The York Water-Gate--Inigo Jones' Beautiful Work--Built for the
Duke of Buckingham--The Proposal for its Removal--Satires on the
Subject--The Gate Neglected--Its Restoration--The Water Tower--The
West-end supplied with Water from Here--The Steam Engine--Samuel
Pepys resides in Buckingham Street--William Etty and Clarkson
Stanfield--Peter the Great Lodges Here--His Love of Strong Drink--The
Witty Earl of Dorset--David Hume and Jean Jacques Rousseau--Moore
writes to his Publisher Here--The Father of Modern Geology--A Great
Actor dies Here--The Original of Smollett's Hugh Strap--David
Copperfield's Chambers--Evelyn lives in Villiers Street--Sir Richard
Steele--Zara acted Here--Mrs Cibber--Misstatement by "Anthony Pasquin."
ALTHOUGH every trace of York House itself has been long ago
obliterated, there still remains the water-gate, one of the most
interesting historical relics in London. Peter the Great's house,
which formerly overlooked it, has given place only this year to a new
building, but the "stairs" which were erected for the first Duke of
Buckingham are still here to remind us of many celebrities who came to
this hallowed spot from the days of "Steenie" until the beginning of
the last century. The architect of this charming piece of work was
Inigo Jones (1573-1652), and the date of its erection can safely be
attributed to the year 1625. One Nicholas Stone (1586-1647) has been
wrongly credited with the design. In his _Account Book of Workes_,
which is in the library of Sir John Soane's Museum, it is said: "The
Water-gate at York House hee dessined and built; and ye right hand
lion hee did, fronting ye Thames. Mr Kearne, a Jarman, his brother
by marrying, did ye Shee lion." But Stone--whose best work was in
tombs, those of Bodley at Oxford and Donne in St Paul's being his
most celebrated--carried out many of the designs of Inigo Jones, and,
from this cause, I fancy, came his claim to the York water-gate.
These "stairs," as they were commonly called, have been described as
"unquestionably the most perfect piece of building that does honour
to the name of Inigo Jones--planned in so exquisite a taste, formed
of such equal and harmonious parts, and adorned with such proper and
elegant decorations, that nothing can be censured or added. It is at
once happy in its situation, beyond comparison, and fancied in a style
exactly suited to that situation. The _rock-work_, or rustic, can never
be better introduced than in buildings by the side of water; and,
indeed, it is a great question whether it ought to be made use of any
where else." The arms of the Villiers family--now the worse for wear,
but still visible--appear on the side facing the Thames, and, on the
reverse, is to be seen their motto: _Fidei Coticula Crux_--the Cross
is the Touch-stone of Faith. The terrace on this side was planted with
lime-trees, and, less than a century ago, was "supported by a rate
raised upon the houses in the neighbouring streets; and, being enclosed
from the public, forms an agreeable promenade for the inhabitants."
This famous water-gate has had its vicissitudes. In 1767, there was
a proposal for its removal, but, fortunately, this act of vandalism
was not allowed to take place. The suggestion gave rise to various
protests, one of which took the following form:--
"Sacred
to the Memory and Reputation of
INIGO JONES.
Let no Hand attempt to remove me:
A Mind improved by Taste
Will consider me as a bulwark
To controul the Waves,
Repel the Flood,
And buffet the Western Blasts that annoy
The Inhabitant.
I am the only perfect Building of the Kind
In England;
An search Europe thro', none excell me.
Who
Seek to destroy me,
Repentance shall o'er-take.
Genius shall hunt them from Society,
Contempt shall mark them for her own."
Whether the sinful souls who had thought to execute their fell purpose
ever repented or were hunted "from Society," is not recorded. Another
satire was in more lively strain:--
"A strange hubble bubble
Confusion and trouble
Has been about York Buildings Gate;
And some gentlemen swear
It shall not stand there,
It's a thing, above all, that they hate.
Tho' 'twas Inigo Jones
Plan'd the piling these stones,
And superb is the architecture;
But alas! some so say
It does stand in the way
Of one that's a Terras director.
Must this building at length
Render up all its strength,
That's withstood the tempestuous billows;
Even rain, storms of hail,
Stood secure from each gale,
To please some testy old fellows.
Last Wedn'sday at night
With all malice and spite
Poor Inigo's fame they did sully;
Till a member arose
And opposed his foes
Verbatim he spoke like a Tully.
Some the cause did maintain,
That it should there remain,
Or where can we go helter-skelter?
At a time when it rains,
Without trouble or pains
The ladies go there for a shelter.
And from Phoebus's Rays,
In hot, sultry days,
To be free from intenseness of heat;
Such a prospect it gains
O'er the river of Thames,
There's not a more pleasing retreat.
T.B."
The gate had become so neglected in 1823 that it was necessary to
repair the roof and stone-work and to renew the iron-work. This was
done at a cost of £300, defrayed by a rate levied on the occupants of
York Buildings. Thirteen years later, however, I find a complaint that
the gate had been allowed "from neglect, to be almost smothered in
river mud." Again, in 1854, it was said to be "in a ruinous state"--a
view of the case which is somewhat exaggerated, for the gate is still
in wonderful preservation, considering its age and the destructive
nature of the London climate. The gate, and the terrace behind, are now
under the control of the London County Council. It is a pity that the
"stairs" are so hidden in the hollow of the gardens, but this cannot
be avoided. The terrace, which leads from Villiers Street to York
Buildings, with an entrance from Buckingham Street, is well-kept, and,
very properly, it is only open during the day.
In the frontispiece to this volume, and in some of the other
illustrations, there is to be seen, to the left of the water-gate, a
strange-looking "octangular structure, about seventy feet high, with
small round loopholes as windows." This is the tower of some works
which were made in the twenty-seventh year of King Charles II. for the
supply of water from the silvery Thames to the inhabitants of the west
end. Many of the wooden pipes through which the water was conveyed have
been excavated from time to time in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, and
other places. In 1688, there were forty-eight shares in the company.
After the Scotch rebellion in 1715, the company invested large sums
in purchasing forfeited estates, which no Scot would buy. Bankruptcy
followed, and, in 1783, the Scotch estates were sold for £102,537.[59]
A curious description of the works is given in the _Foreigner's
Guide to London_ for 1720: "Here you see a high wooden tower and a
water-engine of a new invention, that draws out of the Thames above
three tons of water in one minute, by means of the steam arising from
water boiling in a great copper, a continual fire being kept to that
purpose; the steam being compressed and condensed, moves, by its
evaporation, and strikes a counterpoise, which counterpoise striking
another, at last moves a great beam, which, by its motion of going
up and down, draws water from the river which mounts through great
iron pipes to the height of the tower, discharging itself there into
a deep leaden cistern; and thence falling through other large iron
pipes, fills them that are laid along the streets, and so continuing to
run through wooden pipes as far as Mar-bone fields, falls there into
a large pond or reservoir, from whence the new buildings near Hanover
Square, and many thousand houses, are supplied with water. This machine
is certainly a great curiosity, and though it be not so large as that
of Marly in France, yet, considering its smallness in comparison
with that, and the little charge it was built and kept with, and the
quantity of water it draws, its use and benefit is much beyond that."
This steam-engine was not in use after 1731, but it was shown for some
years later as a curiosity. The cost of working the machine, "and some
other reasons concurring, made its proprietors, the York Buildings
Waterworks Company, lay aside the design; and no doubt but the
inhabitants of this neighbourhood are very glad of it, for its working,
which was by sea-coal, was attended with so much smoke, that it not
only must pollute the air thereabouts, but spoil the furniture."[60]
[Illustration:
_H. Maund._
THE DRAWING-ROOM, NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE.]
Buckingham Street is hallowed by the memory of many celebrities.
Here, at the last house on the west facing the river (since rebuilt,
and now numbered 14), Samuel Pepys lived from 1684 to 1700. Pepys,
unfortunately, had finished his _Diary_ in 1669, or we should have had
some quaint observations from him in reference to his residence here.
The house had been occupied previously by his great friend, William
Hewer, at whose residence in Clapham the genial gossip died in 1703.
No. 14 was the home of William Etty, R.A., from the summer of 1824
until shortly before his death in 1849. He first occupied the ground
floor, but he moved to the top rooms, as he loved to watch the sunsets
over the Thames. The ebb and flow of the river, he declared, was like
life, and "the view from Lambeth to the Abbey not unlike Venice. Here
he invited Thomas Stothard, the famous painter, to breakfast at nine
o'clock, when there is a good light to see my Venetian studies of
colour, which are all hung round the room where I breakfast." In these
rooms, "the artists of two generations have assembled--Fuseli, Flaxman,
Holland, Constable, and Hilton--then Turner, Maclise, Dyce, Herbert,
and all the younger race."[61] Clarkson Stanfield, the landscape
painter, who designed some beautiful scenery for Drury Lane and painted
a drop-scene for Dickens, occupied the lower rooms for some years.
"Should my reader's boat ever stop at York Water Gate," wrote J.T.
Smith, in his _Book for a Rainy Day_, "let me request him to look
up at the three upper balconied windows of that mass of building
at the south-west corner of Buckingham Street. Those, and the two
adjoining Westminster, give light to chambers occupied by that truly
epic historical painter, and most excellent man, Etty, the Royal
Academician, who has fitted up the balconied room with engravings after
pictures of the three great masters, Raphael, Nicholas Poussin, and
Rubens. The other two windows illuminate his painting room, in which
his mind and colours resplendently shine, even in the face of one of
the grandest scenes in Nature, our River Thames and City edifices, with
a most luxuriant and extensive face of a distant country, the beauties
of which he most liberally delights in showing to his friends from
the leads of his apartments.... The rooms immediately below Mr Etty's
are occupied by Mr Lloyd, a gentleman whose general knowledge in the
graphic art I and many more look up to with the profoundest respect.
The chambers beneath Mr Lloyd's are inhabited by Mr Stanfield, the
landscape painter."
In the house on the opposite corner--now demolished, as already
stated, but to be seen in the "view of Westminster from the Thames,
1750"--lived, for three months, in 1698, Peter the Great. Here he
returned from his work at Deptford, spending his evenings with his
cicerone, Lord Carmarthen, drinking a pint of hot brandy, further
warmed by the addition of cayenne pepper, after he had consumed
numberless draughts of wine. It is said that on one occasion he drank
a pint of brandy, a bottle of sherry, and eight flasks of sack, after
which he went to the theatre. While in Buckingham Street he "was so
annoyed with the vulgar curiosity of intrusive citizens, that he would
sometimes rise from his dinner and leave the room in a rage. Here the
Quakers forced themselves upon him, and presented him with _Barclay's
Apology_, after which the Czar attended their meeting in Gracechurch
Street. He once asked them of what use they were to any kingdom, since
they would not bear arms. On taking his farewell of King William, Peter
drew a rough ruby, valued at £10,000, from his waistcoat pocket, and
presented it to him screwed up in brown paper. He went back just in
time to crush the Strelitzes, imprison his sister Sophia, and wage war
on Charles XII. The great reformer was only twenty-six years old when
he visited England."
Other famous inhabitants of Buckingham Street include, in 1681, Charles
Sackville, the sixth Earl of Dorset, the poet and wit; in 1706, Robert
Harley (afterwards Earl of Oxford), who received such high praise from
Pope and Swift; and, in 1727, James Wellwood, physician and author. A
very interesting literary association is that of David Hume and Jean
Jacques Rousseau, who, in 1766, were made welcome at his house in this
street by Hume's friend, John Stewart. Subsequently they "removed into
lodgings a few doors off. In one or other of these houses Rousseau laid
the scene of all the imaginary insults heaped upon him by his brother
philosopher, the crowning injury being inflicted at their parting in
Buckingham Street, which Rousseau describes with such comic vehemence.
Whilst here, Rousseau was the object of much curiosity."[62] Mr
Wheatley also states that No. 22 was the house of Power, the publisher
of the _Irish Melodies_, to whom Moore wrote so frequently, and that
"Strata" Smith, "the father of modern geology," lived in this street,
his young nephew, John Phillips (afterwards the Oxford professor),
being with him. One of the most noted representatives of Hamlet and
Falstaff died at his house in Buckingham Street in 1785. This was John
Henderson, who, although without many personal advantages, achieved a
great position. He was "the soul of feeling and intelligence."
In the lodge of the terrace at the foot of Buckingham Street lived,
for several years before his death in 1809, Hugh Hewson, the original
of Smollett's Hugh Strap in _Roderick Random_, the simple, generous
adherent whose generosity and fidelity met with such a base return from
the heartless libertine. Another memory of this small street brings
us once more to Dickens and _David Copperfield_. For it was here that
Copperfield lodged when he was undergoing his month's probation with
Spenlow and Jorkins. Betsy Trotwood announced to her nephew: "'There's
a furnished little set of chambers to be let in the Adelphi, Trot,
which ought to suit you to a marvel.'
"With this brief introduction, she produced from her pocket an
advertisement, carefully cut out of a newspaper, setting forth that in
Buckingham Street in the Adelphi there was to be let furnished, with a
view of the river, a singularly desirable and compact set of chambers,
forming a genteel residence for a young gentleman, a member of one
of the Inns of Court, or otherwise, with immediate possession. Terms
moderate, and could be taken for a month only, if required.
"'Why, this is the very thing, aunt!' said I, flushed with the possible
dignity of living in chambers.
"'Then come,' replied my aunt, immediately resuming the bonnet she had
a minute before laid aside. 'We'll go and look at 'em.'
"Away we went. The advertisement directed us to apply to Mrs Crupp
on the premises, and we rang the area bell, which we supposed to
communicate with Mrs Crupp. It was not until we had rung three or four
times that we could prevail on Mrs Crupp to communicate with us, but
at last she appeared, being a stout lady with a flounce of flannel
petticoat below a nankeen gown."[63] For a further description of
Copperfield's life in Buckingham Street, I must refer my readers to the
pages of Dickens.
The earliest mention that we have of Villiers Street is found in the
diary of the pious and amiable John Evelyn, who, on November 17, 1683,
sets down: "I took a house in Villiers Street, York Buildings, for
the winter, having many important concerns to dispatch, and for the
education of my daughters." Addison's friend, Sir Richard Steele, lived
here after the death of his wife, the jealous "Prue," in 1721, until
1724. While he was here, his last comedy, _The Conscious Lovers_,
was produced at Drury Lane, in 1722. There was a celebrated music
room in this street. The building, erected in 1680, was popular for
half a century, and was pulled down in 1758. It contained a beautiful
ceiling, painted by Verrio, which had been incorporated from York
House, and, as it could not be removed, it was, perforce, destroyed.
_The Fair Penitent_, _Jane Shore_, _The Beggar's Opera_, and other
well-known pieces were performed here. In the _Miscellanies_ of the
dramatist, Aaron Hill (1685-1750), is "A Prologue for the third night
of _Zara_"--which Hill had translated from Voltaire--"when first
played at the Great Musick Room, in Villars Street, York Buildings," in
1735. The representative of Lusignan--one of Garrick's best parts--a
gentleman named Bond, expired on the stage. At the first representation
of the piece, a young gentleman, a relation of the author's, attempted
the character of Osman, but without success, despite the great pains
taken at rehearsal by the adapter. _Zara_ was still more remarkable for
the appearance in it, at the age of twenty-five, of Mrs Cibber, who
subsequently achieved such great fame on the stage. Zara was her first
attempt in tragedy. On the sole authority of that wicked libeller and
scurrilous writer, "Anthony Pasquin," otherwise John Williams, "one
of the dirtiest and most disreputable fellows that ever disgraced the
literary profession," it has been related that Garrick, three years
before he appeared for the first time on the London stage, had acted
in the Duke's Theatre, and that "the ladies who were present were so
fascinated by Mr Garrick's powers that they offered him their trinkets
and their purses from the boxes." This is not so. Garrick did not play
before the public in London until October 19, 1741.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 59: _Gentleman's Magazine_, August 1783, p. 709.]
[Footnote 60: _All Alive and Merry, or the London Daily Post_, April
18, 1741.]
[Footnote 61: _Haunted London_, p. 136.]
[Footnote 62: _London Past and Present_, vol. i., p. 296.]
[Footnote 63: _David Copperfield_, chap. xxiii.]