bread (for that year was one in which famine prices prevailed in England) he bought large quantities of provisions, which he distributed among the prisoners. He also gave them money for tea, sixpence to each of the men and a shilling to the women. To such of them who were desirous of employing themselves in reading on Sunday and after their work, he gave Testaments. In tbe winter of the year 1799 and 1800 the weather was extremely severe, and he supplied them with coals, potatoes, tobacco, and other things of which they stood in need, as their allowance of bread KINDNESS TO HIS FELLOW-PRISONERS. 181 was comparatively small, and the quality very inferior. He likewise contributed greatly to the comfort of the debtors bv giving them his advice in their affairs ; he also wrote letters for many of them to their friends, and was the means of procuring the liberation of several, and to others he frequently gave money for coals and other necessaries. Many of those poor people whose release he had obtained, to show their gratitude, used frequently to send him small presents of fish and other trifling things. The gaol of Dor- chester differed in no respect whatever to the prisons of that period in this country. It appears to have been the abode of misery, neglect, and suffering, to which the worst felons in our day are entire strangers. The gaoler, to whom Wakefield paid 100/. per annum to allow him a room in his house and the furnishing him his meals after the most wretched fashion, on some slight disagreement with his prisoner threatened to place him among the felons, where, as he states, " he should have had nothing but a stone cell to sleep in, without fireplace or window, with an open grate of iron which admits the rain." Compare this state of prison arrangement with the model cells of such prisons as Wandsworth and others, with their studied ventilation and temperature, their water, gas, and selected books for their solace and amusement, truly the half century or so which has passed over since the incarceration of Wakefield has brought about a most marvellous change in the prisons of England. In a letter to his daughter, dated May 17th, 1801, 1S2 THE EXECUTION OF FOUR CRIMINALS. congratulating her on her approaching birthday, some further allusion is made to the horrible way in which prisoners were then treated : " The assizes ended last week, and the number of criminals exceeded that of any former occasion ; thirteen, I think, were con- demned, and four are left for execution, three of whom have never been in a gaol before. They are now undergoing the previous torture of cold, solitary cells, heavy irons, with bread and water to continue existence rather than sustain life." To each of these unfortunate men Wakefield requested and obtained leave from the magistrates to visit in their solitary cells, and exerted himself with all his usual energy and Christian kindness in preparing their minds for the dreadful fate which awaited them. By kindness and persuasion, firmly and strenuously enforced, he succeeded in instructing and composing the minds of the doomed men. " And to each cell a mild yet mournful guest, Contrition came and stilled the beating breast." He states that the prisoners met death with mora than tranquil resolution ; and one who had been un- commonly dismayed at first, and had expected a re- prieve, declared himself so resigned to suffer death as to feel no desire for deliverance, and that they all met death with Christian resignation, and in humble con- fidence of their forgiveness through the mediation of a crucified Redeemer. Wakefield has given his parting address to these poor men previous to their execution — " Mav the Father of mercies and the God DEATH OF WAKEFIELD. 183 of all comfort who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that all who believe on His name might hope for the future mercies of His Father even unto eternal life, — may that God who delights not in the death of a sinner, and has promised to receive all who return to Him with unfeigned repentance — that God who can do for us abundantly above all that we ask or think — may He support your spirits under the painful struggle which is approaching, — may He listen to your prayers in your dying moments ; may He cheer your hearts with a comfortable prospect of His forgive- ness, and conduct you through the grave and gate of death to a joyful resurrection." Soon after this event a heavy bereavement fell upon him in the death of his youngest son ; and there is no doubt this sad affliction, in conjunction with his tedious imprisonment, which must have chafed to an almost unendurable extent the spirit of such a man as Gilbert Wakefield, assisted to hasten the termination of his career. On the 21ith May, 1801, he quitted Dorchester Gaol, after two years' abode, as he states, " in a room on which the sun never shone, and within walls whose height excluded his rays from the area of tin; prison." Shortly afterwards he was seized with a fever, which, acting upon a constitution in part shattered by the punishment he had undergone, in a few days terminated his eventful life. His old friend, Dr. Parr, was one among a most distinguished circle of admiring friends who deeply mourned the loss of this gifted scholar; and in a letter whieh he addressed to the bereaved widow and her family a 184 INTERMENT IN RICHMOND CHURCHYARD. few days after her beloved husband's death, he said — " Whatever the hand of Mr. Wakefield found to do he habitually and instinctively did it with all his might. He knew the value of every fleeting moment — he improved every talent which a gracious Provi- dence had entrusted to him — and in the course of his whole life how few are the hours which he wasted in idleness, in folly, or even in those innocent amusements which pass away like the trace of a cloud." Gilbert Wakefield was buried in Richmond church- yard, Sept. 18th, 1801, in the vault of the family, at the end of the chancel. It was the wish of his surviving relatives that the funeral should be strictly private, but the feelings of attachment existed too strongly in the breasts of many of his old friends and admirers to absent themselves from paying the last mark of their esteem and respect towards one they had so admired and honoured, about fifty of whom, in addition to the various members of his family circle, accom- panied the funeral from Hackney. A long and elegantly written tribute to his memory, published in the Morning Chronicle of Sept. 19th (1801), was followed by numerous papers and commu- nications, which were forwarded to the periodicals of the day. Among these were some verses written by Miss Aikin to the memory of her friend, a few lines of which are quoted in conclusion of this notice : — miss aikin's tribute to his memory. IS5 " TO THE MEMORY OF THE REV. GILBERT WAKEFIELD. " Friend of departed worth, whose pilgrim feet Traced injured merit to its last retreat, Oft will thy steps imprint the hallowed shade Where Wakefield's dust embalmed in tears is laid; ' Here,' wilt thou say — ' a high undaunted soul, That spurned at palsied Caution's weak control, A mind by learning stored, by genius fired, In freedom's cause with generous warmth inspired, Moulders in earth — the fabric of his fame Rests on the pillar of a spotless name.' " Nearer to the pulpit is another tablet erected to the memory of Thomas Wakefield, the brother of Gilbert Wakefield. The inscriptions on these monumental marbles are simply and beautifully written, they seem almost to convey to the mind of the reader the difference of character which existed between the brothers, and almost to chronicle the story of their lives. The one telling of the highly gifted and accom- plished scholar — the man of great and distinguished talents — energetic and enthusiastic in all he undertook — of extraordinary zeal and firmness of character — fearless and uncompromising even when his peculiar theories and convictions were viewed by his most earnest admirers and friends as eccentric and peculiar, but of a nature so ardent and impetuous in the cause of liberty of thought, whether of a theological or poli- tical character, that his career was most unfortunately beset with difficulties and embarrassments, which cul- minated at bis trial in the unjust and severe sen- tence which was awarded to him, and in the end termi- nated the career of a noble-minded and gifted man. 186 THOMAS WAKEFIELD. The other monument tells the tale of a calm and peaceful life spent in works of Christian charity and piety — of one who never ceased to labour for the spiritual welfare of all around him during a continuous period of thirty years — of one who, if he did not possess the genius which so conspicuously marked the career of his younger brother, certainly possessed qualities of mind which greatly endeared him to as numerous if not as distinguished a circle of friends and patrons as those by whom Gilbert Wakefield was throughout his life surrounded ; while his more quiet and humble nature, less sensitive, less im- patient, although equally energetic in doing good, preserved him from the turmoil and agitation which characterized the career of his more talented brother. There are, perhaps, few monumental inscriptions which surpass in simplicity and beauty of composition the lines which tell of Thomas Wakefield, curate of Richmond. They were written by an old friend of the deceased, the Rev. Dr. Charles Symmons, shortly after his death. They are as follow : — " Reader — " This monument is sacred to departed excellence, and was raised by the Parishioners of Richmond to perpetuate the name of Thomas Wakefield B.A. who for thirty years was their Minister — their Guide — and their Friend. If haply thou art conscious of con- genial virtues, if like him thou art Pure, Just, Benefi- cent, Liberal, and Pious, upright with Man, and humble LORD BROUNCKEll's MONUMENT. 1S7 with God, reflect and rejoice that while thy recom- pence is certain in Heaven, thy memory shall he cherished upon Earth/'' There are yet remaining in Richmond a few old residents who well recollect him to whose memory the above lines so beautifully bear record, and who always when referring to him speak in terms of enthusiasm and regard. Lysons thus pays a tribute " to departed worth :" — " He was a man peculiarly distinguished by benevolence of disposition, benignity of manners, and liberality of sentiment. His own bounty was limited only by the extent of his means, and he was unwearied in soliciting the assistance of the more opulent in the cause of charity. It may be only said of him that no man ever did more good in his sphere, that no man more deserved or more enjoyed the love and esteem of his fellow-creatures. To his parishioners he was in the highest degree endeared : and they testified their respect to his memory after his decease by a temporary suspension of the business of the town and their wonted amusements, by attending his remains to the place of interment, and afterwards by erecting a marble tablet to his memory." There is a monument of antiquated form and Cushion at the cast end of the chancel to the memory of one who was of some notoriety in his day, Lord Viscount Brouncker, cofferer to King Charles II., who died January 1th, 1H87, and was the third and last viscount of that name. This nobleman is fre- quently referred to by the gossiping and self-serving Pepys, who always alludes to him with feelings of 188 PEPYS' OPINION OP BROUNCKER. unmitigated dislike. On the 17th February, 1666, he thus speaks of him : — " At home by appointment comes Captain Cock. He assures me that Henry Brouncker is one of the shrewdest fellows for parts in England, and a dangerous man." A few months afterwards he states in his Diary : " I find by all hands that the Court is at this day all to pieces, every man of a faction of one sort or other, so as it is to be feared what it will come to. But that that pleases me is, I hear to-night that Mr. Brouucker is turned away (from Court) yesterday by the Duke of York, for some bold words he was heard bv Colonel Werden to say in the garden ; for this the duke hath turned him away, and every body is I think glad of it ; for he was a pestilent rogue — an Atheist that would have sold his King & country for 6 d almost, so corrupt and wicked a rogue he is by all men's report." On every occasion Pepys seems delighted when any mischance falls to the lot of Brouncker ; and on the day which he informs us was the first day he and his wife went out of town with his new coach and horses, he had just come from the Tower, where among some merry discourse " he had heard of Mr. Brouncker being summoned before Sir "William Morton, one of the judges, to give in security for his good behaviour." Brouncker succeeded to the title on the death of his brother, Lord William Brouncker, in 1681, but did not live above three or four years to enjoy it. SINGULAR EPITAPH ON ROBERT LEWIS. 180 There is a stone in the church showing where he was interred, the inscription being — " Her lyeth Henry Lord Viscount Brouncker." There is among the various monuments one which has been frequently referred to for its singularity — it is to the memory of one Robert Lewis, who died in 1649, who, it states, was during his life such a lover of peace that when a contention began to arise between life and death, he yielded up the ghost to end the dispute. On the floor of the chancel near to the entrance of the robing-room, there is a small stone with an inscription, showing that one Mrs. Mary Ann Yates and her husband, Mr. Richard Yates, are there interred. There has been, within these few years, a very well-executed monument placed on the adjoining wall to their memory ; it is the second one that was sculptured for the purpose. The first which was sent for erection was considered of too theatrical a charac- ter, and consequently a refusal was given to it being placed on the walls, when the present one was projected in its stead; and it certainly is one, both as to execution and design, to which the severest critic or stickler for monumental propriety could not for one moment proffer an objection. Mrs. Yates was for many years the leading tragic actress at Drury Lane Theatre, on the boards of which she made her first appearance on the evening of February 25th, 1754, in the character of Icilia, in the tragedy of " Virginia." Her performance on the 190 MRS. YATES. occasion was not strikingly indicative of the talent which she afterwards evinced, and the high position she attained as an actress. It was through the accidental circumstance of a lady, who was announced to play the part of Mandane, in a new tragedy entitled the " Orphan of China," being by indisposition prevented doing so, that Mrs. Yates was selected as the person best able to support the character. Her representa- tion of Mandane was a triumphant success. Her fame was at once established, and she continued for a long period of years to occupy the position of the first tragic actress of her day. It was for the benefit of a Mrs. Bellamy that Mrs. Yates appeared for the last time in the character of the Duchess of Braganza, in the year 1785. ' She had for some years resided at a house by the river- side at Mortlake, but afterwards purchased a residence in Richmond, overlooking the Richmond Gardens, where she died in the month of May, 1 787. Mr. Richard Yates, her husband, was likewise a representative of dramatic characters ; his particular line was comedy, in which he played the parts of old men. He was much esteemed iu his profession, and always occupied a position of great respectability ; he was particularly celebrated in the performance of his various old and grotesque charac- ters, and for giving the words of the author with scrupulous exactness. The monument represents the respected Mr. Yates meekly kneeling by the side of his much-loved and equally loving wife ; but it is to be regretted that meekness and resignation in unimportant matters seem CAUSE OF MR. YATEs' DEATH. 191 to have formed no part of the character of this gen- tleman, for a disappointment of a trifling nature, which occurred in his household arrangements, was the immediate cause of his death, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. In Manning and Bray's " History of Surrey/ 5 vol. i. p. 426, it is stated — " That Mr. Yates died very rich, of passion, in consequence of disappointment of his dinner." In the " Gentleman's Magazine" for June, 1796, his death is likeAvise alluded to; and in the "Annual Register" of April 21 of that year there is the following : " At his house in Stafford-row, Pimlico, aged 89, Richard Yates, Esq., the celebrated comedian. His reputation in the parts of old and grotesque characters especially was eminently great. He was remarkable for pure and chaste acting up to the words of the author with a scrupulous attention ; the more remarkable, as performers of this cast of acting frequently introduce their own humour with what may be called the licentia histrionica of the drama. He excelled, also, in teaching or making an actor in a higher degree, perhaps, than anyone of his time. He was married first to a woman who was rich ; secondly, to Miss Graham, who had heen introduced to his tuition by Mr. Garriek, and with him she first came on the stage at Birmingham. Mr. Yates died sud- denly ; he had been very well as usual, for some time, and had breakfasted heartily. Having ordered eels for dinner when, unfortunately, they could not be had, his warm and hasty temper could ill bear the disappointment, and from anger he wovked himself 192 JOSEPH TAYLOR, THE ACTOR. up to rage. His housekeeper, zealous to please him, went out a long way and bought some ; ere she re- turned, exhausted with fatigue of spirits, he had leaned his head upon the table, and she found him dead/' Another actor, of some celebrity, lies buried in the churchyard adjoining the church — one Joseph Taylor, who died in 1652 ; who, when a young man, was in- structed by Shakspeare to play some of his most cele- brated characters ; and in that of Hamlet — it is asserted by the author of a work, " Historia His- trionica" — " that he played it incomparably well." Sir William Davenant so admired Taylor's representation of this character, that he taught Bettcrton to play it exactly after the same style. In logo, likewise, he was considered scarcely to have any rival. It appears that in the year 1614 Taylor was manager of a company of comedians at Richmond, who were known as the Lady Elizabeth's Servants. Not long after this Taylor was appointed to the ma- nagement of the King's Company of actors ; and in a few years afterwards he received the appointment of Yeoman of the Revels to his Majesty Charles I. One James Hearon, an actor, interred in the burial ground surrounding the church, constantly resided in Richmond, and on nearly every night, after sustaining his character in one of the performances at Covent Garden Theatre, walked home to his residence here. The Right Hon. Lady Diana Beauclerk, who re- sided for many years in the house which overlooks the Petersham meadows (Devonshire Cottage), died there, LADY DIANA BEAUCLERK. 193 nnd was buried at Richmond on the 4th August, 1808. This lady had been divorced from her first husband, the Lord Bolingbroke, and afterwards became the wife of the Hon. Topham Beauclerk, a name dear to the lite- rary world in the latter portion of the last century, and to all readers of the life of the great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson. Of his friend Beauclerk, Johnson said, " Beauclerk's talents were those which he had felt more inclined to envy than those of any one else he had ever known." Lady Diana Beauclerk, prior to taking up her resi- dence at Richmond, lived at a villa by the banks of the river at Twickenham. She was the intimate friend of Horace Walpole, who so admired the admirable ema- nations of his friend's pencil, that he had a room at Strawberry Hill solely appropriated for these talented productions of her ladyship. Walpole, in one of his letters, thanks God that when at " Strawberry" the river rolls between him and the Duchess of Queens- bury. It is only reasonable to suppose that when Lady Diana left the immediate neighbourhood of Twicken- ham and took up her residence at the delightfully situated cottage we have referred to, he must have equally deplored that the river pursued its course be- tween himself and his amiable and accomplished friend. It would be useless, because uninteresting to the general reader, to enter further into detail in the enu- meration of the monuments and memorial tablets which abound in Richmond Church and its adjoining cemetery, but there arc yet some which, if it be only a slightly passing notice which our space will o 194 DR. JOHN MOORE. permit to us, demand our attention, and without them our description of the parish church would be incom- plete ; and it is somewhat remarkable that in so limited a space as the chancel walls and its approaches, we have records to the memory of individuals which combine, in the recital of the pursuits of their lives, the officer of state, the church, the army and navy, the medical profession, the player, and the poet. In tne burial-ground there is a grave-stone to the memory of Dr. John Moore, M.D., the father of General Sir John Moore who fell at Corunna. Dr. Moore was celebrated for his writings, and for his amiable and exemplary life. Of him the Rev. Thomas Wakefield, in an eulogium which he wrote on the character of his friend, said, "He was an author of distinguished and deserved celebrity, and accomplished in entertaining and argumentative conversation be- yond any other person within the knowledge of him who has the melancholy office of writing this record." Sir William Seager, buried December 18th, 1633. There is a decision in the transactions of the Richmond Vestry, May 19th, 1624, that Sir William Seager, with three others, were chosen to sit as members of that body. Sir William was Garter King of Arms in the reign of James I., and was imprisoned by that monarch for having, by the treacherous contrivance of Ralph Brooke, hastily set his hand to a grant of the Arms of Arragon to the common hangman, Gregory Brandon. After a searching inquiry made in the matter, Sir William was honourably discharged, and MRS. HOFLAND. 195 Brooke imprisoned in his stead for his knavery and treachery.* Lord John Haversham, who died in November, 1710, is buried in the chancel. He was remarkable as a politician, and for the zeal with which he opposed every measure in favour of Popery or arbitrary power in the reigns of Charles II. and James II., and became a warm adherent of William of Orange upon his arrival in Eugland ; but, however, in the latter portion of his life he appears, to the surprise of the party with whom he had acted for a long period of years, to have en- tirely forsaken them and gone over to the side of the Tories. The names of Sir Matthew Decker (one of the origi- nators of the parish school), and, in later years, of Sir Lionel Darell, the Earl of Fitzwilliam, of Selwyn, Delafosse, and others — names long known and held in high respect by all old inhabitants of Richmond — may be found, internally or externally, on the walls of the parish church ; and likewise of one who, by her de- lightful writing, may be styled a true benefactress of the young, Mrs. HoHand, the amiable authoress of so many instructive and agreeable tales. Who among us does not remember with what delight he once read the " Crusaders," with its glowing recital of the siege and surrender of Acre to the victorious armies of Richard of England and Philip of France ; — of the knightly prowess of Coeur de Lion ; his capture and detention by the Emperor of Austria as he journeyed home from the crusade ; his release from prison ; and, finally, of * Lyson's " Environs." o 2 196 JAMES THOMSON. his triumphant entry into London ; — the glorious ac- count of the tournament at Knaresborough Castle, and the good fortune which befel the youthful Theodore on that memorable occasion : and how deeply did we sympathise with " The Son of a Genius/' the youthful Ludovico, in his early struggles to acquire a knowledge of the art to which his talented but erratic father had devoted his life, and his exertions to assist and sup- port by the juvenile productions of his pencil the un- fortunate parent while in prison. Mrs. Hofland resided for some years in a house in Ormond Place in this town, and it was here she died, on the 9th day of November, 1844. Of Edmund Kean — to whose memory there is a marble slab closely adjoining that of Mrs. Hofland, and whose remains rest in the vault immediately be- neath it — we need not further speak, as we shall have occasion elsewhere to make brief allusion to this once eminent tragedian. And now with another well-known name, that of James Thomson, one with which Richmond will ever be associated (as the favourite retreat in life, and its parish church as the place where in death the remains of the " Sweet poet of the Seasons" rest), we will con- clude the notices of our church monuments and of the memories which they chronicle. Among the many celebrated men who have at dif- ferent periods made Richmond their residence, no one has conferred such renown upon it as James Thomson. The house wherein the poet dwelt has ever since his death become a hallowed spot, to visit which the LORD BUCHAN's LINES TO HIS MEMORY. 197 admirers of liis genius have made pilgrimages from distant parts, and felt their labour well repaid when shown (as the house and grounds have always been, by the kind courtesy of the late Countess of Shaftesbury, open to visitors) the room in which he usually sat ; the table with the scroll informing the reader " that upon it James Thomson constantly wrote ;" the hooks on which his hat and cane usually hung ; and, beyond all, the summer-house, with the inscription over it, u Here Thomson sung the Seasons and their change." Some lines there are likewise by Lord Buchan, which have been, in all descriptions given of this alcove and the surrounding very beautiful shrubbery and grounds, considered as appropriate ; but they have been designated, with no little truth, as " long and rather inflated/' They commence thus : — " Within this pleasing retirement, allured by the music of the nightingale, which warbled in soft unison to the melody of his soul, in unaffected cheerfulness, and genial though simple elegance, lived James Thomson." It was to Lord Buchan that the public are indebted for the erection of the brass tablet (mean and unimposing as it may be) on which are the following lines, which tell us Avhere all that is mortal of the poet rests : — " In the earth below this tablet are the remains of James Thomson, author of the beautiful poems entitled 1 The Seasons/ ' The Castle of Indolence/ &c. &c, who died at Richmond on the 27th August, and Avas buried on the 29th, O.S., 1748. The Earl of Buchan, un- willing that so good a man and so sweet a poet should be without a memorial, has denoted the place of his 198 ItOSEDALE HOUSE. interment for the satisfaction of his admirers, in the year of our Lord 1792." There is doubtless a stone with its appropriate de- scription over the spot, and which perhaps remained for some years open to public inspection, but as space for increased pew accommodation became a necessity, it is most probable that in the erection of the line of pews at that end of the church, the stone which covers the grave or vault of the poet was floored or boarded over ; and it is in no way unlikely that had it not been for the liberality of the earl, nearly half a century afterwards, in the erection of the memorial, the visitor to Richmond Church would in our day have asked in vain where the remains of Thomson lie. Rosedale House, which was for so long a period the residence of the Countess of Shaftesbury, is a totally different structure to that which formed the abode of Thomson ; it was then only a small and humble residence, into which he had moved from one even smaller, a few yards distant in the same road. The room before referred to, on the right hand as the visitor enters the house, is the only part on which any reliance can be placed as having been in reality that in which the poet actually resided ; the garden then attached to the little domicile was very small in com- parison to the rather extensive piece of land at the back of the present villa. The alcove held in such reverence by his admirers, stands not where it did ; the " pleasing retirement" amid which it was placed when formerly erected was not many yards distant from the house, and much as the fact is to be re- ANECDOTES OF THOMSON. 199 gretted, it may fairly be asserted that from the fre- quent repairs to which it has been subjected in the course of nearly 120 years, its removal and other causes, there does not remain the most infinitesimal portion of the original structure in which we learn he so frequently sat, and wherein it may fairly be as- sumed much of his delightful poetry was written. After Thomson's death the cottage was purchased by George Ross, Esq., who enlarged and improved the original structure at an expense of 9000/. It is very probable that this sum included the purchase of addi- tional land, and its arrangement for pleasure-ground and other purposes. It afterwards became the resi- dence of Mrs. Boscawen, the widow of the admiral of that name, and was purchased nearly sixty years since by the late Earl of Shaftesbury, whose venerable countess has recently been removed by death. Certain gossiping anecdotes are told, which, it must be acknowledged, if they do not detract from the high estimation in which our favourite writer is held by society, undoubtedly do not assist an ardent or poetic imagination in realizing the beau ideal of one " who sang so sweetly what he loved so well," for we read that the pleasures of the table were very far from being matters of indifference to him, and that indo- lence, carried to its extreme limits, was not entirely absent from his habits of life. Leigh Hunt, in re- ference to the oft-told talc of Thomson sauntering lazily up to the peaches upon the wall trees in his garden, and biting from them as they hung, from sheer laziness, to save himself the trouble of twitching 200 RECOLLECTIONS BY HIS HAIRDRESSER. the fruit from off the stem (a statement which has ever been too much for our credulity to accept as a true one), observes — " Slippered, and with hands Each in a waistcoat pocket (so that all Might yet repose that would), was seen one morn Eating a wondering peach from off the tree." Another writer, alluding to the poet's personal ap- pearance, hints of him as — " The hard, more fat than bard beseems." This is mere idle chit-chat, but yet its admission must be conceded ; and there is yet another piece of gossip — a conversation which took place at Rich- mond seventy-three years since — must not by the re- motest possibility be omitted, although the principal speaker filled no higher grade in society than that of a barber, as it was the custom then to style an occupation or pursuit which in our day is designated by much higher sounding cognomens, and in which one aspiring genius has even claimed for himself a professorship. In the Mirror, July 12th, 1823, the following article appeared, bearing the title of " Recollections of Thomson, Pope, Lyttleton, Quin, &c, by Thomson's Hair Dresser" : — " Through the kindness of our correspondent, Kiow, we are enabled to present our readers with a very interesting document — a memorandum of a con- versation with Mr. William Taylor, formerly barber and peruke maker at Richmond, in Surrey, which contains RECOLLECTIONS. 201 many curious particulars of the poets Thomson and Pope, Lord Lyttleton, Quin, and others. The con- versation was held in one of the alcoves on Richmond Green, in September, 1791, at which time poor Taylor was blind. This alcove was a rural rendezvous for a set of old invalids on Nature's infirm list, who met there every afternoon in fine weather to recount and comment on the tales of other times. Taylor said that the late Dr. Dodd had applied to him several years ago for anecdotes and information relative to Thomson. The following is a minute of the most important part of the conversation : — " c Mr. Taylor, do you remember anything of Thomson, who lived in Kew Lane some years since V 11 ' Thomson, Thomson the poet ? — ay, very well. I have taken him by the nose many hundred times ; I shaved him, I believe, seven or eight years, or more. He had a face as long as a horse, and he perspired so much that I remember, after walking one day in summer, I shaved his head without lather, by his own desire. His hair was as soft as a earners ; I never felt such hair, and yet it grew so remarkably that if it was but an inch long it stood upright on end like a brush/ " ' His person, I am told, was large and clumsy/ " ' Yes, he was pretty corpulent, and stooped forward rather when he walked, as though he was full of thought. He was very careless and negligent about his dress, and wore all his clothes remarkably plain.' " ' Did he always wear a wig ?' "' Always, in my memory, and very extravagant he 202 RECOLLECTIONS. was with them. I have seen a dozen at a time hang- ing np in my master's shop, and all of them so big that nobody else could wear them. I suppose his perspiring so made him have so many, for I have known him spoil a new one walking to London.'' " ' He was a great walker, I believe ?' " ' Yes, he used to walk from Mattocks', at Strand on the Green, near Kew Bridge, at all hours in the night. He seldom liked to go into a carriage, and I never saw him on horseback. I believe he was too fearful to ride.' " ' Had he a Scotch accent ?' " ( Very broad ; he always called me Wull/ " ' Did you know any of his relations ?' " ' Yes, he had two nephews, Andrew and Gilbert Thomson, both gardeners, who were much with him. Andrew used to work in his garden, and kept it in order at over-hours/ " ' Did Thomson keep much company V " ' Yes, a good deal, of the writing sort. I remember Pope, and Paterson, and Lyttleton, and Dr. Armstrong, and Andrew Millar the bookseller, who had a house near Thomson's in Kew Lane/ " ' Did Pojje often visit him V " ' Very often ; he used to wear a light- coloured great-coat, and commonly kept it on in the house. He was a strange, ill-formed figure of a man; but I have heard him and Quin and Paterson talk together so at Thomson's that I could have listened to them for ever/ " ' Quin was frequently there, I suppose V RECOLLECTIONS. 203 '' ' Yes. Mrs. Hobart, his housekeeper, often wished Quin dead, he made her master drink so. I have seen him and Quin coming home from the " Castle"* together at four o'clock in the morning, and not over sober, you may be sure. "When he was writing in his own house, he frequently sat with a bowl of punch before him, and that a good large one, too.' " c Did he sit much in his garden V " ' Yes ; he had an arbour at the end of it, where he used to write in summer-time. I have known him lie along by himself upon the grass near it, and talk away as though three or four people were with him/ " * Did you ever see any of his writings V " ' I was once tempted to take a peep. His papers used to lie in a loose pile upon the table in his study, and I had longed for a look at them for a good while, so one morning, while I was waiting to shave him, and he was longer than usual before he came down, I slipped oft' the top sheet of paper and expected to find something very curious, but I could make nothing of it, I could not even read it, for the letters looked all like in one/ " ' He was very affable in his manner ?' "■ ' Oh, yes ; he had no pride. He was very free in his conversation, and very cheerful, and one of the best-natured men that ever lived.' " ' He seldom was much burdened with cash V " ' No, to be sure he was deuced long-winded , but when he bad money he would send for all his creditors * The old Castle Inn at the bottom of George- street. 204 RECOLLECTIONS. and pay them all round. He has paid my master twenty and thirty pounds at a time/ " { You did not keep a shop yourself at that time V " ' No, sir ; I lived with one Landen here for twenty years, and it was while I was 'prentice and journeyman with him that I used to wait on Mr. Thomson. Landen made his Majors and Bobs, and a person in Craven-street in the Strand made his tie wigs ; an excellent customer he was to both/ " ' Did you dress any of his visitors V " ' Yes, Quin and Lyttleton — Sir George, I think he was called ; he was so tender faced, I remember, and so dreadfully difficult to shave, that none of the men in the shop dared to venture on him except myself. I have often taken Quin by the nose, too, which re- quired some courage, let me tell you, for one day he asked particularly if the razor was in good order, and protested that he had as many barbers' ears in his parlour at home as any boy had birds' eggs on a string, and swore that if I did not shave him smoothly he would add mine to the number/ " ' You have read the " Seasons," I suppose ?' " ' Yes, sir, and once had a great deal of them by heart. (He here quoted a passage from Spring.) Shepherd, who formerly kept the Castle Inn, showed me a book of Thomson's writing, which was about the rebellion in 1745, and set to music, but I think he told me not published. The cause of Thomson's death is said to have been taking a boat from Kew to Rich- mond when he was much heated by walking. Now, I believe that he got the better of that ; but he had a HIS BIRTHPLACE. 205 merrymaking with Quin. He took a quantity of cream of tartar, as he frequently did on such occasions, which, with a fever, carried him off. I was with him the very day before his death ; he was very weak, but managed to sit up in bed. I asked him how he found himself that morning. " Ah, Willi," he replied, " I am very bad, indeed." ' " Taylor concluded his amusing recollections by a hearty encomium on the kind-heartedness and amiable character of his old employer. It has been related that Thomson was a wretchedly awkward reader of his own productions, that one of his particular friends and patrons, Doddington, once snatched a paper from his hand, annoyed by his singular utterance and way of reading it, telling him that he did not understand his own verses. The poet's birthplace was Ednam, in Roxburgh- shire, and it was customary some years since, on each anniversary of the day, to hold an annual com- memoration, on one of which occasions Burns wrote the following beautiful lines, with which, and some verses from the pen of his friend Collins, we bring to a conclusion this brief description of Richmond old Church and its numerous monuments. " While virgin Spring by Eden's flood Unfolds his tender mantle green, Or pranks the sod in frolic mood, Or tunes JEolian strains between ; While Summer with a matron grace Retreats to Dryburgh's cooling shade, Yet oft delighted stops to trace The progress of the spiky blade; 206 POETRY BY BURNS AND COLLINS. While Autumn, benefactor kind, By Tweed erects his aged head, And sees with self-approving mind Each creature on his bounty fed; While maniac Winter rages o'er The hills where classic Yarrow flows, Rousing the turbid torrent's roar, Or sweeping wild a waste of snows ; So long, sweet poet of the year, Shall bloom that wreath thou well hast wod, While Scotia with exulting tear Proclaims that Thomson was her son." " In yon deep bed of whispering reeds His airy harp shall now be laid, That he whose heart in sorrow bleeds May love through life the soothing shade. But thou who own'st that earthly bed, Ah ! what will every dirge avail, Or tears which love and pity shed, That mourn beneath the gliding sail. Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore When Thames in summer wreaths is di-essed, And oft suspend the dashing oar To bid his gentle spirit rest." - Collins. The greater part of the foregoing article was in the hands of the printer when the alterations and im- provements now in progress at the old parish church of St. Mary were commenced. We had, with many others of our townspeople, been anxious to learn the exact whereabouts of Thomson's resting-place, and when it became necessary to uncover some of the vaults for the purpose of removing the earth to about the depth of a foot, afterwards to be replaced with search for Thomson's grave. 207 concrete, we, with oue or two others, earnestly sought to discover the grave of the poet, but without success. There were two vaults iu close proximity to the spot indicated by the brass tablet, one of these covered over by the flooring of a pew, the other in the aisle, but neither of them was that we so hoped to find. One was a comparatively modern one, and the other certainly did not contain the remains of James Thomson. Many old Richmond persons recollect hearing it said that his coffin was buried partly in the church and partly outside. If there is any truth in this tra- dition, so singular a circumstance may be accounted for in this way. It is just probable that he was buried outside the church, and that during some extension and enlargement of the north aisle the wall of the building might have been erected over the vault in which he lay ; but it is not unlikely that in the making of the vault described as a modern one, his remains were removed and deposited elsewhere, there being perhaps at that time no memorial over his grave indicative of him whose bones may have thus been so ruthlessly disturbed. When it was recently detei'mined that the pews in the body of the church were to be removed, it became a matter of no slight gratification to us and to a friend in this town with whom we had frequently conversed on the subject, that an opportunity would at last be afforded of discoveries which were expected to be made under the flooring of the old pews in the way of numerous monumental slabs and memorials, with 20S THE ANCIENT BURIAL-GROUND. which it had been imagined nearly the entire space was covered. In old works which treat of Rich- mond and its ancient church, mention is made of a great number of persons who have been interred within its precincts, of whom no record now remains, but whose memories, " in dull cold marble/' it was hoped to find preserved beneath the floor. On this occasion disappointment was the result, for there were few or none worth recording. Just here and there was an old grave or vault, with numerous bones scattered about, but a few inches beneath the level of the pew floors, most of which had been buried in the earth of the adjoining churchyard prior to the north " Isle/' as it was termed, being erected over them. These skulls and bones were all in a particularly de- cayed state, showing the long period of years which had elapsed since the bodies had been committed to the earth. It is very probable that some of the burials in this churchyard, and likewise under some parts of the building, were long anterior to the erec- tion of the church itself; for although no place of worship is ever referred to up to that period in Rich- mond, apart from the Palace Chapel and that of Sheen Monastery, yet a burial-place must have for centuries existed ; and it is fair to imagine that the space on which our church now stands and the churchyard (ex- cepting that portion purchased of the Messrs. Collins in 1745), is that in which the earliest and rudest of " the forefathers of the hamlet sleep." To those who may have felt interested in the minutes of the early vestry of this parish, it will not DRAWING TAKEN OE THE GRAVES AND VAULTS. 209 be unimportant to learn that among the numerous old vaults with which the aisles and chancel are filled, various marble slabs were discovered which tell where the remains of George Charley rest, whose name appears among others composing the first vestry held, of which we have any record, in Richmond — he who, in 1624, " had in his hands a bell belonging to ye church," and respecting which bell such mysterious calculations appear to have been made ; — of Thomas Eling (a well-known name in the town), and who fre- quently figures in the parish records, — of Mr. Ros- sington, the surveyor, who on the 2nd of December, 1G83, received orders " to goe forward" with the erec- tion of one of the galleries, and who modestly desired only Fifty pounds to commence the said work with, the same gallery which has been within these last few weeks entirely removed to make way for the construc- tion of a new one on a more extended scale — of Sir George Wright, whose monumental stone, with the peculiarly arranged verse thereon, was nearly covered over by one of the chancel pews, and many others. Prior to the removal of a single stone in the floor of the church, we attended and carefully made an accurate drawing of each one of the many slabs which record the names of those who an; interred under them. Being, of course, taken according to a scale, no difficulty will exist at any future period should it be found requisite to name the exact spot and extent of any vault or brick grave under the new flooring about to be laid down. Every epitaph has been r 210 THE INSCRIPTION CORRECTLY COPIED. carefully copied in a book, which, with the drawing, will be presented to the churchwardens, and deposited in the parish chest, to be consulted, perhaps, at a far distant period by some local archaeologist or antiquarian, who, in the gratification of his favourite pursuit, may be curious to know where lie the remains of many whose names and histories are recorded in works which have already existed for nearly two centuries and a half, as resting beneath the pavement of the old Richmond parish church. 211 CHAPTER VIII. THE PARISH REGISTERS. REGISTERS OF CHRISTENINGS, DEATHS, ETC., ORDERED TO BE KEPT BV CROMWELL IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. — THE FIRST BURIAL REGISTERED IN RICHMOND FEBRUARY 26, 1583 — ONLY THIRTY-ONE CHRISTENINGS ARE MENTIONED AS TAKING PLACE IN 1608 — CHRISOM CHILDREN — PARISH BRIEFS — LARGE COLLECTION MADE IN RICHMOND CHURCH — ANCIENT DUCKING STOOL — PARISH ACCOUNTS AND EXPENSES. 1"T was in the reign of Henry VIII., in the year -*- 1539, that an injunction was issued by Cromwell, as " Privy Seal, and Vicegerent to the King's said Highness, addressed to, and to be kept, observed, and fulfilled by every parson, vicar, or curate in every church, that he keep one book or register, wherein he shall write the day and year of every wedding, chris- tening, and burial made within his parish. " And after providing that a coffer shall be made, with two keys and two locks, to hold the book in which such entries shall be made, likewise decrees that on every Sunday, in the presence of the churchwardens, the book shall be taken forth, and that all the weddings, christenings, &c., which have taken place in the week " afore 5 '' be inserted therein ; and should the parson or vicar neglect to do so, he shall be fined the amount of 3*. 4d., which sums shall be appropriated to the repairs of the said church. r 2 212 THE FIRST REGISTER IN 1583. It is not improbable that the first or earliest book in which the Richmond registers were inserted, may- cither have been lost or removed by some ancient churchwarden, or others, of a century or two since. It may be that the " coffer" had not been provided in which the volume was to be held in safe custody, or that some parsimonious parish functionary had refused the supplies necessary for the purchase of such a repository. The first record of the births, marriages, &c, which certainly ought to date from the years 1539-40, has been unfortunately purloined or removed. The Richmond Registers commence from February 26th, 1583, and for that year are thus given : — Feb. 26. Alexander Lamb was buried. March 6. Motcar Burgis was buried. „ 20. Walter Charlton was baptized. ,, „ Judeth Warton was buried. April 7. Margot Lovil was buried. „ 9. Edward Lovel was buried. „ 27. Joel En. Treshain was baptized. July 9. Marie Edwards was baptized. „ Byshopp was baptized, and others. But the united baptisms, burials, &c, do not exceed fifteen in number, showing how imper- fectly the orders issued by the Lord Vicegerent Cromwell were complied with in the royal manor of Richmond. In 1581-, the register contains the names of only twenty-three. REGISTERS. 213 In 1585, of ten only. In 1586, of twenty-six. In the year 1596, names and occupations are re- corded, with which are associated recollections of the ancient palace, and yet more ancient adjoining hamlet of West Sheen, which continued to be thus designated for more than two centuries and a half after Henry VII. had changed the name of the remaining portion of the Manor to that of Richmond. 1591, July. John Terry of ye Buttery, who died at Mrs. Burton's. „ „ One of my Lady Howard's men. „ „ A maide of my Lady Lattimer's. „ „ Two at Budd's unmarried. „ „ One of the Stables at Sheene. One of the pages in the register of burials in this year (1596) is thus headed : — " Buriengs doo follow from the year of our Lorde 1596 in the reign of Elizabeth to ye first of King James as following and were down in ye oulde Register oute of which they were written by me. " Thomas Brown, Clcrica. " July 2 1th, 1596. Laurence Snow was buried w ch Laurence was executed at Kingston and by his wife brought to Richmounte to be buried. " Nov. 12, 1599. Mrs. Elizabeth Ratcliff one of the maides of honor died and her bowel Is buried in the Chancel] at liichmont. 214 REGISTERS. " July 24th, 1600. Sir Antony Paulet Knight died at Kew whose bowells were interred at Richmounte ." It was not an unfreqnent practice, in the time of our Norman monarchs, for the heart and bowels of the deceased king to be interred, many miles distant from the spot where the body rested, and this singular custom continued to be occasionally resorted to down to the commencement and middle of the seventeenth century, in some instances at the request or wish of the survivors, and more frequently having been so ordered by the testamentary decree of the deceased. The above-named Sir Anthony Paulet, by will made in the month of May, 1600, directed that he should be buried in the church of the parish in which he might chance to die ; but having in a codicil ordered a tomb to be erected for himself and family in the parish church of Hinton St. George, in Somersetshire, it may be con- sidered that the executors and surviving members of the family of Paulet merged into a state of bewilder- ment at these rather contradictory and conflicting ex- pression of the wishes of the deceased, and no doubt congratulated themselves that in burying a portion of the worthy knight at Hinton St. George, and the less noble parts at Richmond, they had triumphantly and cleverly surmounted all existing doubts and difficulties. In examining these ancient registers, it would appear that about the year 1603 a remarkable improvement was effected as to the nature and quality of the ink in which they were written, for up to that period it appears in colour a perfect yellow ; but this year they are re- corded in ink which, although it has remained as REGISTERS. 215 we see it for 260 years, is even now a pure and beau- tiful black ; and again, in 1620, these dottings down of the deaths and burials are written in such an ex- quisitely beautiful hand, each letter being so perfect and correctly formed that it appears almost equal to the best style of engraving. In 1608 there are only 31 christenings. „ 1609 „ 15 ditto. „ 1610 „ 20 ditto. „ 1612-3 Clement, Coachman to the Lady Elizabeth's Grace. ,, 1613 there are only 37 christenings. „ 1614 among others Goodwife Chilton. „ 1623 Mother Cranke & Thomas Jackson the Gar- dener. In the year 1624, the number of " Christianings" amounts to 69 ; among them may be found various names of which we read in the annals of the earlv vestry meetings : — Feb. 3. Maria Hickman daughter of Dixie Hick- man. ., 25. Nazareth the base born daughter of Joane Maskall. „ „ Joane the base born daughter of Ann Franklin. „ „ Richard Green sonne of Will Green Junior and Will Evans sonne of llycc Evans a travailing stranger whose wife lay in at Slieene christened May 8th. Dec. 7. William Drew sonne of Will Drew. 216 CHRISOM CHILDREN. Charles Carr sonne of Sir Robt. Carr Kniglit by the Ladie Ann his wife was born on the Gth August ^624 and was baptized. Dec. 26 Margaret Charley. 1626. June 27th. Jurnegam Myhill wid w buried. ,, July 18th. Elizabeth Mason Ass tamer. „ Sept. 4th. Mr. George Charley. „ Aug. 28. Mr. Stephen Pears. 1631. July 11. The Lady Dorothy Wright Jun r . 1634. Novr. 13. John Smyth ye Bird Catcher. An Johnson a Crisom. 1636 A crisom of Mr. Ross of Kew. 1637 A crisom of Mr. Robt. May of Kew. 1640 A maid at the Lord Ancrams. 1671 Matthew a Blackamoorburied May 20. The correct meaning of the word " chrisom" is a somewhat disputed one ; but the generally received one is, that it refers to children whose deaths have occurred after they have been christened, but before the mother has been churched. But in the course of time the term chrisom began to be used by the clergy, as signifying children who died before the rites of baptism had been administered. This application of the word is an incorrect one, but it is thus used in many old parish registers ; and with this interpreta- tion the word may generally be received, although not the original or proper one. There is a passage by Bishop Taylor, in his work entitled " Holy Living," in which the word is in- troduced : — BRIEFS. 217 " This day is mine and yours, but we know not what shall be on the morrow ; and every morning creeps out of a dark cloud, leaving behind it an ignorance and schism deep as midnight, and undis- cerned as are the phantasms that make a chrisome child to smile." Shakespeare likewise uses the term in the play of " Henry V." Mrs. Quickly, when informed of the death of Fahtaff, exclaims : " Nay, sure, he's not in hell ; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom child." During the Protectorate of Cromwell a statute was passed which gave permission to all persons who might object to be united in the bands of wedlock in holy mother church, to seek the assistance of one of the justices of the peace, and by him have the ceremony performed. And it appears by the Richmond Register of Marriages for the year 1654, that one " William Saulcy and Mary Austin had ye publicacon of their marriage published on the 1 2th ye 19th and ye 26th day of February, and were marryed by Richard Graves Esqr. ye 26th day of March 1654< in ye presence of Walter Symmes Robt. Warren and others." There was a custom prevailing in the olden time of collecting money in churches for charitable purposes by means of what was termed a " Brief." Uriel's were originally written messages from the Pope, addressed to magistrates and others on matters of public concern. They were written on parchment, and sealed always 218 BRIEFS. with the Fisher's ring, in red wax, and always com- menced with the Pope's name. In later times, and under the Protestant rule, briefs were a kind of licence or authority granted by the Ecclesiastical Court, to enable parishes or individual persons to solicit publicly in any church throughout the country the subscrip- tions of the congregation, by means of a brief or state- ment of any misfortune or accident which had occurred; sometimes it might be fire, sometimes a hurricane, but from whatever cause such crosses and losses pro- ceeded, whether for the purpose of repairing a parish church or succouring a private individual, a statement would be read by the clerk, generally speaking, after a most slovenly fashion, detailing the accident or catastrophe which had befallen some unfortunate com- munity, locality, or otherwise, and nearly always con- cluding by informing the congregation of the amount requisite for the occasion, which, it was a rather re- markable fact, went so closely into detail that sundry odd pence were always wanting in addition to the given number of pounds and a stated number of shil- lings, to complete the exact amount of assistance which was called for by the calamity, be it of what kind it would. Immediately after the clerk had finished reading the statement of the loss, or accident, or whatever it might be, to call for the contributions of the charitably- disposed, the sidesmen commenced their visits to each pew, with a rather deeply-constructed box, shaped somewhat similarly to those now in use for containing paper, envelopes, &c, in their hand, and rattling the LARGE COLLECTION AT THE CHURCH. 219 contents rather loudly at each pew to attract the notice of the occupants. It was, no doubt, customary in some places and on certain occasions for the sides- men or wardens to call at the houses of the wealthy to obtain their assistance, for Horace Walpole in one of his letters informs a friend that Dr. Johnson, for whom he entertained an immense dislike, had recently called upon him, and " that he kept him at the door like a parish officer waiting for a brief." In the year 1700, on the 22nd day of March, there is an entry among the register and other parish records, " that there was collected (in Richmond Church) on a Brief, for St. Mary Magdalen, Ber- mondsey £3 2 1 In 1702 — Collected on a Brief for Chester Cathedral 14 „ Collected on a Brief of the Pro- testants of Orange, in the parish of Richmond . . 42 16 10 This latter collection was certainly a very respect- able one as to the sum which was obtained, showing how the old High Church and State principles have, ever been predominant here, and how, upon this par- ticular occasion, there must have prevailed a more than ordinary amount of enthusiasm, which drew from the congregation of that day assistance of so tangible a character. The registers of Richmond are neither so numerous or so interesting as those of Kingston, and while we are upon the subject of these mouldering records of some 220 ANCIENT CUCKING-STOOL. of the habits and peculiarities of our ancestors in by- gone centuries, we cannot forbear quoting a few of those quaint and singular details even from the books of a neighbouring parish. " October 9th, 1570. — Thursday 6 at nyght rose a great winde and rayne that the Temps rosse so hye that they myght row w* bottes owte of the Temps a gret waye in to the market place and upon a sodayne." We have all heard of the ancient cucking or duck- ing-stool, a punishment provided by our forefathers in their wisdom for the punishment of low, scolding, and abusive women. The apparatus consisted of an upright pole, fixed either on the side of a river or deep pond, on the top of which, working on a swivel, was another pole exactly similar to the rude apparatus we see frequently used in brick-fields for the purpose of raising the loaded buckets or tubs used by the work- men in that manufacture. Attached to the end of the lever, either by a rope or chain, was a strong chair, in which the unfortunate creature who was to be punished was seated, and being well secured in it was swung over the stream or pond, and immersed a cer- tain number of times therein. This was in many in- stances a punishment of no little severity, for as soon as the wretched woman was withdrawn from the water (from which she had not been too quickly re- leased), than she would again be plunged beneath the surface before time had been granted her scarcely to gain breath for an instant. A new cucking-stool had been lately made, and there is an entry of its first PUNISHMENT OF ROGUES AND VAGABONDS. 221 being used, for the register relates that in the year 1572, "On Tewsday being the xix day of this month of August — Downing wyfe to — Downing grave- maker of this parysshe she was sett on a new cukking stolle made of a grett hythe and so browght abowte the markett place to Temes bridge and there had iij Duck- inges over hed and eres becowse she was a common scolde and fyghter." The 8th September, 1572, must have been, we should think, a memorable day in Kingston, for we read that " This day in this towne was hanged six persons — and seventeen taken for rogues and vagabonds and whyppid aboute the market place and brent (burnt) in the ears." This must have indeed been a dreadful dajr of mis- rule and riot in the town — a kind of high carnival for all the baser and worst of passions to run rampant in — an exhibition, cruel and barbarous as it was, having yet the grim guidance and sanction of the law — which enabled those who revelled in a kind of horrible gusto for witnessing such proceedings to enjoy to the utter- most the barbarous inflictions of punishment perpetrated on that occasion. And now, with a few other extracts from these books, of a milder character than the foregoing one, we will bring to a conclusion our subject of the Parish Registers and Accounts kept by the wardens of our churches, commencing from a period of above three hundred years since : — 222 queen mary's private expenses. s. d. Rec d for setting of the torches gyven at the Quyne's* buriall from Hampton Court by water 4 1553. Rec d of the Spanyards for the hire of the Towne hall ' ... 10 10 1570. Paid to the ryngers at the command of the master bayliffs when word was brought that the Earl of Northum- berland was takenf . .... 20 1585. For ringing when the traitors were taken 9 1 594. For 5 torches when the Queen came thro the town 5 1603. To a Trumpeter for sounding a procla- mation 5 For setting up a booth in the town and for mustering befor the Coronation . 2 6 For the making of the Cucking stool . 8 Iron work for the same 3 Timber for the same 7 6 3 Brasses for the same and three Wheels 4 10 For bringing the town pot from Mr. Evelyn's and scouring the same ..06 No item of expenditure seems in these times to have been too trivial or insignificant to record. Even in Queen Mary's Privy Purse expenses, we find that when staying with her retinue at Richmond Palace, she does not omit to put down as a memorandum that she gave- * Jane Seymour. f Afterwards executed. PARISH RECORDS. 223 S. d. To a friar for bringing apples .... 2 To a servant bringing a Pudding ... 8 To the antiquary these ancient records, whether ap- pertaining to the Privy expenses of a queen or the expenditure of a parish, are always interesting. They abound with singularities both as to their nature and character, as well as from the style of spelling which prevailed three or four centuries since ; and we believe that these dottings down of the expenses and outgoings, whether private or parochial, owe much of their interest and amusement to the quaint and peculiar style of the orthography — an accomplishment in which our ances- tors certainly had no rules whatever laid down for their guidance ; and they in consequence seem to have revelled in a style of orthography most uncertain and desultory, decidedly ignoring all system or regularity either in the composition of a letter, a public record, or a parish register. k >24 CHAPTER IX. THE GBEEN. THE TOURNAMENTS AND BEVELS WHICH HAVE TAKEN PLACE ON THE ANCIENT GREEN — ITS FORMER EXTENT AND THE CURTAILMENTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EFFECTED IN LATER TIMES — RADICAL MEETING HELD IN 1821 — DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT WINE-CELLAR OR STORE — ITS CONTENTS — THE "HIGH WALES" — "SOUTH OF FRANCE" AND OLD TERRACE OR BOWLING-ALLEY CLOSING OF LOVE-LANE THE ROAD AT THE BACK OF SIR MATTHEW DECKER'S MANSION LEADING INTO WEST SHEEN — THE RIGHT-OF-WAY THROUGHOUT THE SAME GIVEN UP BY THE PEOPLE OF RICHMOND — THE LATE EARL FITZWILLIAM HIS LIBRARY AND LARGE COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS — NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE'S ANXIETY TO POS- SESS ONE OF THEM BY TITIAN — THE EARL's REFUSAL TO TREAT WITH THE AGENT OF THE EMPEROR — THE ANCIENT ELM NEAR THE THEATRE — ETC. ETC. PHE GREEN has in its time been the scene of many splendid tilts and tournaments, and gay and courtly doings. Those were the palmy days of the Palace and the Green ; and in later times, when these knightly contests had ceased to take place, it became the " pleasance/' or, in more modern language, the pleasure-grounds of the palace. In our own degenerate days the bat of the cricketer has superseded the lance of the knight, and the refresh- ment booth ignominiously takes the place of the large and gaily caparisoned tent, where sat " Noble and squire of high degree, Forming a goodlie companie." FORMER EXTENT OF THE GREEN. 225 It certainly must have been once of very considerable extent to what it now is, as we read in a survey taken about the year 1650, " that it is a piece of level turf of twenty acres, planted with 113 elms, 48 of which stand on the west side, and form a handsome walk." There is no doubt that in this description the smaller or little Green is included, and likewise the two portions of land where the vicarage and other villas on the one side, and that on which the Pembroke villas on the other side, are now erected. Such was originally old Richmond Greem nearly treble the size of that which we are now content to acknowledge by the name. But, notwithstanding it has been thus shorn of its proportions, we shall always feel grateful for the possession of such a piece of tolerably level turf for the recreation and amusement of the inhabitants. The report before referred to states that it was " a special ornament to the town ;" and when it is con- sidered how the space on which the palace stood has indeed been put to the very best account, how nume- rous are the various buildings noAv standing on its site, and how greatly even the number of these has been within a period of a hundred and twenty years so much decreased (for in an old drawing of this part of Richmond as many as twenty-two houses are shown as standing where the grounds at the back of Asgill House are now), we have occasion to be very thankful that the Commissioners or the Government awarded such a piece of ground for the health and re- creation of succeeding generations. In referring to the size of the Green as it originally Q 226 CURTAILMENT OF ITS SIZE. existed, we can but think that it has suffered a slight curtailment of its proportions likewise, at that part where so large an angle of it is deficient on the south side — opposite to Old Palace-terrace, as it is now de- signated, or PowelFs-row, as it was originally named. All these houses, with the numerous others forming the back and sides of this block of various sized dwellings, were erected in the reign of Queen Anne, about the year 1708—9; and it may be confidently asserted that the railings which surround the Green extended in a straight line from the corner at the Duke-street end, nearly into King-street, and were met at a right angle by those commencing from the corner near Cedar-grove ; and consequently that the entire row of houses reaching from the end of Duke-street up to the further corner in King-street all faced the Green. To explain this suggestion more clearly, we will suppose the entire block of houses on the left, as you proceed down Paved-court from King-street, cleared away, and the Green extending to an angle in that direction on which all these dwellings stand, the spectator would view this part of Richmond as we believe it existed up to a period of about a hundred and seventy years since, — the angular-shaped piece of turf still remaining in front of these houses, which turf was about forty years since nearly half as large again in extent to what it was, indicates that it formerly was a part of the greensward connected with the more ancient Green and Palace-grounds. Many of the present inhabitants of the place can recall to mind that on this particular spot frequently THE RADICAL MEETING. 227 took place a description of entertainment then known as a " Mountebank" — a kind of circus which travelled from town to town, the amusements of which consisted of numerous coarse jokes from a clown — a very humble kind of equestrian display and feats of tumbling, which were invariably concluded with a kind of lottery, in which persons who paid some trifling sum participated, and, if fortunate, drew prizes equally trifling in value ; but as the blanks exceeded in a very considerable manner the number of the prizes, and the said prizes, even when secured, were singularly low as to their market value, the proprietors were no doubt very liberally paid for the expenses of their establish- ment. It was upon this same plot of ground, in the year 1821, that a large meeting was held* to advocate the cause of Reform in Parliament, and other matters of a political character. Such meetings were all designated at that period by the term of " Radical ;" and those who attended on such occasions and took any leading part in the proceedings of the day were considered in no better light than revolutionists and anarchists, and pursued with the utmost malignity by those who, dif- fering entirely from them in their views, had not the slightest dawning of perception that the period was approaching when the principles which these men of humble rank so vindicated at the cost of their position in life, and amidst aspersions and calumniations from the great portion of society, would ten years afterwards, * An account of this meeting was furnished by the writer to the editor of " Richmond Notes" a few months since. Q 2 228 SPEAKERS AT THE MEETING. when advocated by influential and aristocratic members of the British House of Commons, prevail with irresis- tible influence throughout the land, producing their results in the Reform Bill of 1831. The " meeting" which was held in Richmond at the period referred to was certainly not of a very important character. Certain tradesmen of the place were the principal speakers on the occasion; the rostrum from which they addressed the crowds assembled was a waggon ; and there is no doubt that a considerable amount of nonsense was spoken by some who would be heard on that particular day in defence of their favourite political opinions. There was not one of those who thus took part in the proceedings of the day who did not suffer entire loss of business and ultimate ruin ; the patronage of the wealthy was withdrawn from them, and some ended their lives almost in penury and want. Among the numerous persons who were leaders of this political movement on that occasion was a Mr. O'Higgins ; he was a very singular-looking person, and well known here about forty years since ; he was a teacher of mathematics, the classics, and arithmetic, and reported to be " wonderfully clever." People said that he had " squared the circle," and said so full of admiration and wonder, tc and that he would make his fortune by it." Few knew what " squaring the circle" meant, but they felt that there was a degree of marvel and mystery about it, and be it what it would, this great arithmetical nut had certainly been cracked by clever Mr. O'Higgins. In reality, this person had mr. o'higgins. 229 excellent abilities, but notwithstanding, he received notices from nearly all his patrons that his services as a teacher of the various sciences he professed would in future be dispensed with; and in later years he lived in want and destitution, occasionally acting as usher in a school. A few years after, his death took place in the Richmond workhouse. \A c cannot dismiss this unfortunate gentleman without quoting a few lines from the writings of Lord Byron which refer to him, and in which his name is to a certain degree immortalized. It was during the period of his lordship's belonging to the committee of Drury Lane Theatre, and being one of the stage com- mittee of management. Complaining of the way in which he is daily bored by authors, actors, and others, he writes : " Then the scenes I had to go through, the authors and the authoresses, the milliners, and the wild Irishmen, the people from Brighton, from Blackwall, from Dublin, from Dundee, who came in upon me, to all of whom it was necessary to give a civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading. Mrs. Glover's father, a dancing- master of sixty years, called upon me to request to play c Archer/ dressed in silk stockings, on a frosty morning, to show his legs, which were certainly good and fresh for his age, and had been still better. Miss Emma Somebody, with a play entitled the ' Bandit of Bohemia/ or some such title or production ; a Mr. O'lliggins, from Richmond, with an Irish tragedy, in which the hero was chained by the leg to a pillar during a chief part of the performance, lie was a 230 DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CELLAR. wild man, of savage appearance, and the difficulty of not laughing at him was only to be got over by re- flecting on the probable causes of such a cachinnation." So much for the early reformers of Richmond, their meeting on this part of the former Green, the return their exertions met with as pioneers in the cause of Reform, and for thus labouring in the cause of the people. To return once again to matters connected with an earlier period of the history of the Green, we have to mention that, in the year 1813, when some repairs and additions were being made to the house known as Cedar Grove, the workmen, in digging out and re- moving the earth, broke through the roof of an old cellar, or vault, which has been described by one who was present at the discovery of it as being about nine feet square, and eight feet in height ; there were stone shelves round it, on which there lay from nine to ten dozen of bottles of antiquated size and form; they were nearly all filled with wine, but in some the corks had become quite decayed, and in these the contents had almost dried up ; there were likewise two ancient silver spoons lying on one of the shelves, which were of antique form, the bowls being almost diamond-shaped, with the handles long and turned upwards. The wine was the colour of light port, but sweet in taste, and the strength of it seemed entirely gone, leaving only sweetness in its stead. Now, we are informed in the " Rutland Papers," published by the Camden Society, that on the visit of Charles V., Emperor of Germany, to Henry VIII., THE HTGH WALK. 231 " Wynes were laid yn dyvers places for the King and the Emperor between Dovyr and London," mention- ing " Rychemonnte, Hampton Court, and Wyndesor, at the first of which places provisions were made for x mealys with Gascon wyne, and Renysh wine plentye." Now, tlicre seems a probability that the vault, or cellar, where the wine alluded to was discovered, may have been one of the " dyvers" places where Henry stored awav the " wvne" for his august visitor — he who in reality owed the peaceable possession of his throne to the English monarch, the right and title to which had been disputed by Francis I. of France ; but aided by Henry, he had maintained himself, and at the battle of Pavia even took the King of France pri- soner. If the conjecture is a correct one as to the store of wine being thus deposited and built up as it was found in the year named, it would give the age of it at about 280 years. The Green has certainly retrograded from the excellent order in which it was accustomed to be kept. The " High Walk/' a name familiar to all old inhabitants, but one most probably with which the more modern ones are in no way conversant, was then, forty years since, and long before that period, a fashionable and favourite promenade for the gentry of the place. Not only was the broad gravelled terrace always kept in excellent order, but there extended the whole length of it, between this terrace and the Green, an excellent piece of grass-plat, about twenty-five feet in width, forming with the wide gravelled walk a very 232 THE HIGH WALK. agreeable and delightful place for recreation and exercise. A light iron railing then parted this walk from the Green ; consequently, it was kept quite free from the annoyances which the residents on that side of it have lately so seriously complained of. It is much to be regretted that this railing was thus re- moved ; and we cannot quit this part of our subject without earnestly pressing the matter on the con- sideration of the parish of Richmond — viz., the re- construction of the iron railing as it before stood, as well as the renewal and keeping in order afterwards of the walk and the grass-plat — the expense would be trifling in comparison to the great improvement effected, and would not only afford to the numerous residents in that locality a most agreeable promenade, but would likewise form a favourite place of resort for many of the inhabitants of the new neighbourhood which is so rapidly springing up within a short distance of it, as well as for the visitors to the town. We are quite aware that it will be said, " this part of Richmond is under the control of the crown, and not of the vestry of the parish •" but that has little weight as an objection to the proposed improvement, for there is not the slightest doubt that if the subject was taken up by the residents around the Green, and other inhabitants of the town, the suggestion or request would meet with attention, and be readily acceded to by Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests. In an old engraving, taken about the year 1750, the railed enclosure referred to is shown even then to have THE BOWLING ALLEY. 233 existed ; the sun-dial is likewise represented, which stood in the middle of the Green, and which has only within these last few years heen removed. The view to which reference is thus made is, as is stated on the engraving, taken from the " Terras ;" this " Terras" existed along that side of the Green where the vicarage and adjoining villas now stand, and consisted of a very substantial erection of arches, &c, in brickwork, on the top of which was the walk or terrace referred to. We have made some inquiry as to the original pur- pose for which these arches, and walk over them, were thus built, and are informed that it was for the pur- pose of what was then called a bowling alley, where persons could enjoy the amusement of that game under cover from the rain or sun ; the terrace having originally, many years since, been covered over. Had it been said that the engraving referred to was taken from a point of view by the " South of France," it would have been to any but a resident of some years' standing in the place, perfectly unintelligible as to where so singularly-named a locality could by possi- bility exist, but this was certainly the name by which this narrow railed-in pathway or walk was known, ex- tending from the corner of the little Green up to " Poverty Court/'' as a row of small houses which stood a little to the right at the extreme end of this pathway was then styled. It was here that a gate and entrance to the old deer park existed, to which the public had right of access; a road from this point, which turned off im- mediately to the left, in an angular direction, at the 234 LOVE-LANE. back of Sir Matthew Decker's mansion and grounds, on the site of the modern Pembroke Villas, conducted the pedestrian of a century since into the hamlet of West Sheen, and passing through the precincts of this ancient place, so full of recollections dear to the anti- quary, along a pathway, following the course of the river within a few feet of the water's edge, terminated in the neighbouring village of Kew. From this part of the Green likewise there was an entrance to a long avenue of trees, which, turning towards the right, con- tinued until it reached nearly to the farm-yard in Kew foot-lane (through which we pass if we now wish to visit the Observatory), then bearing off towards the present Royal Laundry it continued until it reached the old Kew Palace and the gardens appertaining to it. Now it was within a few yards of this fine avenue, and parallel with it throughout the whole distance, that " Love-lane" extended its course ; it commenced close by the residence of the late Dowager Countess of Shaftesbury, where that very narrow pathway between the walls, but considerably wider then, and with plea- sant green hedges on each side, conducts the pedestrian into the main Kew horse-road at a right angle, now as dreary a passage between two high brick walls as the gloomiest imagination could by any possibility realize or imagine. This agreeable lane or pathway, passing as it did through so pleasant a locality, with the green fields on the right and the fine avenue of trees on the royal property to the left, and con- tinuing, as we have stated, into the village of Kew, was certainly too readily rendered up at the request of PEST-HOUSE COMMON. 235 his late Majesty George III., upon the king's making over to the parish the piece of land then known as Pest House Common, and for the erection of a new workhouse for the poor of Richmond and Kew as a compensation to the inhabitants for giving up for ever all right and title to a pathway or road through the property which his majesty was so anxious to acquire, that he might be enabled the better to carry out his projected plans and improvements in the royal gardens, to effect which the king bought up at a high price all the land extending from the commencement of the present Ha Ha, nearly up to Kew Green, and in depth from the line of the present wall in Kew-road back to the pathway before mentioned as Love-lane. In an ancient and rare map of Richmond to which we are now making reference, as many as nineteen fields may be observed, some of them of considerable size, Avhich existed prior to the improvements and additions to the king's gardens being made ; and exactly on the spot where the Pagoda is now erected, we sec the name of the person who was then owner of that piece of land. Although so many years have now passed away since the occurrence, and irretrievable as is the step taken by our forefathers in Richmond in yielding this right of way, we cannot quit the subject without re- marking that the request to render up this pathway, emanating even as it did from the highest personage in the kingdom, never ought to have been acceded to. Many of the inhabitants of the Richmond of that period thought so even then, and any old resident of 236 FITZWILLIAM HOUSE. this town at the present day who is imbued with the slightest interest as to the matters which occupied the serious attention of the people of Richmond at a period of about eighty years since, will always regret that the right of way through the old deer park and gardens should have been so readily rendered up. But we must return to our subject, " the Green/' from which the pleasant fields and green hedge-rows of Love-lane, and the beautiful avenue of fine old trees leading to the ancient groves and Carthusian Priory of Sheen on the extreme left, have caused us to stray. Although the removal of the mansion known as Fitzwilliam House, which some years since was the residence of Richard, Viscount Fitzwilliam, and the erection of the present Pembroke Villas is a matter of such recent occurrence, we cannot omit referring to the old house and the recollections connected with it. It had been, when first built, the seat of Sir Charles Hedges, Secretary of State to Queen Anne, and after- wards the residence of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., an old and much-honoured name in Richmond ; at the commencement or early part of the last century this gentleman was one of the founders of the parochial school in this town, and until a comparatively recent period the boys in the said school wore Sir Matthew's livery. There was in the mansion a fine suite of apartments leading from one to the other, after the style of those in the Palace of Hampton Court, one of these, a noble room, had been erected by Sir Matthew Decker for the purpose of receiving and entertaining in it his Majesty George I. A kitchen of extraor- THE EARL FITZWILLIAM. 237 diuaiy dimensions was likewise built at the same time, which, with its enormous range for cooking and other accompaniments in the same proportion, would have put to shame the insignificant sized offices for similar purposes in the present day. It was in the large apartment above referred to that George II. was dining with Sir Matthew on the day when he was being proclaimed king throughout the country. The courtyard of this old mansion was of very con- siderable size, and was paved in a rather singular fashion throughout, being laid with Dutch clinker bricks in the form of an immense star, encircled by smaller stars, somewhat similar to an ancient Roman pavement ; it presented a remarkable appearance, and was at one time considered a great curiosity. It was in this courtyard that the Richmond volunteers of the period were allowed to exercise by the permission of the noble owner of the house. The Earl Fitzwilliam, who for many years was a resident here, was an eccentric, but kind-hearted and humane man. He had ever been a most liberal patron of the fine arts ; he had travelled much, and consequently had enjoyed frequent opportunities of making selections from the old masters of various schools, of which his house on the Green became the depository. This valuable collection was, by his lordship's permission, at all times open for inspection, and was very frequently visited by the neighbouring nobility, gentry, and all whose taste or inclination led them to do so. lie was likewise a great admirer of 238 NAPOLEON AND THE PAINTING. Handel, and was the chief promoter of the first grand musical commemoration of that composer, which took place in Westminster Abbey in the year 1784. His lordship possessed a rare collection of manuscript music of Handel's, and other celebrated ancient composers. Among some of these curiosities in musical composition we may mention a curious MS., called " Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book," written expressly for her majesty's practice, in " fine character," says the writer, describing this antique manuscript, which contained a numerous collection of lessons for the harpsichord ; the oldest one in the collection bore the date of 1562. The earl possessed among other paintings of great value one by Titian, " Philip the Second and Princess D'Ebole." For this painting a celebrated picture- dealer of that period offered his lordship three thousand guineas, but he might have disposed of it, had he so wished, for a much larger sum, as an agent of Napoleon had unlimited instructions from the emperor to purchase it ; but his lordship refused to treat with his imperial majesty for the painting. The earl was a frequent visitor to George III. and his queen, at St. James's and Buckingham House, and a guest at their evening parties. This nobleman lived for nearly the last twenty years of his life in the most perfect seclusion ; he would see none but certain members of his own household, and during this period refused even to receive the king, who, as he always held his lordship in high respect, called frequently to make inquiries after his health ; but the interview was always avoided by the earl on ANCIENT ELM TREE. 239 the plea of nervous affection. Strange to say, that from this retired and secluded life he suddenly emerged, and resumed the keeping of a splendid equipage with four horses, in which he generally travelled. This was not more than two years prior to his death, which took place February 5th, 1816. His lordship was buried in the family vault close to the tower of the old Richmond church, in which lie the remains of his ancestor, Sir Matthew Decker. His lordship's library was, equally with his collection of pictures, of a rare and costly character, con- sisting of nearly eight thousand volumes ; six hundred volumes of valuable prints, and one hundred and forty fine old missals, curiously and elegantly illuminated. It was to the University of Cambridge that this magnificent collection of pictures and scarce volumes was bequeathed, along with the sum of one hundred thousand pounds in South Sea Annuities, to erect a building in which they might be stored; and for the purpose of maintaining and supporting it in perpetuity, the museum to which we refer at Cambridge bears his lordship's name. Most of us can recollect the remains of the ancient tree which stood in front of the theatre ; tradition here again " stated her claims, and had her claims allowed/' for they went so far as to assert that it was planted by the fair hands of the " maiden monarch/' Elizabeth seems frequently to have indulged in the planting of trees as a relaxation from the weightier affairs of state ; for it is very certain there arc, or have been, as many oaks, elms, &c., in the country, 240 HORACE WALPOLE AND THE GREEN. for which are claimed the honour of her having given them a local standing, if not an habitation, as there are old towers and keeps belonging to numerous ancient castles and fortresses in England and Wales, of which tradition likewise avers Caesar to have been the founder. Whether it was really planted by the queen, or what is much more probable, by one of the ancient foresters of the royal park and gardens, is now of little importance ; the old tree has ceased to exist for the last sixteen or eighteen years. It had been condemned to be removed some years pre- viously, but its destruction was averted by Sir David Dundas, Bart., who at his own expense planted it round with ivy, and enclosed it with an oaken railing. The following lines were written on this relic of the olden time by a gentleman then resident in Richmond, the Rev. Luke Booker, Vicar of Dudley, in Worces- tershire : — " Pride of the Grove, on Richmond's loveliest green, Favoured of old by England's virgin queen, What though on thee, as in thy verdant prime, No towering branches now expand sublime, Yet does thy shattered trunk mine eye engage, Thou solemn monument of hoary age. What though the lightning's shaft or thundering storm Have wreaked their fury on thy giant form ? Yet with a Briton's heart I honour thee, And deprecate thy fall, thou reverend tree."* In a letter from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, dated June 4th, 1749, Richmond Green is thus mentioned, affording us a startling picture of * From Dr. Evans' " Richmond." SINGULAR WAGER. 241 the morals of a portion of the aristocracy of that day. He writes : — " As I passed over the Green (Richmond) I saw Lor;l Bath, Lord Lonsdale, and half a dozen more of the AVliitc's Club, sauntering at the door of a house thcv have taken there, and come to every Saturday and Sunday, to play at whist. You will naturally ask, why they cannot play at whist in London on those days as well as on the other five. Indeed I cannot tell you, except that it is so established a fashion to go out of town at the end of the week that people do go, although it be only into another town." Whist and gambling of all kinds, as the amusement of the wealthy classes, were at this period, when Wal[)ole wrote, entirely in the ascendant. In another letter, about the same time, he states : " Lord Sandwich goes once or twice a week to hunt with the Duke (Cumberland), and as the latter has taken a turn for games, Sandwich, to make his court and fortune, carries a box and dice iu his pocket, and so they throw a main whenever the hounds arc at fault upon every green hill and under every green tree." In another letter of Walpole's there is a statement to which it is difficult to accord belief; there is something ghastly in the recital, but is related as showing how in every possible way opportunities were seized for car- rying (nit their gambling and betting propensities on all occasions. He, Walpole, says: "A man dropped down dead at the door of White's Club, in London. He was carried in; the club immediately made bets whether he was dead or not ; and when they were it 242 RESIDENCE OF HEYD1GGER, going to bleed him the wagerers for his death in- terposed, and said it would affect the fairness of the bet." We had always been curious to discover to which house round the Green, Walpole's correspondence re- ferred, and were for some time unable to arrive at a conclusion on the subject; but have lately learned that the one known as No. 17, on the Green, at present the residence of William Chapman, Esq., is in all probability that which these noblemen and members of the club frequented, as it was many years since known as the " London Coffee House ;" and in the lease of it, which has been taken only a few years since, it is there mentioned by that name. At the further, or last house in Maid of Honour- row, the one nearest to the old palace, lived Hey- digger, who was master of the revels to King George I. He caused the entrance-hall of this his favourite residence to be somewhat elaborately de- corated, each panel having a landscape or other re- presentation painted thereon, and which paintings are even at this time in excellent preservation. Of the Green and its surrounding objects there is little more to relate. Old engravings show a large and rather important-looking structure, which stood on the site of the present theatre ; it seems to have covered the whole extent which that building occupies, with the exception that its frontage did not extend so far out by about ten feet. The drawing shows that this house had scarcely a particle of garden or outlet to it, and it may be assumed that this could have been MASTER OF THE REVELS. 243 no great favourite as a dwelling-house, and, as such, was most probably purchased at a low price, and re- moved, when in the year 176G the present theatre was built j and although this once very favourite place of entertainment claims consideration as a rather pro- minent feature among the numerous objects of interest in this neighbourhood, it is purposed, for the present, to refer to other and much older places of amusement here, and then returning to the subject of this theatre, to detail all that has to be told from the records of various matters concerning it, and of the earlier resorts of the gay and fashionable world which, for the last century and a half, have, to a certain extent, contributed to the gratification and amusement of our forefathers in Richmond. 2 244 CHAPTER X. THE PAEK. FORMATION OF RICHMOND NEW PARK BY KING CHARLFS I., AND ERECTION OF THE "WALL WHICH SURROUNDS IT — PRESENTED BY THE PARLIAMENT TO THE CITY OF LONDON — RESTORED TO CHARLES II. BY ORDER OF COMMON COUNCIL — DEMISED BY QUEEN ANNE TO 1IF.R UNCLE— SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, RANGER— VISITS OF GEORGE I. TO HIS MINISTER AT THE GREAT LODGE GEORGE III. AND MR. ADD1NGTON, AFTERWARDS VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH, AT THE WHITE LODGE— • JOHN LEWIS, THE RICHMOND BREWER — HIS ACTION AGAINST THE CROWN FOR A FREE PASSAGE THROUGH THE PARK — ■ THE COURT LEET DINNER— LEWIS'S REPLY TO MR. SAYER THE STEWARD — ANNUITY GRANTED TO LEWIS BY THE SUB- SCRIPTIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF RICHMOND — LORD NELSON AND SIR WALTER SCOTT VISIT LORD SIDMOUTH AT THE WHITE LODGE — THE NUMEROUS WILD TURKEYS AND HERONS IN THE PARK — ADDRESS PRESENTED TO HIS MAJESTY KING WILLIAM IV. WHEN HE VISITED THE EARL OF ERROL AT PEMBROKE LODGE. KNOWN generally as the Great, or New Park, to distinguish it from the Old, or Lower one, is of very considerable extent, containing 2253 acres, and is nearly nine miles in circumference. It is divided among five parishes ; and although always known as Richmond Park, it is a rather remarkable circumstance that only a small portion of it is within the boundary line of the parish from which it derives its name, and is thus divided— Kingston, 1008 acres; Mortlake, 050; Putney, 230; Richmond, 100; and Petersham, 265. FORMATION OF THE PARK. 245 This park formerly consisted of a number of small farms arid houses in private tenure, having exten- sive grounds attached to them, with commons and waste lands belonging to the various parishes above named. "Among the various owners of this extensive pro- perty, Charles I. himself held large tracts of it in ' Wastes and Woods ;' "* and as his Majesty was much given to the sport of the chase, he determined to form a park here, well stocked with red and fallow deer, between his two palaces of Richmond and Hampton Court. This was about the year 1(335. But the king found the greatest opposition offered to his proposed arrangements ; for although a number of persons whose interests prevailed with them to offer no resistance to his proposals to purchase their lands or tenements, were easily treated with, as he showed a wish in every case to give full value — in fact, a higher price than they were really worth — yet there were numerous others who obstinately refused. And one gentleman in particular, who had a considerable estate therein, and a very convenient house, with extensive garden, would by no means part with it ; and as the king's determination to compass his object seemed to increase witli the opposition offered to him, we learn that " it made a great noise, and much clamour and dissension arose, for it was said that the king was about to take away men's estates at Lis own pleasure." But he had already commenced the work by ordering the bricks to be burnt for the building of the wall, on that * Manning and Dray. 240 OPPOSITION TO THE KING'S PROJECT. part of the estate which was his own property, and by which his new park was to be surrounded. So truly unpopular was this measure, that Juxon, the Bishop of London, Laud, Archbishop of Canter- bury, and Lord Cottington, Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, strove to dissuade his majesty from proceeding with the work, as the " brick wall" was considered " both expensive and unpopular." The people of the neighbourhood and even the city of London concurred in their assertions and fears that the roads would be obstructed by the enclosure, and the latter had indeed been the first to take the alarm on the earliest notice of the king's intentions, and they used their earnest endeavours to spread among all classes the disaffection which was everywhere arising against him, for they saw that he obstinately persisted in the erection of the wall, and enclosing the land before the owners of it had even consented to part with it ; and when it became apparent that the king was determined to compel the sale, whether these people would part with it or not, they became very urgent with the great officers of state at once to put a stop to any further progress on the part of his majesty, as to the proceed- ing further with his project. Lord Cottington, in particular, took every opportunity to throw all possible difficulties and impediments in the way of the purchase of the different parcels of land and other property which it was yet necessary to make ; but all this op- position, whether proceeding from his own officers of state or the owners of the lands, was of no weight whatever with Charles. It produced no other effect COMPLETION OF THE PARK. 247 than exposing the former to their royal master's dis- pleasure, and the treating of the latter with the most perfect indifference, for he impressed on all his thorough determination to proceed with and bring to a conclusion his favourite project — nor did he swerve from it until lie had accomplished it. But, to a certain extent, there were friends by whose advice and remonstrance he allowed himself to be guided, aud to whose counsels he might not consider it quite prudent altogether to turn a deaf ear, so that in the various transactions of this business he carefully avoided as far as possible, by his subsequent conduct, whatever might be in any way likely to cause offence to the parties concerned, or give reasonable grounds for just complaint. But, however great was the oppo- sition which Charles had to encounter in the bringing to a successful termination the many perplexities which had bsset him from the outset and commencement of the work, certain it is that he finally triumphed, for the owners of the land at last complied, the Park was completed, and in the year 163T, on the 15th June, the first ranger, Jerome, Earl of Portland, was ap- pointed, " with an allowance of one shilling per day for wages, a right of common for four horses, and the use of the l)i').\s' or brushwood. lie lived until after the Restoration, but probably did not continue the office longer than during the reign of Charles I., as the park was then alien ited from the Crown." Thus, to the firmness and determination which so characterized the king, Richmond and the surrounding neighb n !i m.1 owe the enjoyment of this extensive 248 the king's consideration eor the poor. and truly beautiful Park, and which has become of the greater importance to the residents of our own town, for the reason that about the middle of the last century, as related in the foregoing chapter, our pre- decessors yielded up their rights and enjoyment of the certainly much smaller, but still beautiful portion of park-like land appertaining to the old monastery and hamlet of Sheen. The conciliatory and more prudent line of conduct which the king had adopted in the latter part of the proceedings continued to influence him in the carrying out of the minor details and arrangements for the convenience of the public (which to a certain extent he affected to study), for at given distances gates were erected in the Avail for the convenience of persons wishing to use the roads as before, when the land was not imparked ; and step ladders likewise, for the use of foot passengers, were placed at convenient distances for public use. Even the very poorest came in for a share of royal consideration and kindness, for it was ordered " that all poor persons belonging to the various parishes in which the park was situate, should be permitted to take and carry away the fire-wood as they had hereto- fore done." So that all reasonable facilities being afforded to the public — the owners of the land paid the very full value of their property, the poorest and meanest person's interest considered, and even he left in the possession of his rights and privileges — there was an end of the grievances of which the people had been so tenacious, PARK MADE OVER TO THE CITY OE LONDON. 249 and all reasonable fear and apprehension was at last removed. On the death of Charles in 1G49, the House of Commons, in return for the support they had received from the C ity of London, and to show their gratitude to that body for the many marks of friendship and attachment shown to them, and having likewise been entertained by them at a magnificent banquet at Grocers'-hall on the 7th June, K49, that day being kept apart for a day of general thanksgiving for the success of the Parliamentary cause : it was resolved on the .'30th of the same month of June in that year, that the New or Great Park of Richmond, the timber excepted, should be settled on the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London, and their successors for ever; and on the 17th of the following month an Act was passed to that effect; but at the same time the grant was accompanied by a request or recommendation that the various keepers in the said park should be con- tinued in their respective places as long as they should be found to be faithful servants. "A further declaration was made by Parliament on the 1 1th day of the ensuing February, that in the passing of the Act before referred to, it was their in- tention and wish that the park which they had thus made over to the mayor and citizens of London should ever continue as a park, and ever remain as an ornament to the City, and a mark of the Parliament's favour to the same." A comparatively brief space of time to the "ever" of the Parliamentary grant had passed away — namely, 250 RESTORED TO CHARLES II. a period of ten years ; when on the 14-th clay of April, 1660, the Parliament received a letter from Charles II., dated from Brenda, where he was then staying, de- claring his intention to return to his kingdom. The citizens held a common council, and made an order that the park at Richmond should at once be restored to his Majesty, coupled with an affirmation that for no other reason than it being their earnest wish and determination to preserve it for his use had they accepted and. kept it. After the restoration and the due acceptance of the park by the king, the first ranger appointed to it was Sir David Ilervey, Knight, of Coomb, who Avas ad- mitted to the office on the 17th of August, 1660. It was demised for three lives by Queen Anne to her uncle, who died in August, 1711. The son of this nobleman, who succeeded to the office on the death of his father, with the concurrence of Lord Cornbury, sold the remainder of the term back again to the Crown for the sum of 5000/., The rangership on the 3rd of October, 1727, was given by George II. to Robert, son of Sir Robert Walpole, who afterwards became Earl of Orford. Sir Robert, the father, spent much of bis leisure time here ; he Avas passionately fond of hunting, and paid right liberally for the en- joyment of the pastime, as he built the great Lodge, which, with other improvements, cost him the sum of 14,000/. This Lodge was known to most of the pre- sent inhabitants of Richmond, as having been the residence of Sir Henry Campbell, and was pulled down about twenty years since. LORD SIDMOUTH AND GEORGE III. 251 Horace Walpole, in referring to this house, states " that his father always spent here, in quiet and re- tirement from state business, his Saturdays and Sundays," or rather, as he himself said, to do more business on those days than he could possibly have done in town. Here George I. frequently came to visit his favourite Minister, and after enjoying the amusement of shooting in the park would dine with him ; and Horace Walpole does not scruple to inform Sir Horace Mann, in one of his letters, "that his majesty, being fond of private jollity, and much pleased with punch after dinner, was in the habit of indulging in it freely at these entertainments. " In the life of the late Lord Sidmouth there is a description of a meeting of a somewhat different kind between George III. and his minister, Mr. Addington, at the White Lodge in the park, some years after- wards. It is there stated that his majesty, who was anxious to confer on Mr. Addington some substantial mark of his favour, assigned to him for his use the Royal or White Lodge, and as it had been long unoc- cupied and required much alteration, insisted on having it repaired and adapted as a family residence for him at his majesty's private expense. The king, who at this time lived at Kew, found amusement in the superintendence of the works, and himself marked out a space of sixty acres surrounding the house, which was before open to the park, for Mr. Addington'a use, who, however, refused to accept of more than five acres. When all the plans of improve- ment had been arranged, the king, accompanied by the 252 THE PllIXCESS AMELIA AS RANGER. queen and the princesses, enjoyed the gratification of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Addington, and some of their children, by appointment, at the " Lodge," and him- self pointed out the numerous means of comfort and happiness he had designed for them at their new abode, and of which he now placed them in possession. The invitation to Mr. Addington and his family was given as follows : — "Kew, June 13th, 1801. " The appearance of the morning makes the king hope the evening will be dry. He therefore trusts Mr. Addington will bring his family in his ' sociable* to the Lodge in Richmond Park, but hopes among the number that the lively and engaging youngest daughter will not be omitted." There is a truly kind and amiable feeling shown in these few lines from the king to his favourite minister. On the death of the Earl of Orford, which took place on the 1st of April, 1751, the Princess Amelia was appointed ranger, and it was during her ranger- ship that complaints loud and frequent began to be made by the inhabitants of Richmond and the neigh- bouring parishes, against the deputy-rangers and other persons connected with the management of the Park, and the keepers of the various gates, for obstructing the footpaths through the same. In a letter of Horace Walpole to George Montague, June 6th, 175.2, he refers to the subject thus : — " Discontents of the nature of those about Windsor Park are spreading HER OPPOSITION TO THE PUBLIC. 253 about Richmond. Lord Brooke, who has taken the late Duchess of Rutland's at Petersham, asked for a key (to the park gate), the answer was (mind, for it was tolerably mortifying to an earl), ' that the Prin- cess had already refused one to my Lord Chancellor/ " In the " Memoirs of the last ten years of the Reign of George II.," it is stated " that Sir Robert Walpole expended large sums of money in draining and im- proving the Park, which had before been a perfect bog, and a harbour for deer-stealers and vagabonds." Having effected tbese improvements, Sir Robert seems to have considered himself entitled, in order to secure more privacy for himself, or, it might be. more se- curity from the deer-stealers and vagabonds who in- fested the Park, to order the various ladders to be taken away from the walls, and the gates to be all of them shut up; but, as a kind of compromise, or- dered that keepers should be stationed at each one to open to all foot passengers during the day time, and to private carriages, the owners of which might have tickets of admission, which tickets were not difficult to obtain. The Princess Amelia, from the commencement of her rangership of the Park, seemed determined to per- severe in one continuous career of opposition to the wishes of the public; she at once set about increasing and extending the encroachments which her pre- decessor bad commenced, and this she appears to have done in a reckless and almost malicious spirit. We are informed, "that the princess unfortunately made no effort to preserve or retain the slightest popularity, 254 THE PARK CLOSED. and it was a subject of remark at the time that Queen Caroline, the mother of her royal highness, had some years before in the same spirit wished to close St. James's Park to the public, and asked Sir Robert Walpole what it would cost to do it. " Only a crown, madam," was the reply of th?/t sagacious minister. It really appears that about this period a predilec- tion prevailed with a portion of the royal family for shutting out the public from such places ; for in another statement of the circumstances to which Walpole alludes, in his letter of June 6th, 1752, we learn, " that shortly before this her brother William had incredibly disgusted the neighbourhood of Windsor, by excluding them from most of the benefits of the parks there/' However, with reference to Richmond, the Princess Amelia shortly afterwards brought the matter to a climax by entirely closing the park to the neighbour- hood, except by the giving tickets to a few favoured individuals. Petitions were presented to her from various quarters ; these, with persistent obstinacy, she refused to receive. The petitioners inserted their grievances and appeals in the newspapers of the day, which were productive of no effect whatever with her royal highness. In time the patience of the public became entirely exhausted, and measures were at once taken to thwart, if possible, the tyrannous conduct of this very obstinate princess. Meetings were convened and subscriptions raised in order to obtain the means to carry out and obtain the requisite ends, but it was all to no purpose SUIT AT LAW AGAINST THE PRINCESS. 255 " At last the inhabitants of Richmond and many gentlemen of the neighbourhood (privately instigated, it was said at the time, by the Duke of Newcastle) commenced a suit against the Princess Amelia for the right and liberty of entering the new park at their pleasure. Sir John Phillips and the younger Bcckford presented themselves on the part of the people to plead their cause, but instead of influencing the Court, they confounded (so says the history of the trial) the rest of their counsel — singularly bungling kind of counsel- lors, we should imagine ; but so it was, and to the great mortification of the Richmond people and of the public generally — for great excitement naturally pre- vailed as to the results of the trial — the princess carried her cause against a road for coaches and carts through the park ; but some years afterwards a suit was again commenced for a right of footway, which was fortunately given against her, upon which, in disgust and indignation, her royal highness abandoned the park/' Walpole very quietly observes, when recounting these circumstances, that " the children of the Crown in England having no landed appendages, they naturally covet them ; rangerships for life are the only terri- tories the king has to bestow; both the duke and his sister entered more easily into the spirit of prerogative than was decent in a family brought thither for the security of liberty." This was much, very much, for AValpolc to write and to acknowledge; but it would appear that he, 256 JOHN LEWIS, THE BREWER. with the public generally, felt keenly the tyrannical proceedings of the princess. With perhaps a few trifling exceptions, this is the history of the various circumstances which took place on the occasion of the public obtaining the right of free admission to the park ; but in the " Memoirs of the late Gilbert Wakefield" another account is given, which to all inhabitants of Richmond will certainly be the most interesting, as introducing a name dear to those who resided here at that period, and of which even in our own day a grateful recollection is still cherished. The name to which allusion is thus made is that of John Lewis, and there are few of the old Richmond families who do not possess the engraved likeness of this estimable old man, with the following inscription written under it, which was the composition of the Rev. Thomas Wakefield, at that time minister of Richmond : — " Re it remembered, that by the steady perseve- rance of John Lewis, Brewer, of Richmond, Surrey, the right to a free passage through Richmond Park was recovered and established by the laws of the country (notwithstanding being very strongly opposed), after being upwards of twenty years withheld from the people." We scarcely ever look at one of these engravings without recalling to mind a conversation which arose between Lewis and a relative of ours with whom he was on friendly terms, the recollection of which is preserved in our family. The portrait alluded to had then very recently been published, and he and our irvyi 3. gilbert Wakefield's narrative. 257 relative were examining it, when Lewis turned to him and said, " I tell you what, William, they have got my likeness correct enough, and the chair is correct too, hut they have drawn my staff a deal too thick and clumsy." Gilbert Wakefield thus narrates the history of these law proceedings : — " The second of these twin patriots is Mr. John Lewis, of Richmond, brother to Dr. Lewis, the cele- brated physician. By one of those monarchical en- croachments which have distinguished the present reign at Richmond, and essentially impaired the beauty and convenience of that terrestrial paradise, the footway through Richmond Park to Wimbledon, East Sheen, and Kingston, was shut up, and no passage allowed without a ticket. " Lewis takes a friend with him to the spot, waits for the opportunity of a carriage passing through, and when the gate-keeper was shutting the gates, inter- posed and offered to go in. " ' Where is your ticket V " ' What occasion for a ticket — anybody may pass through here V " ' No, not without a ticket/ " ' Yes, they may, and I will/ " ' You shan't/ " f I will/ " The woman pushed; Lewis suffered the door to be shut upon him, brought his action, and was triumphant." The cause was tried at the Surrey assizes- before 258 SIR MICHAEL FOSTER. that upright judge, Sir Michael Foster. After the decree in his favour, Lewis was asked whether he would have a step-ladder to go over the wall or a door. He hesitated for some minutes, but reflecting that strangers might not be aware of the privilege of admission through a door, which could not stand open on account of the deer; considering also that in pro- cess of time a bolt might be put to this door, and then a lock, and so his efforts be gradually frustrated ; sensible, too, that a step-ladder at the first inspection would signify its use to every beholder, he preferred that mode of introduction. In mere spite, the steps of this ladder were set at such a distance from each other as rendered it almost useless. At a subsequent period, when the same judge happened to go the Home Circuit, Lewis complained again to the court. " My Lord," says he, " they have left such a space between the steps of the ladder that children and old men are unable to get up it." " I have observed it myself," says this honest justice, " and I desire, Mr. Lewis, that you would see it so constructed that not only children and old men, but old women too, may be able to get up." " It had long been the wish of his present Majesty to obtain possession of a narrow lane of great length, which separated Richmond and Kew Gardens from each other, and led by a shorter way from Richmond to Kew and Brentford ferry. The object in this was the same as in other attempts of a like nature (which, to the extreme detriment of the village, had been crowned with success) — namely, the enlargement of a LEWIS AT THE COURT LEET DINNER. 259 garden already enormous in its dimensions, and at that time seldom visited by its possessor. " The King not then being very popular, and the Queen almost idolized, her name was thought the proper instrument of application to the good people of Richmond. She was lady of the manor, and her steward made a great dinner and invited many, and among the rest our hero " Lewis, knowing himself to be disliked by the Court and its retainers, at first refused to accept this honour ; but upon consideration, becoming apprehen- sive that some plot was in agitation, determined at last to go. " The bottle went merrily about, amidst a jirofusion of the luxuries of the season. Lewis determined to keep the possession of his sober faculties, and was on his guard accordingly. " Late in the evening, when most of the company were dispersed, the steward gets up, expatiates upon the benevolence and amiable qualities of our gracious queen, and declares how infinitely she would be obliged to the inhabitants of Richmond for giving up the road in question, but that if it was disagreeable to a single inhabitant of the place she did not wish the surrender to be made. " ' All gazed in silence with an eager look, Then, rising from his seat, the hero spoke.' " ' Mr. Saycr/ said Lewis, as he rose, ' I am that individual. With as much respect for her majesty as yon or any man can entertain, I do not feel myself at liberty notwithstanding to compliment the queen with s 2 260 CLOSING OF A GATE AT KEW. the privileges and advantages of my townsmen and their posterity. Their rights are sacred — neither in our disposal or that of others. We are in our day the guardians of a trust committed to us by our fore- fathers, and we are guilty of infidelity and fraud if these trusts do not pass unimpaired through our hands into the possession of our children/ " The design was given up for a season, but in a few years an Act of Parliament alienated this property for ever from its legal claimants. " To legal forms }'our rights in vain you trust, For who shall keep the very keepers just?" It would appear that, for some years before the final closing of the pathway, efforts had been made to effect this object, for Lewis informs us " that one day, as I had been walking with my father at Kew, ' Observe, Jack/ says he, ' the new road they have made there, and the gate in the old path. What they mean is for people to accustom themselves to this new way, and then that gate which is open at present will be locked, and the road taken from the public to themselves/ " Well/' says Lewis, " in a course of years I lived to see my father's prediction verified. The gate was fastened. I past by with a friend and some of my men (he was an eminent brewer at the time), the day before our annual parochial procession at Richmond for perambulating the parish boundaries. ' My lads/ says I, ' take care to bring your hatchets with you to-morrow to cut down this gate, for we must go through it to our bounds/ ' Don't speak so loud/ THE TRIAL AT KINGSTON. 201 said my friend, ' or you will be heard by the people at the Princess Dowager's/ ' Oh/ replied I, raising my voice, ' I have no objection to be heard. I am John Lewis, of Richmond, and mean to knock down this gate to-morrow for a passage through, according to custom.' But we might have spared our trouble ; the lock was taken off, and the gate opened for our processioners. " This patriotic man was endowed with an extra- ordinary portion of strong native sense and a fund of sarcastic humour, with a promptness of elocution in nervous and significant expression which has rarely been surpassed, in conjunction with a perfect com- mand of temper." As an evidence, upon trials and in vestry disputes he has given frequent proofs of his oratorical powers to the admiration of the audience. We have felt compelled to proceed thus far with the extract from the Rev. Gilbert Wakefield's writings, but must re- trace the account of these events, and describe them in the order in which they are given to us by another writer : — " It was on the third of April, 1758, that the trial took place at Kingston. The lawyers of the Crown stoutly contested the point as to the right of the public to free access to the park, and much shuffling and evasion was used by them, and it was only owing to the firmness of the judge that the verdict was given in favour of the people. The matter had been pending through three assizes, a special jury had been sum- moned; but so great was the unwillingness, and per- 262 SUMMING UP OF THE JUDGE. haps fear of giving offence to the princess by serving on a jury in a prosecution against her royal highness, that but few persons obeyed the summons. The judge at once fined each of the absentees 20/., and after two hours' delay a jury was empannelled and the trial proceeded. One Sir Richard Lloyd was employed on the part of the Crown, who attempted at the outset of the proceedings to set aside the matter, by stating 1 that the obstruction was charged to be in the parish of Wimbledon, whereas in truth it was in Mortlake, a distinct parish from Wimbledon •/ a considerable degree of evasion and petty cavilling was used by the Crown lawyers, but the judge overruled it, and told them ' they were little low objections/ and had no reference whatever to the right they came to try/' Sir Richard, in a speech highly complimentary, and full of laudation towards the king, spoke in the most complimentary language " of the gracious disposition of his majesty in permitting the cause to be tried at all, when he could have suppressed it by a single breath by ordering a ' nolle prosequi' to be entered." The judge said, " that he was not of that opinion, and that the subjects for such indictments as those for continued nuisances can have no remedy but this, if their rights be encroached upon ; wherefore he should think it a denial of justice to stop a prosecution for a nuisance which the king's prerogative does not extend to pardon." After the hearing of further evidence — Sir Michael's summing-up was found to be decidedly against the Crown, and in favour of the claim for the LEWIS GAINS THE CAUSE. 263 right of way — the jury gave in their verdict, and Lewis triumphed. We can imagine the joyous state of feeling which must have prevailed not only in the parish of Rich- mond, but in the surrounding ones of Ham, Kingston, East Sheen, and Wimbledon, upon learning the deci- sion of the jury, as to the privilege of entry to the Park thereby accorded. No doubt the bells in the old church tower rang out merrily on the occasion. There is an old pamphlet, published in the year 1751, which contains an engraving representing the inhabitants of Richmond, with a clergyman at their head in full canonicals, breaking down a portion of the wall, and passing through the breach. This engraving is now in the library of the British Museum. Before concluding the subject of the lawsuit, it is necessary to state that, after all this had been accom- plished, it was only a footway that had been conceded ; other suits were afterwards instituted to obtain a bridleway and a coachway, but without success ; and there are many inhabitants of Richmond who can recollect that within these last few years it was usual, in order to obtain admission cither with a hired or private carriage, to resort to the miserable expedient of stating to the gatekeeper that the persons wishing for access were proceeding to Lord Sidmouth's, or to one of the resident nobility in the Park. After a statement of this kind, permission to enter was granted. It has been already shown that Lewis was a brewer in this place; his brewhouse stood in the lower road 264 HIS POVERTY IN OLD AGE. leading to Petersham, on a piece of ground now form- ing part of the pleasure garden of the Marquis of Lansdowne, adjoining the river side, and immediately opposite to the present brewery premises of Mr. Cooper, in the lower road. We recollect, some years since, an aged relative of Lewis's telling us " that, as a child, she well recol- lected, after various misfortunes had befallen him (for in the course of years he had become reduced in cir- cumstances through the enormous expenses he had incurred with the lawsuit, and from other causes), that a catastrophe occurred, which seemed to over- whelm him, and complete his ruin. The counting-house belonging to the brewery was situate in the lower part of the ground, and con- sequently nearest to the river; that one night the water in the Thames rose to a considerable height ; that the doors were broken open by the force of the water, and the various account-books, papers, &c, belonging to the business, were washed into the river ; and consequently the accident and loss, in addition to other misfortunes, seemed completely to break up the health and spirits of this honest defender of the rights of the people; but we cannot better conclude the account of the struggle which he underwent than by giving Gilbert Wakefield's description of the latter period of his life. He tells us " that from a state of affluence and distinction he fell into poverty in his old age ; but a handsome annuity was regularly provided for him by the generous contribution and active interposition of my brother in his favour (the present minister of EARL SIDMOUTH AND SHERIDAN. 205 Richmond*) , who in that awful crisis when faith shall he lost in sight, and hope absorbed in possession, will receive for a multitude of such benevolent exertions the testimony of charity, which never faileth. " ' For when the vanities of life's brief day Oblivion's hurrying wing shall sweep away, Each act by charity and mercy done, High o'er the wrecks of time shall live alone, Immortal as the heavens, and beauteous bloom In other worlds and realms beyond the tomb.' ' In later years, the office of ranger of the park was held by the venerable Earl Sidmouth, who was elected to it in 1814*. The noble avenue of trees leading up to the "White Lodge was called the " Queen's Ride/' from the circumstance of its being a favourite spot with Queen Caroline, the wife of George II., who frequently hunted in the park. "It was at the "White Lodgef that Lord SidmouthJ en- tertained some of the most distinguished men of the time. One of his earliest visitors was Mr. Pitt, who repeated his visits on several occasions, till he joined with the Grenvilles in forming a new administration. Another was Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whose presence excited some suspicions, of which he appears to have been aware. He observed to the minister one evening, after dinner : ' My visits to you may possibly be misconstrued by my friends, but I hope you know, * Thomas Wakefield, for some years minister of Richmond, to whose memory a monument is erected in the parish church, f Folkestone Williams' " Memoirs." J Then Mr. Addington. 266 LORD NELSON AT THE WHITE LODGE. Mr. Addington, that I have an unpurchaseable mind/ The hint was not taken/' To a pressing invitation which Lord Nelson re- ceived from the Earl Sidmouth, in which the latter expressed his anxiety, fearing that he should be pre- vented the pleasure of seeing him while on shore, and stating that he would pay a visit to Merton if Nelson coi^ld not come to the White Lodge, our great naval hero wrote the following reply : — " On Tuesday forenoon, the 10th (Sept. 1805), if superior powers do not prevent me, I will be in Richmond Park, and shall be happy to take you by the hand, and to wish you a most perfect restoration to health. " I am ever, my dear Lord, " Your most obliged and faithful friend, "Nelson & Bronte/'* In the house a small table was preserved, wherein, during a conversation after dinner, and whilst taking wine with Lord Sidmouth, Nelson, only a short time prior to his taking command of the fleet, traced with his finger his proposed plan of attack on the enemy's ships, and of the way in which he proposed breaking their line, which at the battle of Trafalgar he so suc- cessfully carried into effect. The plain and homely habits and style of living of the king is set forth in a letter of Mr. Addington's, wherein he writes : " I am just returned from Kew, * " Life of Lord Sidmouth." SIR WALTER SCOTT VISITS THE EARL. 267 where I passed an hour and a half with his majesty, and partook of his dinner, which consisted of mutton chops and pudding. He was in excellent spirits and quite well." On one of the occasions, at a later period of his life, when Lord Sidmouth called to his hospitable mansion some of the most celebrated men of that day, Sir "Walter Scott was an honoured guest, to meet whom various members of the Scottish nobility and others were invited. In the year 1844, Lord Sidmouth died at his favourite residence in Richmond Park. The author of an amusing but a short biography of this nobleman observes, " That he was singularly disinterested no one ever ventured to deny ; more than once he refused a pension, and on one occasion he refused an earldom and the Garter, those dazzling prizes for which so many statesmen have bartered both personal and political honour." A short distance from the entrance of the park by the Richmond Gate, on the right-hand side, in the grounds of Earl Russell, is a mound on which it has been asserted that Henry VIII. stood to await a signal which was to be made from the Tower of London announcing to him the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn. " Miss Strickland informs us that on the morning of the 19th May, 1536, Henry stood under an oak tree here awaiting breathlessly the signal gnu from the Tower, which was to announce to him 'that the sword had fallen on the neck of his once entirely beloved Anne Bolevn.' At last, when the bright 268 BEAUTIES OJ' THE PARK. summer sun rode high towards its meridian, the sullen sound of the death gun boomed along the windiugs of the Thames, announcing that he had been made a widower. Henry started with ferocious joy ; ( Ha ! ha V he cried, ' the deed, the deed is done ! Un- couple the hounds and away/ He then rode off at fiery speed to his bridal orgies at Wolf Hall, in Wiltshire, where his future queen awaited his ar- rival.'" From this mound a most extensive and beautiful view is afforded of the magnificent scenery from the hills of Epsom to the Castle of Windsor, with the river flowing at no great distance beneath you on the opposite side of this bank or mound. Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, and various churches in London, may be distinctly seen down the fine avenue which faces this portion of the park. There are few more beautiful specimens of forest scenery to be found in England than this park presents ; take, for instance, that part of it at the further end of the grounds of Earl Russell, where, seated under the shade of one of those numerous fine old oaks which grow on this spot, the eye of the visitor looks over the surrounding landscape, with the fine old tower of Kingston Church to his left, or down amid the hawthorns and the bright yellow furze on the estate of Sudbrook, which here lies before him. There is so admirably a written description of the beauties of Richmond Park by the writer of the " Land we live in," and of this part of it in particular, that we do not hesitate in making an extract from this favourite work. The visitor to DIRECTIONS FOR A VISIT TO IT. 269 Richmond is supposed to reach it from London by the river ; he is thus advised : — " Let us have, for this trip at least, nothing to do with associations, historical, or literary, or scientific. As you pass Lambeth, think not of the Lollards. Let Chelsea tell you nothing about Sir Thomas More and Sir Hans Sloane, and, above all, do not whisper a word to yourself about pensioners and glory. Forget that the ambitious and double-dealing orator, Boling- broke — the moral type of orators — was born and buried at Battersea. Putney must inform you nothing about Thomas Cromwell the blacksmith's son, who for his peace had better have remained at his father's anvil ; nor of Gibbon, the sickly boy, who grew strong enough to prefer literary fame to the rich man's ordinary ambitions. Eight on, heedless of Chiswick's palladian villa, ' too small for a house, and too large to hang at one's watch-chain ;' care not for Barnes or Mortlake, association or no association ; or Kew, with its little ugly brick palace, quaint as its memories of the third George ; or Brentford, or Sion House, or Isleworth ; but care only for the Thames — its little coves, where the swans and cygnets nestle, its skirting lines of poplar and elm, amidst whose delicate leaves the noon-day sun is glancing tenderly. Now you are in sight of Richmond Bridge. Land at once and go right up the hill. We who have come on the omnibus- box, and for a mile or two through real villages, and our friend who has dashed by the railroad through seven miles of flat alluvial gardens, will join you on the Kew Terrace within the park. Get fairly beyond 270 ITS FOREST SCENERY. the loiterers in the shade of that line avenue of lime and beech and elm. We are for a stroll of some eight or ten miles with you, and in five minutes you shall be in a country as little cockney as was the Sherwood of Robin Hood. " We are now in a real sylvan scene — a true forest scene. We know each boskv bourn of Windsor Forest ; we have walked through the most pathless coverts of the New Forest ; Bere Forest was not un familiar with our boyhood ; we tell you honestly — you may doubt us when you get that peep of the dome of St. Paul's — that there is hardly finer forest scenery in England than this wild part of Richmond Park that we are coming fast upon. These men of the north of Trent know nothing about our London country. There are no more truly picturesque spots, not merely beau- tiful, but rugged, wild — solemn in their solitariness of vast heaths and mighty underwoods, with great oaks towering above furze and fern, than we can find within a dozen miles of London Pass we Lord John Russell's Goshen, and look down the hill upon Sud- brook. There dwell the water- drinkers. We could almost venture to encounter the perils of hydropathy for the morning walk up this charming ascent into Richmond Park which the drenched and swelling martyrs daily earn. Here each may stretch ' his list- less length at noontide/ far away from the loungers on the Hill, its barrel-organs, its white mice, and its guinea-pigs. In five minutes they may be deep in the shade of old avenues, worn by time and accident into irregularity, or plunge into a glen wild with brambles DEER-SHOOTING. 271 and ferns, with little sunny glades of the softest green, where a solitary deer sometimes steals away from the distant herd, ' panting for the water-brooks' which the hydropathists enjoy to repletion. We now from the quiet thicket look no longer on nature in her full dress ; she has got ou the dingy garment of brown vegetation, with which the sandy tracts are clothed before the furze is yellow and the heather blue. " Those hills of the extreme distance are as barren as the Derbyshire moors ; we own they are not so bold and beautiful. Here is a mound — perhaps an artificial elevation — where fair ladies sat with cross« bow in hand, and aimed at the hart as he galloped noiselessly by. The romance of deer-shooting is gone, in the south at least. You see that rude ladder leading up into the bole of an oak where the spreading limbs form a natural seat. There, as eveniug tempts the herd to feed luxuriously and securely, the treacherous keeper bides his time till ' the hart of grease' bounds aloug, and the rifle stretches him on the turf, honoured in death with two inches of fat upon his haunch. Now we are in a hawthorn dale ; there is shelter here, and the snowy blossoms are no longer coquetting with the wooing winds, but have come out boldly. Where are the lads and lasses ' to fetch in the May?' They are gone for ever, together with the palace where tournaments and galliards were once rife, and which was a chosen seat of song in the days of " ' Those flights upon the hanks of Thames Which did so take Eliza and our James.' " It was the Princess Amelia who enlarged what an- 272 WILD TURKEYS IN THE PARK. said to have originally been gravel-pits, and con- structed or formed the two penned ponds, as they are called, which are together about seventeen acres in extent. In the reign of George II. a part of the stock kept in the park comprised a very considerable number of wild turkeys, the flock, as it may be called, consisting of above three thousand in number; they were re- gularly kept up as a portion of the stock, and some of the old male birds weighed, it is said, from twenty-one to twenty-five pounds. It was customary to hunt these with dogs until they took refuge in a tree, when the king (George II.) shot at them. His majesty frequently partook of this sport ; in fact, it is said that so much more was his mind given to the sports in the park than to the business of the State, that when a packet of letters and papers were received by him, prior to opening those of a more important character he always read the correspondence from his gamekeeper. Nearly the whole of these birds were destroyed about the end of this king's reign in con- sequence of so many desperate encounters which took place between the keepers of the park and the poachers, who at night frequented it for the purpose of killing and removing the turkeys. But in time the number left from the onslaught must again have in- creased and accumulated to a considerable extent, for it is not very long since that a very aged inhabitant of Richmond told us that about sixty years ago he recollected the matter of the turkeys, for, said he, a large portion of the park walls was covered with ivy AFFRAYS WITH THE KEEPERS AND POACHERS. 273 very thickly, in which these birds were accustomed to rest, aiid would often very considerably startle the passer-by, as they would suddenly make a most hideous noise, or cackling, from among the foliage of the old ivy, in which they were almost or wholly hidden from observation ; and sometimes fly out from it in a most unexpected manner as the passer-by neared the place of their concealment. In Mr. Jesse's " Gleanings" it is stated that squirrels were formerly very numerous in the park ; and here again it is to be regretted that for the same reason the turkeys were destroyed, the squirrels were likewise doomed to a general massacre. It was considered expedient to destroy them all, or as far as it was possible to do so, in consequence of such serious affrays occurring between the keepers and poachers, and the low outcasts who, it seems, in great numbers infested the park at that period, and who very probably, in their nocturnal visits, cared little as to the description of booty they secured for their return home. It cer- tainly is to be regretted that in consequence of the combination which took place with these gentry to entrap and remove the squirrels on the one hand, and the combined movement on the part of the keepers to destroy and exterminate them on the other, we now so seldom catch sight of these pretty little animals ; one may occasionally be observed nimbly climbing the branches of an adjacent tree, but the sight of them is somewhat rare. The depredations and atrocities of the poachers continued down to a rather recent date, as about forty T 274 DISCOVERY OE SKELETONS. years or so since one of the under keepers in the park was set upon by a gang of them, and nearly murdered. There is a singular circumstance related by the poet, William Hayley, in connexion with Richmond Park. He states, that when he was very young he was placed at a school at Kingston ; he had been very ill for a long time, and had been reduced by fever to a state of the greatest debility, both physically and mentally. His parents were advised by the physicians to take him to Richmond, which they did. At this time, through his severe indisposition, he was always in a state of deadly stupor, from which, although every effort had been made to do so, it seemed impossible to arouse him. Being with his mother one fine summer morning in the park for an airing, a hare happened to cross the road in front of him ; he suddenly cried out, " A hare ! — a hare \" It was with him the first indication of returning reason which the mother had observed ; and from this momentary excitement she dated the commencement of the child's recovery of his mental powers and ultimate restoration to sound health. There is a part of the park known as Oliver's Mound, about a quarter of a mile from the entrance to Richmond Gate, to the right, in the direction of the ponds ; and it is here that Cromwell is said to have had a camp. In December, 1834, a gang of the park labourers were digging for gravel, when they discovered the skeletons of three persons who had been buried side by side; their remains were found about three feet below the surface. MIGRATION OF EELS. 275 In Mr. Jesse's " Gleanings" it is stated that " an immense number of eels are bred in the two large ponds, known as the Peu'd Ponds, which is sufficiently evident from the fact that a very great quantity of young eels, about two inches in length, contrive to get through the penstock of the upper pond, and then through the channels leading into the lower pond, and thence through another penstock into a watercourse, ending in the river. They migrate in one connected shoal, and in such prodigious quantities, that no guess can be given as to their probable number. In the same month an annual migration takes place in the river Thames, and they generally made their appearance at Kingston, in their way upwards, about the second week in that month ; but their proceedings have been more irregular since the interruption caused by the lock at Teddington." This migration of the eels up the river is a matter with which most inhabitants of Richmond, thirty or forty years since, were conversant ; there are many per- sons still living who frequently witnessed it, who state that it was a most remarkable sight to observe this vast quantity of small fish steadily pursuing their course up the stream; the shoal was about two feet in width, and kept about two feet distant from the cams- head, or side of the river; they continued steadily to pass on in this way for about two days, and the cir- cumstance being thus of annual occurrence, obtained for it among the fishermen and others connected with the river, the name of " Eel Fair." They were easily caught by dozens at a time by any person who might t 2 276 BOG LODGE. choose to dip a basin or other vessel in among them. It was to swell the numbers of this vast stream of fish, we suppose, that their kindred in the ponds of our park passed from penstock to penstock, from the larger or upper pond to the smaller and lower one, and then through long and tortuous watercourses, ending in the river, to join the still larger bodies of their companions in the " fair." This migration takes place about the middle of May; but the numbers of fish now have much decreased since the period of Mr. Jesse's description. There are various lodges in the park ; the principal one is in the occupation of Mr. James Sawyer, the head gamekeeper. This is in every way a most delightfully-situated dwelling, and with its very pretty garden and attendant home comforts in the arrange- ments of the house, seems deserving of a better designation than that by which it is and has always been known from the period when these lands were first emparked, as " Bog Lodge." Whatever may originally have been the state of the soil in this locality, it is certain that it is now a particularly de- sirable spot of ground. There are in the immediate vicinity of the park various springs of water, one of which is conveyed, for the convenience of the Richmond people, into a conduit, or rather receiver, under or near to the park wall ; in a mews at the back of the present Upper Park -place, there stood directly over the well (until a few years since) a large pump, for the use of the inhabitants in that part of Richmond, but it has been removed, and the HERONS IN THE PARK. 277 conduit, although it still remains, is now bricked over. We can but think that it would be a great boon to that very considerable and increasing neigh- bourhood if this excellent reservoir of pure spring water was accessible to the residents by the same means as it was attainable a few years since, when from the present Wesleyan Institution to the farther end of the Queen's Road — as it is now termed — where there arc now nearly 150 houses erected, there was then only one, " Holm Castle," or Cottage, and a kind of small lodge, or gardener's cottage, which stood in one of the fields opposite. The lull was originally badly off for water ; and it was during the building of the workhouse that George III. ordered the water from the park conduit to be laid on to the receiver before named, for the convenience of those who were resident on the hill ; at the same time its course was continued in another direction for the use of the workhouse, which even now is the only source from which that building derives its supply. Some years back large numbers of herons used, at a certain period of the year, to frequent that part of the park adjoining the Roehampton private entrance gate, called the " rough grounds." About two years since a flock of nearly forty were observed there, but last year not more than sixteen could be counted. The number of fallow deer is about fourteen to fifteen hundred, and of red deer about fifty. There is a fine pack of deer-hounds kept for the purpose of capturing these animals, which arc so caught and forwarded to Swingley, near Ascot; there again to 278 CREAM-COLOURED MOLES. be hunted by the royal pack of so-called deer- hounds. We are indebted for the information relative to these animals, as well as for the particulars concerning the herons, to the kindness of Mr. Sawyer, whose family has for a very long period of years held the same office which he now retains. His late majesty William IV., upon one occasion thought fit to pay a high compliment to Mr. Sawyer as to his extensive and correct information on all matters connected with the management and business of the park ; and re- ferring to the great number of years that various generations of his family had held the same situation in it, jocularly remarked, "That he thought the Sawyers must have come over to England with William the Con- queror, they seemed such an ancient family." Before quitting the subject of the various animals, birds, &c., which so naturally belong to a description of the park, we must not omit to mention two small and unimpor- tant little creatures of a lower class in the scale of created things — namely, the moles and hedgehogs — and here again trespass must be made upon the work before quoted — Mr. Jesse's " Gleanings" — where it informs its readers, " That in the loamy parts of the soil the black mole is abundant ; but a nest of cream-coloured moles has been taken near the Robin Hood Gate. The hedge- hogs are said to scratch out the young rabbits from their nests and prey upon them ; both the cuckoo and titlark abound in Richmond Park, and the young cuckoos are frequently found in the titlark's nest." On entering the park the stranger to Richmond THE NEW TERRACE. 279 almost intuitively takes the path leading to the right, where the new terrace commences, so designated at the time of its formation, and by which name it was known for some years afterwards, to distinguish it from the old or Hill-terrace. It was formed by his late majesty "William IV. in the year 1832 j no path- way existed on the spot previous to the laying out of this very agreeable promenade ; neither could the slightest glimpse be obtained of the surrounding scenery, for a densely-wooded thicket of lofty trees extended nearly down to the site of the large mansion which had recently stood there, and latterly the residence of the Earl of Huntingtower ; the king caused all these trees to be removed, which laid open to the gaze of the visitor the magnificent view which all so appreciate and admire. From this terrace, down that beautifully sloping piece of greensward, the pretty little village of Petersham is reached. The mansion to which reference has been made, stood exactly facing the entrance gate by Lady John Russell's School, and at the end of the avenue, formed by fine old cedars still remaining ; it was a large and noble house, and although by no means a lofty structure, was of considerable length, and the garden front looking towards the Sudbrook wood was certainly of no mean architectural merit : it stood on the site of a former building, of which a lease was granted by James II. to Edward Viscount Cornbury, grandson of the great chancellor Clarendon; it then became the property of the Earl of Rochester, and was on the 1st October, 1721, destroyed by fire; having 280 RESIDENCE OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. been rebuilt by the Earl of Harrington, from a design given for it by the Earl of Burlington, it was, in 1 779, sold to Thomas Pitt, Esq., afterwards Lord Camelford, and in the year 1790 parted with by that nobleman to the Duke of Clarence, who for some years made it his summer residence. In the extracts from the journals and correspondence of Miss Berry, Horace Walpole, on the 10th August, 1791, writing to that lady from " Strawberry/'' says : " The Duke of York's marriage is certain ; the Duke of Clarence told me so yesterday. He gTaciously came hither yesterday, tho' I had not been to pay my court ; indeed, I had concluded he had forgotten me, as at his age was very natural. Not having cropt my hair, I went to-day to thank him ; he could not see me, but sent to desire that I would call upon him to-morrow. I asked the page at what hour it would be proper, he answered between ten and eleven. Mercy on me — to be dressed and at Peter- sham before eleven/' The land attached to this mansion was of considerable extent, and beautifully laid out, and when afterwards sold by the duke, it has been stated that the purchaser actually paid for the property by the felling of the enormous quantity of valuable timber which stood on the estate. There is a rather scarce engraving existing where this house is shown, and it appears to be surrounded by a perfect forest of trees ; it is not improbable that a con- siderable number of these were cedars, the sale of which must have assisted very materially in realizing so large a sum of money as is here referred to for the purchase of the mansion and grounds. The stately ADDRESS TO KING WILLIAM IV. 281 trees which still remain are said to be as fine as any in the country. Thomson refers to this house when he writes : — '• Or wander wild Among the waving harvests ; or ascend Thy hill, delightful Sheen. There let the feasted eye unwearied stray Luxurious, there rove thro' the pendant woods That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat." It was on the 10th day of September, 1832, when his majesty King William IV., with his queen, came to the park to pay a visit to the Earl and Countess of Errol, then resident at Pembroke Lodge, that the in- habitants of Richmond, in grand procession, headed by the resident clergy of the place, and a troop of the Surrey Yeomanry, accompanied by their band, the children of the national schools, &c, &c, met their majesties to present an address. The carriage contain- ing the king and queen stopped immediately opposite the mount in the grounds of the lodge, in order to receive the deputation. The address, which had been drawn up by Mr. James Woodman, a well-known tradesman of the town, was read by the Earl of Errol ; it was as follows : — " May it please your, Majesties, — " We, your Majesties' most loyal and dutiful subjects, the tradesmen and other inhabitants of Rich- mond, most dutifully present our grateful acknowledg- ments for the honour your Majesties have been pleased to confer upon us by your Majesties' visit to this place, 282 his majesty's reply. which honour, blended with your Majesties' well-known wishes for our welfare and happiness, of which we have a recent proof in your Majesties' kind renewal of the annual donation of 30/. to the national and parochial schools of the place, will ever remain deeply engraven on our hearts. Permit us with the same duty to ex- press our most sanguine hopes that true loyalty and attachment to your Majesties' sacred persons may pre- vail among all classes ; and our fervent prayer is, that your Majesties may long live in health and happiness to reign over us, and cheer and enliven by your Majesties' presence the loyal and devoted inhabitants of Richmond." To the foregoing address the king seemed to pay great attention, and at its conclusion replied thus : — " My Lord, — " You will please to tell the gentlemen that I feel, and so does the queen, most highly gratified and pleased with their expression of loyalty and attachment to us. From my knowledge of Richmond, having resided for many years in it and its vicinity, I have had opportunities of knowing them individually and collectively, and I am therefore fully convinced they are perfectly sincere, and I am happy in thus renewing my acquaintance with them, trusting that both in my public and private acts I shall do that which will merit their affection and tend more strongly to cement those bonds of attachment by careful atten- tion to their welfare and happiness, as well as that of all my subjects. Also assure the gentlemen it will SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE PAKK. 283 always give me pleasure to contribute in every way in my power to the prosperity of the parish of Richmond, and to promote its interests whenever an opportunity presents itself." There is in Sir Walter Scott's "Heart of Mid- Lothian/' a brief but beautiful description of Rich- mond Park, and the adjacent scenery from the hill, and it would now be considered as great an omission to exclude this description from any records of our hill and terrace, as it would be were the name of Thomson entirely rejected from any work purporting to be either a history, picture, or otherwise of Rich- mond. Jeanie Deans has accompanied the Duke of Argyle in his carriage from London to seek an inter- view with Queen Caroline to entreat her majesty's in- tercession with the king for a pardon for her sister Effie, who is at the time under sentence of death in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. " The carriage rolled rapidly onwards, through fertile meadows, ornamented with splendid old oaks, and catching occasionally a glance of the majestic mirror of a broad and placid river. After passing through a pleasant village (Richmond), the equipage stopped on a commanding eminence, where the beauty of English landscape was displayed in its utmost luxuriance. Here the duke alighted, and desired Jcanic to follow him. They paused for a moment on the brow of a hill to gaze on the unrivalled landscape which it presented. A huge sea of verdure, with crossing and intersecting pro- montories of massive and tufted groves was tenanted 284 BEAUTIES OF THE HILL SCENERY. by numberless flocks and herds, which seemed to wander unrestrained and unbounded through the rich pastures. The Thames, here turreted with villas, and there garlanded with forests, moved on slowly and placidly like the mighty monarch of the scene to whom all its other beauties were but accessories, and bore on its bosom a hundred barks and skiffs, whose white sails and gaily fluttering pennons gave life to the whole. " The Duke of Argyle was of course familiar with the scene, but to a man of taste it must always be new, — yet, as he paused and looked on the inimitable landscape, with the feeling of delight which it must give to the bosom of every admirer of nature, his thoughts naturally reverted to his own more grand and scarce less beautiful domains of Inverary. ' This is a fine scene/ he said to his companion, curious perhaps to draw out her sentiments ; ' we have nothing like it in Scotland/ ' lYs braw rich feeding for the cows, and they have a fine breed of cattle here/ replied Jeanie, ' but I like just as well to look at the craigs of Arthur's Seat, and the sea coming in ayont them, as at a J thae muckle trees/ " 2S5 CHAPTER XI. THE HILL. THE EXTENSIVE TIEW FROM THE HILL A CENTURY SINCE COM- PARED WITH THAT OF THE PRESENT TIME — THE OLD " STAR AND GARTER" INN, BUILT IN 1738; ITS LIMITED ACCOM- MODATION — sir joshua reynolds's house, erected on THE SITE OF THE " BULL'S HEAD" PUBLICHOUSE AND TEA- GARDENS — EXECUTION OF RICHARD MIHILL IN FRONT OF THE TERRACE FOR THE MURDER OF HIS BROTHER, AND DIS- SECTION OF THE BODY — SUPPOSED ORIGIN OF THE BALLAD, "THE LASS OF RICHMOND HILL" — THE ANCIENT ALMS- HOUSES BUILT BY BISHOP DUPPA — AUBREY'S REMARKS ON THE ENDOWMENT. " But I have heard the choir on Richmond Hill Singing with indefatigable bill Strains that recalled to mind a distant day, When happy under shade of that same wood, And scarcely conscious of the dashing oars Plied steadily between those willowy shores, The sweet-souled poet of the Seasons stood." Wordsworth, " Or ascend "Thy Hill, delightful Sheen P Here let us sweep The boundless landscape ; — now the raptured eye, Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send, Now to the sister Hills that skirt her plain, To lofty Harrow now, and now to where Majestic Windsor lilts his princely brow." Thomson. T¥7IIEN the foregoing lines were written, a view V T from Richmond Hill was indeed of very consi- derable extent to that which is now to he obtained 286 THE VIEW LESS EXTENSIVE THAN FORMERLY from any point of its summit. A lady resident on the terrace some time since informed the writer, that a friend of hers, a gentleman who had been absent from the country for about thirty years, hastened a short time after his return to England to pay a visit again to his native village, to enjoy the various beauties of the neighbourhood, and the view from his favourite hill and terrace ; but he experienced much disappointment upon doing so, and remarked, " When I first knew this hill and its magnificent scenery, many years since, it was then an open and extended view, but it is fast becoming, nay has become, a com- paratively limited one/' Whoever will examine any one of the old engrav- ings which represent the view from the terrace about a century or so since, will observe that as the spec- tator stood to view the prospect, no matter which part of the hill he might select for so doing, there was scarcely a single tree, building, or otherwise, to impede a direct view down the river. Isleworth Church, the remaining houses in the ancient village of Sheen, and Sion House, could be distinctly seen from the more central and prominent portion of the terrace walk. It must have been about the year 1728, when Thomson wrote the lines which are placed as the heading of the present chapter. Now we will suppose a visitor to the Richmond of that day, standing on a part of the hill which may be suggested to be the corner of the field immediately opposite to the resi- dence of the late Marquis of Lansdowne, and the fine old Almshouses of Bishop Duppa on his left ; THROUGH INCREASE AND GROWTH OF TREES. 287 with the exception of a well known ancient "hostelry," a small inn designated the " Bull's Head," which stood on the site of the house built by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and another of not very much more impor- tant character — namely, the humble predecessor of the present " Star and Garter Hotel," of nearly universal notoriety, there would not be any object whatever to prevent the eye ranging from the hills of Epsom, " majestic Windsor," round to the " huge Augusta," many of its lofty buildings being from the spot dis- tinctly visible. This was indeed an almost "boundless landscape," and it is much to be regretted that the number of trees in the immediate neighbourhood of the terrace so sadly curtail as they do this fair prospect. The evil is each year increasing, and consequently this glorious view is becoming each year more limited.* But while it is much to be lamented that it should be thus with the hill scenery, it is only fair to observe that, although we are most certainly losers as to the open and uninterrupted view of the country around it, we are gainers as to the richness and beauty of the landscape. The trees have increased in number in the near vicinity of this favourite promenade, but they have likewise increased in the more distant parts, assisting to form and enrich this magnificent, although more limited picture, which has for so long a period * The erection of a large hotel on the site of a small house, formerly inhabited by the Ladies Harriet and Elizabeth Ashburn- ham, with the extensive additions made to the "Star and Garter Hotel," have contributed, within these last two years, to curtail the view and enjoyment of the scenery from the hill. 288 canova's opinion of the hill scenery. of years formed the subject of admiration to all admirers of the beautiful iu nature, and will long con- tinue to do so for the generations yet to come. In a work entitled " Richmond and its Vicinity/' there is quoted the following words, critical of the view from the hill. The writer says : — " The principal ingredient in the powerful charm is the river, the beau- teous river, for the hill seems much overrated ; the prospect from it is too wot)dy, too leafy, and in sum- mer produces a monotony of vegetation. It is finer when the bare branches of trees will admit the fre- quent glimpses of houses and villages. Canova said it only wanted crags ; but there is no overrating the river; clear, pure, and calm as the summer sky, certainly the Thames is the pleasantest highway in his Majesty's dominions." The hill was at a period of two or three centuries since in very limited repute with our forefathers, comparatively to that which it has at a later period enjoyed; and it certainly appears remarkable that Shakespeare has never in any way alluded to it ; for, although the summit must most probably then have been all one extent of pasture-land, with scarcely, perhaps, a direct main road whatever to it, and admitting that the view was of an uncultivated and barren character in comparison to that on which we so love to gaze in this our day, still, as before re- marked, there was its almost boundless extent, and the "beauteous river/' which must have ever been a lovely thing to look upon. And when we think of all this, we feel curious to know why this famous spot THE OLD " STAR AND GARTER" INN. 289 should have been so little prized by our great poet — why the Cliff at Dover should be so immortalized, and the Hill of Richmond so silently passed by. But so it is : and, with the slight exception that in the play of " Henry V." he has made the king, in his appeal to heaven, plead that " he has built two chantries," one of which, as before shown, was erected in the ancient Sheen, Shakspeare has never, in any way, referred to Richmond or its neighbourhood. We now proceed to describe, through information gleaned from ancient pictures and engravings, from old books, and from individuals almost as antiquated as either, with whom at various periods we have con- versed, how different was the appearance of the terrace and its immediate vicinity, even a century or so since : and to commence with the Star and Garter Hotel. It was in the year 1738 that the first house as one of public entertainment was built on this spot. A piece of the waste of Petersham Common was di- vided off and leased to one Mr. John Christopher, by the Earl of Dysart, at an annual rental of 21. On this high rented piece of ground was the predecessor of the present hotel erected. There arc representations of this house when it was indeed of a very humble character. It had a common wooden penthouse, as it is termed, for the entrance doorway, and a sign-post, with a large sign attached to it, standing in front of the inn, which sign-post and board were plairdy visible from any part of Chol- mondeley Walk by the river side, so perfectly destitute of trees was all that part of Richmond commencing u 290 RESIDENCE OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. from the present bridge and walk in the direction of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuclr's to its summit at the entrance of the Park ; and it is recorded that so limited was the accommodation at the old " Star and Garter/'' that at no time could a visitor stay the night there, for the simple reason that not the slightest accommodation in that way was ever attempted by the proprietor. There are not more than two or three persons now living who recollect the old brick lodge standing at the entrance to the Park, with its ladder style, or steps in the wall for foot passengers, and its heavy wooden gates giving admission to carriages and other vehicles, but under a system so grudging and so annoying in its operation, that much depended upon the caprice of those in authority at the lodge whether the apjilicant for admission obtained it or not. The present lodge, with its somewhat handsome gates, was erected in the year 1798. At a short distance from the Star and Garter Hotel there is a house celebrated as being built by, and long the residence of Sir Joshua Reynolds ; it is now known as the property of Wm. Todd, Esq. ; and even prior to the additions and improvements recently effected, had been much altered within the last thirty years. On the site of the adjoining house, now known as the " Wick/' there once stood a small road-side inn, of very humble pretensions, known as the " Bull's Head /' and in connexion with the removal of these old premises, there is in the Public Advertiser of December 10, 1774, the following advertisement: — THE "BULL S HEAD INN, ON THE TERRACE. 291 " Richmond, in Surrey, Dec. 1774. " The Trustees under the Will of the late William Hickey, Gentleman, give notice that they will meet at the Office in the Church Yard, Richmond, on Tuesday, the 13th of this instant, December, at Ten o'Clock in the Forenoon, to receive proposals in writing for letting all that Piece or Parcel of Ground, except as reserved, situated on Richmond Hill, whereon the Bull's Head alehouse and other premises are now standing, con- taining about 83 feet in width, 338 feet in length on the North Side, and 334 feet on the South Side, little more or less. "N.B. The Situation of the above Parcel of Ground is most justly acknowledged to be the finest in Europe, and will be lett for four Terms of 21 Years each, making together 84 Years, or for such other Term of Years as shall be approved of by the said Trustees and the Person or Persons intending to take the same. " Conditions for letting and Plan of the Estate of Mr. Wallhager Shephcard, No. 4, Inner Temple, Lon- don ; and of Clement Smith, Clerk to the Trustees in Richmond aforesaid, with whom Proposals in Writing, sealed up and directed to the said Trustees, may be left. " By order of the Trustees, "Clkment Smith, Clerk. 3> IV. The " Bull's Head" inn here referred to had the piece of ground at the back of it partly laid out as a tea garden, and it is in connexion with this same gar- den that we once held a conversation, when a youth, u 2 292 THE MIHILL MURDER. with a very aged female who was an inmate of one of the almshouses on the hill, relative to a remarkable circumstance which took place there nearly a hundred years since. She said, " That her aunt many years before kept the ' Bull's Head' public-house and tea garden, and she recollected, when a young girl, standing upon a chair which enabled her to look over the hedge in her aunt's garden to see the man hanged in the adjoining field for the murder of his brother." The event to which she alluded was as follows : — A person named Mihill, a baker by trade, and then living in George-street,"* was murdered by his brother close to the entrance of the house where his father carried on business, by stabbing him in the breast, causing his almost instantaneous death. There was but one person who witnessed the atrocious act, and this was an old woman who was begging close by, and whose evidence caused the con- viction of the murderer, In the London Chronicle of Saturday, August 23rd to Tuesday, August 26th, 1766, there is this recital : — " The following melancholy affair happened at Rich- mond last Saturday. Mr. Mihill, baker, near the old ' Castle' Inn, had two sons who never agreed ; the eldest, who had for some years used the seas, always suspecting that the father's affection was solely fixed on his brother, has often been heard to say ' that he would do for his brother.' About noon on Saturday he was * In the house now occupied by Mr. Charles Carless. RICHARD MIHILL — TRIAL AND SENTENCE. 293 standing at his father's door, and as his brother was going into the shop he pulled out a large knife, and gave him three stabs in the breast without exchanging any words. The wounded brother dropt down and died instantly without speaking. The murderer, after he had accomplished his design, made off towards East Sheen,* but was taken and carried before Sir William Richardson, who committed him to the new Gaol at Southwark." In the " Annual Register" for 1766, we read that " Richard Mihill, who was committed to the new Gaol, Southwark, charged with the cruel murder of his brother — Mihill, a baker at Richmond, in Surrey, by stabbing him in several parts of his body, of which wounds he died soon after, was formerly a Midshipman on board a Man-of-War, and was entrusted to bring a French prize taken in the last war to England, when the French captain artfully made him drunk, clapt him under the hatches, and carried his ship safe to France. In the Lloyd's Evening Post for 1767, March 27th to 30th, it is stated that the assizes ended on the previous Saturday, that with two others, for comparatively slight offences, Richard Mihill, a sea officer, was con- victed for stabbing his younger brother, Robert Mihill, a baker at Richmond, on the 7th August last; he immediately received sentence to be executed at Rich- mond this day, and his body afterwards to be dissected and anatomized." The sentence was carried out with all its attendant dread realities ; the murderer was * He was discovered concealed under the ladder-style, Park- gate, at East Sheen. 294 EXECUTION IN FRONT OF THE TERRACE, brought down from London in an open cart, attended by hundreds of persons ; the scaffold was erected in the field in front of the terrace close to the corner of the palings which enclose the pleasure-grounds of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch. A vast crowd had congre- gated around the hill long before the officials of the law accompanied by their prisoner arrived, and as the dreadful procession neared Richmond, it continued to gather immense numbers from the different villages through which it passed, and who were awaiting its arrival, so that at last the multitude numbered many thousands. They passed through George Street, and up Hill Street to the terrace ; and an aged relative of ours, long since dead, used to relate that when a child she stood at the window of a house on the hill-rise to see the procession and the crowd of people pass by on their way to the place of execution. The Public Advertiser, March 31, 1767, thus refers to the finishing of the sad tragedy : — " Yesterday Richard Mihill, aged near 40, was executed on Rich- mond Hill for the murder of his brother Robert, late baker at Richmond, by stabbing him in the body with a knife. Richard had been bred to the sea, and had served as petty officer on board several ships of war ; he behaved as becoming a person under his unfortunate circumstances, and died seemingly composed and peni- tent. After the execution, his body was delivered to a surgeon to be dissected — there was a prodigious con- course of people attended the execution." Many years since we saw the murderer's written confession ; it was in a particularly clear and bold AND DISSECTION OE THE BODY. 295 hand, and was then in the possession of a Mr. Matthew Peters, an old inhabitant of this place. It would be supposed that the part of the sentence which related to the " dissecting and anatomizing" would have taken place elsewhere, but it was not so ; a rough shed was erected close to the scaffold, wherein the last part of the grim sentence of the law was enacted ; and it does not appear there was much privacy observed in so doing, for the mother of an aged inhabitant of this town, when speaking of the subject to her son, acknowledged to him that being then a young girl, she pressed in along with others, and saw the heart of the murderer, which had been just removed from the body; nay, more — for we must tell all we know about it, horrible as it may appear — had, as had many others, the said heart placed in her hand. The people of Richmond were notbackwardat that period in their expressions of sympathy or assistance, although the aid rendered on the occasion seems to have partaken slightly of a character of interference with the business arrangements of the surviving members of the family, for the Evening Post of April 13th, 17G7, informs its readers that "The in- habitants of Richmond have, by a very humane inter- position, caused great justice to be done in favour of the widow of Mihill the baker, who was killed by his brother, by causing the widow's being taken into partnership, for the maintenance of herself and orphans, by the unfortunate mother of these ill-starred young men." In Richmond churchyard may still be seen the 296 OLD INN UPON THE HILL. tombstones of this unfortunate family ; on one of them is an inscription — " In memory of Mr. Robert Mihill. who died the 23rd August, 1766, in the 34th year of his age." On the other stone, " Also John Mihill, who died the 5th day of March, 1767, aged 75 years." This was the father of these truly ill-fated young men. We can well imagine that verging thus on the extreme limits of man's allotted life, he would sink under the dreadful bereavement and disgrace which had thus fallen upon him and his " house •" and in reading the sad records of such great affliction, we can but feel that God in his mercy thought fit to remove him from all his earthly trials a brief period before the harrowing and ghastly scene took place in front of the hill terrace, which was to be the concluding act of so fearful a tragedy. To return to the Hill and its associations. The accompanying engraving, which is a correct copy of a rather scarce one, bearing date 1744, and purporting to be " A view from Richmond Hill towards Highgate," represents another inn on this spot (for our pleasant hill, and indeed the entire neighbourhood, abounded with houses of the kind). This one must have been erected upon the site of the coach houses, stabling, and conservatories, so long the property of the late Miss Darell, directly facing the present " Star and Garter." Where the house in which Miss Morshead now resides is situate, there appears to have stood the stabling belonging to the inn, from which a traveller, mounted on a clumsily built steed, has apparently just started, and is proceeding " towards Highgate" ,0 o CI ID 'o P w o a o •r-t P5 SUICIDE OF MISS CROFT. 297 (or elsewhere), down our now so-called Queen's Road, while another is being politely bowed to by the landlord as he is departing on his horse. One who had from his birth been an inhabitant of Richmond, and who died only a short time since, at a very advanced age, stated on being shown the engraving that he recollected one of the houses which are repre- sented, a little way down the road on the right, being pulled down when he was about ten years of age. At the mansion known as Mansfield House, a sad event took place, now nearly a century since ; the circum- stances of which were as follows : — A wealthy London merchant, named Croft, at that period resided at this house ; he had a daughter, highly accomplished and of great personal attractions. This lady had consented to receive the addresses of a young officer of exemplary character, and of highly respectable connexions, but poor. He belonged to a cavalry regiment then quartered in Richmond, but his offers were rejected by her father on account of his poverty. Apprehen- sions of an elopement and clandestine marriage being entertained by the father, he forbade the young officer his house, and the young lady was strictly confined within its walls. Continued grief and irritation of spirit led her, in a fit of despair bordering on insanity, to precipitate herself from an upper window of her father's house, and she fell on the stone steps which formed the ascent from the garden into the mansion, and was instantaneously killed. The unfortunate young man afterwards served in America, and was shot at the head of his company. 298 Maurice's poem. The coachman of the family was waiting at the front entrance with the carriage to take his master and mistress to London ; upon being apprized of what had happened, he immediately cut the traces of one of the horses, and mounting it, rode down at full speed into the town to the nearest surgeon to apprize him of the occurrence ; the descendants of this person are still resident in Richmond. In a work to which reference has been already fre- quently made, viz., Maurice's " Richmond Hill," the author has dedicated a considerable part of it to the subject of this young lady's unfortunate attachment and dreadful end ; only a few lines of the poem which alludes to it have been selected, as the whole of them would be much too long for insertion here, and would be found too tedious likewise, as they are written in the inflated style of poetry of the period — a style which has certainly ceased to be admired in the present day. After dwelling upon the beauties of Richmond, its hill, &c, he proceeds to remark : — "Amid this confluence of sublime delight, That bursts upon my soul and charms my sight, What death ful shrieks my startled ear invade, And turn the blaze of noon to midnight shade. Ye blooming virgins, that delighted rove Sheen's bowery walks and Ham's sequestered grove, Pause in exulting pleasure's full career To mark the martyred Mira's passing bier. Oh ! Rubens, for thy pencil's magic spell, To paint the Lass of Richmond's beauteous Hill ; Oh ! for the moaning dove's impassioned strains, Or hers who to the silent night complains, The sorrows of disastrous love to sing, And beauty blasted in its dawning spring. Maurice's poem. 299 Well, Richmond, might thy echoing shades hemoan, Their glory darkened and their pride o'erthrown. For She was fairer than the fairest maid That roams thy beauteous brow or laurelled shade. This radiant wonder was Mercator's pride, For whom the winds, with every swelling tide, Wafted rich gems from India's rubied shore, And from Columbian mines the glowing ore. The fatal hour that life to Mira gave Consigned her beauteous mother to the grave. Where'er she trod, admiring crowds pursued — Her sex with envy — Man with rapture viewed. Foremost and comeliest of the admiring train, Thus bound in beauty's adamantine chain, The brave Eugenior sued, nor Mira spurned The generous flame that in a soldier burned ; With love united a sublimer guest, Unsullied honour reigned within that breast. Full twenty rolling summers scarce had shed Their ripening honours on his youthful head, Yet in the ensanguined field with conquest, crowned, That head a wreath of radiant laurel bound. For, fired with high ambition's noble rage, He gave to war's rude toils his tenderest age, His sabre in the front of battle raised, Flamed in the trench, or on the rampart blazed." The poem continues to detail how in the case of this unfortunate pair the course of true love was destined to run any course but that of a smooth or happy one — how insanity stole upon this ill-fated lady, and that — " One fatal morn, ere yet the fount of day Illumed the mountain with his golden ray, When, by prolonged distracting thought, To all the fever of delirium wrought, Soft from her tear-drenched couch, unheard, unseen, Stole the sweet maniac of admiring Sheen, To one beloved balcony urged her flight, Where boundless prospects charmed the roving sight; 300 BALLAD — THE " LASS OF RICHMOND HILL." Eager around she rolled her roving eyes, While in her soul remembered raptures rise ; The glittering vision fired her maddening brain, Nor did the phantom stretch his arms in vain, With furious transport from that dizzy height, Headlong she sprung, and sank in endless night." So ends this part of the poem of " Richmond Hill," and the melancholy history of the lady, Miss Croft. In bygone years inhabitants of this place used boldly to assert that it was this sad affair which gave rise to the well-known song of the " Lass of Richmond Hill." The assertion is certainly not more unlikely than others of the same nature which have been made as to the lady who was the origin of this favourite and well-worn ballad. It has been declared that Mrs. Fitzherbert, the once much beloved of the Prince of Wales, was the heroine of the song, and there is a degree of probability attaching to this declaration in the words — " I'd croions resign To call her mine." Mr. Folkestone Williams, however, states that it was written by an Irish barrister, named McNally, and that Richmond Hill, Yorkshire, was the locality. In Leigh Hunt's " Court Suburb," Lady Sarah Lennox is stated to be the original lass, and the writer of the song no less a person than the Prince of Wales, after- wards George III. ; as the latter assertion carries the date of its composition a generation anterior to the presumed authorship by the Prince of Wales. But little reliance can be placed upon any one of these state- ments, and as the matter is certainly of an unim- portant character, we cease from further inquiry. GEORGE III. AND SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 301 It has been stated that Sir Joshua Reynolds resided at a house at the end of the terrace promenade ; the house was erected for him, and his friend Sir William Chambers was the architect. The style was certainly no very elaborate one. It continued as designed by Sir William down to a period of about twenty-five years since, and a truly meagre, unimposing style it was — no meaner exterior frontage existed on the hill than the one which the great architect of his day had designed for the equally great painter — if Sir Joshua admired a very plain and unadorned style his friend had carried out his wishes to the letter. Here, no doubt, round his hospitable table have sat many of the celebrities of that day, and in a large dining- room at the back part of the house we have frequently lingered, and have loved to think that in that particular room, Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, Boswell, Paoli, and many others may have congregated; for it is not too much to imagine, that when Sir Joshua had completed the erection and furnishing of his new country house on Richmond Hill, all his old friends would be invited round him to enjoy the magnificent scenery that house must then have commanded, as well as the kind liberality which awaited them on such occasions. It was at one of these meetings that he, with a few of his friends, had strolled as far as the old Richmond Gardens, where they met his Majesty with some of the members of his family. The king immediately recog- nised Sir Joshua, and commenced a conversation with him, in which he complimented him on being elected to the mayoralty of Plympton, to which Reynolds 302 DEATH OF SIR JOSHUA. replied that he had never throughout his life been so pleased with any honour paid to him as he was with the one referred to, excepting that of receiving the distinction of knighthood bestowed upon him by his sovereign ; after which courtier-like reply Sir Joshua and his friends proceeded on their walk. Sir Joshua Reynolds died at his town residence in Leicester Square, on the 23rd of February, 1792, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. His friend Burke said of him, " He had too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too much innocence to provoke any enmity." The house No. 3 on the terrace, formerly inhabited for some years by the late Dr. Grant, is the one which called forth from his Majesty George III., the bon mot which has appeared so frequently in numerous jest books of anecdote and wit. " Whose house is that?" inquired the King, when one fine morning he was riding past it on horseback. The gentleman appealed to informed him " that it had been built by Blanchard, his Majesty's card-maker." " Blanchard, the card-maker," said the King ; " why, all his cards must have turned up trumps." It is well known that his Majesty was an early riser, and frequently on fine summer mornings might be seen passing through George Street between six and seven o'clock, having walked through the gardens from Kew, and would occasionally stop to chat with any of the tradespeople who might be at their doors, early risers like himself, or he would often take a GEORGE III. AND SIR LIONEL DARELL. 303 stroll about the fields or the hill, and sometimes accompanied by the Queen and members of the royal family, would take drives or rides through Richmond Park. There is at the entrance to the Park a large and well-known family mansion, which was for many years the residence of Sir Lionel Darell, Bart., and afterwards, until a year or two since, of his daughter, the late Miss Darell, an aged and much respected inhabitant of this place. His Majesty George III. frequently visited Sir Lionel at this house ; and upon one occasion, when that part of it nearest to the Park was in course of erection, alighted from his horse as he was about entering through the gates, declaring his intention of " seeing how Sir Lionel DarelFs new building was getting on." The floor joists of the present noble drawing-room were only just laid, no floor boards having been placed on them, but his Majesty stepped across the building from joist to joist, those who were present fearing each moment that the foot of the kind- hearted monarch would slip between the timbers. It will, perhaps, be interesting to learn that in the year 1803-4 the large piece of ground on which the new part of the Star and Garter Hotel has been recently erected, was leased by Wilbraham, Earl of Dysart, to one Mr. Brewer, at a rental of 3/. per annum, on condition that no shrubs, tree, or other- wise, were ever to be planted thereon above three feet in height, so that the view from any of the windows 304 ANCIENT ALMSHOUSES ON THE HILL. of Sir Lionel Darell's house, or from those of the new Park-gate lodge, should never be impeded.* Richard Brinsley Sheridan was likewise a resident upon the Hill; he lived at the mansion overlooking the terrace, known now as Downe House. On a part of the grounds attaching to this last-named hand- some villa residence, and near towards Avhere the road turning to the right leads to the modern church of St. Matthias, stood, until within these last few years, the ancient almshouses of Bishop Duppa. Brian Duppa was in his day a man of eminence. He was born at Lewisham, in Kent, 1589, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford, of which he was afterwards dean ; after becoming Bishop of Chichester and Salisbury, he was elevated to the See of Winchester. He was a great favourite of Charles I., and was appointed by him to be tutor and instructor to his son, afterwards Charles II. ; for this office he was considered by many learned men of the period to be but ill-qualified. Bishop Burnet plainly stated his opinion to this effect, but others have thought differently. It was remarked that none of the good Bishop's pupils did him any credit ; and a modern author speaking of this prelate, says — " Excepting that of Mary, the reigns of Charles II. and James II. are, on account of religious persecution, the most disgraceful in the history of England.^f After the death of his royal master, Duppa retired to Richmond, where he * That the conditions of the lease here expressed have been evaded must be deplored by every inhabitant of Richmond, f " Folkestone Williams' Memoirs," &c. BRIAN DUPPA, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. 305 led an unobtrusive but not an unobservant life. He may- have been in communication with Lady Dysart and other friends of Charles II. living in the neighbour- hood, but if he did so, he took care not to draw upon himself the attention of the regicides, one of whom had settled close to him in a position that could scarcely have failed to excite his indignation. At the Restoration he participated in the benefits which the Royalists at last obtained by the change, for he was appointed to the Bishopric of Winchester, and made Lord Almoner by his royal pupil. As if to mark his gratitude for the safety and repose he had enjoyed in the district in the time of danger, he, in the year 1661, caused to be erected on Richmond Hill a pile of buildings as almshouses for ten poor unmarried women of the age of fifty and upwards, and for funds for their maintenance surrendered a freehold he had purchased for 1540/. The inmates were to receive 1/. monthly, the same sum at Midsummer and Christmas, a barn-door fowl and a pound of bacon each Christmas-day, and a gown of Bishop's blue every alternate year. This estimable man died at Richmond the following year, and, very much to his credit, his royal pupil honoured him with a visit a few hours before he died, and begged his blessing. It is not generally known where the house stood in which the good bishop lived, but it is more than probable that its site was where the mansion known as Downe House is now erected, and that he built the almshouses on a part of the grounds belonging to his own residence. x 30G aubrey's remarks. It was during the exile of Charles that Bishop Duppa had made a vow to the effect, that when the restoration of that monarch should take place, he would erect an " almshouse," as the term then was, for ten poor women, and endow it at once. And when he did so, over the gate or entrance to their houses he caused to be placed a tablet, on which is the fol- lowing inscription : — " Deo et Carolo — I will pay my vows which I made to God in my trouble." Of this vow, and the endowment of these houses, Aubrey in his Antiquities of Surrey thus speaks : — " On the Hill above Richmond which overlooks these parts is an Alms House of brick, built by Brian Duppa, Lord Bishop of Winton, in performance of his vow which he made during his Majesty's exile." Aubrey then, referring to the inscription above quoted, goes on in his usually quaint style to say : " But he hath paid his vows but poorly, — here are ten poor widows who are allowed 5 groats a week a piece, and twenty shillings to buy coats with, and a gown once in two years. The Ministers and Churchwardens are overseers of it, but because they are alms women they are not to have any benefit from the parish, and so they live on in a starving condition." This is Aubrey's opinion of the bishop's endowment of the houses ; it is evident that he either did not admire the man, or that he did not appreciate his charitable acts. With reference to the discrepancy between the sum of five shillings per week, and the "5 groats" mentioned by Aubrey as the weekly allow- ance, it is more than probable that the smaller sum named REMOVAL OF THE STRUCTURE. 307 is the correct one that was at first paid to the inmates, and although it has been frequently stated that four shillings was the endowment, the information may have been derived from inquires made in after years, when, on the expiration of various leases, the property at Shepperton had so increased in value, that the trustees were enabled likewise to augment the weekly dole. Dr. Evans, the author of a work, " Richmond and its Vicinity," published in the year 1824, referring to the inscription over the entrance doorway (which has been "carefully preserved in the present erection of the houses in the vineyard), says : " ' Deo et Carolo ;' — to a common eye these three words suggest the union of piety and loyalty ; but surely there is an incorrectness in dedicating a charitable institution to an earthly King and to the supreme Deity ; and the combination is the more offensive to moral feeling when it is recollected that Charles II. was distinguished for his irreligion and profligacy." These old houses were pulled down a few years since, and were rebuilt in the vineyard. The kitchen- garden of the house before mentioned, now designated " Downe House," occupies the site of the antiquated structure, which had ccrtain'y become much dilapi- dated, and contained but few comforts for the aged poor in comparison with more modern erections of the kind, in which the health and enjoyments of the inmates are so much studied and kindly attended to. At the foot of the hill, after passing through Petersham meadows in the direction of the ancient x 2 308 THE POET GAY. manor residence of the Dysart family, a very elegantly - constrncted summer-house may be observed, which overlooks the most beautiful portion of the river scenery about this neighbourhood. It was here that Gay is said to have written the greater part of his Fables, and truly it is a spot which a poet might select for retirement and repose — one which must indeed rivet the attention of the visitor, who for the first time contemplates the magnificent view of the river and the luxuriant fertility around it in all its loveliness on a fine summer morn, and recalls to his memory the words of the Poet of the Seasons, when, in allusion to the surrounding beauties of this neigh- bourhood, he writes — " And stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks, Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retired, With her, the pleasing partner of his heart, The worthy Queensbury yet laments his Gay, And polished Cornbury wooes the willing Muse, — Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames, Far winding up to where the Muses haunt In Twickenham's bowers, and lor their Pope implore The healing god." a c3 nS w IP oi en > 309 CHAPTER XII. THE BRIDGE, RIVER-SIDE, ETC. THE ANCIENT FERRY — LAYING THE FIRST STONE OF THE BRIDGE IN 1774 — THE STEEP ASCENT OF FERRY-HILL FROM THE RJVER-BANK UP TO THE " DOG" INN — CONTROVERSY AMONG THE RICHMOND PEOPLE AS TO THE MOST SUITABLE SPOT FOR THE ERECTION OF THE BRIDGE ENORMOUS DIVIDEND RECEIVED BY THE LATEST SURVIVING NOMINEES — THROWN OPEN FREE TO THE PUBLIC IN 1859 — RIVER-SIDE — ALTERA- TIONS AS TO THE BANK-SIDE AND CAMSHEAD — JOHN LEWIS'S BREWERY — THE TIMBERYARD, AND OTHER PREMISES THEREON — ROAD LEADING TO KEW THROUGH THE HAMLET OF SHEEN— THE NEWLY-FORMED BARGE- WALK — THE BARGES HAULED ALONG BY MEN — SALMON FREQUENTLY CAUGHT AT RICH- MOND — DESCRIPTION OF THE THAMES BY HOLLINSHED IN 1587. " With closer eye survey the glittering scene, The matchless beauties of unrivalled Sheen. Mark where yon beauteous bridge, with modest pride, Throws its broad shadow o'er the subject tide ; There Attic elegance and strength unite, And fair proportion's charms the eye delight ; There, graceful while the spacious arches bend, No useless glaring ornaments offend." — Maurice. FOR a period of about three centuries, a ferry had existed at this part of the river at Richmond, within a slight distance of the spot where the bridge was erected during the last century, and to the ferry frequent allusions are made in the Privy Purse ex- 310 THE FERRY. penses of Henry VIII. , Queen Mary, and Elizabeth. In the time of the first- named monarch, there occurs the following : — s. d. July 11, 1529. Paid to John Pate for ferrying at Richmond 6 8 Sept. 30. To the ferryman (of Rich- mond) in reward 6 8 Dec. 1537. Paid to Perkins of Rich- mond for the ferrying of the Princess and her servants coming from Windsor 6 April, 1538. Paid two watermen for fer- rying my Lady Grace over the water from Richmond, going and coming from Hampton Court 2 Nearly a century after this period the ferry was let to two persons on lease, from which the following is an extract : — " Mem m . That the Passage of Water called Rich- mond Ferry with all and singular profits commodities and advantages thereunto belonging and appertaining were by the late King James by his letters patent bearing date at Westminster the ninth day of March in the 4 th year of his reign over England granted and demised unto Edmund Cooke and Edmund Sawyer of London Gent n to have and to hold to their Executors Administrators and assigns from the feast of the annunciation of Mary the Virgin which was in Anno Domini 1652 for fortie years thence and ensuing and fully to be compleat and ended, yielding and paying therefore yearly during the said term at the feast day ERECTION OF THE BRIDGE. 311 of Michael the Archangel and the annunciation of Mary the Virgin into the receipt of the King's Ex- chequer the sum of 13s. 4d. hy even aud equal por- tions." It is no very lengthened period since old inhabitants of Richmond were to be met with who perfectly well recollected the passage over the river by the ferry boat, and the large " horse boat," as it was termed, in which were conveyed horses, vehicles, and any heavy goods or otherwise, which might be found of too great bulk or weight for the smaller one devoted for passengers' use. Such persons, likewise, had to tell of the day when the first stone of the bridge was laid, and of that when, three years afterwards, 1777, it was opened for public traffic. There is in the " Annual Register for 1774," the following reference to the commencement of the build- ing of the bridge : — " The first stone of the new Bridge at Richmond was laid on the twenty-third day of this month. A brass plate was fixed (with the stone), with the following inscription — f The first stone of this Bridge was laid by the Hon. Henry llobart, 23 d August, 1774, and in the 14 th year of the reign of his majesty King George the Third.' " There is in the collection of prints at the British Musem a coloured sketch of a bridge of nine arches, principally of wood, which it is there stated was in- tended to be built at Richmond by Mr. Windham. We have frequently, some years since, conversed with persons who have related various minutiae about the passage of the river here, and their being ferried 312 FERRY HILL AND THE " DOg" INN. over it when they were young ; and in the society of one aged friend, a shareholder of the bridge, we have often felt much interested in hearing her speak of such journeying to and fro, and of the very steep ascent of « Ferry Hill/' as the road leading up from the water's edge into Hill Street was then termed. There was a small public -house on the site of the King's Head Inn, designated the " Ferry House," and the present Talbot Hotel was known by the sign of the " Dog." Our old friend used to relate, that so steep was the hill or rise from the river at this spot, that a poor woman managed to earn a scanty livelihood by means of having a few chairs for aged persons and invalids to rest upon for a short time, about midway of the ascent, for which accommodation it was customary to reward her with a few halfpence. It may well be imagined that the rise was of a somewhat formidable character, when the height of Hill Street at this point above the level of the river is taken into consideration. In the engraving at the beginning of the present chapter, the river-side and ferry are shown, with the large horse-boat used for the traffic. By the costume of the figures, the period may be considered to be about the reign of James I. The river does not appear to be more than half its present width, and it is evident that when it was. taken the island near to the bridge formed part of the Middlesex shore. This ferry, as before stated, belonged to the Crown, it being an appendage to the manor, and the rent of it 13s. Ad. per annum. This was in after years in- creased to 3/. 13s. 4d. yearly rent. The commissioners MR. WINDHAM AND THE FERRY. 313 for the erection of the bridge were empowered to pur- chase the ferry rights from the representatives of the then lessee, whose term extended to the year 1798, for which right the proprietor asked the sum of 6000/., or an annuity of 220/., and in the former case to subscribe the whole amount towards the erection of the bridge. It w r as in the year 1773 that the following report appeared; it bears the name of H. Reynell as the printer, near Air Street, Piccadilly, and is designated " The case of the Inhabitants of Richmond, In respect to a Bridge between Richmond and the opposite shore. 1773. " It has long been apprehended that great Benefit would arise as well to the public as to the counties of Surrey and Middlesex, particularly to the towns of Richmond and Twickenham and the adjacent villages, if a commodious bridge was built over the River Thames, between Richmond in Surrey and the op- posite shore in Middlesex. " Accordingly, in the last session of Parliament, Mr. Windham, who is lessee of Richmond ferry, under the crown, for a term of which about 26 years are yet to come, presented a petition to the House of Commons, for leave to bring in a Bill for building a Bridge at Richmond, near the ferry, and for enabling her Majesty to grant the inheritance of the ferry to Mr. Windham. It was brought in, but the inhabit- ants of Richmond petitioned the house that they might be heard against particular parts of it. They 314 GENERAL MEETING admitted that great advantages would arise from having a well-constructed Bridge in a proper Situation at Richmond, but they opposed Mr. Windham's Bridge, on account of the unfit place where he designed to build it, and from an Apprehension that as it was to be built at his expence and to be his private property, cheapness would be attended to in the Construction more than public convenience. Several Days were appointed for the attendance of Counsel and Witnesses before a Committee of the House of Commons on Mr. Windham's Bill and the Petition against it, but the Hearing was postponed from Time to Time, till Mr. Windham finding such an Opposition withdrew his Bill. The Inhabitants of Richmond at the same time undertook that before the next Session of Parlia- ment they would digest a proposal for building a Bridge at Richmond in a place more convenient than the Ferry, and on a place in other respects more advantageous to the Public. " In pursuance of this Undertaking the Inhabitants of Richmond had a general meeting for taking into consideration the subject of a Bridge, and a Committee of the Town was appointed to digest proposals. This Committee had several meetings, and was of Opinion that the most proper place for building a Bridge at Richmond would be at or near the end of Water Lane, and agreed to recommend the having a Stone Bridge according to a plan and Elevation which had been given in by Messieurs Paine and Couse, the Surveyors. It was also agreed by the Committee that in order to make a proper access to the Bridge, it would be necessary AS TO A SITE FOR THE BRIDGE. 315 to widen Water Lane by taking down the ' Feathers' Inn and other Houses and buildings on the North Side of Water Lane. Also for building the Bridge and defraying all incidental expenses, the Committee proposed borrowing at Interest a sum not exceeding 20 Thousand pounds ; the proposals of the Committee were afterwards approved of at a general Meeting of the Inhabitants of Richmond, who have since petitioned the House of Commons for leave to bring in a Bill for building a Bridge at Richmond accordingly. " In case any Opposition should be made to the Bill now proposed, the following Observations are submitted in order to shew the utility of having a Bridge over the Thames at Richmond, and to evince the superior Advantages of that proposed by the Inhabitants. " 1st. By having a Bridge over the Thames at Rich- mond, there will be a safe and convenient Passage at all Times over the Thames between Richmond and the opposite Shore, and a perfect and immediate Commu- nication will be opened between Richmond, Twicken- ham, and the adjacent Villages, whereas the passage over the present Ferry is very inconvenient and at many times impassable by reason of Frosts and Floods, and on account of the steepness of the Hill next the Richmond Shore is never used by loaded Waggons and Carts, which can neither ascend or descend to the Ferry with Safety. " 2ndly. There arc only three places which have been yet pointed out for a Bridge at Richmond — and those arc Ferry Hill, Herring Court, and Water Lane. Ferry Hill is the place where Mr. Windham's Bridge 316 VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS. was to have been, and is liable to great Objection. The access to a Bridge on the Richmond Side by Ferry Hill would be highly inconvenient and even dangerous, on Account of the great declivity of the Ground next the Shore there, which is such that there would be a very steep Hill at the foot of the Bridge on the Richmond Side. Also from the depth of water near Ferry Hill a great Prejudice might arise, both to the Bridge and to the Navigation, as the want of Pole ground would render it difficult in a strong current to work the Craft, particularly large Barges, near the Bridge without running against it. " The other objections to Ferry Hill are, that there is a great Inequality in the Level of the two opposite Shores, and that the current of the River runs almost close to the Richmond Shore. Herring Court being near to Ferry Hill, the same objections are in some degree applicable, although the situation of Herring Court is far preferable to Ferry Hill. Water Lane is the place adopted by the Inhabitants of Richmond as the most eligible situation for a Bridge ; it nearly fronts George Street, which is the principal one in Richmond, and the high road to London. The Banks on each shore are on a level, and the deepest water is in the middle of the River ; the access to the Bridge might be rendered spacious at a moderate expense by taking down the Feathers Inn* and the other buildings on the North side of the lane, the Removal of which would, at the same time, enlarge the Key at Richmond, * The " Feathers Inn," to which reference is here made, is the house in which the late Mr. Cain resided lor so many years. INTENDED TO BE BUILT OF WOOD. 317 which is too confined at present for the Trade of the place. " 3rdly. The Bridge proposed last Year was to have been constructed with wood, but that now intended by the Inhabitants of Richmond is to be built with stone, according to an elegant though not expensive design ; and if it is earned into Execution, the Public will have a Bridge as ornamental to the River as it will be conducive to general convenience. "4th. It is not intended that the Bridge now proposed should be private property, and though for some years a Toll will be necessary, yet finally the Bridge is to be free. The plan is to borrow a sum of money, not exceeding Twenty Thousand pounds, for building the Bridge, and making a proper access to it, and only to have a Toll till the Principal Money borrowed and the Interest for it shall be discharged, and a proper fund shall be established for the future repair of the Bridge. " If "Water Lane should be adopted as the most con- venient place for a Bridge, in order to have proper access to it on the Middlesex side of the Thames it will be necessary to have a road to the Lane between Rich- mond Ferry and the Town of Twickenham, cither over a piece of ground belonging to Twickenham Farm, or on an embankment next the river. On this account the owners of Twickenham Farm and House object to the having a Bridge at "Water Lane, insisting that either of the proposed Roads will destroy the Beauty and Form of the Grounds belonging to Twickenham Farm, and the fine view they have of the River. But the Inhabitants of Richmond answer that the piece of 318 PROPOSED SITE AT END OE WATER LANE, land between the proposed Bridge and the Lane at the Ferry is only a small part of very extensive grounds, and distant nearly half a mile from the House, and that the prospect of the river from the house and other parts of the Grounds will even be improved by the addition of an elegant Stone Bridge near the end of Water Lane. " They must also observe that the Land proposed to be taken away from Twickenham Farm is not so valuable as some may imagine, it being subject at many times in the Year to be overflowed with High Tides and Land Waters, and at all times to the inroads of Bargemen, who have a Towing Path on the Middle- sex side of the River. " Upon the whole it is hoped, particularly if it is near the end of Water Lane, that the owners of Twicken- ham Farm will not persist in opposing a Bridge there, but if their objection should prevail the Inhabitants of Richmond are willing to submit to the Inconvenience which will attend the choice of another place, being persuaded that a Bridge at Richmond in any place, on the commodious, elegant, and disinterested plan now proposed, will be a great advantage to the public." Certain it is that either the influence of Mr. Wind- ham on the one hand to have the Bridge erected near to the Ferry, in which he possessed so great an interest, or the determination of the owners of the Twickenham Farm property not to have it erected near to theirs, or both interests in combination, prevailed, and conse- quently the Act passed the House of Commons, the OR AT HERON COURT. 319 first stone of the new Bridge being laid, as before stated, on the 23rd day of August, 1774.* It has ever been considered a subject for regret that it was not erected where the inhabitants at the time so much wished it should be, viz., at the end of George Street ; there was a palpable inconsistency in building it where it now stands — why should heavy loads in waggons or otherwise have to be drawn up a tolerably steep acclivity from the level of George Street to the turning off to the bridge, again to descend a sharp in- cline to the point where the toll-houses originally stood ? Had it been erected at the end of the main street the descent which exists between the roadway and the river side would have enabled the architect to con- struct his bridge on a level with the street, which would not only have been most ornamental to this part of the town, but would have prevented the pre- sent unnecessary descent to it. The improvement would have been partially but not completely effected had it been built and approached from H eron Court, as it would have avoided only a short distance of the hill rise. The descent from Hill Street down to the entrance of the bridge was once considerably greater than it is now, and this had continued from the time of its erection until a period of about thirty-four years since, when it was altered, and the valley, as it may be * There is in the British Museum an engraving of a bridge of nine arches, considered to be built at Richmond by Mr. Windham, to be partly of wood and partly of stone, 1772. 320 RAISING OF THE ROADWAY. termed, filled up considerably. Any person who may think proper to lock over the parapet at this part may observe that the roadway originally followed the course of the stone balustrade, and that consequently the original surface here was 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. deeper than it is now. This alteration, and the raising the road up to its present level at this particular part of the bridge, was a most important improvement, as accidents had at various times occurred here on those days when there was any great influx of vehicles to the races at Moulsey or other places. It is not of frequent occurrence that investments can be made with a result so satisfactory and so remunerative as in the case of the subscribers to the fund for the erection of Rich- mond Bridge. The money required for the work was raised by Tontine — a kind of life annuity, which derived its name from Tonti, an Italian, who was the inventor of the system about the year 1653. Twenty thousand pounds was at first the sum considered to be necessary, but 5,000/. more being required to complete the struc- ture, a second Tontine was projected to obtain that sum — 100/. being the amount of the individual subscription in each case, and four per cent, being guaranteed as a dividend on the outlay from the period of the opening of the bridge, the sum of 800/. per annum being yearly divided among the shareholders in the first, and a pro- portionate amount among those who composed the second Tontine. These subscriptions of 100/. each were, in most cases, made in the name of the youngest member of a family — in some cases the names of mere infants being enrolled. There were also a few persons THE BRIDGE DIVIDENDS. 321 who, having no particular wish to invest the money either in their own name or that of any member of their families, chose to have it in the name and de- pendent on the life of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, the former of these royal personages being at the time twelve to thirteen years of age. For the first few years after the opening of the bridge, as may be supposed, the dividends were not very considerable — not exceeding, to any great extent, the return as guaranteed, 4 per cent. — but as the deaths of the shareholders gradually increased in num- ber, so did the half-yearly payments increase in their amount to the survivors. A friend of the writer's who was one of the shareholders, and who died about twenty vears since, lived to receive the sum of from 50/. to 60/. per annum ; but this was trifling in amount to that which others realized from the same source, and it will not be out of place to mention a circumstance which was related to her on one occasion by the late William Smith, Esq., when she paid her usual visit to him for her half-yearly dividend. He told her that in the preceding half year a lady had called upon him for the purpose of receiving her bridge payments, but finding that it did not exceed the amount of the sum she had last received, said, in a discontented and grumbling tone, " What, has no one died since I was here — all still alive ?" But, however, it was the last time she complained. When the dividends were next due, death had removed her, thus adding to the amount to be shared by those who survived her. The surviving nominee of the first tontine died March 3rd, Y 322 THE TWO LAST SURVIVING NOMINEES. 1859, at the age of eighty-six, having for the last five and a half years of her life received the sum of 800/. per annum. The latest survivor on the second tontine died in August, 1865, aged ninety-one years, having received for the last nine years of his life the yearly income of 200/. : an admirable investment, it will be acknow- ledged, of the sum of 100/. as at first contributed. The tolls had been at various times reduced on horses, carriages, &c. &c, and more recently on the foot passengers, who had originally paid both when passing and repassing the toll-gate. The first alteration which took place as a reduction of this charge was, that toll should be taken only from per- sons going in the direction of Twickenham from Rich- mond; this always appeared an unfair arrangement for the inhabitants of this town, as, on the occasion of regattas taking place, or when any City pageant was passing up or down the river, the sight-seers of Twick- enham and Isleworth could assemble on the bridge to gaze at it, while the residents of Richmond had to pay the toll before they could enjoy the same gratification. The charges for the use of the bridge were afterwards reduced to a particularly low rate for all kinds of ve- hicles, and the foot passengers at last passed over free. There were many persons on that night who waited in close proximity to the toll-house, listening for the church clock to strike twelve, in order that they might immediately after the last stroke rush through the foot gates ; each one anxious to be able to assert that he was the first who passed over the bridge on the morn- DISCONTINUANCE OF THE TOLLS. 323 ing of the clay when it became free to foot passengers. Matters went on in this way for a few more years, until the month of March, 1859, when the following welcome notice was posted about the town : — " Richmond Bridge. " toll free. " At a meeting of the Commissioners of the Bridge, on Thursday, the 10th March, 1859, H. Pownall, Esq., in the Chair, the Clerks having reported the death of the surviving annuitant in the first Tontine, and the Commissioners having investigated the state of the funds, it was resolved, that on and after the 25th of this present month of March, the Tolls taken on pass- ing over the Bridge be discontinued, after the gates have been removed by the Commissioners. " Smith and Son, " Clerks to the Commissioners." This event, which duly took place on the day named in the foregoing notice, is still fresh in the recollection of the Richmond people. About twelve o'clock on that day, a procession, consisting of a number of the inhabitants, accompanied by Messrs. Smith and Son, the solicitors to the trustees, and others, headed by Mr. Pownall on horseback, passed through the gates ; and after a brief address delivered by that gentleman, wherein the bridge was declared henceforth free, a loud shout was raised by the numerous persons pre- sent, and in an instant the large and heavy gates were lifted off their hinges by a party of strong labourers Avho were hired for the purpose; and from y 2 324 THE RIVER-SIDE : that moment, humanly speaking, Richmond Bridge became free for ever.* No part of Richmond has, within the last century, undergone a much greater change than the river-side, and in no part have the improvements which have been effected proved more conducive to the comfort and enjoyment of the townspeople and visitors than in this particular locality. The view which our forefathers obtained of the river was very limited in extent to that which we of the present day enjoy in our promenade along its beautiful banks and terrace. To commence the de- scription of these changes, it may be stated that a view of the river was afforded at the bottom of Ferry Hill. From this point up to Bedford Down, as Peter- sham Meadows were then called, the public had no access whatever to it, as the garden of each dwelling- house, wharf, or otherwise, descended to the water's edge. It is only a very few years since that, in the middle of the wall of the Marquis of Lansdowne's lower pleasure-grounds, abutting on the present barge-walk, a large willow-tree had been left standing, the brick wall having been built up on both sides of it. This tree had originally stood almost on the edge of the bank-side, where most probably the greater part of its branches drooped gracefully to the surface of the water beneath; but it must not be supposed that * It may be as well here to mention that the sum of 50001. is vested in Government securities for the purpose of always keeping the bridge in a proper state of repair. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPERTY. 325 attractive-looking gardens and mossy banks only, de- scended to the edge of the stream ; the brewery-yard and premises of John Lewis occupied part of the piece of ground before mentioned as forming the lower pleasure-grounds of the Marquis of Lansdowne ; a little farther up, where Bingham Villa was afterwards erected, there stood a small public-house, the " Blue Anchor," which had a wharf, or landing-place, to enable its visitors to reach it from the water as well as by the road under the hill. Next to this, but still on part of the grounds attaching to this villa, was a malthouse ; then, within the distance of a hundred yards or so, there was a large timber- wharf and yard, where the kitchen-garden and part of the pleasure-grounds of William Paynter, Esq., are now situate. There appears to have been a considerable amount of business carried on at this wharf and premises, the former at the side of the river, through which there was a creek, flowing up nearly to the frontage in the lower road ; and even when the camshed and barge-walk were constructed, about the year 1780, the proprietor of the said timber- yard commenced an action against the parties, who were compelled to afford him every possible accommo- dation as to the matter of the creek, for they under- took to construct a small bridge over it, serving not only for the passage of the barge traffic, but likewise for the use of foot passengers on the newly-made walk or embankment. At an earlier period, from Ferry Hill to the end of the Castle gardens, no thoroughfare for the public existed, as each garden between the ferry and the 326 OLD ROAD THROUGH SHEEN. spot mentioned, descended to the river's edge ; this again occurred from the end of Water Lane up to the extremity of the present St. Helena Terrace ; the por- tion which is now a wharf was partly reclaimed from the Thames when the towing-path was made. The in- habitants of Richmond have for a long period of years possessed the delightful promenade known as Chol- mondeley Terrace ; even in engravings of the old palace 250 years since, persons are there represented as using it for a public walk, and it was at the end of this terrace that the free passage along the river side terminated, no thoroughfare existing beyond this spot for the public use, as the royal gardens or park com- menced where the railway bridge now crosses the path and barge walk. The ancient hamlet of Sheen is represented in the map as existing about a quarter of a mile from this point, and nearly as possible midway between the first and second ferries, and, as it has been stated, this village extended for a considerable distance from the river's bank, in the direction of the ancient monastery, which structure stood in a central position among the surrounding buildings. Along the front of the hamlet overlooking the river, there was a wide road, or rather as it appears in the map referred to, a terrace similar, perhaps, to the much-esteemed one of " Cholmondeley," which was reached by the said road, commencing from about the spot where the large gates at one corner of the green form the entrance to the old deer park ; about midway between this point and the river, there was a good broad road through a noble avenue of trees, which led THE TOWING-PATH AND BARGEMEN. 327 to the back portion of Sheen's ancient hamlet ; the course of this avenue can even at this time be observed, as some of the once fine old trees, now mostly in a state of extreme decay, are still remaining ; and during the heat of summer the roadway may easily be traced, from the circumstance of the grass thereon growing more stuntingly than elsewhere, as the old stone or gravel road lies most probably only a slight depth from the surface of the greensward. It was about the year 1773-4, that the embankment was formed which constitutes so very agreeable and extended a promenade direct from the termination of Cholmondeley Terrace in the direction of Kew. Up to this period, the towing-path on the Surrey side, for the use of the barges and vessels conveying heavy goods and merchandise up the river, ended exactly opposite to the first or Railshead Isleworth ferry ; here the men who had towed the " craft," as it is termed, from Barnes or Putney were taken off, and returned to the place they had started from, while others on the opposite bank drew the loaded barges up as far as " Ragman's Castle," near the well-known Ait at Twickenham : here the towing-path again com- menced on the Surrey side, and continued as far as Kingston Bridge, where it was once more transferred to the -Middlesex banks. The reader will probably be surprised to learn that all this heavy- work which has been now for many years done by horses, was then exclusively performed by men, hence the term " Bargemen." They were harnessed; if the expression be allowed, seven or eight 328 THE ISLANDS. in number, by means of broad leathern straps, which rested on and around the shoulders of each man ; each of these straps being attached to the long rope or tow-line fixed to the barge, they thus hauled the same along the " Silent Highway." They worked, as it has been shown, by stages, not very lengthened ones, and thus the loaded vessel by very slow degrees reached its destination. The price paid to the men for this de- scription of work was at per ton, and it has been said that it was very remunerative work to those who were thus employed. They were compelled to live as much together as possible in one particular locality in each place, which would be naturally near to the river bank ; in Rich- mond, the chosen and favourite spot was Water Lane, and when the traffic on this side of the river required, as it frequently did in the night, additional or extra assistance, those who sought it would proceed up that neighbourhood with a loud cry or call of " Man to horse, Man to horse," an expression certainly difficult to reconcile with a strictly correct meaning ; but upon hearing the well-known sound, the bargemen would in a few minutes have risen, and be ready to proceed with the vessel and its freight on the opposite shore to the spot appointed for a fresh relay to take it in charge. It is much to be regretted that the islands in this part of the river are so rapidly diminishing in size. Many of the inhabitants of Richmond can recollect the time when there were five or six large and fine trees standing on that which has generally been designated the Round Island (the one nearest to the THE RIVER-SIDE AND EERRY". 329 present railway bridge). It is not, perhaps, more than a century since when these three pieces of land in the middle of the river formed one entire island, extending from a point within a few yards of the old bridge, down nearly as far as where the modern rail- way erection crosses the stream. The late Duke of Queensberry obtained permission to cut an opening through that part of it opposite to his own mansion, thus hastening the destruction which the tide was slowly and surely effecting. In the accompanying engraving, taken from an old painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, the river side and the numerous buildings are repre- sented as extending from about 300 yards above the ferry or present bridge as far as the old palace ; it is there shown that no islands at that period (260 years or so since) existed. They must originally have formed a part of the Middlesex shore, and consequently the river at that time was very little more than half its present width, taking into consideration the incessant decrease which has been for so long a time taking place, owing to the wash of the tides, and which, prior to the pulling down and removal of Old London Bridge, was much more considerable than it has been of late years. In the winter season of the year 1821, great quantities of rain having fallen, the swollen waters were penned up and prevented from passing away, owing to the obstruction which the old bridge of London then caused. It was in this year that one of these floods pre- vailed, when the river overflowed its banks to so great 330 SALMON TAKEN AT RICHMOND. an extent, that the water flowed round the foot of Richmond Bridge, on the Middlesex side, to a con- siderable distance up the road leading to Twickenham, so that when persons had crossed the river by the bridge, they had to be conveyed by means of punts over that part of it which still lay between themselves and the main road. Before concluding the various details as to the numerous alterations which have in the course of the last century or two taken place upon the banks of the river, the change which has likewise occurred to one family of the inhabitants of its waters — namely, the Salmon, which were once so frequently taken about the neighbourhood of the Thames — must not be omitted. Old inhabitants tell the tale of the daily capture of this fine fish by the Richmond fishermen and others, and which continued up to a period of fifty years or so since. These Thames salmon were always considered a great delicacy, and consequently realized a high price ; and it is related that about sixty years since, a fisherman named Brown had re- ceived orders to procure two as fine specimens of this fisli as it was possible to do, in order that they might form part of a banquet about to be given at the Castle Hotel. These fish he had been fortunate enough to catch, and had got them, as he thought, securely in the well of his punt. On the morning of the day on which they were required, he went with an assistant to get the salmon out of the well, with a net such as was generally used on such occasions, but no sooner had he removed the covering, than one of them, DESCRIPTION BY HOLLINSHED. 331 seeing the sudden light thus thrown upon it, sprung from its prison into the river ; the escape of the fish so astounded the unfortunate fisherman, that in his fright and disappointment he jumped immediately into the water after it, with something of a vague and un- defined idea of recapturing it. It need scarcely be told that the attempt was a fruitless one, and that the unlucky Brown was compelled to put up with the loss which his want of due caution and care had entailed upon him. It is many years since salmon have been taken in this part of the Thames ; the gradual increase of the drainage into it, with the additional refuse of the gas factories, has done much to contribute to the general pollution, and in connexion with other causes of which the public may not be perhaps aware, has caused the destruction of this much esteemed fish ; but it is not too much to hope that when our noble river shall be purified by the metropolitan and other sewage being withdrawn from it, added to the exertions which are now being made by a society for the restocking of the river with fish, to whom too much praise cannot be rendered, we may before many years enjoy the satisfaction of hearing of the frequent capture of salmon trout in the waters of the Thames — a pisca- torial pleasure so long denied to the lovers of the gentle sport. In Hollinshed's Chronicle, vol. ii. page 46, 1587, there is the following description given of the various descriptions offish with which at that time the river, according to this ancient chronicler, so abounded : — 332 DESCRIPTION BY HOLLINSHED. " This noble river, the Thames, yieldeth not clots of gold as the Tagus doth, but an infinite plentie of excel- lent, sweet, and pleasante fish, wherewith such as inhabit neere unto her banks are fed and fullie nourished. What should I speake of the fat and sweet Salmon dailie taken in this streame, and that in such plentie after the time of the smelt be passed, and no river in Europe able to exceed it. What store of Barbels, Trouts, Pearches, Smelts, Breames, Roches, Daces, Gudgings, Flounders, Shrimps, &c, are commonlie to be had therein, I refer me to them that know by experience better than I by reason of their daily trade of fishery in the same; and albeit it seemeth from time to time to be as it were defrauded in sundry wise of these hir large commodities by the insatiable avarice of the fishermen, yet this famous river complaineth commonlie of no want, but the more it looseth at one time the more it yieldeth at another. Onelie in carps it seemeth to be scant, though it is not long since that kind of fish was brought to England. Oh, that this river might be spared but even one yeare from nets, &c. ; but alas ! then should manie a poor man be undone/'' 333 CHAPTER XIII. ' KEW ROAD, THE ANCIENT INNS AND POSTING- HOUSES, TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. FORMATION OF THE NEW EOAD FROM RICHMOND TO KEW BY GEORGE III. — WALPOLE's DESCRIPTION OF GEORGE II. 's TRA- VELLING BY THE OLD ROUTE FROM KEW — QUEEN CARO- LINE'S GROTTO AND CAVE IN THE GARDENS — STEPHEN DUCK — LIFE LED BY THE ROYAL FAMILY AT THE OLD PALACE — ME. WILLIAM AITON APPOINTED TO THE MANAGE- MENT OF THE GARDENS — WILLIAM COBBETT EMPLOYED THEREIN AS A LABOUEER — EBECTION OF THE FORMER AND PRESENT BEIDGE AT KEW — THE SHOTTS OF RICHMOND — MURDER OF MR. M'EVOY AND HIS HOUSEKEEPER BY LITTLE, THE CUKATOR OF THE OBSERVATORY — THE OLD INNS IN RICH- MOND — THE ROW OF ELM-TREES AT THE TOP OF GEORGE STREET. M ANY of our readers will, no doubt, be surprised to learn that, previous to the year 1766, the fine broad carriage road leading from Richmond to Kew did not exist ; the only way of reaching that pleasant little village from this place was by the one which has been referred to through ancient Sheen, and by the lower Mortlake road, through the narrow thoroughfare known to us as " Sandy Lane/' which emerges sud- denly upon the main thoroughfare at Kew. The whole of the intervening space, therefore, between this point (Kew Green) up to within a few hundred yards of St. 334 CONSTRUCTION OF KEW ROAD. John's Church, was occupied as pasture land and mar- ket gardens. Kew Horse Road, as it is frequently termed, was projected by his Majesty George III., in the year 1766 ; and there is a paragraph in the London Chro- nicle, February 28th to March 3rd, 1767, which in- forms its readers " that his Majesty is making an ' elegant ' road, 40 feet wide, from Kew Green to Rich- mond, on which he has employed 200 poor men during the hard season of the year ; in consequence of this, the inhabitants of the adjacent Parishes have entered into a subscription to widen and improve the roads from Putney Bridge, in order that his Majesty may not be obliged to take the dusty road from Brentford when he honours them with his residence in summer/'' Again, in the Evening Post, April 10th, 1767, it is stated, " Above 300 men are now at work on the new road from Kew Green to Richmond." Prior to the formation of this now very important thoroughfare, the traffic from Kew to Richmond passed through the lane directly to the left after leaving Kew Green, and so into the lower Mortlake road leading to Richmond. George II. made very frequent use of this rather circuitous route, for Walpole, writing of the latter years of George II., relates, in a most amusing manner, how each week his Majesty traversed it. He informs us that " Every Saturday in Summer time he (the King) carried a party consisting of Lady Yarmouth his mistress, two or three of the late Queen's Ladies, queen Caroline's grotto. 335 and many others of his more favoured officers of State Household, to dine at Richmond. They went in Coaches and six in the middle of the dav, with the heavy Horse Guards kicking up the dust before them. Dined, walked an hour in the garden, returned in the same dusty Parade, and his Majesty thought himself the most lively and gallant Prince in Europe/'' These dinner parties of the king must have taken place at the Lodge, the favourite residence of his late talented Queen Caroline, in Richmond Gardens. One of this queen's delights, TValpole goes on to say, was the improvement of her garden there ; and the king believed she paid for all with her own money; nor would he ever look at any of her intended plans, say- ing, he did not care how she flung away her own money. He little suspected the aids which Sir Robert Walpole furnished to her from the Treasury : when she died, she was indebted 20,000/. to this source. Queen Caroline's Grotto and Cave, which she had caused to be erected in Richmond Gardens, was the subject of much conversation at the time. Merlin's Cave, and such like fanciful erections, became even a theme for the poets of the day. There was a person named Stephen Duck, who was a day labourer at the Kcw Gardens, in whom it may be inferred that the queen had discovered a superiority of manners above others of his calling. Various poetical effusions of his had been shown to her, of which she so much approved that she showed great partiality to him, and he expe- rienced many instances of her favour. Duck quickly 336 STEPHEN DUCK. rose from the humble position of life in which he first appeared at Kew. He studied for the church, and after a short period of preparation, was duly- admitted to holy orders, and became the pastor of the village. He was afterwards appointed to the post (a very humble one, we should be led to imagine) of keeper of Merlin's Cave, and to his wife was assigned the keepership of the Grotto. In this cave, which was approached by several walks amidst grounds laid out in the most elaborately designed style, were numerous life-sized images, formed of wax, of representations of various great personages — Elizabeth, the wife of Henry VII. ; Queen Elizabeth and her nurse ; Minerva; Merlin, the Enchanter, and his Secretary, &c. &c. As minister of the church at Kew, Mr. Duck became a preacher of great celebrity; he seems for a time to have been the Spurgeon of his day, from the earnest- ness of his style of preaching ; and great crowds of persons attended to hear him at Kew. No doubt much of this popularity was the effect of the circum- stance of his having recently filled so humble a position in life ; but so excited was the public by the facts of her majesty's patronage of him, and the then rare oc- currence of a man of such low origin rising to be an ordained minister in the Church of England, that the various newspapers of the period abound with accounts of numerous minor disasters which occurred on the occasions of his preaching, from pressure of the crowds of persons who endeavoured to obtain admis- sion. After he had filled this appointment for some GEORGE III. AND WILLIAM COBBETT. 337 years, Mr. Duck was nominated to the living of Byfleet, in Surrey, where as a preacher he seems to have been equally popular with his congregation as he had been at Kew, and this continued a considerable time. His end was a most melancholy one : he com- mitted suicide at Reading, in the year 1756, leaving four children, one of whom survived to the age of eighty years, and was buried at Kew in the year 1818. When the king was there upon one occasion, it hap- pened that his attention was directed to a clownish- looking youth, who had but very recently arrived at the Royal Gardens. This person had his stockings in a slovenly way tied about his legs by means of scarlet garters. The king inquired about him, and found that he had arrived at the Gardens in search of em- ployment, having heard so much of the wonders of Kew. When the king's attention was first directed to him, he observed that he held in his hand Swift's " Tale of a Tub ;" and, after a short conversation with him, his majesty was so pleased with his manners and peculiarity of appearance, that he ordered him to be retained in his situation at the Royal Gardens, and he enjoyed the honour of frequent interviews and conver- sation with the king when at Kew. The " clownish lad" was William Cobbett, in after years so celebrated for his writings and political career. Madame D'Arblay, in her " Diary," relates how quietly and free from all the parade of a court the royal family lived and spent their time at Kew. She writes : — " The Kew life is different from the Windsor — there is no ceremony here of any sort. The royal z 338 MADAME D ARBLAY S DIA11Y. family are here always in so retired a way, that they live as the simplest country gentlefolks. The king has not even an equerry with him, nor the queen any lady to attend her when she goes her airings. All the household are more delicate at inviting or ad- mitting any friends here than elsewhere, on account of the very easy and unreserved way in which the royal family live — running about from one end of the house to the other without precaution or care. All the apartments but the king's and queen's, and one of Mistress Schwellenberg's, are small, dark, and old- fashioned. There are staircases in every passage, and passages in every closet." It was at Kew, in after years, that the physicians of the king (George III.) recommended that his majesty should take up his abode when it had become too apparent that the mental malady which had seized upon him was of no temporary character ; in fact, that very slight hopes could possibly be entertained of his recovery. There was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth a large old mansion, which stood upon the site of the King of Hanover's house on the north side of the Green ; it was the seat of Sir John Pickering, Keeper of the Great Seal to that monarch, and it was here that her majesty once paid a visit to Sir John, in the month of December, 1595. It has been thus de- scribed : — " On Thursday her Majesty e dined at Kew at my Lord Keeper's House, who latelie obtained of her Majestie his suit for 100/. a yeere land in fee farm; MR. WILLIAM AITON. 339 her entertainment for that meal was great and exceed- ing costly — at her first lighting she had a fine fanne with a handle garnisht with diamonds presented to her. Whenne she was in the middle wave between the Garden gate and the howse there came running to- wards her one with a nosegay in his hand, delivered yt unto her with a short well penned speech, it had in yt a very rich jewele with many pendants of unfirled diamonds valued at 400/. at least — after dinner in her privy chamber he gave her a faire paire of virginals. In her bed chamber he presented her with a fine gowne and juppin, which things were pleasing to her highness, and to grace his Lordship the more, she her- self took from him a salt, a spoone and a fork of fair agate " The name of William Aiton is one which is much mixed up with the history of the Kew botanical gardens. Aiton was much respected by George III., with whom he became so great a favourite that he was placed at the head of the establishment. He is said to have formed the best collection of rare and exotic plants in the known world, catalogues of which he published in 1789. Mr. Aiton died the 2nd February, 1793, aged 62 ; at his funeral his pall was supported by Sir Joseph Banks, the Rev. Dr. Goodenough, Mr. Dundas, after- wards Sir David Dundas, of Richmond: Zoffanv, the celebrated painter, and Dr. Piteairn. The present bridge over the river at Kew is the second one which has been erected there within a period of little more than a century. A wooden bridge was built by a Mr. / 2 Li fW 340 THE VARIOUS SHOTTS. John Barnard, and was opened in the year 1759. This stood near to the present structure, a few yards higher up the river, but for some cause was superseded by the one which now spans the river here, the first stone of which was laid June 4, 1783, Mr. Payne being the architect. On the 22nd day of September, 1789, the bridge was opened to the public; it was the private property of Robert Tunstal, Esq., having been built at his own expense ; the former one of wood had been erected by the father of this gentleman, they being proprietors of the ferry here, as the Windham family had been of the ferry at Richmond. In the reign of James I., Richmond was nearly all common field land — it was divided and known as the Upper Field and the Lower Field, and these fields again divided into pieces, or rather parcels of land, which were designated " shotts." In the upper fields were nine shotts, called Church Furlong, Upper Dunstable, Lower Dunstable, East Field, Long Downs, Short Downs, East Bancroft, West Bancroft, and May Bush. In the lower field, four shotts — namely, a shott abounding on BailhVs Banks, middle shott, a shott abutting on the highway leading to Mortlake, and Park Shott. The last-named shott in this list is the only one we recognise at the present time. The " Dunstable " is the one on which no doubt the pro- perties known as Dunstable Lodge, Dunstable Cottage, &c, were at a period of ninety or a hundred years since erected ; the remainder have gradually disap- peared from recognition as the numerous parcels of MURDER OF MR. M c EVOY AND SARAH KING. 341 laud ill the course of succeeding years were required for the erection of various description of buildings, de- tached or otherwise. The immediate neighbourhood of Park Shott was until within these last fifteen or twenty years, a much more quiet and retired spot than it now is, or promises to be, for we find that here, as in other parts of the town, the speculative builder has invaded its precincts, and will no doubt avail himself to the fullest extent of every foot of land it is possible to acquire for his purposes, of which, between the Kew foot and Kew horse roads, there is a considerable quantity for the attainment of his object. It was at a house in this neighbourhood (Kew foot lane) that a dreadful occurrence took place in the year 1795, which created a great amount of excitement at the time, and there are now but a very few persons living who recollect the event to which we are about to allude. There lived at that time at the observatory in the Royal gardens a person named John Little, who was the keeper or curator of that building and its con- tents. He was a quiet, gentlemanly person, and was much respected in Richmond by the inhabitants, among whom he was well known, and with many of them on intimate terms. Included in this list of his personal friends was a Mr. James M'Evoy, who lived in one of the houses in Kew foot road, — he was an old gentle- man of independent means, and it appears that the only person who resided with him was his house- keeper, Sarah King, who was likewise the possessor of a small annuity. 342 DISCOVERY OF THE MURDERER : Of these persons Little had borrowed a sum of money, for which, when it had been owing for a con- siderable time, the old couple became rather pressing for the repayment, which request the other was unwilling or unable to comply with, and either out of revenge for their so urgently pressing their claim, or what is more probable, that as they neither of them possessed any acknowledgment of the debt, Little considered that their death would relieve him from any repayment of it ; he therefore conceived the idea of murdering them both, which he effected by entering the house on the night of the 23rd of June, 1795, and beating them about the head with a large stone which he had carried with him for the purpose. After leaving the observatory he had climbed over the wall immediately opposite the house, and at once obtained admission. People said at the time that had Little been able to have escaped from the house after the perpetration of the murder, in all human probability he would never have been suspected, and that it would have been generally thought the dreadful deed had been com- mitted by burglars who had obtained admission to the residence of these old people for the purpose of robbery, and had from opposition or otherwise on the part of their victims, added murder to their other crime. Strange to say that Little made no attempt to quit the house after effecting his purpose; he said afterwards " that he felt it impossible to do so — he could not leave the place." Mr. M'Evoy was murdered in the front sitting-room on the ground floor, and the housekeeper in the back room on the HIS TRIAL AND SENTENCE. 343 first floor of the dwelling. He was discovered con- cealed in the chimney of the same room, and was forced from his hiding-place by an inhabitant of Rich- mond, then holding the situation of parish constable, who exclaimed, " You are the first person we find on the premises, Mr. Little, but the very last we should have expected." It has been stated that he was well known and respected by the inhabitants of the place, and owing to his very quiet and rather superior style of manner and pleasing address, was frequently a welcome visitor during the winter evenings at the houses of some of the tradespeople of the town. At that time cards formed the principal amusement of the middle as well as of the wealthier classes, and there was a game styled " quadrille" which was then a great favourite with the card-players. At this game Little used frequently to play a friendly pool, and it was at the conclusion of an evening spent in this way, when the party broke up, as they generally did at nine o' clock, that one of the old ladies present said to him, " Dear me, Mr. Little, are you not afraid these dark nights to go home across that dreary park by yourself?" He replied in his usually quiet way, " Mrs. , those that do no wrong have nothing to fear." He was a regular attendant of the church, and frequently partook of the Holy Sacrament. In the St. James's Chronicle of July 30th to August 1st, 1795, it is stated, after detailing that the notorious Jerry Abershaw had been tried at Kingston Assizes before Mr. Baron Pcrryn, and sentenced to be hung ou the following Monday, that 344 EXECUTION OF LITTLE JERRY ABERSHAW, " James Little was also convicted for his wanton and barbarous murder of Mr. M'Evoy and Mrs. King at Richmond. In the Chronicle of the succeeding week, August 1st to August 4th, there is a statement that John Little was executed this day at Kennington Common, for the murder of Mr. M'Evoy and Sarah King, and that the said John Little had formerly obtained a very decent living by acting as porter at the Observatory at Kew, and that from his civil de- portment was in general the only attendant on his Majesty when he walked in the gardens. " The paragraph in the Chronicle goes on to state : " Perhaps there never was a greater instance of the depravity of the human heart than in the conduct of Abershaw, who was executed this morning. After receiving sentence of death, he was conducted back to prison, where, having got some black cherries, he amused himself by painting on the whitewashed walls of the room in which he was confined various sketches of robberies he had committed ; one representing him running up to the horses' heads of a postchaise, and with a fearful imprecation, an order to stop coming out of his mouth ; another where he was firing into the chaise ; a third, where the parties had quitted the carriage, and several others in which he drew himself as taking money from passengers, and being fired at, and where his companion was shot dead." In another part of the same newspaper it relates "that yesterday morning, about ten o'clock, Jeremiah Abershaw, John Little, and Sarah King were brought from the new gaol in the borough, attended by the AND SARAH KING. 345 sheriffs and a numerous body of police officers, &c, and conveyed to Kennington Common. Little and the woman conducted themselves with a propriety becom- ing their awful situation, but Abershaw persevered in his audacity to the last. He appeared entirely un- concerned, had a flower in his mouth, his bosom was thrown open, and he kept up an incessant conversation with the persons who rode beside the cart, frequently laughing and nodding to some of his acquaintances whom he perceived in the crowd, which was immense. It was considered a rather singular circumstance at the time that Little should have been executed for the murder of a Sarah King and in company of a Sarah King." We well recollect, when a youth, conversing with an elderly man who was present at the execution referred to, and who had also walked close by the side of the cart which contained the culprits from the prison to Kennington Common. He related an awful speech made by Abershaw during the journey, too horrible for repetition ; but he said that Little and the woman conducted themselves very properly. Abershaw was afterwards hung in chains upon Wimbledon Common. Richmond, about a century or so since, seems to have abounded with inns and taverns. In George Street alone, four large establishments of this kind, and two smaller ones, existed, which have now entirely disappeared. At the top of George Street was the " Feathers" Inn, and this house of public entertainment seems more than any other to linger in the recollection of the inhabitants of the place, and to retain a greater 346 THE OLD INNS AND TAVERNS. interest with them than any one of the others ; a part of this house was for many years occupied by the late Mr. James Cain, and at the back of the premises there is still remaining the assembly-room of the inn, in which, during many successive winter seasons, it was the custom of the townspeople to have sub- scription balls. We have frequently conversed, thirty or five-and-thirty years since, with old in- habitants, who we must confess to have almost wearied with questions as to people they had known during their long career in the town, and of matters connected with this and other houses of entertainment. " Ah V said a vener- able old lady on one occasion, " I recollect, when a girl, going to the ' Feathers' subscription ball, more than once or twice ; I have gone down many a country dance at that house, and in that room/' To another inquiry, made to one long since dead, as to whether he knew the premises as an inn, " Certainly I do," was the reply. " I recollect the landlord, Mr. Proctor, very well ; he had a very gentlemanly way with him, and was much liked by frequenters of the house ; but he had a habit of walking a good deal up and down the pavement in front of his door when the weather was fine, and if he observed any gentleman, or any person of respect- able appearance who were strangers to him, he would at once accost them with a request, couched in the most polite manner, that they would step in and test the accommodation his house afforded. In this way he obtained much additional patronage that might THE OLD "RED LION" POSTING-HOUSE. 347 have been bestowed elsewhere." On one of these occasions, when his most persuasive style had been tried on two persons who were passing without success, a gentleman who knew him, and observed the failure of the application, said, " Ah, Mr. Proctor, you see you did not get them this time, it was all of no use •" the reply from the obsequious landlord was — " Never mind, I may next time though, politeness costs me nothing." The sign-board of the house representing the "Feathers" (the Prince of Wales' crest) is still in existence, although cut down the centre and forming two tables (mahogany ones), the painting of course underneath, and is in a fair state of preservation. It was this house which, when a tavern, the reader will recollect was proposed to be pulled down to make way for the approaches to the intended new Richmond Bridge ; when it was the so earnest wish of the Richmond people that it should be built on a straight line with, and on a level with that end of Geoi'ge Street. Almost immediately opposite to the tavern thus described, was another of considerable size, and had been of much importance in its day as an hostelry of great repute ; this was the " Red Lion." It occupied the site of the houses, four in number, from the one in which Mr Scttrce resides, to that in which the Messrs. Peirce now carry on their business; the en- trance was by a large gateway, about the centre of these four houses, and by which, according to the usual style of arrangement of the large posting inns of that day, admission was obtained both to the inn and to its large adjoining yard and stabling. The 348 THE ANCIENT " CASTLE INN." enormous kitchen fire-place in a part of the premises at the back of the house above referred to, which ori- ginally was a portion of the old inn kitchen, may still be seen, and likewise some vaulted cellars, with the steps descending to them, clearly showing their original purpose. There are ancient staircases, and dilapidated, low-ceilinged rooms, evidently the inferior bed-rooms of the old Red Lion, when it constituted the principal posting-house of Richmond. The yard and stabling department were of considerable size and importance, extending into and for some distance up Red Lion Street — that street of humble pretensions and character taking its name from the Inn which abutted on a part of its northern side. It need scarcely be mentioned, that the frontages of the various houses which in part occupy the site of the old Red Lion inn and posting-house, are all of comparatively modern construction. At the lower end of George Street were two more equally important houses of public entertainment, and both of them carrying on a large posting business, — the most noted was the " Castle Inn," — the premises now occupied, the one as an upholsterer's, the other as a greengrocer's (the former carried on for some years by the late Mr. Henry Drew) ; these houses then forming one, and most probably with an extended frontage, where the modern but inferior habitations are now erected, are certainly the oldest dwelling-houses in Richmond devoted to the purposes of trade, the upper part of the frontages exists much in the same form as it did 230 years since, excepting that most probably it THOMSON AND QUIN AT THE CASTLE. 349 was originally a red brick exterior, instead of the present stuccoed one ; it was built in the reign of Charles I., and was no doubt the first tavern of importance in the place, until in the course of suc- ceeding years it became converted to other purposes. The yard now occupied by the Richmond Conveyance Company, was the posting and stable-yard of the tavern, when in the old-fashioned posting period it was a house of extensive trade and resort. Thomson, the poet, was a frequent visitor here, so was Quin, oftener than would be considered quite respectable in the present day, and both of them fre- quently leaving in a state that gave rise to much gossip and regret even in those times. The licence of this house was removed to Hill Street, by Mr. John Halford, in the year 1761, and, up to that period, the present Castle Hotel had been a large private residence, with its garden in the front of it, extending nearly up to the present foot-path. After the various alterations and repairs which were necessary to be made for its conversion to the requirements of a tavern, it remained unaltered until about thirty years since, when it came into the possession of the late Mr. Ellis, under whose spirited and energetic manage- ment it in a short time assumed an entirely different character. Some thousands of pounds were expended upon it ; the noble ball and assembly rooms towards the river were erected, the old interior of the house entirely remodelled, extensive cellarage formed, and with numerous other improvements and additions which for years continued to be made to the property, 350 THE DUKE OF CLARENCE'S have combined to its attaining a high position in public favour, not only from the beauty of its situation, with its lawn and magnificent river scenery, but like- wise from its internal equipments and comforts, which, combined with a most perfect system of routine and management, have caused it to be ranked as one of the best appointed and most comfortable hotels in England. In the St. James's Chronicle, of August 23, 1794, there is the following account of an entertainment which was for some years successfully held at this hotel : — " On Thursday, the birthday of his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence was observed at Richmond, with the usual festivities. In the morning there was a rowing match by the watermen of Rich- mond and the two adjacent villages of Twickenham and Isleworth — the prizes,"* three silver cups of different values, were given by a subscription of the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood, and after a sharp contest, were adjudged to the following watermen : — Downs, Charlewood, and Hughes, all of Richmond. The dav was favourable, and the meadows on either bank of the Thames were filled with a loyal, happy, and exulting people, sensible of the blessings they possess, and grateful to the authors of them. At night, there was a ball and supper at the Castle, with a splendid illumination and fireworks, at which all the families of distinction of Richmond and its neighbour- hood were present." * One of these cups is now in the possession of a family long resident in Kichmond. BIRTH-DAY ROWING MATCHES. 351 In the same paper, the St. James's Chronicle, August 8, 1795, its readers were thus informed : — " It has been customary at Richmond, in each year since the Duke of Clareuce has chosen his summer residence at that place, to distinguish the 21st day of August, his Royal Highnesses birthday, in the morning by a rowing match for prizes, given by the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood to the watermen of that and the adjacent villages on the banks of the Thames ; and in the evening by a ball and supper at the Castle, with fireworks, illuminations, &c. This year, however, actuated by the same motives with his royal parents, who, in consideration of the heavy pressure of the times upon the poor, have withheld the usual splendid festivity at Windsor in honour of the birthday of the Heir Apparent, his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence has signified his earnest desire that at Richmond his birthday may pass totally unnoticed." Unless the money saved by the entertainment being thus set aside was divided among the various poor of the neighbourhood, it is difficult to imagine how they could possibly be benefited by the withdrawal of the entertainments. Opposite to the old Castle, at the bottom of George Street, stood the Rose and Crown, another large house of public entertainment, which once occupied the space of the three shops now tenanted in the names of Woods, Sapwcll, and Franklin ; it is about twenty-seven years since when the house, which had ceased to be an inn for nearly seventy years, and had been for a long period let out in tenements and 352 RICHMOND ASSEMBLY-ROOMS, inhabited by poor families, was altered and divided into three separate dwellings. It was a fine old building, with a capacious entrance doorway, which had been a handsome one in its time, formed by two large Tuscan columns, and a bold and well-executed pediment over them ; it was very evident to any person who inspected the interior of that large rambling place, that it had at some time been erected for the purposes of an inn ; it had a very capacious entrance hall or passage, witli a wide and old-fashioned staircase, and an accompa- nying hand-rail of such dimensions that only a giant's hands could have grasped ; the rooms were numerous and of good size, and at the back of the same edifice was the stable-yard and necessary out-buildings. From what can be learnt, this establishment and its opposite neighbour, the " Castle," almost engrossed the whole posting trade in this place, at that period a considerable one. Where Mr. Bamford now carries on the business of a baker, was another small inn, known by the sigi of the " Black Boy ;" the niche may still be observei in front of the house, where the sign, a carved figure representing the veritable " Black Boy," was placed : almost adjoining to this, namely, the two dwelling- houses at present tenanted as an oil and colour ware- house and a boot and shoe establishment were formerly but one building, as they were erected for the pur- poses of assembly-rooms, where balls and entertain- ments used frequently to be held. Truly, it would seem when we read of the numerous taverns, assembly-rooms, the noted Richmond Wells (of which we shall presently have to speak), the ancient RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD INHABITANT. 353 theatre, &c. &c, that the Richmond of a century or so back must have been a place of very considerable resort, teeming with amusements and recreation for the wealthier classes, and one which seemed to be ever successful and flourishing. Where Bingham Yilla is now erected was a small water-side inn, styled the " Blue Anchor j" it had its tea garden at the back, down to the water's edge, for, as the reader has been informed, there was no towing- path existing at that period here, so that each house or place of business in this part of Richmond termi- nated at the river bank ; this one, therefore, had the advantage of the custom arising from the traffic on the water, as well as that which from its close vicinity to the main road was readily drawn to it. Before quitting the subject of the main street of Richmond, its alterations and its old posting-houses, we have to relate that close to the town pump, as it is termed, at the top of the street, and existing up to a period of about eighty years since, stood a row of two or three trees, and connected with this spot we have to relate a conversation held about thirty years since with a much respected old friend and inhabitant of this place, Mr. Henry Dipple, whose name has been pre- viously mentioned in these pages. It was at the time Mr. Charles Dickens was brine- O ing out his " Barnaby Budge," which appeared in weekly numbers ; the tale had reached that point where the Gordon riots, the burning and destruction of so many buildings, the prison of Newgate, &c., &c, is so vividly related that we one day when refcr- A A 354 WAITING FOR THE NEWS FROM LONDON. ring to the before-mentioned work, asked our old friend whether he recollected these riots. The reply was, " I do — more particularly from a trifling circum- stance connected with my curiosity on the subject when a very young lad, and a rebuff which I en- countered on the occasion. " Close to the pump standing at the top of George Street, when I was a boy, were two or three trees, and it was the custom of some of the tradespeople who lived at that end of the town, on a fine summer's morn- ing to muster there for twenty minutes or so, have a gossip, and wait for the news from London " (allud- ing, perhaps, to the arrival of the papers), " which got into Richmond between eleven and twelve o'clock. At the time I speak of, Lord George Gordon's riots were going on in London, and every one here was talking of them. A few of the old people were standing together under the trees in deep conversation, and I felt certain they were speaking of the riots, as New- gate had been set on fire a night or two previously. To enable me to hear what they were saying, I walked up to them as closely as I decently could, but I was soon checked in so doing by one of the old fellows stepping aside and coming up to me with mock polite- ness and a very low bow, saying to me, almost child as I was, ' Oh, pray sir, do not stand outside. I beg you will come among us and hear all about it.' " My in- formant continued, " I felt so much abashed at this that I very quickly slunk away, and the circumstance being thus connected with the riots of which I was then hearing so much, caused them to be the more LORD GEORGE GORDON. 355 fixed in my recollection/' He continued : " I went with my father some time afterwards, and saw Lord George Gordon in Newgate. I well recollect him and his style of dress : he was attired in a suit of black velvet, and had a calm but care-worn countenance/' It has been remarked by several writers, when describing the various attractions and beauties of Richmond, that the town itself is as to the style or character of the houses of a commonplace and non- descript kind. This is, to a certain extent, true, and the reason why it is so can be readily given. Much of the main street was commenced, and the principal part of it erected, in the reigns of the first and second Georges, from whom its name is derived. In those reigns, and more particularly in that of the latter, neither art nor science — " boetry or bainting " (as King George II. pronounced the words) — received any fostering care or notice from the reigning monarch, consequently taste as to the erection of houses for the purposes of trade was at its lowest ebb. They were built regardless of exterior appearance, and after no order of architecture or decent system of arrangement. Thirty or forty years since the houses in George Street presented a particularly mean and irregular appearance ; but within these last ten or fifteen years a striking alteration and improvement has taken place ; in some instances new and handsome dwellings have been erected, and with various others, the addition of large plate-glass fronts, and the introduction of a better taste altogether as to the external appearance of the houses, have in a measure redeemed this part A A 2 356 OPEN SPACE IN THE LOWER ROAD of the town from the architecturally bad name it origi- nally possessed. At the bottom of the street, in the part known as the Square, although it possesses certainly more of the triangular character than the square, was once a large pond, into which a considerable quantity of refuse and much of the drainage of the neighbourhood was con- stantly flowing. The overflow from the pond passed away by means of a " black ditch," the course of which ran where Wellington Place now stands, and which being an open sewer, it need scarcely be said, became in time an intolerable nuisance, so that first the pond and afterwards the ditch were filled in, and these evils ceased to exist. Among the numerous alterations, not all of them improvements, which have within the last century and a half taken place in Richmond, reference must be made to one which has been effected in the Lower Road in the immediate neighbourhood of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch's villa. There is an old oil painting in existence which shows that part of the road where it turns up from the barge-walk at the end of his Grace's lawn, leading into the lower or Petersham road. We there see that the piece of land now the private garden or " lower ground," belonging to the family of the late Marquis of Lansdowne, was entirely open, that only a few posts, with a slight railing attached to them, formed the boundary of it, and that along this road a view of the river was obtainable for a considerable distance. From each house the spectator looked out upon the beautiful scenery extending up nearly as far AND RIVER VIEW. 357 as Dysart House, only a few shrubs then growing on the piece of ground referred to. In fact, it appears in the painting as a portion of waste ground open to any per- son, who, by merely stepping over the chains at the roadside, might use it for the purposes of either recrea- tion or amusement. Exchange this open road (extend- ing nearly as far as Bingham Villa), with its magnifi- cent view of the silvery Thames, not only as it flowed in front of the adjacent property here, but where it likewise could be traced nearlv as far as Twickenham, for the present rather thickly-wooded piece of ground where it is divided from the public foot-path by the high and dreary looking wood fence, and truly the exchange is indeed a sorry one. 358 CHAPTER XIV. RICHMOND WELLS, OLD THEATRE IN UPPER HILL STREET, AND NEW THEATRE ON THE GREEN. RICHMOND WELLS — ADVERTISEMENTS IN OLD NEWSPAPERS AS TO THE ENTERTAINMENTS THERE — ITS FINAL SUPPRESSION — THE OLD THEATRE IN UPPER HILL STREET — WALPOLE's DE- SCRIPTION OF A VISIT TO IT — ADVERTISED BY THEOPHILUS CIBBEB AS A SNUFF WAREHOUSE IN 1756 — ERECTION OF THE THEATRE ON THE GREEN — THE OPENING NIGHT — PRO- LOGUE BY GARRICK — GEORGE III. AND HIS QUEEN ATTEND THE THEATRE — MRS. JORDAN'S PERFORMANCES THERE — CHARLES MATHEWS (THE ELDER) — THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CLARENCE'S FREQUENT VISITS AND PATRONAGE — EDMUND KEAN — HIS PERFORMANCES, MANAGEMENT, AND DEATH. IT was in the year 1689 that a medicinal spring was discovered in Richmond, which quickly gained a very considerable degree of notoriety. This spring existed, and most probably still exists, in the grounds which now form the garden of Cardigan House. A build- ing appropriate for the purpose was quickly erected near to these health-giving waters, with a large and com- modious assembly-room, and the gardens fitted up with all the necessary appliances for a place of public resort. The establishment was dignified by the title of the " Richmond Wells/' and the whole affair seems rapidly to have gained the patronage of the public. There were two entrances to this favourite place of amuse- ment : one was in the lower road, leading to Peter- RICHMOND WELLS. 359 sham, the other about where the lodge and entrance gates to Cardigan House are now erected. A large, antiquated building in the lower road was pulled down a few years since, which was always said by an old inhabitant to have originally formed a por- tion of the " Wells" establishment, standing near to one entrance of the gardens ; it had been let out for some years in tenements and occupied by poor families, while the lower or ground floor was in part occupied as a counting-house by a tradesman of the town. It was evident that the various rooms, from their peculiar construction and style, had been originally intended as forming a part of a house designed for one of public entertainment, but which had in the course of a cen- tury and a half undergone frequent mutilation and alterations. The rooms had been well finished, and ornamented with heavy cornices, and all bore the traces of a structure which was formerly of a very superior character, when compared with the wretched appearance it had in later years acquired, and the pur- poses to which it was devoted. It has already been stated that a large assembly- room formed a considerable feature among the erec- tions in these grounds, and there is no doubt that the old pile of stabling and coach-houses, &c, which have been within the last four or five years entirely cleared away for the purpose of building the row of small bouses known as River Dale Terrace, were originally built for the proprietors of the Wells and formed a part of the premises. The pile of stabling, &c, was evidently but a small remaining portion of a con- 360 VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL CONCERTS. siderably larger erection, and it is very certain that for the use of the nobility and others, who frequented this very favourite place of amusement in great num- bers, more particularly on gala nights, no inconsider- able amount of accommodation was requisite for their vehicles and horses. In a newspaper, bearing the name of the Post Boy, published on the 11th July, 1696, the following adver- tisement appeared : — " At Richmond New Wells, a Concert of Music, both vocal and instrumental, will be performed on Monday next, at noon, by principal hands and the best voices. Composed new for the day by Mr. Franks. The songs will be printed and sold there." This most probably was the opening of the Wells, for no advertisement prior to this date appears in any newspaper of that day. It is certain that the success of the new speculation far exceeded the anticipation of the proprietor, for such a concourse of persons of quality attended during the second week, that it was requested the price of admission should be doubled, for the purpose, it may be supposed, of keeping the company who frequented it more select. The following announcement likewise appeared a week or two afterwards : — " At the desire of several persons of quality, Mr. Abel will sing on Monday, the 11th August, at five o'clock precisely, in the Great Room of the Wells, and will perform in English, Latin, Spanish, French, and Italian, accompanied by instrumental music. The RAFFLES AND BALLS. 3G1 usual dancing will begin at 8. Price 5.9. cacli ticket. The tide of flood begins at 1 o'clock, flows till 5, and ebbs till 11, for the convenience of returning ." In a work, called a " Journey thro' England in 1 724/' Richmond Wells is again mentioned thus : the author, one Mackney, says — " There are balls at Rich- mond Wells every Monday and Thursday Evening during the summer season." And the following sin- gular description of the pleasure-taking society of Richmond at that period is thus given by the writer, who narrates :— " Here are men of all professions and all religions — Jews and Gentiles, Papists and Dissenters — so that be one's inclination what it may, you will find one's own stamp to converse with. If you love books, every gentleman hath a library ready at your service; if you will make love, a stranger is everywhere welcome. At play, they will indeed be a great deal too cunning for you ; even the ladies think it no crime to pawm handsomely ; and for drinking, you may be matched from night to morning. Field exercise, also, as much as anywhere. In short, for a man of no business, whose time hangs on his hand, recommend me to Richmond." Another account of the place is thus : — " Adjoining the Wells (1730) there is a house and Assembly Room for music, vocal and instrumental, dancing, card- playing, and raffling ; gold chains and equipages, and any other curious toys, and fine old china, being put up as prizes." Another announcement was made in a newspaper of the same period, The Craftsman, bearing date Jan. 362 CARD PLAYING AND DISSIPATION. 11th, 1730, in the form of an advertisement: — "This is to give notice to all Gentlemen and Ladies, that Richmond Wells are now open, and continue so daily, where attendance is given for gentlemen and ladies who have a mind either to raffle for gold chains, equipages, or any other curious toys, and fine old china, and likewise play at quadrille, ombre, whist, &c. ; and on Saturdays and Mondays during the summer season there will he dancing as usual." The drinking and the dissipation, the card-playing, the raffling, and the concerts, went gaily on, and dating from its commencement in 1696, the Wells enjoyed a career of success and popularity for above half a century. In 1750 it appears to have reached the height of its prosperity ; and from about this period we date its rather rapid decline in public favour as a place of amusement and resort. Assemblies were advertised there in 1755 ; but a change seems to have stolen over the tastes and pursuits of the visitors to the place, and it was rapidly approaching such a state of things that it had begun to assume the shape of a nuisance in the neighbourhood ; where, a quarter of a century or so before, the nobility and persons of quality had been the supporters and the patrons, it would appear that latterly, in conjunction with the card-playing and the raffling, which continued the principal amusement down to the end of its career, dissipation of every kind reigned triumphantly. There certainly was a great decrease of the drinking — we mean of the medicinal waters of the spring ; we read much of the card-playing, but little of the chalybeate ; CLOSING OF RICHMOND WELLS. 363 often of the rubbers at the whist table, seldom of the waters of the well. Perhaps the reason of its down- fall was, that the whole affair had become entirely- changed from that of its earlier and original purposes, or that the public were becoming satiated and tired with the amusements which seem each successive summer to have prevailed here. The wealthier visi- tors withdrew their support ; the prices of admission were lowered for the purpose of attracting a class of persons who flocked in numbers to it, but who, as visitors to the once fashionable place of resort, soon obtained for it a most unenviable notoriety. For we learn that the noise and tumult which prevailed here each night, at last became so great a nuisance to the surrounding neighbourhood, that it was eventually purchased by two maiden ladies (the Misses Houblon*), then resident at Ellerker House. The buildings, all of them, were demolished, with the exception of the house before mentioned, which, with the stablings, &c, were standing until within the last few years ; but as a place of entertainment, we have to chronicle, that about the year 1780 Richmond Wells had ceased to exist. THE OLD THEATRE IN UPPER HILL STREET. This place of entertainment stood where the houses now known as York Place were about forty years since erected. It was opened to the public for the * The ladies, Miss Rebecca and Mrs. Susannah Houblon, were the founders of the charity known as the Jloublons' Almshouses, in the Marsh Gate Road, Richmond. 364 OLD THEATRE IN UPPER HILL STREET. , first time on the 6th June, 1719; it had been built on a piece of ground where a large stable or shed had for a long period existed, in which a number of asses were kept. The prologue on this occasion was humor- ously worded, having reference to its original site and its former nse " as a hovel for Asses." Mention is made of this Establishment in an old business card, of which a family who have for some generations resided in Richmond still retain the copperplate. Under- neath a large flourishing-looking coat of arms, which certainly bears a very undue proportion to the size of the card, are the following words : — At King William' 's Royal Ass-House a little above y e f err ey on Richmond Hi 7/, Asses Milk is Sold. Also Asses are Bought & sold there or let to such as Desire to keep them at their own Houses by 'John Scott. The prologue on the opening night was spoken by a celebrated wit and comedian of the period, named Penkethman j but there is not much recorded of this theatre in the publications of the day. About thirty years after its opening, Walpole writes thus : — " I am just come from the play at Richmond, where I found the Duchess of Argyle and Lady Betty Campbell and their court. We had a new actress, a Miss Clough, an extremely fine and tall figure, and very handsome ; she spoke very justly, and with spirit. Garrick is to produce her next winter, and a Miss Charlotte, a poetess, and a deplorable actress. Garrick, Never Acted there For the Benefit of Mr BRYAN. AT THE Theatre in Richmond, On MONDAY, the ioth of July, will be peiform'd A CONCERT of M U S I C K BOXES 3S PIT 2S GALLERY Is N.B. Between the Two Parts of the Concert, will be presented (gratis) The Second Part of the Comical History of Don QJJIXOTE. {Written by Mr D'URFEY, and the Songs set by_ Mr PURCELL) The Part of Don i^uixcte to be perform'd By .Mr S H U T E R, Duke Ricardo by Mr CROSS, Ambrosia by Mr F A L K N£R, Manud by Mr CASTLE, Pedro by Mr BRYANT, Bernardo by Mr P A D D I C K, Diego by Mr WILD AIR, Snip (the Taylor) bv Mr H A C K E T T, Radish (the Gardener) by Mr P A D D I C K, •The Small - Man by Master BRETT, The Part Sancha Panclia to be perform'd By Mr PHILIPS. The Duchess by Miss FERGUSON, Lucinda by Mrs TOOGOOD, Rodriauez by Mrs MATTHEWS, The Small -Man by Master BRETT, The Part of Moll the Buxom By Miss HAUGHTON, Teresa Pancha by Miss YOUNG, The Two Country Wenches by Mr HACKETT and Master BRETT, And the Part of Marcella (with a Mad Song in Character,) to be perform'd By Mrs VINCENT, With the ORIGINAL SONGS and DIALOGUES, By Mr Wildair, Miss Young, and Mrs Matthews. In the First Act. The Dialogue (Beginning, Since Times are so Bad) By Mr WILDAIR and Miss YOUNG. In the Second Act. Genius of ENGLAND by Mr WILDAIR. In the Third Act. Ye Nymphs and Sylvan Gods, by Miss YOUNG. In the Fourth Act. A Hornpipe, by Master BRETT. In the Fifth Act. A Song, by Mrs MATTHEWS; A Dialogue, by Mr WILDAIR and Miss YOUNG; And the Mad Song, by Mrs VINCENT. To which will be added a FARCE, called MISS in Her TEENS. The Part of Fribble to be perform'd by Mr SHU T E R, Cant Flash by Mr C R O S S, Capt. Lo-veit by Mr BRYAN, Puff by Mr PHILIPS, Jasper by Mr F A L K N E R, Tag by Mrs V I N C E N T. And the Part of Mhs^Biddy will be perform'd by Miss HAUGHTON. To begin at Seven o'Clock Vi-vat REX. N.B. Tickets and places to be taken at the Three Compasses. * * 'Tis humbly hoped no Gentlemen or Ladies will take it amiss that nothing less than the full Price will be taken during the whole Performance. 366 PLAY-BILL AND ADVERTISEMENT OF THE Barry, and some more of the players, were there to see these new comedians. It is to be their seminary." An old inhabitant of Ilichmond has in his posses- sion a play-bill of an evening's performance at this place of amusement ; it bears date July 30th, and at the back of it is written, in ink which has with age become almost yellow, the year in which it was printed, 1750. The programme on the foregoing page is a correct copy as to the arrangement and type. It seems singular to direct the frequenters of this theatre to take their tickets of admission at the " Three Compasses," an inn which then stood directly opposite to the building at the corner of the hill leading to the lower road ; but it is very probable that no dwelling-house at that time was attached to the theatre, and in conse- quence it became necessary to name some place adjacent to it where tickets might be obtained; but for many years prior to its demolition a small dwelling existed at the upper portion of it, which continued to be used as a place of residence. The interior, where formerly occupied by the stage, pit, &c, was in later times devoted to the purposes of a granary, or rather as a storehouse, where large quantities of straw, hay, &c, the property of a cornchandler of the town, used to be deposited. It would appear that about the year 1756 some difficulty had arisen as to dramatic performances being held at this early home of the drama in Richmond, or that for some reason a licence had not been obtained for the performance of theatrical entertainments here ; for in a newspaper, dated July 8th, 1756, there is the THEATRE AS A SNUFF WAREHOUSE. 3C7 announcement that it was opened by Theophilus Cibber, son of the celebrated dramatist and actor, Colley Cibber, who adopted the rather remarkable de- vice of advertising it as a " Cephalic Snuff Ware- house/^ which flimsy evasion was for the purpose of avoiding the prosecution and penalties attendant on its being openly announced as a place for dramatic representations. The advertisement alluded to ap- peared in the General Advertizer, and is to the fol- lowing effect : — " Cibber and Co., snuff merchants, sell at their warehouse at Richmond Hill most excellent cephalic snuff, which taken in moderate quantities, in an even- in 0- particularly, will not fail to raise the spirits, clear the brain, throw off ill humours, dissipate the spleen, enliven the imagination, exhilarate the mind, give joy to the heart, and greatly invigorate and improve the understanding. Mr. Cibber has also opened at the aforesaid warehouse (late called the theatre), on the bill, an histrionic academy for the instruction of young persons of genius in the art of acting, and purposes for the better improvement of the performance of such pupils, and frequently with his assistance, to give public rehearsals, without hire, gain, or reward." Three years after this time a tragedy was announced to be played here " by the Duke of Cleveland and Southampton's servants." Many of the present inhabitants of Richmond can well recollect this old theatre , it was a large timber- built place, occupying, as before stated, the entire space on which York Place is now erected. 368 THE NEW THEATRE. We have many years since conversed with two aged persons who recollected when young being present at a performance at this place. These were usually well attended by the resident nobility and gentry here, as well as of the surrounding neighbourhood ; for certain it is that at this early period of dramatic representa- tions in Richmond they attracted a class of visitors to them which we may now look for in vain among the audience of a country theatre. The popularity of that to which we have now referred continued down to the period of the erection of the new one on the Green, in the year 1766, when it ceased to be used for theatrical purposes, and was henceforth destined to be used merely as a kind of barn or storehouse, until the period of its demolition. THE NEW THEATRE ON THE GREEN. This"* once favourite place of public resort was erected in the year 1765-6, by a lady named Horn, for a relative of hers, one James Dance, Esq. This gentleman seems to have acquired considerable celebrity as an actor at the London theatres, at which we find by the newspaper advertisements of that dav he alwavs plaved in the name of Love. His favourite character appears to have been Falslaff, in the performance of which he gained a high reputation, and under this gentleman's able management the " new theatre " soon obtained much popularity. * A portion of this description of the theatre was forwarded by the writer to the editor of " Richmond Notes," and appeared in No. 12 of that periodical (1864). OPENING OF THE NEW THEATRE. 369 On the opening night of the Richmond Theatre the following address, or prologue, written by Garrick, was spoken by Mr. Love : — In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for June, 1766. " The ship now launched, with necessaries stored, Rigged, manned, well built, and a rich freight on board, All ready, tight and trim from head to poop, And by commission made a royal sloop, May Heaven from tempests, rocks, and privateers, Preserve the Richmond ! Give her, boys, three cheers. [ Three huzzas behind. Queen Mab, our Shakespeare says, and I believe him, In sleep haunts each vain mortal to deceive him. As in her hazel nut she lightly trips, By turns o'er eyes, ears, fingers, nose, and lips, Each quickened sense such sweet enchantment seizes, We hear, see, smell, taste, touch, whate'er she pleases. Look round this house, and various proofs you'll see — Strong, glaring proofs — that Mab has been with me. She caught me napping — knew that I was vain, And tickled every fibre of my brain; Deep in my musing (deep as I was able) Methought I saw her driving towards my table ; She whisked her chariot o'er my books and shelves, And at my standish stopped her tiny elves. ' What are you scribbling there ? quick, let me see. Pah ! Leave the nonsense, and along with me.' I, grinning, bowed. ' Bright star oi Lilliput, Shall I not crowd you in your hazel-nut ?' She .-iniled, and showing me a large- sized hamper, ' Get into this, my lriend, and then we'll scamper.' I for this frolic wanting quick digestion, Sent to my tongue, post-haste, another question ; But crack she went, before that I could ask it, She in her stage, I, Falstajf, in the basket; She waved her hand, then burst in fits of laughter To see nie rolling, bounding, tumbling alter. And I laughed, too, — could you of laughing fail, To see a minnow towing of a whale P 370 ADVERTISEMENTS. At last we rested on a hill hard by, With a sweet vale to feast the glutton eye. ' I'll show you more,' she said, ' to charm and move us,' And to the gardens quick as thought she drove us. Then, pointing to the shade, — ' There, there they are ! Of this most happy isle the happiest pair. Oh ! may those virtuous raptures never cease, Nor public cares disturb their private peace.' She sighed, and like the lightning was she seen To drive her chariot o'er this favourite green Straight to this spot — where she infused such things Might turn the heads of twenty playhouse kings. But fear dispersing all my golden dreams, And I just entering on this fancy scheme, With wild surprise I cast my eyes about; Delusion ends, and now I wake to doubt. O, may the dream be realized by you ! Your smiles or frowns can make this false or true." The first public announcements of the performances may be found in the Gazetteer, a newspaper of the day, in which the advertisements of the entertainments for each evening regularly appear. They are always headed " By special appointment, at the new theatre on Richmond Green/' and the name of Mr. Love, with that of his wife, are prominent as the leading per- formers ; but there is scarcely a London newspaper of that period which does not contain an advertisement of its performances and amusements, and wherein it was stated " that the entertainments would conclude at a certain hour, in order to allow persons to reach London after the play was over." This announcement is always prominently placed in these old advertisements, but there really seems a considerable dash of assump- tion and conceit in the matter ; even if we allow that the popularity of our little theatre was really great under its then highly respectable ownership and manage- GEORGE III. AND HIS QUEEN AT THE THEATRE. 371 ment, still we should imagine a person pausing before he undertook a journey of ten or eleven miles to Rich- mond, " and about the same distance back again/' when the evening's entertainments had concluded ; and although we mav give all credence to the accounts of its attractiveness and the excellence of the arrange- ments, we venture to enter our protest against a belief that it ever had many visitors to it who would have to return to London after the conclusion of the perfor- mances, and therefore avow our conviction that the announcement referred to, in the language of a cen- tury later, is a most decided piece of managerial nonsense. It was a memorable night in the history of the theatre, when, about seventy years since, George III. and his queen, with various members of the royal family, attended the performances. The satin playbill which was used by their Majesties on the occasion was for many years after in the possession of a person whose family had been for two generations connected with the establishment ; it was framed and glazed, and was frequently an object of much interest to the curious in such matters. On the occasion of this royal visit the sum taken for admission was unprecedented in the history of the theatre. Three of the boxes had been formed into one for the reception of their Majesties' family and suite, and others were erected on the stage to assist in the accommodation of the visitors. Many persons paid a certain fee merely for being allowed to gaze at the royal party through tin; small glazed circular apertures of the opposite box doors, and after bb2 372 ITS MANAGERS AND VISITORS. a few minutes' enjoyment of this gratification of their curiosity, making way for others. On this night from 130/. to 140/. was received for admission ; on ordinary occasions from 80/. to 90/. was the largest sum which could he taken. In fact, the house was " crammed " to hold that amount, even at the high prices .then paid for admission. In the course of the century which has now passed away since its erection, very numerous have heen the changes as to the managers and lessees who have conducted its arrangements. The names of Cherry, Beverley, Klanert, and more recently that of Edmund Kean, will be readily remembered by the older portion of the present inhabitants of Richmond ; but were we, from our recollection of such matters, asked to name the period when the Theatre Royal, Richmond, was in the zenith of its popularity with the gentry and nobility of the town and surrounding neighbourhood, we should certainly recognise the period of Mr. Klanert's manage- ment, which continued for many years, as that of its palmiest and brightest days. He was in the habit of playing frequently during the season, and it is not too much to say that he was a finished and gentlemanly actor. Mrs. Klanert's thoroughly good-tempered and equally excellent acting in the characters she repre- sented, combined with her hearty and merry laugh when the business of the piece called it forth, will still live in the recollection of those among us who were the frequenters of the theatre. There are many pleasing recollections and asso- ciations in our mind connected with the period of THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CLARENCE. 373 the business of this place of amusement. How pleasant to recal to our memory those evenings when so many of the most respected members of the gentry and nobility of this place might be seen around that one tier of boxes, heartily enjoying the entertainment pro- vided for them, and at the conclusion of the per- formances separating thoroughly gratified with the evening's amusements. How well can we recollect when, on state occasions, there would be a " bespeak," and the Duke and Duchess of Clarence would occa- sionally honour the theatre with their presence ; how at different periods of the season, the names of those who were almost as household words among us would appear on the heading of the " Bill of the Play" as the patrons for the night : Sir Wathen Waller and the Baroness Howe, the Earl of Mount Edgccumbe, Mr. Jones Burdett (the brother of Sir Francis), and many others, not one of whom is now left. The curtain has descended alike on the greater portion of the audience and the actors of the period to which refer- ence has been made, and there are now remaining but a very few, comparatively speaking, of the old in- habitants of this place who will be able to recal to mind these reminiscences of the Richmond Theatre — Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Jordan, Quick, Munden, Liston, and a host of others, the great celebrities of their time, have played on this stage, and to many of our leading actors of a later day this little theatre has been a kind of nursery for the talent which has in after years, under the fostering appreciation of a London audience, raised the histrionic aspirant to wealth and fame. 374 CHARLES MATHEWS THE ELDER. There is a play-bill now lying before us, beaded " At the Tbeatre Royal, Richmond Green, June 29, 1789, a Comedy called the ' Constant Couple' will be played/' Mrs. Jordan taking the part of Sir Harry "Wildair, and that of the Romp, in an after-piece of that name. It was on these boards, September 7, 1793, that the inimitable Charles Mathews, father of our Charles Mathews, first hazarded a public trial of his abilities for the profession which he was destined a few years after so eminently to adorn ; but rather singular to relate, his first attempt was tragedy. Some of our greatest comic actors, and more particularly Liston, likewise at first mistook their forte, and appeared for the first time before an audience as tragedians. In the Life and Correspondence of Charles Mathews he thus relates his amateur performance of Richmond, in Shakespeare's " Richard the Third/' on the night and year above named : — " From this period, I remained at Merchant Taylors' School, and during vacation time and leisure hours, served in the shop, as brother Hill would have said. Dick in Murphy's 'Apprentice' was a mere type of me." He neglected only the shop in pursuit of his spouting propensities, but I forgot counter, cloisters, chapel, father, mother, all ; and my master passion led me at length to an act of open rebellion. I began more than to suspect that the managers of the theatres would not engage a raw inexperienced youth merely to gratify his silly ambition, when to my great delight I heard from Litchfield (an old friend of that name) who was quite as stage-struck as myself, that the manager of the TERRIFIC COMBAT IN RICHARD III. 375 Richmond Theatre would allow any young gentleman to perform who would pay him ten guineas. What condescending liberality ! How could he ask a smaller sum ? I negotiated with him, and had the great good fortune to bring the potentate to even more moderate terms, namely, that he would allow two young gentle- men to perform for fifteen. " This I communicated with great glee to my brother enthusiast, who had ambition enough to aim at the highest honours of the art at once : he jumped at the proposal, and declared himself ready studied for the part of Richard the Third. Now it so happened that I had a passion for fencing which nothing could over- come, and this friend of Melpomene and mine learned the exercise at the same academy with myself. There- fore, for the delight of my exhibiting my skill and legitimate love of the art, I kindly consented to take the inferior insipid part of Richmond, who does not appear until the fifth act of the play — I stipulating, however, for a good part in the after-piece. I cared for nothing except the last scene of Richard, but in that I was determined to have my full swing of carte and tierce. I had no idea of paying seven guineas and a half without indulging my passion. In vain did the tyrant try to die after a decent time — in vain did he give indications of exhaustion. 1 would not allow him to give in. I drove him by main force from any position convenient for his last dying speech. The audience laughed, I heeded them not. They shouted — I was deaf. Had they hooted, I should have lunged on in unconsciousness of their interruption. I was resolved 376 MRS. JORDAN. to show them all my accomplishments. Litchfield frequently whispered 'enough/ but I thought with Macbeth — 'Damned be he who first cries hold, enough/ I kept him at it, and I believe we almost fought literally ' an hour by Shrewsbury clock/ " To add to the merriment, a matter-of-fact fellow in the gallery, who in his innocence took everything for reality, and who was completely wrapped up and lost by ' the very cunning of the scene/ shouted out at last, ' Hang it, why don't he shoot him ?' " The Duke of Clarence was in a private box with Mrs. Jordan on the occasion, having been attracted from * Bushy' by the announcement of an amateur Richard, and I heard, afterwards, that they were both in convulsions of laughter at the prolongation of the scene, which that fascinating and first-rate of all great comic actresses never forgot. Years after, when we met in the green-room of Drury Lane Theatre, I was relating, among other theatrical anecdotes, the bump- kin's call from the gallery in commiseration of the trouble I had in killing Eichard, when she shook me from my feet almost by starting up, clasping her hands, and in her warm-hearted tones, exclaiming, 'Was that you? I was there!' And she laughed heartily at the recollection of my acting in Richmond, and the length of our combat. She thought it was my friend's love of acting that induced him to spin it out. She was loud in praise of his personation of Gloster, and a very sensible judicious reading of the character it doubtless was. The farce was the ' Son- in-Law/ in which, having convinced the good people THE ARRANGEMENTS, MANAGEMENT, ETC. 377 of Richmond that I could fence, and in the character of Bowket (in the farce) that I was maitre de danse, I satisfied them that my musical education had not been neglected." Upon asking an old friend a few days since, who was the earliest manager in her recollection of the Richmond Theatre, she replied, " Mr. Diddear ; and I recollect him very well. He had a cork leg himself, and was generally accompanied by and waited on by a man servant who had two wooden ones." It is quite possible that at a period of, say five-and- thirty years or so since, we were much more easily amused than we have been at a later period of our life ; but we freely confess to the very extreme state of satis- faction with which we used then to visit the Richmond Theatre. There was a degree of comfort in the very appearance of the interior, with all the old well-known faces round us, of which we still cherish a vivid and pleasing recollection ; but such remembrances come not unattended with feelings of a sadder cast, when we reflect how very few of those to whom we refer, and who were then the patrons and supporters of the establishment, are now left among us. Each successive season there appeared nearly the same list of old favourites among the actors and actresses, many of whom from long acquaintance with the play-going public, were much respected by that portion of the inhabitants. The arrangement of the evening's enter- tainments partook of a degree of regularity almost verging on monotony. There was first one of the old comedies, or equally old class of tragedy, played in a 378 REGATTA THE WINNER INTRODUCED very respectable manner, succeeded invariably by a song from the " comic countryman" of the establish- ment, which, exciting as it always did the admiration and applause of the frequenters of the gallery, as invariably resulted in an encore; a dance by the principal lady of the ballet succeeded to the song, which was in its turn followed by some equally aged but very laughable farce, which sent the well- con- tented audience home in perfect good temper with the entertainment of the evening. Very frequently a " star" from one of the London houses would play for the benefit of some person connected with the esta- blishment ; and among the actresses who would oc- casionally delight the audience with their talented impersonations, were those who, if we now wish to learn aught of them, the " Court Guide" and the " Peerage" must be our instructors, for in their pages their names are chronicled. There was in each year during the summer season one evening's entertainment dear to all the Richmond watermen and the neighbourhood of the river side. It was thus. The manager gave a new wherry to be rowed for, generally on a specified evening in the month of August ; it was contested for not only by the watermen of the place, but also by those of the adjoining parishes. It had been announced in flaming posters for some time previously, coupled with the equally important information that between the enter- tainments of the evening at the Theatre the successful competitor at the rowing-match, the winner of the wherry, would be introduced upon the stage, seated in ON THE STAGE THE PERFORMANCES. 379 the boat for which he had so ably contested, in a kind of triumphal procession, with Hags, banners, &c, assisted by the professionals of the theatre. Rule Britannia, on these particular nights, was of course sung, not only by the entire company on the stage, but also most heartily joined in by the aquatic brethren of the winner of the boat congregated in the gallery and pit, who always attended in very considerable numbers on these occasions. " The Waterman" was generally one of the pieces selected to be played, and the entire amusements of the evening, the pro- cession, the performances, and the audience, were all alike redolent of the river side. Among a number of various records which we have carefully treasured up relative to events which have occurred long since in Richmond, there is an enormous play-bill, equal in size to any four of those of the present day, announcing the performances for Friday, the 18th of July, 180G ; " he who ran" might easily have added to his pedestrian gratification that of t " reading" this Brobdignagian theatrical announcement, the name of the comedy selected for the evening being arranged in type three inches in height. The names of the various actors and actresses in this " bill of the play" (sec next page) are even now fresh in the recollection of many of the present inhabitants of Richmond, or, as they may very justly now be termed, old playgoers of half a century or so since. A few years after the conclusion of Mr. Kla- ncrt's management, the celebrated actor, Edmund Kc;iu, became the lessee ; and in the- small dwelling- 380 PLAY-BILL, 1806. THEATRE ROYAL, RICHMOND. On Friday, July 18, 1806, will be presented the celebrated Comedy of THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. WRITTEN BY E. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ. Sir Peter Teazle Mr. Cherry. Sir Oliver Surface Mr. Sparks. Joseph Surface Mr. Klanert. Sir Benjamin Backbite .... Mr. Cobham. Crabtree Mr. Grosette. Moses Mr. Treby. Careless {with a Song) . . . . Mr. Jefferies. liowley Mr. Abbott. Trip Mr. Tokely. Servant Mr. Wood. Charles Surface Mr. Farley. Mrs. Candour Mrs. Sparks. Maria Miss Cherry. Lady Sneerwell Mrs. Grosette. Lady Teazle Mrs. Cherry. To which will be added the Musical Entertainment of MY GEAND MOTHER. Vapour Mr. Farley. Sir Matthew Medley Mr. Grosette. Souffrance Mr. Klanert. Woodley Mr. Fitzsimons. Dickey Gossip Mr. Cherry. Charlotte Mrs. Mingaud. Florella, my Grandmother . . . Miss Cherry. Places in the Boxes to be taken of Mrs. Budd, at the Office by the Stage Door. — Days of Playing : Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Doors open at Six, to begin at Seven o'Clock precisely. Boxes 4,s., Pit 2s., Gallery Is. Printed by G. A. Wall, at the Newspaper Office, opposile the Castle Iun, Hill Street, Richmond, Surrey. EDMUND KEAN, MANAGER. 381 house of the theatre he usually resided during the season for which it was opened in each year, as at this period Kean was gradually becoming a confirmed invalid, and found himself unable, after the fatigue consequent upon his performances, to reach his Lon- don residence. When Kean first opened the theatre a perfect furore prevailed at Richmond and the surrounding villages among the old frequenters of this favourite little place of amusement, and much anxiety was evinced to witness the marvellous acting of the great trage- dian ; and as he at first only played occasionally there were on those nights crowded houses, many persons being unable to obtain admission. But it was afterwards much regretted by his numerous admirers that he latterly performed so frequently — viz., three and four nights in each week — that the attraction wore off; and if he did not play to empty benches, some of his principal and favourite characters were impersonated to an audience whose payments for ad- mission at the doors of the theatre did not (even at the prices then charged, which were comparatively high to those of the present day,) amount to five pounds — one night, three pounds sixteen shillings being the sum total of the proceeds. Kean had frequently played at the Richmond Theatre during the long period of its management by Mr. Klanert, on each of which occasions he received for his services the sum of forty pounds. On one of these particular evenings, October 1 1th, 1818, Kean had performed the character of Richard the Third ; the 382 ECCENTRIC BEHAVIOUR. theatre was well filled as usual, when he played ; the company that season was an extremely good one ; there were among the corps dramatique, a Mr. and Mrs. Egan, and Mr. Cunningham, all from the Bath Theatre ; a Miss Sidney, an excellent and lady-like actress ; Mr. Webster, who has since attained so high a celebrity in London ; and others of great respect- ability. The play was extremely well acted — the manager, Mr. Klanert, playing Richmond to the Richard of Kean — and all the other characters being ably supported, the audience bestowed their applause on the performers generally, at which Kean was most particularly annoyed, for he could not en- dure that any one person but himself should be applauded. After the play was ended, instead of staying to have a friendly bit of conversation with the manager, as he generally did, he hurried away to the Castle Hotel, where he usually stayed when in Richmond ; but as there had been a conversation between them at the commencement of the evening as to his performing again on a future occasion, a request was made to him to name the character and the evening on which he would again appear at the theatre. His reply to the application was couched in brief, but very emphatic language. Suffice it to say, it was to the effect that never would he again play at the Richmond Theatre. It appears, however, that Kean did not very long cherish the recollection of the annoyance which had called forth his very hasty letter, and that notwith- standing the determination which he had formed ANNOUNCED TO PLAY SIR EDWARD MORTIMER. 3S3 never again to appear on the boards of the theatre, he seemed very quickly to have altered his resolution j for on the 30th of the same mouth (October) he played there for the benefit of a Mr. Cunningham, in the character of Orestes, in the tragedy of the " Distressed Mother" — a piece which was but seldom acted and little known. The notice was very short, and the play consequently got up in a great hurry. No rehearsal took place as far as Kean himself was concerned ; the actors knew but little of their own characters and still less as to what he would do ; in fact, all was as bad as it possibly could be ; but the great actor stood out in full force — the bright lumi- nary of the evening ; no one else was thought of, and he was on this occasion well pleased and thoroughly satisfied with the rounds of applause which greeted him from all parts of the house. At various times in succeeding years Kean would occasionally, when it suited his humour to do so, perform at the Richmond Theatre, and on one occasion he was announced in the bills as Sir Edward Mortimer. It was at the end of the autumn of 1827; the evening had arrived, and a crowded house was anxiously awaiting the commencement of the piece. The or- chestra had, with amazing vigour, fiddled themselves through " Tancredi," " Lodoiska," or one of the usual overtures, and had commenced and concluded a second one, wdiich had tested the patience of the audience to the extremity of endurance, when Mr. Klanert made his appearance before them, now rendered fearfully and noisily impatient, for the purpose of in- 384 DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE AUDIENCE. forming them that Mr. Kean had not arrived. A sad confusion arose, and many insisted upon their money being returned to them; which demand was acceded to in numerous instances. About a month after this, he was again announced to play the same character (Sir Edward Mortimer), and again was the theatre crowded to its utmost limits ; but this time by an audience, most of whom were reeking under the recollection of disappointment and annoyance which they had on so recent an occasion suffered, and who felt determined to resent, by a very rough reception of the actor, his behaviour on that particular evening. So incensed were a certain clique of the frequenters of the theatre that they congre- gated together on that night with the determination of hissing the tragedian from the stage immediately that he appeared. In fact, the noise and uproar com- menced lrom the time of the admission of the public to the house. When Kean arrived at the stage-door it was at once intimated to him by one of the officials of the establishment that he must expect to encounter a particularly rough reception. " Stop/'' said he to his coachman ; " stay here with the carriage for fifteen minutes : if I do not return in that time, you may go and put up the horses, but not before/'' Upon entering the theatre, he remarked the noise and confusion which prevailed, and observed either to the manager or some person connected with the house — " Now I tell you what ; if the audience think proper to be quiet I will exert myself so that they shall not have wit- ADMIRABLE PERFORMANCE. 385 nessed such a performance before perhaps in their whole lives ; but," continued he, " I will give them just five minutes to determine the matter ; if in that time the uproar does not cease, I shall immediately leave for London." The moment he appeared upon the stage, the noise and uproar redoubled. Kean cpiietly drew out his watch, looked at it and at the audience significantly, and patiently waited in a firm and determined manner for the cessation of the clamour, which gradually came to an end before the conclusion of the prescribed time which he had allowed as the limit of his endurance, and was enabled to commence the representation of the character, which he played, if possible, with more than even his usual energy and talent ; and it was spoken of for a long time afterwards by the old play- goers of the time as a masterly piece of acting. There was a rather laughable circumstance con- nected with this performance, which may as well be related here. It happened that on this particular night a dense fog prevailed, and among the many who wished to witness the performance, but at a slightly later period of the evening, was a professor of the French language, well known in Richmond at that time ; with this intention he set forth, and had arrived with no little difficulty at the corner of the Green nearest to the end of Duke Street; the fog, dense everywhere on that night, was even worse in this loca- lity, but, however, he essayed to reach the theatre, and commenced his walk in that direction; but he was destined to extend it beyond the Limits where, in the c c 380 HIS FAILING HEALTH. usual state of things, it would have terminated. Having lost trace of the footpath almost immediately after quitting the railings near the corner where he had entered, he became confused, and in an extreme state of bewilderment as to the direction in which he should bend his steps, walked, as he considered, in a tolerably straight line towards the theatre. However, to arrive there was the difficulty : he walked on and on, and it is only fair to suppose that his course must have assumed, when he reached somewhere about the centre of the Green, a circular instead of a straight- forward direction ; for after about twenty minutes had elapsed he found himself not at the theatre, but close against the entrance to the Green facing Brewer's Lane, a very slight distance from the point at which he started. To return to the subject of Kean's management of the theatre ; it did not extend over a period of more than two to three years, for, as it has been already stated, he was in a very failing state of health when he commenced it, and his strength rapidly declined. We recollect one day observing an elderly gentleman, as he appeared to be, walking along with an infirm and decrepit step, leaning on a stick, and being informed it was " Kean the actor." It appeared impossible that this could be the man whose remarkable performance of Sir Giles Overreach had been witnessed a week or so previously, and who, upon the evening of that same day, was announced to play Othello. We had in- tended on this occasion to visit the theatre to see him in that character; but considered that as he was MR. CHARLES KEAN. 387 in so weak a state it would be impossible for bim to perform, so did not go. The inference was not a correct one, for he played the " Moor" in his usual admirable manner, amidst the acclamation and applause of a delighted audience. As his strength decayed, he found it necessary upon nearly every occasion to be supported to the side or wings of the stage, but im- mediately that he was before the public, his energy seemed entirely to master all physical weakness, and he would tread the stage with a firmness which would a few minutes previously have seemed impossible. In consequence of certain unhappy family dissen- sions, he had not been for some years friendly with his son, the present Mr. Charles Kean. The latter, at the period to which allusion has been made, had somewhat recently adopted the stage as a profession, one which he has since so adorned by his great talents. It was much against the wish of Kean that his son should have done so. He had been educated at Eton College, and had been intended by his father for one of the learned professions ; through the interest of a friend he had been offered a cadetship to India when only sixteen years of age ; but this offer, through the sad disagreements which prevailed between Mr. and Mrs. Kean, who were parted, and the pecuniary em. barrassments of the latter, he thought fit to reject. Kean sent for his son to the Ilummums Tavern, where he had taken up his abode for a short time. " You are aware, " said he, " that in refusing this cadetship, you give me up." " I am sorry for it, sir," was the son's reply, " but I cannot think you are so angry as c c 2 383 kean's last performance. you say." " Well/' said the father, " I will send you back to Eton until the end of the half-year, and then you must shift for yourself." With his usual obstinacy the elder Kean kept his word, and his son adopted the stage as his future mode of life. In 1833, Laporte being manager of Covent Garden Theatre, he conceived the idea of an engagement for Edmund Kean and his son at that house, thinking, no doubt, that a golden harvest would be the result. It would most probably have been so, had Kean's health permitted it ; but it was decreed otherwise. They had been announced to play Othello and lago — the father in the former, the son in the latter cha- racter. Before the commencement of the performance he sent for his son to his dressing-room, and said to him, " I feel very ill, Charles. I am afraid I shall not be able to perform." Charles Kemble, who was present, did his best to cheer him up. The tragedy commenced, and Kean was much pleased with his son's acting. We were present at the performance, to wit- ness which, the elder Kean had written us a free admission, and were afterwards informed that this was the last time he ever used a pen. There was a crowded house on the occasion ; but immediately upon his appearance before the audience, it was pain- fully evident that he was suffering from extreme weak- ness ; the piece proceeded until that part of the first act where Othello utters the words — " Villain, be sure you prove," &c. &c. He had no sooner concluded the sentence, in a very weak tone of voice, than he suddenly paused, and sobbing convulsively, extended HIS DEATH. 3S9 liis arms towards his son, who immediately ran for- ward and caught him almost in the act of falling. The audience rose with loud cheers of encouragement upon witnessing the painful sight ; but he was at once led from off the stage. The curtain descended upon the scene, and we saw him no more. " Othello's occupation was gone \" Kean did not long survive this event — his death shortly afterwards took place in a small room at the side of the Richmond Theatre. We were present two days afterwards, immediately after a post-mortem ex- amination had taken place, and two artists who had arrived from London for the purpose, had just suc- ceeded in taking a cast of his features. Wishing to possess some memorial of so celebrated a man, we requested Douchez, his surgeon, who was present, to cut off a small portion of hair, to effect which he raised the head as it lay in the coffin, removed some, and handed it to us ; the said lock of hair was care- fully treasured for a long term of years, but un- fortunately when removing from a former dwelling- house, the small drawer in which the packet was kept, on which the nature of the contents was stated, was abstracted, to our extreme mortification and regret. The day of the funeral was long afterwards remem- bered by the people of Richmond as a remarkable one, from the circumstance of thousands of person flocking to it to witness the ceremony of his interment ; a great number of the inhabitants followed the coffin, and nearly every member of the dramatic profession in London attended to pay the last token of respect 390 INTERMENT IN RICHMOND CHURCHYARD. to one who, whatever might have been his other faults, it was very certain that want of kindness and benevolence of heart towards his poorer brethren, was not among them. No case of poverty or distress was ever made known to him during his residence in Richmond that he did not relieve ; in fact, his good- nature was frequently imposed upon by many who knew that it was only to make their case appear as one requiring immediate assistance, to induce him at once to help them ; even latterly, when it was almost beyond his means to do so, he was scarcely ever known to turn a deaf ear to the application. " Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His pity gave ere charity began." A neatly-executed medallion likeness in stone is placed immediately over the vault in the old church- yard of Richmond, which contains the remains of this once celebrated actor. Since the tenancy of the Richmond Theatre by Kean, it has been under the management of various persons for short periods with varying success. That it has not proved in reality a highly profitable affair to any extent, may be assumed from the wretched ex- terior of the building, and the rapid progress which it seems to be making towards decay and ruin, to remedy which from year to year no effort appears to be made,"* and consequently this once attractive place * These remarks are in reference only to the building itself, as for the last few years the theatre has been under the able manage- ment of Mr. William Sidney, and is well frequented, not only by the people of Richmond but by those of the surrounding neigh- bourhoods. DILAPIDATED STATE OF THE THEATRE. 391 of amusement wears an aspect so different to that which it presented in its bygone prosperous days, that it seems to indicate the period which is not per- haps far distant when it will altogether cease to be used for the purposes of the drama, its conversion to uses of an entirely different nature to that of its present one having frequently been mooted. But it is more probable that if it is allowed to progress in its career of external decay, it may one day be considered desira- ble to pull it down, and on its site erect, perhaps, a private residence, or a building devoted to purposes of a public nature ; and if so, wc can imagine the local antiquary of a future century or two, when searching for information and for facts connected with the history of this town, and of places and persons the memories of whom may have then almost passed away, with difficulty pursuing his researches as to the where- abouts of a place of amusement which for so long a period continued to hold a high position in the esteem of those who were then frequenters of it. It is so even now with its predecessor, the old theatre, which we have shown stood formerly in Hill Street — there are not a great number of persons now living in Richmond who are cognizant of its exact position. Of the Richmond Wells, with its accompanying buildings and its pleasure grounds, Ave have ourselves experienced no little; difficulty in determining the correct line of its boundary, and so will it be with the building whose history is here related. " The new Theatre at the corner of Richmond Green," as it was styled in the advertis- ing department of the newspapers of our forefathers one 392 THE SITE OF THE THEATRE. hundred years since, will perhaps have entirely ceased to be remembered, and all traces lost of a place of amusement so identified with the opening career and early struggles on the road to fame and fortune of many members of the dramatic profession still living, and of the far greater number of those who have passed away from this world's stage. 393 CHAPTER XV. THE MISSES BERRY— MISS JANE LANGTON AND MRS. GWYN, OF KEW. walpole's first interview with the misses BERRY — SOCIETY AT RICHMOND IN 1790 — RUINOUS STATE OF THE " STAR AND GARTER" — INTRODUCTION OF QUADRILLES — BALL AT LADY SHAFTESBURY'S — THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH — MISS JANE LANGTON — DR. JOHNSON'S LETTER TO HIS GODCHILD — IN- TERVIEW WITH MISS LANGTON — THE BEAUTIFUL MISS MARY HORNECK, AFTERWARDS MRS. GWYN — THE JESSAMY BRIDE — GOLDSMITH'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE HORNECK FAMILY — HAZLITT'S RECOLLECTION OF MRS. GWYN. AMONG the numerous and distinguished characters who have at various periods been resident in Richmond and its neighbourhood, there are some whose names recall to us much which we have read, and much which has interested and amused us while perusing either the biographies or the corrrcspondence of Wal- pole, Johnson, Goldsmith, and of many others who formed so brilliant and talented a coterie of genius and of wit during the latter portion of the preceding century. With the well-known names of the Misses Berry, Miss June Langton, and Mrs. Gwyn (of Kcw), there are associations and recollections connected, which carry us back even to a period of nearly a century since. It was in the year 1788 that Horace Walpole first 394 WALPOLE AND THE MISSES BERRY. became acquainted with the Misses Berry, an acquaint- ance which ripened to an earnest and enduring Mend- ship, ending only with his life. In one of his letters to Lady Ossory, referring to his first meeting with these ladies, he writes, October 11th, 1788 : — " If I have picked up no recent anecdotes on our common, I have made a much more to me precious acquaintance — it is the acquaintance of two young ladies of the name of Berry, whom I saw last winter, and who accidentally took a house here with their father for the season, &c. &c. They are exceedingly sensible, entirely natural and unaffected, frank, and being qualified to talk on any subject, nothing is so easy and agreeable as their conversation. The eldest I discovered, by chance, understands Latin and is a perfect French- woman in her language. The younger draws charm- ingly, and has copied admirably Lady D/s* ' Gipsies/ which I lent her, though for the first time of her attempting colours. Mary, the eldest, sweet, with fine dark eyes; Agnes, the younger, has au agreeable, sensible countenance, hardly to be called handsome, but almost." In a few days afterwards — for he seems to be fasci- nated by these two brilliant girls — he writes again to Lady Ossory : — " The Berry s were to come over and see my printing-press. I recollected my gallantry of former days, and they found these stanzas ready set : — " To Mary's lips has ancient Borne Her purest language taught, And from the modern city home Agnes its pencil brought. * Lady Diana Beauclerk. WALPOLE AND MISS BERRY. 395 " Rome's ancient Horace sweetly chants Such maids with lyric fire ; Albion's old Horace sings nor paints, He only can admire. " Still would his press their fame record So admirable the pair is, But, ah ! how vain to think his word Can add a straw to Berry's." The next morning he states, " the Latin nymph sent me these lines : — " ' Had Rome's famed Horace thus addrest His Lydia or his Lyce, He'd ne'er complain'd, — to him their breast So oft was cold and icy. " ' But had they sought their joy t' explain, Or praise their gen'rous bard, Perhaps like me they'd tried in vain, And felt the task too hard.' " With unfailing regularity did Walpole correspond with these young ladies, and although the great dis- parity existing between the age of himself and the eldest one (Mary), would almost render such an asser- tion an absurdity, yet the general reader of Walpole's correspondence would arrive at no other conclusion than the one — " that love, although it might be of the purest kind, could alone prompt such language as that in which he so constantly addresses either the one or the other of his young friends." Indeed, but few can read the details of his correspondence at this period, either to Miss Berry, or to others when he alludes to her, without arriving at the same conclusion. It has been asserted by some that it may be so, but that the extreme admiration or affection which he ever showed 396 SOCIETY IN RICHMOND 1790. was of the purest and most disinterested character; and that in wishing for a union with one so many years his junior, no other consideration swayed him but the earnest wish to honour and exalt her by giving the title of Lady Walpole to one whose talents he so honoured and whom he loved so well. It is only where the names of these ladies are associated with Richmond, either in reference to it, or as residents in it, that we propose to make use of that very interesting work, " The Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry/-' by Lady Theresa Lewis. On the 27th and 28th November, 1790, Walpole writes to her : — " I have much more agree- able society at Richmond, with small companies and better hours, and shall have till after Christmas. Lady Di, Selwyn, the Penns, the Onslows, Douglases, Mackensys, Keenes, Lady Mt. Edgecumbe, all stay, and some of them meet every evening. Richmond, my metropolis, flourishes exceedingly. The D. of Clarence arrived at his palace there last night, between 11 and 12, as I came home from Lady Douglas. His eldest brother and Mrs. Fitzherbert dine there to-day with the D. of Queensberry, as his Grace, who called here this morning, told me, on the very spot where lived Charles I., and where are the portraits of his principal courtiers from Cornbury. Q. has "taken to that place at last, and has frequent company and music there of an evening. 1 intend to go." " Dec. 17th, 1790. — Mrs. Siddons is again playing to crowded houses. Richmond is still full, and will be so until after Christmas. The Duke of Clarence is THE STAR AND GARTER 1808. 397 still there, and every night at Mrs. Bouveric's, Ladv Di's at home;, or at the Duke of Gueensberry's, with suppers that finish at twelve." Sunday, June 12th, 1808, there is an entry in Miss Berry's diary : — " Drove with Phil Cayley to Rayman's Castle,* walked through the meadows, crossed the Richmond Ferry, and straight up the hill, which Phil Cayley had never seen, and which has always new beauties, even to those much accustomed to it. The door of the ' Star and Garter ' (now shut up as an hotel) being open, we walked in, and a civil quondam servant of the house showed us the rooms. Dismal history from the woman of the foolish man who made these great additions to the former house — ruined him- self and died in prison ; his wife, seeing that all was going wrong, became insane and died before him/' The " Star and Garter Hotel," even in the memory of various old residents of Richmond, continued shut up for some years, until at last it presented a most de- plorable appearance, most of the squares of glass in the front of the house being broken. If Miss Berry thus referred to the extreme folly of the proprietor (one Mr. Brewer) in making the altera- tions and additions which he effected at that period, we almost pause to ask what would be the astonish- n ient of that lady could she have gazed upon the structures which have been lately erected in addition to this hotel, which, as they have been carried out on so magnificent and costly a plan, wc can only trust that * Corrupted of late years to " Bagman's" Castle, Twickenham. 398 INTRODUCTION OF QUADRILLES. success commensurate with the extraordinary outlay of capital may reward the spirited and enterprising com- pany whose property it now is. Quadrilles, it would appear, had been only of recent introduction about this period, for on more than one occasion it seems a matter of congratulation that they had been danced without " mistakes or boggle." " June 21st, 1808.— Went to Lady Shaftesbury's ball ; a very fine ball. The first quadrille began soon after twelve. Lady B. Ashley 03 and g Jh Mr. Delme. o o> 3 5 * g ^ ~. »s" CC P 5 OS « S3 w ^ o 95 O —j i-! V! ^ sr Miss Johnston f ® S 1\/"l 3 o Mr. Keppell Craven. " The ladies were uniformly dressed, and very prettily, in white and silver; they danced admirably, without mistakes or boggle whatsoever. Lady Barbara really danced better than anybody I ever saw, either here or at Paris." The second quadrille is then described, and the names of the parties who composed it — two marquises and two ladies of title being at the top and bottom of the dance. It is again stated, as though it was a remarkable feature in the proceedings of the evening, " That it was danced without mistakes, but not so well danced as the last one, and that every creature was THE PRINCE REGENT AT LADY HERTFORD'S. 399 standing upon chairs and benches to see these quadrilles." It was to the Marchioness of Hertford that his Grace the Duke of Queensberry bequeathed his villa at Richmond. There is an uncertainty whether the following entiy refers to a ball at the old house facing Cholmondeley Terrace, or at her ladyship's mansion in London. It is thus described : — " March 22nd, 1811. Went about eleven to Lady Hertford's. We did not get in until nearly twelve, when the Regent had not arrived from dinner at Lord Cholmondeley's. He came soon afterwards while we were in the outer room ; and we saw the whole ceremony. A circle was imme- diately made, and the Regent, the Dukes of Clarence, Cumberlandj Cambridge, and Gloucester, were all in it at the same time. The Regent looked wretchedly swollen up, with a muddled complexion, and was be- sides extremely tipsy — gravely and cautiously so." At Twickenham, where she had a residence but a slight distance from her old friend and admirer Walpole's Strawberry Hill, at Petersham, and latterly at Richmond (Devonshire Cottage), in Lower Peter- sham Road, a great part of Miss Berry's eventful life was passed ; and from this last-named very agreeably situate residence many of her very amusing communi- cations arc dated, and here, towards the conclusion of her long life, and in the society of her sister Agnes, she received the visits of her numerous old and distin- guished friends, and with many of them, up to the latest period of her life, continued her interesting correspondence. Amongst these was the Rev. Sydney 400 THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Smith, who seemed ever to delight in punning on the name of Berry. On the 6th of April, 1841, he writes to her, thus : — " 56, Green Street, Grosvenor Square. " Dear Berbys, — I dine on Saturday with the good Widow Holland, and blush to say that I have no dis- posable day before the 26th, by which time you will, I presume, be plucking goose berries in the suburban region of Richmond ; but think not, O Berries, that that distance, or any other, of latitude or longitude, shall prevent me from following you, plucking you, and eating you ; for whatever pleasure men find in the rasp berry, in the straw berry, or in the coffee berry, all these pleasures are, to my taste, concentrated in the Mayfair Berries.* " Ever theirs, " Sydney Smith." By this eccentric clergyman Miss Berry was always distinguished from her sister by the name of the " elder berry." In 1844, Feb. 3rd, Miss Berry, then staying at her house at Richmond, alluding to her sinking state of health, says : — " If life consisted of nothing but eat- ing, drinking, and sleeping, she is well ; but her adviser, Dr. Grant,f allows that, after such a severe attack, at her age, she cannot easily recover." " 1845, Richmond, May 22nd and 26th. — Here I * Their town residence was in Mayfair. f A well-known medical practitioner in Richmond, since dead. DEATH OF THE MISSES BERRY IN 1852. 40 L am still, and once again in Mrs. Lamb's house. After all, few women at eighty-two have so little to com- plain of. Life begins to be very fatiguing to me, although aware how much better off than most, or almost any Avoman of my great age, both as to physical and as to moral advantages." In January, 1852, the younger sister Agnes died; and in November of the same year Miss Berry was also removed by death. This event took place at her town residence in Curzon Street. The concluding lines of the work from which the foregoing particulars of this distinguished lady's life have been taken, must not be omitted, the more particularly from the melan- choly circumstance of the gifted editress, Lady Theresa Lewis, being removed from this earthly scene before the second edition of the work was published. Her last words relative to her friend Miss Berry's death, are : — " It has long been over, and death has set its seal on many who composed that society. A time must come to all, when the enjoyment of the present and the hopes of the future cede their place to the memory of the past. We cannot renew what is gone. " Happy are those who can look back to social pleasures, to useful toil, and to domestic happiness, and gratefully recal the time ' when such things were' " The following inscription, by the Earl of Carlisle, is placed over the vault in Petersham Churchyard, where the remains of the two sisters lie : — D D 402 INSCRIPTION OVER THE VAULT. " Mary Beery Born March 1763 died Nov. 1852 Agnes Berry Born May 1764 died Jan. 1852 Beneath this stone are laid the remains of these Two Sisters Amidst scenes which in life They had frequented and loved Followed by the tender regret of those who close The unbroken succession of friends Devoted to them with fond affection During every step of their long career In pious adoration of the great God of Heaven and Earth they looked to rest in the Lord They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided." MISS JANE LANGTON. Miss Jane Langton, the daughter of Bennet Lang- ton, of an ancient family in Lincolnshire, was born in the year 1777-8. To the readers of the life and times of Dr. Johnson the name of Bennet Langton will have a truly familiar sound as one who for a long period of years was his esteemed and much honoured friend. Boswell, when referring to the commencement of the friendship between them, remarks, that when Langton was first introduced to Johnson, he found his conversation so rich, so animated, and so forcible, and his religious and political opinions so congenial with those in which he, Langton, had been educated, that he conceived for him that veneration and attach- ment which he ever preserved. MISS JANE LANGTON. 403 Boswell observes, that Johnson was not the less ready to love Langton for his being of a very ancient family, for I have heard him say, with pleasure, " Langton, sir, has a grant of free warren from Henry II., and Cardinal Stephen Langton in King John's reign, was of that family." So ancient a name and pedigree was to Johnson sufficient recommendation for a less gifted and esti- mable character than he who was thus for the first time introduced to his notice and esteem. As Byron re- marked of his friend Thomas Moore — " Tommy dearly loves a lord," so did Dr. Johnson dearly love any one of ancient or noble family ; and more particularly when there was associated with the individual such worth and talent as were combined in the character of Bennet Langton, with whom he maintained an un- broken friendship to the close of his life. To the infant daughter of his friend, Johnson be- came the godfather, and of this little lady and her sponsor, Boswell observes : — " What follows is a beau- tiful specimen of his gentleness and complacency to a young lady his godchild, one of the daughters of his friend Mr. Langton, then, I think, in her seventh year. lie took the trouble to write her a letter, in a large round hand, nearly resembling printed charac- ters, that she might have the satisfaction of reading it herself. The original lies before me, but shall be faithfully restored to her, and I dare say will be pre- served by her as a jewel as long as she lives." The following is a copy of the letter : — dd2 404 dr. Johnson's letter to his godchild. " TO MISS JANE LANGTON, IN ROCHESTER, KENT. " May 10th, 1784. " My dearest Miss Jenny, " I am sorry that your pretty letter lias been so long without being answered; but when I am not pi-etty well, I do not always write plain enough for young ladies. I am glad, my dear, to see that you write so well, and hope that you mind your pen, your book, and your needle, for they are all necessary. Your books will give you knowledge and make you re- spected, and your needle will find you useful employ- ment when you do not care to read. "When you are a little older, I hope you will be very diligent in learning arithmetic ; and, above all, that through your whole life you will carefully say your prayers, and read your Bible. " I am, my dear, " Your most humble servant, " Sam. Johnson/'' Boswell augured quite correctly as to the veneration in which the little child to whom the foregoing letter was addressed, in after life ever regarded the letter to which we have made reference, and not only was this kind and gentle communication which the child had received from the aged sage held in reverence, but many others, all having some connexion with the daily habits or the tastes and pursuits of him whose memory she loved and honoured so enduringly. The writer of this work has ever esteemed it a day to be well remembered in his Life when he received a INTERVIEW WITH MISS LANGTON. 405 communication from Miss Langton a few months only before her death, to the effect that she would he glad to see him and converse with him, having been informed that he took much interest in all that concerned the history of Dr. Johnson and his times, as recorded by his biographer, Boswcll. We duly waited on this lady according to appointment, and after a few minutes of preliminary conversation with Miss Langton, at once entered upon the topic for which each had sought the interview. As the lady discovered with much evident satisfaction that we ardently admired the biography of Johnson, her conversation became truly animated, and both felt much interest and amusement from the interview. The apartments in which this lady resided were surrounded by numerous articles, each having refe- rence to Johnson — the cup and saucer out of which he last drank his favourite beverage — the chair on which he usually sat — the table at which he generally wrote, — a few of the pictures which had originally orna- mented the walls of his dwelling, and beyond all, the letter of which Boswell had so kindly made mention, addressed to her nearly seventy years prior to the period of this our visit and conversation ; it was, as he described, in fair round letters, and was framed and glazed ; being written both sides of the sheet, glass was placed both in front and at the back of the frame, so that it might easily be read. At this interview Miss Langton related a rather singular circumstance connected with the letter. She said that when she visited London a year or two since, 406 TOPICS OF CONVERSATION. her attention was directed, as she passed the shop of a linendraper in one of the inferior neighbourhoods, towards some large cotton pocket-handkerchiefs in the window, on which was printed the letter written to her by Dr. Johnson when she was a child. She imme- diately sought the master of the shop, and having learnt how many of the said handkerchiefs he had in stock, bought up the whole number, one of which she presented to the writer in remembrance of the inter- view and the conversation which had ensued, nearly all bearing upon one topic — that of Dr. Samuel Johnson. At this meeting there was at first some difficulty in realizing the fact that we were engaged in conversation with a person whom the great poet had known and petted, and who had known him, and retained, child as she then was, a clear and lively recollection of one whose career as a writer dated back 115 years from the period of the interview which is here recorded — Johnson, even at that time, being nearly thirty years of age. It need scarcely be observed that the handkerchief as presented by Miss Langton to the writer, is duly and carefully preserved in accordance with the kindly expressed wish of the amiable and aged donor, and it will be long ere the highly interesting conversation of this venerable lady will be forgotten by him — a conversation which was enriched by details of events and anecdotes of those who had been celebrated in their lives, and were the intimate friends and companions of Johnson so long a period of years since. 407 MRS. GENERAL GWYN, OF KEW. To those of our readers who are conversant with the details of the life and times of Oliver Goldsmith, as told by Washington Irving, certainly one of the most pleasing biographical narratives we possess of that truly amiable, guileless, and talented man, the name of Miss Mary Horneck — " the Jessamy Bride," as she was termed by her numerous circle of friends — will be immediately recognised. This lady was the youngest child of one Captain Kane Horneck, whose widow, with an elder daughter and a son, then a captain in the Guards, were on terms of intimacy with Sir Joshua Reynolds, at whose house these ladies were visiting when Goldsmith first made their acquaintance. The introduction to this most agreeable family formed an important feature in the poet's life. The daughters were beautiful and intelligent, and in their charming society, and that of others with whom they were asso- ciated, poor " Goldie " passed many happy hours. The elder sister was engaged to the son of a Suffolk baronet — AVilliam Henry Bunbury. The younger one was disengaged, and despite the great disparity of their years, their position in life, and the utter hopelessness, nay, the absurdity of the idea of such an alliance, Goldsmith permitted himself to entertain for the lovely girl, feelings of a more tender nature than he could possibly trust himself to hope could ever be re- ciprocated by one whom " he loved not wisely but too well." 408 THE MISSES HORNECK. The family were much pleased in his society. They admired his writings, his lively conversation, and the simplicity and benevolence of his character ; they esteemed and loved him, and truly did Goldsmith appreciate the gentle love and many pleasing atten- tions shown to him by the two Miss Hornecks and their parent ; and it is to be doubted if at this period a thought had ever crossed the mind of the youngest girl for a single moment as to the pure and earnest attach- ment which existed in the poet's breast towards her. We read of the journeyings and the visitings — of the trip to France in the company of the mother and her beautiful daughters, and of an incident which occurred at Lille when staying at an hotel there. A military procession happening to pass by the hotel where he, with the family of the Hornecks, was stay- ing, they naturally sought the balcony in front of the house, in order to gaze at the spectacle, when some of the officers openly expressed their admiration of the beauty of the two younger ladies in terms sufficiently loud to be heard both by them and Goldsmith, who evinced the most extreme mortification and annoyance at the notice thus taken of his young friends, which he could not resent, or even express the dissatisfaction and pain that he felt. The friendship of this amiable family continued to be shown to poor Goldsmith to the end of his life. The reader need scarcely be informed that the lady whose name forms the heading of the present article was originally the Miss Mary Horneck — the object of the poet's love, Her name is associated with his even. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 409 in death, and the scene at which she was present, the day after his gentle spirit had departed, is beautifully described in the work before mentioned.* Referring to the morning of his death it is related that " On the stairs of his apartment there was the lamentation of the old and infirm, and the sobbing of women, poor objects of his charity to whom he had never turned a deaf ear, even when struggling himself with poverty. " But there was one mourner whose enthusiasm for his memory, could it have been foreseen, might have soothed the bitterness of death. After the coffin had been screwed down, a lock of his hair was requested for a lady, a particular friend, who wished to preserve it as a remembrance. It was the beautiful Mary Horneck, the ' Jessamy Bride/ The coffin was opened again, and a lock of hair cut off, which she treasured to her dying day. Poor Goldsmith ! how honoured would he have felt could he have foreseen that such a memorial of him was to be thus cherished. " A few words more concerning this lady to whom reference has been tlms made. She survived almost to the present day. Hazlitt met her at North- cote's painting-room, about twenty years since, as Mrs. (iwvn, the widow of a General Gwyn, of the army. She was at that time upwards of seventy years of age. Still, he said, she was beautiful — beautiful, even in years. After she was gone, Hazlitt remarked how handsome she was. ' I do not know/ said Northcote, ' why she is so kind as to come and see * Irving's " Life of Goldsmith." 410 THE "JESSAMY BRIDE ■>■> me, except that I am the last link in the chain that connects her with all those whom she most esteemed when young — Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith — and remind her of the most delightful period of her life/ f Not only so/ observed Hazlitt, ' hut you remember what she was at twenty ; and you thus bring back to her the triumph of her youth — that pride of beauty, which must be the more fondly cherished as it has no external vouchers, and lives chiefly in the bosom of its once lovely possessor/ In her, however, the Graces had triumphed over Time : she was one of Ninon de TEnclcs's people, of the last of the immortals. I could almost fancy the shade of Goldsmith in the room looking round with complacency. " The ' Jessamy Bride' survived her sister above forty years, and died in 1840, within a few days of her completing her eighty-eighth year. i She had gone through all the stages of life/ said Northcote, ' and had lent a grace to each/ However gaily she may have sported with the half-concealed admiration of the poet in the heyday of her youth and beauty, and however much it may have been made a subject of teasing by her youthful companions, she evidently prided herself in after years on having been an object of his affectionate regard ; it certainly rendered her interesting throughout life in the eyes of his admirers, and has hung a poetical wreath about her grave/' Those whose memories recal to mind this remark- able and venerable lady towards the conclusion of her long life — as she was frequently to be seen when taking an airing in her carriage, in and about the goldsmith's new comedy. 411 neighbourhood of her Kew residence — would have scarcely imagined that he gazed upon oue who had been so celebrated in her youth for her extreme beauty and attractiveness. She had, indeed, outlived all the friends of her early life, and how truly great and distinguished a circle of the talented and eminent in literature and the arts was that in which she had moved ! How one would have valued but an hour's conversation with Mrs. Gwyn ! With what earnestness should we have jn'essed our inquiries as to her recol- lections of Johnson, of Burke, Boswcll, Reynolds, and numerous others who formed with these such a brilliant circle of men of genius ! How anxiously should we have listened to all that she could have related to us of her benevolent and kind-hearted old admirer, who loved her with such an earnest, respectful, and untiring love ! And how enthusiastically and how earnestly do we seem to feel that she would have spoken of him, and of his kindness and gentle nature ; and how she would have dwelt upon many incidents of his life of which we possess but comparatively imperfect details, and particularly of that important event in Gold- smith's life — the introduction of his comedy, " She Stoops to Conquer," on which particular night Miss Horneck and the members of her family, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and the whole circle of his friends and admirers were present to greet this plea- sant production of the author's pen ; and how, as the comedy progressed, each succeeding scene confirmed its merits with the audience, whose admiration in- creasing as it proceeded, proclaimed at the fall of the 412 CONGRATULATIONS. curtain that " poor Goldie's" dramatic creation was a perfect and brilliant success ; but at the representation of which; owing to the intense anxiety of the author as to the way the public might chance to receive it, he was prevented being present until the last scene but one, but in time to receive the hearty congratula- tions of all his old friends at his good fortune — awarded by none, perhaps, more truly and sincerely than by her, who, then in the very prime of her youth and beauty, lived among us until a compara- tively recent period, to the age of eighty-eight years. 413 CHAPTER XVI. RICHMOID LODGE. WALPOLe's ANNOUNCEMENT TO GEORGE II., AT THE LODGE, THAT HE HAD SUCCEEDED TO THE CROWN — QUEEN CAROLINE'S EXTRAORDINARY EXPENDITURE AND IMPROVEMENTS! — THE LADIES OF THE COURT — THE PRINCE OF WALES — MISS LEPELL — MISS BELLENDEN — THE BEAUTIFUL MISSES GUNNING, HORACE WALPOLE, LORD GRANBY, LADY CAROLINE PETER- SHAM, AND MISS ASHE AT VAUXHALL — GEORGE III. AND HIS YOUNG QUEEN AT RICHMOND LODGE — THE YOUNG PRINCES — JUVENILE BALL — EXHIBITION OF ILLUMINATIONS, ETC., AND FINAL DEMOLITION OF THE STRUCTURE. " r\N the afternoon of the 14th of June, 1727, two V_/ horsemen might have been perceived galloping along 1 the road from Chelsea to Richmond. The fore- '8 most, cased in the jack-boots of the period, was a broad -faced, jolly-looking, and very corpulent cava- lier; but by the manner in which he urged his horse, you might see that he was a bold as well as a skilful rider. Indeed, no man loved sport better, and in the hunting fields of Norfolk no squire rode more boldly after the fox, or cheered Ringwood and Swcetlips more lustily than he who now thundered over the Richmond road. " He speedily reached Richmond Lodge, and asked to see the owner of the mansion. The mistress of the house and her ladies, to whom our friend was admitted, 414 GEORGE II. AND SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. said he could not be introduced to the master, however pressing the business might be. The master was asleep after his dinner ; he always slept after his dinner, and woe be to the person who interrupted him. Nevertheless, our stout friend of the jack-boots put the affrighted ladies aside, opened the forbidden door of the bedroom, wherein upon the bed lay a little gentleman, and here the eager messenger knelt down in his jack-boots. " He on the bed started up, and with many oaths and a strong German accent asked who was there, and who dared to disturb him ? " ' I am Sir Robert Walpole,' said the messenger. The awakened sleeper hated Sir Robert Walpole. ' I have the honour to announce to your majesty that your royal father, King George L, died at Osnabriick, on Satui'day last, the 10th instant/ " ' Dat is one big lie /' roared out his sacred majesty King George II. " But Sir Robert Walpole stated the fact ; and from that day until three-and-thirty years after, George II. ruled over England. " How the king made away with his father's will under the astonished nose of the Archbishop of Can- terbury — how he was a choleric little sovereign — how he shook his fist in the faces of his father's courtiers — how he kicked his coat and wig about in his rage, and called everybody thief, liar, rascal, with whom he differed — you will read in all the history books ; and how he speedily and shrewdly reconciled himself with the bold minister whom he hated during his father's HIS MANSION TN THE PARK. 415 reign, and by whom he was served during fifteen years of his own, with admirable prudence, fidelity, and success. But for Sir Robert Walpole, we should have had the Pretender back again. But for his resolute counsels and good-humoured resistance, we might have had German despots attempting a Hanoverian regimen over us ; we should have had revolt, commo- tion, and tyrannous misrule, in place of a quarter of a century of peace, freedom, and material prosperity, such as the country never enjoyed until that corrupter of parliaments, that dissolute, tipsy cynic, great citizen patriot and statesman governed it. In religion he was little better than a heathen, cracked ribald jokes at bigwigs and bishops, and laughed at high church and low. In private life the old pagan revelled in the lowest pleasures; he passed his Sundays tippling at Richmond, and his holidays bawling after dogs, or boozing at Houghton with boors over beef and punch." Such is the description of the great minister of his day by one of the most popular writers of our own, and certainly the commencement of it reads like a panegyric, while the concluding portion of the sketch almost startles us by the entirely opposite nature of its revelations of Sir Robert's character and habits. Much of his leisure time was spent at his mansion in Richmond Park, which he had himself caused to be erected at an expense of 14,000/.,*" and it * The mansion, built in the Dutch style of architecture, was known to most of the older inhabitants of Richmond as the resi- dence of Sir Henry Campbell, and was pulled down about twenty years since. 416 THE COURT AT RICHMOND LODGE. was here, as before stated, the sovereign, George II., was frequently a visitor, and where he partook with such gusto of his favourite beverage, " punch." Richmond Lodge or House, which stood at no great distance from the present Observatory, had been re- built by the Duke of Ormond, in the year 1708-9, on the site of an old building which had likewise borne the name of The Lodge for a long period of years. On the impeachment of the duke, he hastily left the country, and resided at Paris. The Earl of Arran, his brother, who purchased the property, then leased for the term of about ninety years, sold the lease to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., with whom, both before and after his succession to the throne, it was a favourite place of residence, and even more par- ticularly so of his queen (Caroline) ; and from this cause a numerous circle of the wealthy, the talented, and the gay, gathered in and about the village and neighbourhood of Richmond, forming here the court of the reigning monarch. There were Lord Chester- field, the Herveys, Swift, Pope, and many others. There was a rich galaxy of beauty which seems ever to have been attendant on this little court at Richmond : there was the beautiful Countess of Bristol, Mrs. Selwyn, the mother of the well-known George Selwyn, the two Miss Bellendens, and the celebrated in song, the lovely Miss Mary Lepell. In one of his ballads Gay writes of these ladies, that the God of Love "Now dwells at Court With Belleuden and Lepell." MISS LEPELL. 417 The former of these fair dames repelled, after a somewhat saucy fashion, the advances of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales ;* his attentions were unsought for, and she wished not to be the recipient of any of his fine compliments ; for we are told that she folded her arms across her breast, and bade him keep off; knocked his purse of guineas into his face, and told him she was sick of seeing him count them. Of this lady Lord Hervey remarks " that she was incontestably the most agreeable, the most insinuating, and the most likeable woman of her time, made up of every ingredient likely to engage or attach a lover." The lady afterwards became Duchess of Argyll by her marriage, which took place in the year 1726. The Earls of Chesterfield and Bath seem to have shared, with the other votaries of gaiety and fashion, in their admiration of the witty and beautiful Miss Lepell. The following verses in her praise were the joint com- position of these noblemen ; and, as it may be sup- posed, were widely circulated amid the frivolous and light-hearted community. Only a portion of this effu- sion can be here quoted, some of the lines bjing equivocal in their style ; and although they yielded immense gratification to that gay and courtly circle, would scarcely be tolerated in much less exalted society in our own era : — "The Muses quite jaded with rhyming, To Molly Moggf bid a farewell, But renew their sweet melody chiming To the name of dear Molly Lepell. * Afterwards George II. f A favourite song known by this name. E £ 418 STANZAS. " So powerful her charms and so moving, They would warm an old monk hi his cell : Should the Pope himself ever go roaming, He would follow dear Molly Lepell. " If to the seraglio you brought her, Where for slaves their maidens they sell, I am sure, tho' the Grand Signior bought her, He'd soon turn a slave to Lepell. " Had I Hanover, Bremen, and Varden, And likewise the Duchy of Zell, I would part with them all for a farthing, To have my dear Molly Lepell. " Or were I the king of Great Britain, To chose a minister well, And support the throne that I sit ou, I'd have by me Mary Lepell. *Jfc Jt. Jfc Mm JE. Jfa •7P TV" •«■ "JT -7P -Jp " Her lips and her breath are much sweeter Than the thing which the Latins call mell, Who would not thus pump for a metre To chime to dear Molly Lepell ? " If Curll should print me this sonnet, To a volume my verses would swell ; A fig for what Dennis says on it, He can never find fault with Lepell. " Then Handel to music shall set it, Through England my balhid shall sell, And all the world readily get it, To sing to the praise of Lepell." At fourteen years of age this lady was a maid of honour to Queen Caroline, then Princess of Wales, who upon her accession to the throne, appointed her to be mistress of the robes. She was married in October, 1720, to Lord John Hervey, and died on the 2nd of September, 17(38, in her sixty-eighth year. THE BEAUTIFUL MISSES GUNNING. 419 Doubtless among the many remarkable characters, who with the numerous celebrities of that gay world clustered round the courtly circle of Richmond Lodge, when royalty honoured it with its presence, were two ladies, remarkable for their beauty and for the sensation they created — styled by Mrs. Montague, in one of her letters, as " those goddesses the Gunnings." Maria and Elizabeth Gunning were the daughters of John Gunning, of Castle Coote, in Ireland, and it Avas in 1751 when the former, in her nineteenth, and the latter in her eighteenth year first appeared at the court of the sovereign. The extraordinary beauty of these ladies seems to have created at this period an immense sensation in the fashionable world. Horace Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, thus alludes to them : — " You who knew England in other times will find it difficult to conceive what in- difference reigns with regard to ministers and their squabbles. The two Miss Gunnings are twenty times more the subject of conversation than the two brothers and Lord Granville. These are two Irish girls of no fortune, who are declared the handsomest women alive. I think there being two so handsome, and both such perfect figures, is their chief excellence, for singly I have seen much handsomer women than cither; how- ever, they can't walk in the park or go to Vauxhall but such crowds follow that they are generally driven away/" On another occasion Walpole writes : — "As you talk of our beauties, I shall tell you a new story of the e e 2 420 SINGULAR WEDDING CEREMONY. Gunnings, who make more noise than any of their pre- decessors since the days of Helen, though neither of them, nor anything about them, has yet been teterrima bella causa. They went the other day to see Hampton Court; as they were going into the Beauty-room another company arrived ; the housekeeper* said, ' This way, ladies; here are the beauties/ The Gunnings flew into a passion and asked her what she meant ; they came to see the palace, not to be shown as a sight themselves." The younger of these sisters, Elizabeth, on the 14th February married the Duke of Hamilton. The description given by Walpole of the way in which the wedding ceremony was performed, is a remarkable one : — " That one evening the duke determined at once to be married, and that he sent for a parson. The doctor refused to perform the ceremony at that time, and without licence or ring. The duke swore that he would send for the archbishop. At last they were married with a brass ring, torn from a curtain at half past twelve at night, at Mayfair Chapel." Three weeks afterwards Maria Gunning was married to Lord Coventry. The interest and excitement as to these ladies seem to have increased after their marriage ; for soon afterwards Walpole writes : — " The world is still mad about the Gunnings. The Duchess of Hamilton was presented on Friday; the crowd was so great that even the noble crowd in the drawing-room clambered on chairs and tables to look at her. There are mobs at their doors to see them get into their * The person deputed at that time to show the palace to visitors. LADY COVENTRY AND GEORGE II. 421 chairs, and people go early to get places at the theatres when it is known they will be there. Dr. Sacheverell never made more noise than these two beauties." A few weeks afterwards, Walpole again refers to them : — " The Gunnings are gone to their several castles, and one hears no more of them, except that such crowds Hock to see the Duchess of Hamilton pass ; that seven hundred people sat up all night in and about an inn in Yorkshire to see her get into her post-chaise next morning ; and it is literally true that a shoemaker at Worcester got two guineas and a half by showing a shoe that he was making for the countess at a penny a head." Certain it is that nature had not been equally kind to the beautiful Lady Coventry in the way of mental endowments, as she had been to her in the distribution of personal attractions. She seems to have been a weak- minded person, and one utterly devoid of all tact or judgment. In an interview which this celebrated beauty had on one occasion with George II., near to the close of his extended life, the monarch while con- versing with her on the subject of theatres, balls, and such like topics, remarked that London was at that time very dull, and that no masquerades had taken place dming the year; to which the countess incon- siderately replied : " That as for sights she was quite satisfied ; there was only one which she was eager to see, and that was a coronation." It appears that the king was highly amused at Lady Coventry's conver- sational blunder, and repeated it at supper to his family with great good humour, but the reflection caused by 422 VISIT TO VAUXHALL. such a remark was not probably to the aged king of too satisfactory a nature. Lady Coventry did not live long to enjoy the posi- tion to which she had been raised by her marriage, and the eclat which her great personal attractions had gained for her. She died eight years afterwards, and it was at the time asserted that the quantity of paint which she laid on her face, by checking perspiration, was the ultimate cause of the disorder which occasioned her death. Some of the titled ladies of this period were singular and eccentric beings : ladies whose habits, manners, style of dress, conversation, and pursuits are told by Horace Walpole in his best style. We will quote but one out of a numerous collection of anecdotes wherein the amusing writer and gossip informs his readers of the kind of life which in his day even ladies of title led, — one not only of frivolity but even pro- fligacy. Lady Caroline Petersham, and her companion, Miss Ashe (who from her diminutive stature was styled by George Selwyn " the Pollard Ash "), with Lord Granby, Walpole, and others, make up a party to go to Vauxhall Gardens ; they are attended by two young ladies who are trusted to the matronly care of Lady Caroline for the evening ; they take their own barge and proceed to the gardens by water, another boat fol- lowing closely in their wake filled with men playing on French horns. A titled lady of our own day would feel rather astounded were she requested to take part in such an entertainment as the one alluded to ; for Lady Caroline on this occasion herself acted as cook. ECCENTRIC PROCEEDINGS. 423 On arriving at the gardens, after a few preliminaries, this volatile lady commences her labours by mincing seven chickens into a china dish, then stewing the aforesaid mutilated chickens over a lamp, with three pats of butter and a flagon of water, stirring and rattling and laughing, " and we," says Walpole, " expecting every minute to have the dish fly about our ears. She had brought Betty, the fruit woman, with hampers of strawberries and cherries from liogcr's, and made her wait upon us. The conversation was no less lively than the whole transaction." We do not at all doubt it. Lady Caroline must have been deserving of the cognomen by which Boswell frequently de- signated Mrs. Piozzi, viz., " that she was a very ( lively lady.' ' But it is remarkable, prior to the acces- sion of George III., how loose and even licentious were the manners and habits of some of the ladies of quality ; not only did they frequently sup at taverns, but would occasionally invite the gentlemen as guests to such entertainments. With the reign of George III., and his subsequent marriage, commenced an entirely different order of things, and although slowly at first, the tide of reformation set in surely, and in the course of a few years the rigidly strict propriety which governed the court of the sovereign and his queen, coupled with the blameless and domestic life they themselves led, effected an entire change in the manners and habits of society among the wealthy classes, not only by the example which it presented, but likewise that it was a way of life so entirely opposed to the state of manners which had ruled the 424 HAPPY LIFE OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. court, the gay world that fluttered round it, and even the domestic life of the two former monarchs. Not only were the habits of the aristocracy undergoing transition from licentiousness and immorality, to a more hopeful and healthy state; not only were the Lady Caroline Petershams and Miss Ashes, and the revellings and rollickings at Vauxhall rapidly becom- ing obsolete tales of the past, but religion, long neglected among the upper ranks of society, was asserting its claim in the minds of men. Whitfield and Wesley, with other zealous teachers, were promi- nent for the intrepidity and earnestness with which they endeavoured to combat the godless, irreligious spirit which prevailed among nearly all classes of society, and rousing to exertion a careless and slum- bering church. In the year 1762 Richmond Lodge became the residence of the young Queen Charlotte, and here her majesty spent the summer of that year, with the infant prince, the future heir to the throne, and when other infant princes were added to the number of the royal family, the old lodge seems to have become a kind of nursery, to which they were frequently consigned. A peaceful and happy life did George III. and his queen lead at this time, partly at the lodge and after- wards in the old palace at Kew, where during the summer months much of their time was passed. Their majesties certainly endeavoured to mingle with the studies of the young princes a practical kind of education, which is thus described in Watkins's EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG PRINCES. 425 " Memoirs of Queen Charlotte. " " A spot of ground in the garden at Kew was dug by his royal highness the Prince of Wales, and his brother the Duke of York, who sowed it with wheat, attended the growth of their little crop, weeded, reaped, and harvested it solely by themselves. They thrashed out the corn and separated it from the chaff, and at this period of their labour were brought to reflect from their own ex- perience on the various labours and attentions of the husbandman and the farmer. The princes not only raised their own crop, but they also ground it, and having patted the bran from the meal, attended to the whole process of making it into bread, which it may be well imagined was eaten with no slight relish. " Bishop Newtou, who resided at a house on Kew Green, informs us, " That it was an additional pleasure to see and hear so much of the king and queen in their privacy, of their conjugal happiness, and their domestic virtues, which the nearer they were beheld appeared greater and more amiable, and were a shining pattern to the very best of their subjects." This period of the king and queen's life, and the quiet and domestic way in which their time was passed, is referred to in a totally different style by Thackeray, in his description of their mode of living, their daily habits and pursuits. He observes : — " They met and they were married, and for years they led the happiest and simplest lives sure were ever led by married couple. It is said that the king winced when he first saw his homely little bride, but however that may be, he was a true and faithful husband to her, as she was a faith- 426 GEORGE III. AND HIS QUEEN. ful and loving wife. They had the simplest pleasures, the very mildest and simplest little country dances, to which a dozen couples were invited, and where the honest king would stand up and dance for three hours at a time to one tune, after which delicious excitement they would go to bed without any supper — the court people grumbling sadly at the absence of supper — and get up quite early next morning, and perhaps the next night would have another dance, or the queen would play on the spinnet — she played pretty well, Haydn said — or the king would read to her a paper out of the Spectator, or perhaps one of Ogden's sermons. Oh, Arcadia, what a life it must have been ! There used to be Sunday drawing-rooms at court, but the young king stopped these as he stopped all that godless gambling whereof we have made mention. Not that George was averse to innocent pleasures, or pleasures that he thought innocent. . . . He did his best; he worked according to his light ; what virtue he knew he tried to practise ; what knowledge he could master he strove to acquire. He was for ever drawing maps, for example ; and learned geography with no small care and industry. He knew all about the family histories and genealogies of his gentry — and pretty histories he must have known. He knew the whole " Army List," and all the facings, and the exact number of the buttons, and all the tags and lace, and the cut of all the cocked hats and pigtails and gaiters in his army/' The last time that we hear or read of Richmond Lodge is about the year 1767, when we find " that after the birthday her majesty left town to reside at DEMOLITION OF THE LODGE. 427 Richmond Lodge, where the two princes caught the hooping-cough ; and such was the maternal solicitude of the queen, that she attended them night and day, the consequence of which was a severe though happily a short illness, that when both the queen and the young princes had recovered, a grand entertainment was given at the Lodge, with a ball for the young- nobility, on which occasion more than a thousand lamps were lighted up in the gardens, and some very brilliant fireworks exhibited at night." Of this famous old lodge, its magnificent gardens, the statuary, and the numerous and singular buildings with which the queen of George II. had at such an extraordinary outlay enriched this place — the re- mains of the ancient monastery of Sheen, the large and embattled Gothic entrance, and the numerous houses still appertaining to the hamlet — we have now not a vestige left. A few years after the accession of George III. " to the throne of these realms," the public, more especially of Richmond and Kew, were surprised to learn that it Avas his majesty's intention to pull down the whole of the buildings, and convert the estate into a large pasturage for cattle, which in- tention was duly carried out. It was at the time asserted, and in that assertion there is no doubt much truth, that the young king so detested the memory of his grandmother, Queen Caroline, so cherished a recollection of the unnatural behaviour which she had always shown towards his late father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, that he took an earnest pleasure in destroying all that she had 428 DEATH OF THE QUEEN UNCERTAINTY erected, or on which her taste and resources had been expended. It cannot be denied that the behaviour of Caroline had been unnatural towards her son ; she seems to have hated him thoroughly and intensely — slighted his young and amiable wife — sided with his father, who upon all occasions behaved towards him with harshness and severity ; and when on her death-bed the prince importuned to be allowed to see her, and sent her a most affectionate message, refused to have him admitted to her presence. That remarkable death-bed scene, and most remark- able reply of the about-to-be bereaved royal husband, must not be forgotten. The dying queen requested her weeping partner, as he sat by her bed-side, but a brief period before her death took place, that after her decease he should again marry. The reply was perhaps as singular as could possibly be conceived ; and it was spoken, too, among a profusion of tears — " Non, non ; y aurai des maitresses \" We must now take our leave of this once-celebrated mansion — the favourite residence of the queens of the First and Second Georges, and of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Numerous are the associations which beloug to the history of this old abode of royalty, and it is much to the regret of all who take an interest in events and details of the past, that such wholesale destruction should have ensued of all the various structures which stood in these gardens, and that the work should have been so thoroughly and completely effected ; for, with the exception of one having tole- rable evidence of the present Observatory being erected AS TO THE SITE OF RICHMOND LODGE. 429 upon a part of the foundations of the old Monastery of Jesns of Bethlehem, there are scarcely the slightest indications of the whereabouts of any other of the old buildings; and the antiquary of even the present generation, although scarcely a century has passed away, searches in vain for the exact locality of the Summer Palace of Caroline of Brandenburgh, and only in doubt and with hesitation would attempt to assign a locality for old Richmond Lodge, " Or point where the fabric stood." THE END. LONDON : SAVILL AND KDWARDS, PRINTKRS, OHANDOS STKEKT, COVKNT GARDKN. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. AUG 9 1983 .(Si 6 Form L9-10/ai-6,'52(A1855)444 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 111 111 I|! ! !l ' 1 1 11 1| II AA 000 394 727 2 LA 690 R5C86 University ol Calrfornia, Los Angeles L 005 413 169 3 .•>•-•-'• i an sffl hViVKA