A Walk from London to Fulham Part 6

The house,

No. 1, SEYMOUR PLACE,

[Picture: No. 1 Seymour Place] as it was then, Seymour Terrace, Little Chelsea, as it is now called, became, about this period, the residence of the unhappy fugitives. Griffin, who appears to have made their acquaintance through a Spanish gentleman, named Valentine Llanos, writes, in February, 1824,-

"I was introduced the other day to poor Madame Riego, the relict of the unfortunate general. I was surprised to see her look much better than I was prepared to expect, as she is in a confirmed consumption."

Mental grief, which death only could terminate, had at that moment "marked" Madame Riego "for his own;" yet her look, like that of all high-minded Spaniards, to a stranger was calm-"much better than he was prepared to expect."

On the 18th of May, exactly one month and a day before the termination of her sufferings, Griffin says,-

"The canon Riego, brother to the poor martyr, sent me, the other day, a Spanish poem of many cantos, having for its subject the career of the unhappy general, and expressed a wish that I might find material for an English one in it, if I felt disposed to make anything of the subject. _Apropos_, Madame Riego is almost dead. The fire is in her eye, and the flush on her cheek, which are, I believe, no beacons of hope to the consumptive. She is an interesting woman, and I pity her from my soul. This Mr. Mathews, who was confined with her husband, and arrived lately in London, and who, moreover, is a countryman of mine, brought her from her dying husband a little favourite dog and a parrot, which were his companions in his dungeon. He very indiscreetly came before her with the remembrances without any preparation, and she received a shock from it, from which she has not yet, nor ever will recover. What affecting little circ.u.mstances these are, and how interesting to one who has the least mingling of enthusiasm in his character!"

Madame Riego died in the arms of her attached sister, attended by the estimable canon. In her will she directed her executor, the canon, to a.s.sure the British people of the grat.i.tude she felt towards them for the sympathy and support which they extended to her in the hours of her adversity. But what makes the will peculiarly affecting is her solemn attestation to the purity and sincerity of the political life of General Riego. She states that she esteems it to be the last act of justice and duty to the memory of her beloved husband, solemnly to declare, in the awful presence of her G.o.d, before whose judgment-seat she feels she must soon appear, that all his private feelings and dispositions respecting his country corresponded with his public acts and professions in defence of its liberties.

A few yards beyond the turn down to Seymour Place, on the opposite side of the road, stood, until pulled down in 1856, to make room for the new one, the additional workhouse to St. George's, Hanover Square, for which purpose Shaftesbury House was purchased by that parish in 1787; and an Act of Parliament pa.s.sed in that year declares it to be in "St. George's parish so long as it shall continue to be appropriated to its present use." [Picture: Shaftesbury House] [Picture: Back of Shaftesbury House]

The parochial adjuncts to Lord Shaftesbury's mansion, which remained, until the period of its demolition, in nearly the same state as when disposed of, have been considerable; but the building, as his lords.h.i.+p left it, could be at once recognised through the iron gate by which you entered, and which was surmounted by a lion rampant, probably the crest of one of the subsequent possessors. It is surprising, indeed, that so little alteration, externally as well as internally should have taken place. The appearance of the back of Shaftesbury House, as represented in an old print, was unchanged, with the exception of the flight of steps which led to the garden being transferred to the west (or shaded side) of the wing-an addition made by Lord Shaftesbury to the original house.

This was purchased by him in 1699 from the Bovey family, as heirs to the widow of Sir James Smith, by whom there is reason to believe it was built in 1635, as [Picture: Stone] was engraved on a stone which formed part of the pavement in front of one of the summer-houses in the garden.

The Right Honourable Sir James Smith was buried at Chelsea 18th of November, 1681. He was probably the junior sheriff of London in 1672.

[Picture: Summer-house]

"It does not appear," says Lysons, "that Lord Shaftesbury pulled down Sir James Smith's house, but altered it and made considerable additions by a building fifty feet in length, which projected into the garden. It was secured with an iron door, the window-shutters were of the same metal, and there were iron plates between it and the house to prevent all communication by fire, of which this learned and n.o.ble peer seems to have entertained great apprehensions. The whole of the new building, though divided into a gallery and two small rooms (one of which was his lords.h.i.+p's bedchamber), was fitted up as a library. The earl was very fond of the culture of fruit-trees, and his gardens were planted with the choicest sorts, particularly every kind of vine which would bear the open air of this climate. It appears by Lord Shaftesbury's letters to Sir John Cropley that he dreaded the smoke of London as so prejudicial to his health, that whenever the wind was easterly he quitted Little Chelsea," where he generally resided during the sitting of Parliament.

In 1710 the n.o.ble author of 'Characteristics,' then about to proceed to Italy, sold his residence at Little Chelsea to Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., who, as a book-collector, is described by Dr. Dibdin as "ever ardent in his love of past learning, and not less voracious in his bibliomaniacal appet.i.tes" than the Duke of Marlborough. Sir Walter Scott acknowledges in his preface to the works of Dryden the obligations he is under to the "valuable" and "curious collection of fugitive pieces of the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., and Queen Anne," "made by Narcissus Luttrell, Esq., under whose name the editor quotes it. This industrious collector," continues Sir Walter, "seems to have bought every poetical tract, of whatever merit, which was hawked through the streets in his time, marking carefully the price and the date of the purchase. His collection contains the earliest editions of many of our most excellent poems, bound up, according to the order of time, with the lowest trash of Grub Street. It was dispersed on Mr. Luttrell's death," adds Sir Walter Scott, and he then mentions Mr. James Bindley and Mr. Richard Heber as having "obtained a great share of the Luttrell collection, and liberally furnished him with the loan of some of them in order to the more perfect editing of Dryden's works."

This is not exactly correct, as Mr. Luttrell's library descended with Shaftesbury House to Mr. Sergeant Wynne, and from him to his eldest son, after whose death it was sold by auction in 1786. On the t.i.tle-page of the sale-catalogue the collection is described as "the valuable library of Edward Wynne, Esq., lately deceased, brought from his house at Little Chelsea. Great part of it was formed by an eminent and curious collector in the last century." At the sale of Mr. Wynne's library, Bindley purchased lot '209, Collection of Poems, various, Latin and English, 5 vols. 1626, &c.,' for seven guineas; and '211, Collection of Political Poems, Dialogues, Funeral Elegies, Lampoons, &c., with various Political Prints and Portraits, 3 vols. 1641, &c.,' for sixteen pounds; and it is probable that these are the collections to which Sir Walter Scott refers.

Dr. Dibdin, in his enthusiastic mode of treating matters of bibliography, endeavours to establish a pedigree for those who

"Love a ballad in print a' life,"

from Pepys, placing Mr. Luttrell the Second in descent.

"The opening of the eighteenth century," he observes, "was distinguished by the death of a bibliomaniac of the very first order and celebrity; of one who had no doubt frequently discoursed largely and eloquently with Luttrell upon the variety and value of certain editions of old ballad poetry, and between whom presents of curious old black-letter volumes were in all probability pa.s.sing, I allude to the famous Samuel Pepys, secretary to the Admiralty."

Of Narcissus Luttrell he then says:-

"Nothing would seem to have escaped his lynx-like vigilance. Let the object be what it may (especially if it related to poetry), let the volume be great or small, or contain good, bad, or indifferent warblings of the Muse, his insatiable craving had 'stomach for all.'

We may consider his collection the fountain-head of these copious streams, which, after fructifying in the libraries of many bibliomaniacs in the first half of the eighteenth century, settled for awhile more determinedly in the curious book-reservoir of a Mr.

Wynne, and hence breaking up and taking a different direction towards the collections of Farmer, Steevens, and others, they have almost lost their ident.i.ty in the innumerable rivulets which now inundate the book-world."

It is to the literary taste of Mr. Edward Wynne, as a.s.serted by Dr.

Dibdin, that modern book-collectors are indebted for the preservation of most of the choicest relics of the Bibliotheca Luttrelliana.

"Mr. Wynne," he continues, "lived at Little Chelsea, and built his library in a room which had the reputation of having been Locke's study. Here he used to sit surrounded by innumerable books, a great part being formed by 'an eminent and curious collector in the last century.'"

What Dr. Dibdin says respecting Mr. Wynne's building a library and Locke's study is inaccurate, as there can be no reasonable doubt that the room or rooms his library occupied were those built by Lord Shaftesbury, which had (and correctly) the reputation of having been his lords.h.i.+p's library, and the study, not of Locke, although of Locke's pupil and friend. It is not even probable that Lord Shaftesbury was ever visited by our great philosopher at Little Chelsea, as from 1700 that ill.u.s.trious man resided altogether at Oates, in Ess.e.x, where he died on the 28th of October, 1704.

Whether to Lord Shaftesbury or to Mr. Luttrell the embellishments of the garden of their residence are to be attributed can now be only matter for conjecture, unless some curious autograph-collector's portfolio may by chance contain an old letter or other doc.u.ment to establish the claim.

Their tastes, however, were very similar. They both loved their books, and their fruits and flowers, and enjoyed the study of them. [Picture: Summer-house] An account drawn up by Mr. Luttrell of several pears which he cultivated at Little Chelsea, with outlines of their longitudinal sections, was communicated to the Horticultural Society by Dr. Luttrell Wynne, one hundred years after the notes had been made, and may be found printed in the second volume of the Transactions of that Society. In this account twenty-five varieties of pears are mentioned, which had been obtained between the years 1712 and 1717 from Mr. Duncan's, Lord Cheneys's, Mr. Palmer's, and Mr. Selwood's nursery.

Until recently it was astounding to find, amid the rage for alteration and improvement, the formal old-fas.h.i.+oned shape of a trim garden of Queen Anne's time carefully preserved, its antique summer-houses respected, and the little infant leaden Hercules, which spouted water to cool the air from a serpent's throat, still a.s.serting its aquatic supremacy, under the shade of a fine old medlar-tree; and all this too in the garden of a London parish workhouse! [Picture: Hercules fountain] Not less surprising was the aspect of the interior. The grotesque workshop of the pauper artisans, said to have been [Picture: Workshop] Lord Shaftesbury's dairy, and over which was his fire-proof library, was then an apartment appropriated to a girls' school.

On the bas.e.m.e.nt story of the original house the embellished mouldings of a doorway, carried the mind back to [Picture: Doorway] the days of Charles I., and, standing within which, imagination depicted the figure of a jolly Cavalier retainer, with his pipe and tankard; or of a Puritanical, formal servant, the expression of whose countenance was sufficient to turn the best-brewed October into vinegar. The old carved door leading into this apartment is shown in the annexed sketch.

Nor should the apartment then occupied by the intelligent master of the workhouse be overlooked. The panelling of the room, its chimney-piece, and the painting and [Picture: Fireplace with painting above] framework above it, placed us completely in a chamber of the time of William III.

And we only required a slight alteration in the furniture, and Lord Shaftesbury to enter, to feel that we were in the presence of the author of 'Characteristics.'

The staircase, too, with its spiral bal.u.s.ters, as seen through the doorway, retained its ancient air.

[Picture: Staircase seen through doorway]

Narcissus Luttrell died here on the 26th of June, 1732, and was buried at Chelsea on the 6th of July following; where Francis Luttrell (presumed to be his son) was also buried on the 3rd of September, 1740. Shaftesbury House then pa.s.sed into the occupation of Mr. Sergeant Wynne, who died on the 17th of May, 1765; and from him it descended to his eldest son, Mr.

Edward Wynne, the author of 'Eunomus: a Dialogue concerning the Law and Const.i.tution of England, with an Essay on Dialogue,' 4 vols. 8vo; and other works, chiefly of a legal nature. He died a bachelor, at Little Chelsea, on the 27th of December, 1784; and his brother, the Rev.

Luttrell Wynne, of All Souls, Oxford, inherited Shaftesbury House, and the valuable library which Mr. Luttrell, his father, and brother, had acc.u.mulated. The house he alienated to William Virtue, from whom, as before mentioned, it was purchased by the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square, in 1787; and the library formed a twelve-days' sale, by Messrs.

Leigh and Sotheby, commencing on the 6th of March, 1786. The auction-catalogue contained 2788 lots; and some idea of the value may be formed from the circ.u.mstance, that nine of the first seventeen lots sold for no less a sum than 32 7s., and that four lots of old newspapers, Nos. 25, 26, 27, and 28, were knocked down at 18 5s. No. '376, a collection of old plays, by Gascoigne, White, Windet, Decker, &c., 21 vols,' brought 38 17s.; and No. 644, Milton's 'Eiconoclastes,' with MS.

notes, supposed to be written by Milton, was bought by Waldron for 2s., who afterwards gave it to Dr. Farmer. Dr. Dibdin declares, that "never was a precious collection of English history and poetry so wretchedly detailed to the public in an auction-catalogue" as that of Mr. Wynne's library; and yet it will be seen that it must have realised a considerable sum of money. He mentions, that "a great number of the poetical tracts were disposed of, previous to the sale, to Dr. Farmer, who gave not more than forty guineas for them."

CHAPTER III.

FROM LITTLE CHELSEA TO WALHAM GREEN.

After what has been said respecting Shaftesbury House, it may be supposed that its a.s.sociations with the memory of remarkable individuals are exhausted. This is very far from being the case; and a long period in its history, from 1635 to 1699, remains to be filled up, which, however, must be done by conjecture: although so many circ.u.mstances are upon record, that it is not impossible others can be produced to complete a chain of evidence that may establish among those who have been inmates of the ADDITIONAL WORKHOUSE OF ST. GEORGE'S, HANOVER SQUARE-startling as the a.s.sertion may appear-two of the most ill.u.s.trious individuals in the annals of this country; of one of whom Bishop Burnet observed, {110} that his "loss is lamented by all learned men;" the other, a man whose "great and distinguis.h.i.+ng knowledge was the knowledge of human nature or the powers and operations of the mind, in which he went further, and spoke clearer, than all other writers who preceded him, and whose 'Essay on the Human Understanding' is the best book of logic in the world." After this, I need scarcely add that BOYLE and LOCKE are the ill.u.s.trious individuals referred to.

The amiable John Evelyn, in his 'Diary,' mentions his visiting Mr. Boyle at Chelsea, on the 9th March, 1661, in company "with that excellent person and philosopher, Sir Robert Murray," where they "saw divers effects of the eolipile for weighing air." And in the same year M. de Monconys, a French traveller in England, says, "L'apres dine je fus avec M. Oldenburg, {111} et mon fils, a deux milles de Londres en carosse pour cinq chelins a un village nomme _le pet.i.t Chelsey_, voir M. Boyle." Now at this period there probably was no other house at Little Chelsea of sufficient importance to be the residence of the Hon. Robert Boyle, where he could receive strangers in his laboratory and show them his great telescope; and, moreover, notwithstanding what has been said to prove the impossibility of Locke having visited Lord Shaftesbury on this spot, local tradition continues to a.s.sert that Locke's work on the 'Human Understanding' was commenced in the retirement of one of the summer-houses of Lord Shaftesbury's residence. This certainly may have been the case if we regard Locke as a visitor to his brother philosopher, Boyle, and admit his tenancy of the mansion previous to that of Lord Shaftesbury, to whom Locke, it is very probable, communicated the circ.u.mstance, and which might have indirectly led to his lords.h.i.+p's purchase of the premises. Be that as it may, it is an interesting a.s.sociation, with something more than mere fancy for its support, to contemplate a communion between two of the master-minds of the age, and the influence which their conversation possibly had upon that of the other.

Boyle's sister, the puritanical Countess of Warwick, under date 27th November, 1666, makes the following note: "In the morning, as soon as dressed, I prayed, then went with my lord to my house at Chelsea, which he had hired, where I was all that day taken up with business about my house." {112} Whether this refers to _Little Chelsea_ or not is more than I can affirm, although there are reasons for thinking that Shaftesbury House, or, if not, one which will be subsequently pointed out, is the house alluded to.

Charles, the fourth Earl of Orrery, and grand-nephew to Boyle the philosopher, was born at Dr. Whittaker's house at Little Chelsea on the 21st July, 1674. It was his grandfather's marriage with Lady Margaret Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, that induced the witty Sir John Suckling to write his well-known 'Ballad upon a Wedding,' in which he so lusciously describes the bride:-

"Her cheeks so rare a white was on, No daisie makes comparison; Who sees them is undone; For streaks of red were mingled there, Such as are on the Cath'rine pear- The side that's next the sun.

"Her lips were red; and one was thin, Compared to that was next her chin- Some bee had stung it newly; But, d.i.c.k, her eyes so guard her face, I durst no more upon her gaze, Than on the sun in July."

The second Earl of Orrery, this lady's son, having married Lady Mary Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset, is stated to have led a secluded life at Little Chelsea, and to have died in 1682. His eldest son, the third earl, died in 1703, and his brother, mentioned above as born at Little Chelsea, became the fourth earl, and distinguished himself in the military, scientific, and literary proceedings of his times. In compliment to this Lord Orrery's patronage, Graham, an ingenious watchmaker, named after his lords.h.i.+p a piece of mechanism which exhibits the movements of the heavenly bodies. With his brother's death, however, in 1703, at Earl's Court, Kensington, the connection of the Boyle family with this neighbourhood appears to terminate.

Doctor Baldwin Hamey, an eminent medical pract.i.tioner during the time of the Commonwealth, and a considerable benefactor to the College of Physicians, died at Little Chelsea on the 14th of May, 1676, after an honourable retirement from his professional duties of more than ten years.

Mr. Faulkner's 'History of Kensington,' published in 1820, and in which parish the portion of Little Chelsea on the north side of the Fulham Road stands, mentions the residence of Sir Bartholomew Shower, an eminent lawyer, in 1693; Sir Edward Ward, lord chief baron of the Exchequer, in 1697; Edward Fowler, lord bishop of Gloucester, in 1709, who died at his house here on the 26th August, 1714; and Sir William Dawes, lord bishop of Chester, in 1709, who, I may add, died Archbishop of York in 1724.

But in Mr. Faulkner's 'History of Chelsea,' published in 1829, nothing more is to be found respecting Sir Bartholomew Shower than that he was engaged in some parochial law proceedings in 1691. Sir Edward Ward's residence is unnoticed. The Bishop of Gloucester, who is said to have been a devout believer in fairies and witchcraft, is enumerated among the inhabitants of Paradise Row, Chelsea (near the hospital, and full a mile distant from _le pet.i.t Chelsey_); and Sir William Dawes, we find from various entries, an inhabitant of the parish between the years 1696 and 1712, but without "a local habitation" being a.s.signed to him. All this is very unsatisfactory to any one whose appet.i.te craves after map-like accuracy in parish affairs.

Bowack, in 1705, mentions that