History of Music, taken from the original bust by Nollekens. The three
drawing-rooms were of the same dimensions as the hall; the first was
ornamented with several mosaic and fresco paintings from Herculaneum, and
other works of ancient arts. In the next apartments were portraits of
Bishop North, and his lady. Along the gallery which led to the garden
were disposed, in glass cases, a rich variety of beautiful shells, with
spars and ores, and a large collection of Italian marbles. The house was
also adorned with many specimens of modern art, in modelling and
painting, executed by Miss North, the Hon. Mr. Brownlow North, and by
others of his lordship’s family.
* * * * *
Winchester House was well and expensively supplied with water, conveyed
by pipes from a conduit, built by Henry VIII., situated in the King’s
forcing grounds at Kensington.
* * * * *
Upon pulling down the palace a singular discovery was made. In a small
room, to the north front, and at the north-west corner, were found on the
plaster of the walls, nine figures of the size of life, viz., three men
and six women, drawn in outline with black chalk in a bold and animated
style. Various opinions have been given respecting these spirited
sketches. They displayed much of the _manner_ of Hogarth, who lived on
intimate terms with Bishop Hoadly, and it was supposed that these figures
applied to some domestic incident in the bishop’s family, or to some
scene in a play. His lordship’s partiality for the drama was great. A
near relative, who resided in Chelsea, wrote the comedy of “The
Suspicious Husband.”
* * * * *
The palace remained unoccupied after the death of Bishop North; for Lady
Tomline, the wife of Bishop Tomline, conceived a dislike to the place
altogether. His lordship, in consequence, applied to Parliament and
obtained an Act to enable him to sell the premises. The Lord of the
Manor became the purchaser; and subsequently the whole fabric was sold by
auction.
Description of the Manor House.
As full particulars have already been given of the distinguished
occupiers of the ancient Manor House, Cheyne Walk, it is here only
necessary to describe the structure of this once celebrated residence.
{105}
* * * * *
Immediately adjoining Winchester Palace, on the east, was situated the
ancient Manor House and lands. It was a spacious house, built by Henry
VIII., the original consisting of a rather plain brick structure, one
storey above the ground floor, with irregularly-shaped windows, and
divided by four buttresses of great width, carried up considerably higher
than the roof, either as ornaments or concealed flues. The parapet of
this part was castellated. Two additions, on the east, seems to have
been subsequently added to the original; one of them being three stories
in height, the other of two, without either buttress or embrasures. The
number of windows in the entire front was thirty-four, and the entrance
door accorded with the period of Henry VIII. The whole presented an idea
of monastic antiquity.
Sir Hans Sloane, it is said, was buried from the eastern end of the Manor
House. A man, named Howard, who was employed in the removal of his
books, stated that they amounted to nearly 40,000 volumes.
* * * * *
On part of the site of the old Manor House, and adjoining Winchester
Palace, in the first house eastward in Cheyne Walk, resided for a long
time the Rev. Thomas Clare. When the destruction of the episcopal domain
took place, Mr. Clare, with some difficulty, obtained a portion of the
land upon which the gardens of the above venerable edifice stood, in the
arrangement and disposition of which he omitted nothing which might do
justice to the memory of its former illustrious owners and occupiers, or
excite the approbation of visitors of judgment and taste.
* * * * *
Sir Richard Steele appears, from the parish books, to have rented a house
by the water-side, rated at £14 per annum. In a letter from Sir Richard
to Lady Steele, dated Chelsea, 14th of February, 1716, he says, “Mr.
Fuller and I came hither to dine in the air, but the maid has been so
slow that we are benighted, and chuse to lie here rather than go this
road in the dark. I lie at our own house, and my friend at a relation’s
in the town.”
* * * * *
Sir Richard was born about the year 1676, in Ireland, but of English
parents. At a very early age he was sent from Dublin to London, and was
educated with Addison at the Charter House; from hence he removed to
Merton College, Oxford; he left the University without taking a degree,
and entered the army, a step highly displeasing to his friends. However,
as he had a constant flow of good nature, a generous frankness of spirit,
and a sparkling vivacity of wit, these qualities rendered him the delight
of the soldiery, and having made choice of a profession which set him
free from all the ordinary restraints in youth, he indulged his
inclinations in the wildest excesses. He became Secretary to Lord Cutts,
who obtained for him the rank of captain in Lord Lucas’s regiment of
Fusileers; and, in the beginning of Queen Anne’s reign, he was appointed
to the profitable place of Gazetteer, to which he had been recommended by
Mr. Addison. Steele had already exhibited his talents as a dramatic
writer with success, and in 1709 he began to publish “The Tatler,” which
was undertaken by him in concert with Dr. Swift, and others; and by this
work his reputation was perfectly established. This was followed by “The
Spectator,” which was carried on chiefly by the assistance of his friend
Addison, and the success of this paper being still superior to that of
the former, encouraged him to proceed in the same design in the character
of “The Guardian.”
* * * * *
In 1710 Sir Richard was made a Commissioner of the Stamp Duties, which
office he resigned in 1713; and from a placeman he became a violent
oppositionist. He took his seat in the House of Commons as Member for
Stockbridge, in Hampshire, but was expelled thence in a few days after
for writing several seditious libels. From this time till the death of
Queen Anne his attention was wholly engrossed in writing and publishing
political tracts. {107}
* * * * *
On the accession of George I. he was again taken into favour; was
appointed Surveyor to the Royal Stables at Hampton Court, had the honour
of knighthood conferred upon him, and during the whole of this reign
continued to receive many marks of the royal bounty.
* * * * *
It might now naturally be imagined that, taught by ample experience, Sir
Richard would pay some attention to economy: such, however, was the power
of habit, and such was his thoughtless profusion, that scarcely a
twelvemonth had passed before he was obliged to sell his share in a
theatre to relieve the oppressive exigencies of want. In 1725 he
surrendered the whole of his property to his creditors, and retired to
Wales, where, in the following year, he was seized with a paralytic
stroke, which rendered him incapable of any further literary effort.
* * * * *
By the indulgence of the mortgagee he resided on his estate, near
Carmarthen, which he had formerly acquired on his marriage with his
second wife. After lingering nearly two years in this secluded
situation, he died September 21, 1729. Such was the chequered life of
Steele, at one time exulting on the wing of prosperity; at another
depressed by all the evils of the most embittered poverty. His frailties
were not the offspring of vice, but the effects of habitual carelessness
and the want of prudence. Compassionate in his heart; unbounded in his
benevolence; no object of distress that he could relieve ever left him
with a murmur; and in the hour of prosperity he was ever ready, both with
his influence and property, to promote the views of literature and
science, and to assist the efforts of unprotected genius. Mental wealth,
however poor and humble the possessor, was esteemed by him to be of
invaluable worth. {108}
Don Saltero’s Coffee House.
This well known coffee-house was first opened in the year 1695, by one
Salter, who had been a servant to Sir Hans Sloane, and had accompanied
him on his travels. The collection of curiosities, which were
principally the gift of his master, being the duplicates of his various
curious collections, drew from London a multitude of spectators. It
existed for more than a century, and was at length sold by public auction
in the year 1799.
* * * * *
In “The Tatler,” No. 34, Sir Richard Steele has given the following
humorous description of this once far-famed collection of rarities, and
of its eccentric proprietor:—
“Being of a very spare and hective constitution, I am forced to make
frequent journies of a mile or two for fresh air; and indeed by this
last, which was no further than the village of Chelsea, I am farther
convinced of the necessity of travelling to know the world; for, as
it is usual with young voyagers, as soon as they land upon a shore,
to begin their accounts of the nature of the people, their soil,
their government, their inclinations, and their passions, so really I
fancied I could give you an immediate description of this village
from the Five Fields, where the robbers lie in wait, to the
coffee-house, where the _literati_ sit in council. A great ancestor
of ours, by the mother’s side, Mr. Justice Overdo, (whose history is
written by Ben Johnson,) met with more enormities by walking
_incognito_ than he was capable of correcting; and found great
mortifications in observing, also, persons of eminence, whom he
before knew nothing of: thus it fared with me, even in a place so
near the town as this. When I came into the coffee-house, I had not
time to salute the company, before my eye was diverted by 10,000
gimcracks round the room, and on the ceiling. When my first
astonishment was over, comes to me a sage, of thin and meagre
countenance, which aspect made me doubt whether reading or fretting
had made it so philosophic; but I very soon perceived him to be of
that sect which the ancients call Gingivistæ, in our language,
tooth-drawers. I immediately had a respect for the man; for these
practical philosophers go upon a very rational hypothesis, not to
cure, but to take away the part affected. My love of mankind made me
very benevolent to Mr. Salter; for such is the name of this eminent
barber and antiquary. Men are usually, but unjustly, distinguished
rather by their fortunes than their talents, otherwise their
patronage would make a great figure in that class of men which I
distinguish under the title of Odd Fellows; but it is the misfortune
of persons of great genius to have their faculties dissipated by
attention to too many things at once. Mr. Salter is an instance of
this; if he would wholly give himself up to the string, instead of
playing twenty beginnings to tunes, he might, before he dies play
_Roger de Caubly_ quite out. I heard him go through his whole round;
and, indeed, I think he does play the Merry Christ Church Bells
pretty justly; but he confessed to me, he did that rather to show he
was orthodox than that he valued himself upon the music itself. Or
if he did proceed in his anatomy, why might he not hope in time to
cut off legs, as well as draw teeth?
“The particularity of this man put me into a deep thought, whence it
should proceed that, of all the lower order, barbers should go
further in hitting the ridiculous than any other set of men: watermen
brawl, cobblers sing; but why must a barber be for ever a politician,
a musician, an anatomist, a poet, and a physician. The learned
Vossius says, his barber used to comb his hair in iambics; and indeed
in all ages, one of this useful profession, this order of cosmetic
philosophers, has been celebrated by the most eminent hands. You see
the barber, in Don Quixote, is one of the principal characters in the
history, which gave me satisfaction in the doubt, why Don Saltero
writ his name with a Spanish termination; for he is descended in a
right line, not from John Tradescant, as he himself asserts, but from
that memorable companion of the Knight of Mancha; and I hereby
certify, to all the worthy citizens who travel to see his rarities,
that his double-barrelled pistols, targets, coats of mails, his
sclopeta, and sword of Toledo, were left to his ancestor, by the said
ancestor to all his progeny down to Don Saltero. Though I go thus
far in favour of Don Saltero’s merit, I cannot allow a liberty he
takes of imposing several names (without my licence) on the
collections he has made, to the abuse of the good people of England,
one of which is particularly calculated to deceive religious persons,
to the great scandal of the well-disposed, and may introduce
heterodox opinions: he shows you a straw hat, which I know to be made
by Madge Peskad, within three miles of Bedford, and tells you it is
Pontius Pilate’s wife’s chambermaid’s sister’s hat. To my knowledge
of this very hat, it may be added, that the covering of straw was
never used among the Jews, since it was demanded of them to make
bricks without it.
“Therefore this is really nothing, but, under the specious pretence
of learning and antiquity, to impose upon the world. There are other
things which I cannot tolerate among his rarities, as the china
figure of a lady in the glass case, the Italian engine for the
imprisonment of those who go abroad with it; both of which I hereby
order to be taken down, or else he may expect to have his
letters-patent for making punch superseded, be debarred wearing his
muff next winter, or ever coming to London without his wife.
“It may be thought, perhaps, I have dwelt too long upon the affairs
of this operator; but I desire the reader to remember that it is my
way to consider men as they stand in merit, and not according to
their fortune or figure; and if he is in a coffee-house at the
reading hereof, let him look round, and he will find there may be
more characters drawn in this account than that of Don Saltero; for
half the politicians about him, he may observe, are, by their place
in nature, of the class of tooth-drawers.”
The curiosities of this collection were deposited in glass-cases, and
consisted of a great variety of petrifactions, corals, chrystals, ores,
shells, animals preserved in spirits, stuffed animals from various parts
of the world, idols, curious Chinese manuscripts, missals, birds, snakes,
butterflies, medals, models, fire-arms, fishes, portraits, prints, &c.
A catalogue of the whole was printed, with the names of the donors
affixed; and under the management of skilful hands this collection could
not have failed to produce ample remuneration and profit.
* * * * *
Such collections, aided by those of Tradescant, Ashmole, and Thoresby,
cherished the infancy of science, and should not be depreciated now, as
the playthings of a boy are scorned after he has arrived at manhood. Mr.
Pennant’s ancestor, who lived at Chelsea, often took his great nephew,
Mr. Pennant’s father, to the coffee-house, where he used to see poor
Richard Cromwell, a little and very neat old man, with a most placid
countenance, the effect of his innocent and unambitious life. He
imagines this was Don Saltero’s coffee-house, to which he was a
benefactor, and has the honour of having his name mentioned in the
collection. {111}
* * * * *
Mr. Pennant, when a boy, saw “his uncle’s gift to the great Saltero,”
which was “a lignified hog.” What Mr. Pennant thus facetiously
denominates, is called, in the edition of Saltero’s catalogue that we
have seen, “a piece of a root of a tree that grew in the shape of an
hog.” He feared this matchless curiosity was lost; at least, it is
omitted in the last, or forty-seventh edition of the catalogue.
* * * * *
What author, except Mr. Pennant, can flatter himself with delivering his
works down to posterity in impressions so numerous as the labours of Don
Saltero?
The name of Don Saltero made its first appearance in the newspaper, June
22nd, 1723; whence the following account of himself and his rarities is
extracted.
“Sir, fifty years since to Chelsea great,
From Rodman, on the Irish main,
I stroll’d, and maggots in my pate,
Where, much impro’d, they still remain.
Through various employes I’ve past,
A scraper, virtuos’, projector,
Tooth drawer, trimmer, and at last
I’m now a gimcrack-whim collector.
Monsters of all sorts here are seen,
Strange things in nature as they grow so,
Some relics of the Sheha queen,
And fragments of the fam’d Bob Crusoe.
Knick-knacks, too, dangle round the wall,
Some in glass cases, some on shelf,
But what’s the rarest right of all,
Your humble servant shows himself.
On this my chiefest hope depends,
Now if you will the cause espouse,
In journals pray direct your friends
To my Museum Coffee-House:
And, in requital for the timely favour,
I’ll gratis bleed, draw teeth, and be your shaver.
Nay, that your pate may with my noddle tarry,
And you shine bright as I do—marry, shall ye
Freely consult your Revelation Molly.
Nor shall one jealous thought create a huff,
For she has taught me manners long enough.”
CHELSEA KNACKATORY.
DON SALTERO.
Dr. Franklin, in his Life, mentions coming to Chelsea to see Don
Saltero’s collection:—“We one day (says he) made a party to go by water
to Chelsea, in order to see the College, and Don Saltero’s curiosities.
On our return, at the request of the company, I undressed myself, and
leaped into the river. I swam from near Chelsea the whole way to
Blackfriars Bridge, exhibiting, during my course, a variety of feats of
activity and address, both upon the surface of the water as well as under
it. The sight occasioned much astonishment and pleasure to those to whom
it was new. In my youth I took great delight in this exercise.”
* * * * *
This noted coffee-house was for many years, in the present century,
conducted in a most respectable manner. There was a subscription room,
where gentlemen met and conversed, and which was frequently visited by
men of literature and science, many of whom are still living, but of late
years it had lost the celebrity of former days. It was rebuilt in 1867,
is now a capital private residence.
* * * * *
Henry Redhead Yorke, Esq.—This accomplished scholar died at his
residence, at No. 19, Cheyne Walk, in 1813, in the 41st year of his age.
He was a great classical scholar. In his youth as he himself expressed
it, he was “madly in love with ideal liberty.” He became an officer in
the French army, and a member of the National Convention, and personally
acquainted with all the leading characters of the French Revolution. He
was denounced by Robespierre; and but for a friendly hint from the
celebrated Condorcet, must have been guillotined, had he been one hour
longer in making his escape.
* * * * *
In the month of March, 1798, he was liberated from Dorchester Castle,
after an imprisonment of four years, for a seditious libel. He had paid
a fine of £200, and entered into securities for £2,000.
* * * * *
Some years previous to his death his political ideas became moderated,
and he manifested a strong sense of the value of the British
constitution. He had been called to the bar; a profession for which he
was highly qualified, and in which there was every reason to hope he
would have risen to high eminence, had his life been prolonged. Indeed,
the zeal with which he devoted himself to his various professional
pursuits, hastened, if it did not bring on, the disorder which put a
period to his existence at the comparative early age of forty-one years.
As a classical scholar, and nervous elegant writer, he has left few
equals. His letters, under the signature of “Galgacus,” have scarcely
been surpassed since the days of Junius. In private life, Mr. Yorke was
distinguished for benevolence and liberality of sentiment, openness of
character, and his company was courted by men of all parties.
* * * * *
Francis Chalmer, Esq., (son of Edmund Chalmer, Esq.,) resided in Cheyne
Row for a great many years. He was a magistrate for the county, and
highly esteemed in the parish. As a gentleman he was affable and
courteous, and kind to the poor. He died at his house in Cheyne Row, in
July, 1859, and was interred in the Brompton Cemetery.
* * * * *
Leigh Hunt, Esq., the well-known author of many interesting works, and
who was the associate of the most distinguished political as well as
literary men of the earlier part of the present century, occupied a house
in Upper Cheyne Row for a considerable time.
* * * * *
Miss Frances Elizabeth Eggleton, and Miss Christian Mary Eggleton, lived
in Cheyne Walk. They were the daughters of Mr. David Eggleton, of Church
Street, a very old Chelsea family. The former lady died in 1861, and the
latter in 1867. Miss Frances Eggleton bequeathed a sum of money, to be
given at her sister’s death to the Rector and Churchwardens, in trust,
for them to give, on Christmas Eve, “a shoulder of mutton of not less
than seven pounds in weight, and not exceeding eight pounds in weight,
and four pounds of bread, to each of twenty poor persons of Chelsea,
being married persons and having a family.” An extract from her will,
respecting this gift, will be inserted amongst the other parochial
legacies.
* * * * *
Charles Rawlings, Esq., who resided in Cheyne Walk for many years, was
much respected in the parish, and was of a most benevolent disposition.
His deed of gift in 1862, and the legacies in 1864, will be found in the
list of Chelsea Charities.
* * * * *
Dr. Bayford, a distinguished proctor, and father of the present Dr.
Bayford, resided with his family in a spacious house, within a few doors
of Manor Street. His sons, in their younger days, were particularly
attached to aquatic exercises.
* * * * *
Nathaniel Handford, Esq., an old and respected parishioner, resided also
in Cheyne Walk, where he died. Mrs. Sarah Handford, his relict, who did
not very long survive him, left several small legacies, in 1865, to
various charitable societies in the parish.
* * * * *
W. Carpenter, Esq., well-known in literary circles, and who has long been
connected with the press, resided likewise within the last few years in
Cheyne Walk.
* * * * *
R. E. N. Lee, Esq., occupied the house at the corner of Manor Street,
(now in possession of Dr. Sannemann,) for a considerable period. He was
Steward of the Manor for eighteen years. He died in 1833, and in St.
Luke’s Church there is a tablet to his memory. No family was more
respected in Chelsea.
* * * * *
Mr. J. Fraine, a solicitor, resided at No. 13, in Cheyne Walk, and died
in 1785, aged 70. The history of this gentleman and his family was
marked by some very uncommon circumstances. He was himself afflicted
with a continual gnawing pain in his left arm, which he carried on a
board in a sling; and by pinching his jaws and throat, and beating his
right cheek through the violence of the pain, he had marked them very
much. He compared the sensation to a worm in the marrow of the upper
bone of his arm, and used to keep a boy to beat it with a stick whenever
the pain returned, and to tap on the back of his head with a piece of
wood covered with cloth. Mr. Fraine’s death was occasioned by the fall
on his right thigh of a leaden weight, with which he was exercising as a
remedy for his complaint; the injury brought on a speedy mortification.
This extraordinary case was fully described in a letter, subsequently
written by Dr. Monsey. The calamities of this unhappy gentleman extended
also to his son and daughter, both of whom fell by their own hands.
* * * * *
Mr. Fraine’s only son. King Samuel, an amiable, accomplished young man,
who received his education at Christ Church, Cambridge, put an end to his
existence at his chambers in the Temple, in 1799, aged 22 years, for
which no reason can be assigned but disappointment in love.
* * * * *
Miss Fraine, whose duteous attention to her tortured and frequently
impatient father was most exemplary, after the dreadful catastrophe of
her brother’s suicide, not wholly unaccountable from hereditary
irregularities of system, seemed to have a dread (not aversion) of
marriage. The tendency of her social feelings, strictly regulated and
controlled by the reserve of modesty and the dignity of virtue, almost
irresistibly inclined her best affections towards wedlock; whilst her
extremely sensitive forethought shunned the general result of engagements
ennobling to mankind in general, but appalling in many lights to herself.
* * * * *