The fields behind Montague House were, from about the year 1680, until
towards the end of the last century, the scenes of robbery, murder, and
every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can think.
They appear to have been originally called the Long Fields, and
afterwards (about Strype's time) the Southampton Fields. These fields
remained waste and useless, with the exception of some nursery grounds
near the New Road to the north, and a piece of ground enclosed for the
Toxophilite Society, towards the northwest, near the back of Gower
Street. The remainder was the resort of depraved wretches, whose
amusements consisted chiefly in fighting pitched battles, and other
disorderly sport, especially on the Sabbath day. Such was their state in
1800.
Tradition had given to the superstitious at that period a legendary
story of the period of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion, of two brothers
who fought in this field so ferociously as to destroy each other; since
which, their footsteps, formed from the vengeful struggle, were said to
remain, with the indentations produced by their advancing and receding;
nor could any grass or vegetable ever be produced where these _forty
footsteps_ were thus displayed. This extraordinary arena was said to be
at the extreme termination of the northeast end of Upper Montague
Street; and, profiting by the fiction, Miss Porter and her sister
produced an ingenious romance thereon, entitled, _Coming Out, or the
Forty Footsteps_. The Messrs. Mayhew also, some twenty years back,
brought out, at the Tottenham Street Theatre, an excellent melodrama
piece, founded upon the same story, entitled _The Field of Forty
Footsteps_.
In 1792, an ingenious and enterprising architect, James Burton, began to
erect a number of houses on the Foundling Hospital estate, partly in St.
Giles's and Bloomsbury parishes, and partly in that of St. Pancras.
_Baltimore House_, built, towards the northeast of _Bedford House_, by
Lord Baltimore, in 1763, appears to have been the only erection since
Strype's survey to this period, with the exception of a
chimney-sweeper's cottage still further north, and part of which is
still to be seen in Rhodes's Mews, Little Guildford Street. In 1800,
Bedford House was demolished entirely; which with its offices and
gardens, had been the site where the noble family of the Southamptons,
and the illustrious Russells, had resided during more than 200 years,
almost isolated. Hence commenced the formation of a fine uniform street,
Bedford Place, consisting of forty houses, on the spot; also, the north
side of Bloomsbury Square, Montague Street to the west, and one side of
Southampton Row to the east. Towards the north, the extensive piece of
waste ground, denominated the _Southampton Fields_, was transformed into
a magnificent square, with streets diverging therefrom in various
directions. Thus, as if by "touch of magic wand," those scenes, which
had been "hideous" for centuries, became transformed into receptacles of
civil life and polished society.
The latest account of these _footsteps_, previous to their being built
over, with which I am acquainted, is the following, extracted from one
of Joseph Moser's _Common-place Books_ in my possession:--
"June 16. 1800.--Went into the fields at the back of Montague
House, and there saw, for the last time, the _forty footsteps_;
the building materials are there ready to cover them from the
sight of man. I counted more than _forty_, but they might be the
foot-prints of the workmen."
This extract is valuable, as it establishes the period of the final
demolition of the footsteps, and also confirms the legend that _forty_
was the original number.