Oil picture. 60½ by 37 in.
This picture represents much the same subject as No. 89, though
it takes in less ground to the north or left, but from variations
in buildings is evidently some years earlier. The Banqueting House
appears, and near it on right the Holbein Gate is partly visible.
Figures are emerging from a great staircase which communicated with
a passage over this gate. In an article by the late Sir Reginald
Palgrave, K.C.B., we are told (on the authority of the Sydney papers)
that Philip, 4th Earl of Pembroke, on the day of Charles I’s execution,
“out of his chamber” (in the Cockpit part of Whitehall) “looked upon
the King as he went up those stairs from the Park to the gallery on
the way to the place of his death.” Hard by, to left of staircase,
is a doorway to passage through the Tiltyard. To right of staircase
is a long gallery dating from Henry VIII’s time. Farther to right
is a two-storied building which appears in Fisher’s plan as part
of the Duke of Albemarle’s lodgings. Vertue’s copy of this plan is
dated 1680, but Mr. Spiers gave good reasons for believing that it
was drawn before 1670.
The battlemented structure behind, with buttresses, mullioned windows,
and turrets at the angles (mentioned in note on No. 89), was to
north of passage from Whitehall to the Cockpit, now known as Treasury
Passage. In the “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1816 it is described as
part of the palace built by Cardinal Wolsey, and other writers have
called it “Wolsey’s Treasury.” Contemporary evidence, however, is
lacking to prove that any part of Wolsey’s “York Place” stood west
of the thoroughfare that led from Charing Cross, the land on the
Park side having apparently been conveyed to Henry VIII by the Abbot
of Westminster in 1532. The material of this important building was
brick and stone. Its external character and the ground plan suggest
a hall, but whatever its origin it was undoubtedly used as a tennis
court by Henry VIII. Being perhaps of inconvenient shape for the
later developments of the game, and Charles II having built himself
a tennis court farther south, floors were inserted in 1664, and it
became the Duke of Monmouth’s lodging. What remained of it in the
early nineteenth century was finally swept away to make room for
Soane’s Council Office as completed by Barry.
The next building in front is the Tudor Cockpit, with its octagonal
roof still intact. For years it had not served its original purpose,
but gave the name to a group of lodgings in which it was evidently
included. The Earl of Pembroke, as we have pointed out, was living
there at the time of the execution of Charles I, after which Oliver
Cromwell took possession of these lodgings, and it was probably in the
veritable Cockpit that music was performed during his protectorate.
There also plays were acted both in the time of Charles I and after
the Restoration. Just before that event the lodgings were assigned
to George Monck, who became Duke of Albemarle, and in Fisher’s plan
it is marked as part of his lodgings. As mentioned in describing No.
89, between the dates of the two pictures this architectural relic
was obliterated by a brick building, which in turn gave way to Kent’s
Treasury. Until about 1806, the word Cockpit was applied to a famous
but elusive political centre included in the Treasury and more or less
on the site of Henry VIII’s building. Lord Welby thought that the
style “Treasury Chambers Cockpit” was known much later. The passage
from Whitehall to the Treasury is partly lighted on the north side by
a large window with mullions and transom, and on the south there is
a two-light window of similar date. Both are involved externally in
Tudor brickwork. On the ground floor a Tudor doorway survives, and
all these must have been in the casing of the original passage that
led to the Cockpit. As mistakes are frequent on the subject we will
add that “Cockpit Steps” leading from Birdcage Walk into Dartmouth
Street have no historical connection with Whitehall. They adjoined
a later Cockpit surmounted by a cupola, which is marked in a map
belonging to Strype’s Stow 1720, and was taken down in 1816. There
was also a “Royal Cockpit” in Tufton Street, Westminster, described
in the “London Magazine,” November 1822, and in the “Every Night
Book” as late as 1827, which was probably the last in London.
To right of the Tudor Cockpit is a house with tiled roof and dormer
windows, apparently that portion of the Prime Minister’s official
residence adjoining the Treasury and facing the garden, for although
much altered, the points of resemblance are strong. In vol. ii of the
Lond. Top. Soc. “Record,” Mr. Spiers attributed the design of this
building to Wren on account of a ground plan doubtless representing
it, signed by him with the addition of the letters “Sr Gll” and
date 1677; but the present writer is of opinion that it already existed
at the time, and, being on Crown land, that Wren merely signed the
plan as Surveyor General. In the “Record” a plan by Sir John Soane
is also given, showing his additions and alterations made in 1825.
That part of No. 10 containing the entrance from the roadway does not
belong to the original structure, although they are linked together
by passages. It forms one block with No. 11, and from the style of
the pair they cannot have been built much before the middle of the
eighteenth century, when they appear in views by J. Maurer, partly
occupying the site of the building with gable and low tower, shown
in our picture to the extreme right. On this subject the late Mr.
C. Eyre Pascoe in his volume entitled “No. 10 Downing Street” was
misinformed.
In studying these old pictures it must always be borne in mind that
artists attached small importance to rigid accuracy; while fairly
correct as regards the main buildings they omitted and arranged with
the object of making an agreeable pattern. The trees in Nos. 89 and
96 differ completely, and in the latter the head of the ornamental
canal, formed soon after the Restoration, has been introduced out of
its place, quite near to the Cockpit. By it are deer, and it is covered
with waterfowl. On the bank is a copy in bronze of the Borghese statue
of a gladiator, executed at Rome by Hubert Le Sœur, removed by Queen
Anne to Hampton Court, and by George IV to Windsor. On the left King
Charles II is taking a walk accompanied by various dogs and a crowd
of courtiers. Near the buildings a detachment of soldiers in scarlet
uniforms marches to the right. The colour carried at their head agrees
with that mentioned by F. Sandwith, Lancaster Herald 1676-89, as the
ensign of the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Coldstream Guards “from 1670
or thereabout to 1683.” According to his description the ensign was
of “blue taffeta with a plain white cross, surmounted by a cross of
crimson or a cross of St. George.” Unfortunately on the scale of our
engraving neither the monarch nor this ensign are distinctly visible.
There is an illustration of the scene in Pennant’s “London” from No.
96 or a replica, and a larger one by S. Mazell. Examples of them are
in the Crace Collection, British Museum.
Hendrik Danckerts, or Dankerts, the artist, was born at the Hague about
1630, studied in Italy, and after his return was invited to England by
Charles II, who employed him to paint pictures of royal palaces and
sea-ports. Walpole speaks of his working in connection with Hollar.
James II had various landscapes by him, and Samuel Pepys, who calls
him “the great landscape painter,” mentions seeing him in 1668-69
and arranging for views of _Whitehall_, Hampton Court, Greenwich,
and Windsor, to adorn his dining-room panels. Danckerts, who was a
Roman Catholic, is said to have left England during the Popish Plot
and to have died at Amsterdam soon afterwards. From what precedes
we may be sure that the picture was painted between 1670 and about
1677, perhaps not much after the earlier date.
By HENDRICK DANCKERTS (_c._ 1630-1678).
_Lent by the Earl of Berkeley._
97_a_ SEARLE’S BOAT-HOUSE, STANGATE, LAMBETH.
Watercolour. 14 by 9¾ in.
The famous boat builders, of Eton and Oxford, had an establishment on
the Surrey side, much frequented by Westminster schoolboys before the
formation of the Embankment and the removal of St. Thomas’s Hospital
from High Street, Southwark, to Stangate. It will be seen that the
boat-house was just above Westminster Bridge; it was afterwards moved
to a point higher up the river.
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
97_b_ BUILDINGS ADJOINING LAMBETH CHURCH.
Watercolour. 10 by 6¼ in.
Shows picturesque but tumbledown buildings formerly along the riverside
at Lambeth.
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
98_a_ ST. SAVIOUR’S CHURCH, SOUTHWARK.
Watercolour. 9¾ by 7 in.
Originally the church of the Priory of St. Mary Overy, after the
Reformation St. Saviour’s parish church, and now Southwark Cathedral.
View of the old nave from the west end, shortly before it was replaced
by an unsightly nave in 1838-9. This also has disappeared, being
rebuilt from the designs of the late Sir Arthur Blomfield. The choir
and tower were “restored” 1822-5, by George Gwilt.
By F. NASH (1782-1856).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
98_b_ WEST END OF ST. SAVIOUR’S CHURCH, SOUTHWARK, FROM THE SOUTH.
Wash drawing in Indian ink. 6 by 9 in.
Shows the entrance to Montagu Close, which appears also in 98_a_. It
had been the precinct of Montagu House, taken down in a state of decay
when the approaches of the present London Bridge were made. Here were
the cloisters of the Priory. The original Montagu House was built
by Sir Anthony Brown, afterwards Viscount Montagu. The small sepia
drawing and the print from it give the other side of the entrance.
J. C. Buckler, who did the larger drawing, belonged to a family of
architects, and was a good topographical draughtsman. Many Southwark
views by him are in the Guildhall Library.
By J. C. BUCKLER, 1827 (1770-1851).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
99_a_ THREE CRANES WHARF.
Wash drawing in Indian ink. 10 by 8¾ in.
The name was derived originally from “three strong cranes of timber
placed on the Vintry wharf by the Thames side to crane up wines there.”
They are shown in Visscher’s View (1616). Three Cranes Wharf, below
Southwark Bridge, and to south of Three Cranes Lane, appears to be
first mentioned in Rocque’s map, 1746.
By G. SHEPHERD, 1811.
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
99_b_ THREE CRANES WHARF.
Watercolour. 8 by 5½ in.
From rather a more western point of view than the wash drawing. Mr.
Gardner has ascribed this to “Tompkins.” It must be the work of Charles
Tomkins, a topographical artist to whom we have already referred.
By C. TOMKINS (1757-1810).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
100_a_ UNDERCROFT OF CHAPEL OF ELY HOUSE, HOLBORN.
Wash drawing. 4 by 5¼ in.
This curious crypt of the Chapel dedicated to St. Etheldreda, Ely
Place, still remains.
By J. CARTER, 1776 (1748-1817).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
PLATE XLIV. 100_b_ ELY PLACE, HOLBORN.
Pen and Indian ink, with a little colour. 15 by 9½ in.
Ely Place was the town mansion of the Bishops of Ely, dating apparently
from the time of John de Kirkeby, Bishop, who died 1290. John of Gaunt
died here. Sir Christopher Hatton got hold of part of the garden,
and built himself a house there, hence Hatton Garden. In 1772 the see
transferred to the Crown all its rights to Ely Place, a house being
built as an episcopal residence, now 37 Dover Street, Piccadilly. The
buildings, excepting St. Etheldreda’s Chapel, were afterwards taken
down. The Chapel, a fine piece of fourteenth-century architecture,
belongs to Roman Catholics.
The view is from the west. To epitomise John Carter’s words: To right
is the Chapel, now much altered and restored; in centre, outside of
cloister; to left the great Hall, at the end part of the kitchen,
and above it the tower of St. Andrew’s Church.
By J. CARTER, 1776 (1748-1817).
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._
101 SCREEN FORMERLY IN CHAPEL OF ST. ANDREW, IN NORTH TRANSEPT OF
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Indian ink with shields of arms coloured. 17¾ by 20½ in.
This screen replaced one made in the time of Edward III, an
illustration of the cresting of which appears in Professor Lethaby’s
“Westminster Abbey and the King’s Craftsmen” (1906). Trickings of the
coats of arms are given in a Lansdowne manuscript, and they have been
identified by Mr. Lethaby from a manuscript in his own possession,
once belonging to H. Keepe, of the Inner Temple, who died in 1688.
An inscription under the drawing states that the screen was “removed
for the Coronation early in the eighteenth century.”
Written on the drawing is “Mar: 1722.”
_Lent by Sir E. Coates._