_MAYFAIR._
“_Gay mansions with supper-rooms and dancing-rooms--full of light and
music._”--CARLYLE, “SARTOR RESARTUS.”
Compared with London as a whole, Mayfair is quite a small quarter; but
regarded as a congeries of innumerable streets, and two large squares,
it is an extensive and intricate area, and a summer’s day might well be
exhausted before we had investigated all the twists and turns of its
maze-like complexity.
It is true that its northern half has some sort of method due to Sir
Richard Grosvenor’s development of the great Westminster property,
of which Grosvenor Square is the key-note; but its southern portion
is, with here and there an exception, wanting in logical form, and
threatens, I fear, to make the perambulation of it somewhat confusing
to those to whom London is a sort of _terra incognita_.
It will be well to take Grosvenor Square as our starting-point, but
before we set out a word must be said about the name, which is generic
to the whole area. It almost speaks for itself; and is derived from
that “Fair” formerly held here during the first fortnight in May, and
dating from the time of James II. Unlike our conception of fairs,
however, this one was instituted specifically “for musick, showes,
drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stage-plays, and drolls,”
and appears to have had nothing to do with the traffic and barter
with which we are accustomed to associate these fast disappearing
institutions. Nor was it merely the resort of the _profanum vulgus_;
the nobility and gentry, we are told, made a point of frequenting
it; and the fields in which it was held,--for then all this part
was occupied by meadows and open ground--must have presented a gay
appearance, with its booths and shows, surrounded by a brilliantly
dressed throng, brought into still greater prominence by the more
soberly attired crowd which surrounded it.
The “May Fair” continued as a regular institution until 1708, when it
was put a stop to, chiefly on account of the disorders arising from it,
and the questionable company that attended its equally questionable
exhibitions; but partly on account, no doubt, of the erection of houses
and the formation of streets, which began about this time. It, however,
died hard, and was intermittently revived, in gradually lessening
form; prize-fighting, boxing, and bull-baiting taking the place of
“stage-plays and musick,” till nearly the end of the 18th century, when
it ceased altogether to exist, and left only its name as evidence of
its former vitality.
[Sidenote: DAVIES STREET.]
Before entering Grosvenor Square, Davies Street has a particular
interest in that it takes its name from that Mary Davies, daughter
of Alexander Davies, of Ebury, who married Sir Thomas Grosvenor, and
through whom the bulk of this great property came into the possession
of the Westminster family.
At its Oxford Street end, Davies Street practically forms one with
South Molton Lane, which at the beginning of the 18th century rejoiced
in the not very euphonious designation of Shug Lane. There is, however,
little to delay us here, unless we have a mind to glance into the
modern church of St. Anselm, designed by Messrs. Balfour and Thackeray
Turner, in the Byzantine style, and opened about eleven years since. I
may, however, remind the reader that “Joe” Manton, the great gunmaker,
carried on business at Nos. 24 and 25; and also that Tom Moore was
living in the street, in 1817.
Turning into Brook Street, let us enter Grosvenor Square at its
north-east corner.
[Sidenote: GROSVENOR SQUARE.]
Grosvenor Square is the largest (it is about six acres in extent)
and, in some respects, the most fashionable of London’s “quadrates.”
It was formed in 1695, by that great builder Sir Richard Grosvenor,
who employed Kent, the celebrated landscape gardener, to lay out the
central enclosure, in which once stood the statue of George I. by Van
Nost. It was on this spot that the citizens of London, when setting up
those defences against the Royalists, in 1642, on which we found them
engaged when we were wandering in the Green Park, erected an earthwork,
known as Oliver’s Mound, from which we may probably infer the personal
superintendence of the future Protector, or at least his rapidly
growing influence.
As to-day nearly every house in Grosvenor Square is occupied by some
influential or notable individual, so in the past has, practically,
each been the home of an interesting personality. The great Earl of
Chesterfield was living here in 1733, until he moved to the new
mansion he had erected for himself facing the Park, and here it was
that Johnson was “repulsed from his doors” or “waited in his outward
rooms.” Chesterfield, it will be remembered, married the daughter (she
was then termed the niece) of that ill-favoured mistress of George
I., Melusina de Schulemberg, created by her royal admirer, Duchess of
Kendal, who, by the bye, also resided in the Square. The Marquis of
Rockingham, once for a short time Prime Minister, died here in 1782,
and Lord North, another Prime Minister, just ten years later, after
he had left his former residence in Grosvenor Street, where we have
already met with him.
Besides these two first ministers of the Crown, politics have been
represented by a number of other well-known names, from which I can
but pick out those of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, who was here for half
a dozen years; the Earl of Harrowby, at whose house--formerly No. 39,
but now 44--the Cato Street conspirators hoped to make a holocaust of
the entire Government; Lord Canning, in 1841, and another member of
the same gifted family, Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, who died here
in 1880, and whose effigy may be seen beside that of Lord Canning in
the Abbey. Thomas Raikes, who was called by the wits “Phœbus Apollo,”
because he rose in the east and set in the west--an allusion to his
dual connection with the City and Mayfair--was one of Grosvenor
Square’s past inhabitants of interest. Raikes is now remembered by
his diary, a valuable record of his times, and his correspondence and
friendship with Wellington, but his brother Robert, the initiator of
Sunday Schools, carved out a name, _aere perennius_, for himself,
and by its reflected light Thomas is also partially illuminated. That
curious compound of genius and eccentricity, William Beckford, who
wrote “Vathek” in three days and nights without intermission, and,
what is more, wrote it in French, also lived here, at No. 22. Here was
housed a portion of that extraordinary collection of pictures, books,
furniture, and bric-a-brac which came, through the marriage of Miss
Beckford with the Duke of Hamilton, into the possession of the latter;
and the dispersal of which, in the eighties, was the sensation of the
season, and crowded Christie’s and Sotheby’s with a wondering and
envying throng.
Beckford used to be visited here by Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton,
two of the very few people he would ever admit to view the wonders of
Fonthill, his Wiltshire seat, from the doors of which fairy palace he
once repulsed George IV. himself. _Apropos_ there is a story of a man
forcing his way into Fonthill by some subterfuge, and being entertained
_en grand seigneur_ by the owner. When, however, the hour for retiring
came, Beckford led him to the front door, and wished him good-night,
adding that he had better _be careful of the bloodhounds_. The wretched
man then realised that he was alone in a vast Park with no companions
but his host’s formidable guardians, and he is said to have passed the
night in the first tree he could climb.
A story is a story, but this one has carried us many a mile from
Grosvenor Square. One connected with the Square itself, however, tells
how Dr. Johnson once knocked down a sturdy beggar in its precincts,
what time probably the great Cham of literature was on his way to visit
his friends, the Thrales, who lived here for a time, until the death
of Henry Thrale, in 1781. The town house of the Stanley family was in
this Square till 1832, when they removed to St. James’s Square, and
here Lord Derby married Miss Farren, in 1797, in the same year in which
John Wilkes, who was then residing at No. 30 (now No. 35), died. Sir
Stamford Raffles, Lord Granville, Lord Shaftesbury, the philanthropist,
and Sir John Beaumont, are among the many other notable people who have
helped to shed lustre upon Grosvenor Square. The Square has been twice
renumbered, with the exception of the east side, where the owners made
such successful efforts to preserve the original numbering that even
parochial authority gave way before them. Once, at an earlier day, the
inhabitants made an equally strenuous but less defensible attempt to
contest innovation; and it was not till 1842, _credite posteri_, that
the Square was lighted with gas, it being the last important place in
London to be so illuminated.
[Sidenote: NORTH AND SOUTH AUDLEY STREETS.]
At the north-west corner of the Square is North Audley Street, taking
its name from Hugh Audley, while its continuation at the south-west,
where it finally debouches into Curzon Street, is known as South
Audley Street. Its most important mansion, one of the most beautiful
in London, is Chesterfield House, facing Hyde Park through Stanhope
Street. It was built by the great Earl of Chesterfield in 1749, Ware
being the architect. Although it still preserves its fine courtyard,
its fair proportions at the back, where its gardens formerly extended
down the better part of Curzon Street, have been greatly curtailed
by the erection of houses. The mansion itself, however, with its
wonderful drawing-room, its library, where Lord Chesterfield lounged or
wrote his celebrated “Letters to his Son,” which Johnson criticised so
pithily and so severely--its marble staircase and Ionic portico, both
of which came from Canons, and gave the Earl the opportunity for a mild
jest about his “canonical pillars,” still remain. In 1869, Mr. Magniac
gave the enormous sum of £175,000 for the place, and here housed his
wonderful collections; but these have gone the way (Christie’s way) of
all beautiful things, and to-day Lord Burton owns the place.
But Chesterfield House is not the only fine mansion in Audley Street,
for, at No. 8, is Alington House, now Lord Alington’s, but formerly
known as Cambridge House, where, in 1826, the Duke of York, brother of
George IV. was living.
In another mansion, formerly called Bute House, once lived during the
earlier years of George III.’s reign, and died in 1792, that Earl of
Bute whose unpopularity I have before mentioned, and whose intimate
friendship with the Princess Dowager of Wales (the widow of “Fritz,”
and mother of George III.) gave rise to so many ill-natured and
probably quite erroneous reports. Home, who wrote the now forgotten
tragedy of “Douglas,” and who was a close friend of Lord Bute, was
living in South Audley Street at the same time. Home was naturally a
gifted man, but was also one of those who experienced the unhappy fate
of being over-eulogized by an uncritical generation, and Shakespeare’s
fame was deemed to totter before his work. What he is now probably best
remembered by is the famous reply of Dr. Johnson, to whom one of Home’s
admirers quoted with enthusiasm his line: “Who rules o’er freemen
should himself be free.” “Why, sir,” replied Johnson, “one might as
well say: ‘Who kills fat oxen, should himself be fat!’”
Close to St. Mark’s church in North Audley Street, lived, at various
times, quite a bevy of notable ladies. Maria Edgeworth was one of
these, and Lady Suffolk another, and Mary and Agnes Berry, before they
went to reside in Curzon Street, where we shall presently meet with
them.
All sorts and conditions of interesting people have resided in South
Audley Street. Regardless of chronology, let me set down some of
their names at random, commencing appropriately with a great church
dignitary, Archbishop Markham, who died here in 1807; then, there was
General Paoli, the Corsican patriot; Sir William Jones, famous for
his learning, and Westmacott for his perpetuation in stone of many
a learned one; Lord John Russell, Prime Minister, reformer, author,
what you will; and Holcroft, whose name as a dramatist is forgotten
for ever; Queen Caroline, that injudicious but badly used woman, who,
on her arrival from Italy in 1820, stayed at the house of Wood, who
championed her cause; Baron Bunsen, the clear-sighted diplomatist, and
Louis XVIII., that gastronomic monarch, and his brother, Charles X.,
who, under the evil guidance of Prince Polignac, lost a throne that had
cost so many lives and so much money to recover.
[Sidenote: PARK STREET.]
Park Street runs parallel with Audley Street. Formerly known as Hyde
Park Street, it was one of the later developments of this part of the
town, although it was formed anterior to 1768, in which year the
actress Nelly O’Brien is stated to have died in it. A very different
person also lived here (in No. 113) at a later day, in the person of
that Lydia White, who, till the end of her life, delighted to gather
around her the lions of the day. One of the last of these to visit her
was Scott, who records in his diary that, on November 13th, 1826, he
“found her extended on a couch, frightfully swelled, unable to stir,
rouged, jesting, and dying.” Harness, writing to Dyce, at an earlier
period, tells an anecdote illustrating her readiness of repartee:--“At
one of Miss Lydia White’s small and most agreeable dinners in Park
Street, the company (most of them, except the hostess, being Whigs)
were discussing in rather a querulous strain the desperate prospects
of their party. ‘Yes,’ said Sydney Smith, ‘we are in a most deplorable
condition; we must do something to help ourselves; I think we had
better sacrifice a Tory virgin.’ This was pointedly addressed to Lydia
White, who, at once catching and applying the allusion to Iphigenia,
answered, ‘I believe there is nothing the Whigs would not do to raise
the wind.’” This “really clever creature,” as Sir Walter calls her,
died at her house here in 1827. Sir Humphrey Davy also came to live
here, from Grosvenor Street, in 1825, and remained a resident till his
death, two years after that of Miss Lydia; and Richard Ford, who made a
guide-book to Spain, a permanent work of literary charm, was another of
the street’s past notable inhabitants.
[Sidenote: GREEN STREET.]
A few steps southward will bring us to Green Street, in which stands
Hampden House, now the residence of the Duke of Abercorn.
No. 56 Green Street was formerly known as the “bow-window house,”
and here Miss Farren, who afterwards became Countess of Derby, once
resided, and gave those suppers to “all the pleasantest people in
London,” which Hume, Walpole, and Lord Berwick have recorded. Sydney
Smith died in Green Street, at Miss Farren’s old house, in 1845, and
here it was that he once told his doctor that he felt so feeble that
if anyone were to put a pin into his hand he would not have strength
enough to stick it into a Dissenter!
[Sidenote: NORFOLK STREET.]
Between Green Street and Park Lane intervenes the little Norfolk
Street, at a house in which Lord William Russell was barbarously done
to death by his valet in 1840. Here Lady Hesketh, the friend of Cowper;
Sir James Mackintosh; and, later, Lord Overstone, the millionaire
banker, resided.
[Sidenote: UPPER BROOK STREET.]
A little further on is Upper Brook Street, where once lived Lord
George Gordon, famous for his connection with the anti-Catholic riots,
which, had not George III. acted with splendid promptitude, might have
resulted in a holocaust of London. Here also resided George Grenville,
the statesman and creator of that marvellous library which is, to-day,
one of the wonders of the British Museum; Mrs. Damer, the talented
friend of Horace Walpole, for whom she executed the Eagle which once
stood in the Tribune at Strawberry Hill; and Hamilton, of “single
speech” fame.
[Sidenote: UPPER GROSVENOR STREET.]
As Upper Brook Street joins the north side of Grosvenor Square with
Park Lane, so Upper Grosvenor Street leads directly from its southern
side to that latter-day synonym for worldly riches.
Here lived such notable people as Lord Erskine, the great lawyer, Sir
Robert Peel, and also Lord Crewe, who appears to have moved hither
from Grosvenor Street, or, as we ought to say, Lower Grosvenor Street.
But the chief feature of the street is Grosvenor House, the well-known
residence of the Duke of Westminster, the fine screen and gates of
which, designed by Candy, were put up in 1842, and form a curious
break in the otherwise unbroken regularity of the houses. I shall have
something to say about Grosvenor House, when we come to Park Lane; so
that now we need not interrupt our walk, which in a moment will bring
us to Mount Street, taking its name from “Oliver’s Mound,” formerly in
Grosvenor Square.
[Sidenote: MOUNT STREET.]
Mount Street dates from about 1740, but since then it has been wholly
rebuilt with red-brick structures, the majority of which are now shops,
with flats above them, and thus preserves nothing of its earlier
character, when such as Lady Mary Coke, the compiler of a most valuable
and delightful diary, Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay), whose work in the
same direction is, known to all the world, and Sir Henry Holland, who
has also left us his reminiscences, lived in it.
From Mount Street we pass easily, by way of South Audley Street, to
that congeries of thoroughfares, which lie between Berkeley Square and
Park Lane.
[Sidenote: ALDFORD STREET.]
If we take those on the east, we shall first come to Aldford Street,
which was known for a century and a half (until 1886) as Chapel
Street. Much of the street has been rebuilt, and therefore some of
its intrinsic interest has disappeared, notably the house in which
Beau Brummell once lived, and where he was wont to receive the Prince
Regent at those “_petits soupers_,” and at those wonderful ceremonies
of the toilet, the details of which Captain Jesse has recorded with
so much gusto. But a greater than Brummell was once a resident in
Aldford Street, for, at No. 23, the poet Shelley was staying in the
same year (1813) in which we have encountered him in Half Moon Street.
Beyond this solitary celebrity, however, there is nothing to delay our
passing on to South Street, which runs parallel to Aldford Street in a
southerly direction.
[Sidenote: SOUTH STREET.]
This street was formed about 1737, and till nearly the middle of the
18th century, the chapel attached to the Portuguese Embassy (formerly
at 74, South Audley Street), where Garrick was married, was situated in
it.
Brummell once lived here (at No. 24), and so did, in 1837, Lord
Melbourne (at No. 39), while among other names of note connected with
it mention may be made of Charles James Fox, Lord and Lady Holland,
and John Allen, so indissolubly connected with the annals of Holland
House; Mademoiselle d’Este, the daughter of the Duke of Sussex; the
Duke of Orleans, better known as Philippe Egalité, and Miss Florence
Nightingale whose name is a household word in two hemispheres.
[Sidenote: DEANERY AND TILNEY STREETS.]
Deanery Street passes by the side of Dorchester House (which I must
leave for notice till we reach Park Lane) to Tilney Street. The former,
a small serpentining thoroughfare, takes its name from the Dean and
Chapter of Westminster, who are the ground-landlords, and to whom Lord
Chesterfield made an amusing reference in his will. It was first called
“Dean and Chapter Street,” and was formed at the same time as South
Street.
Tilney Street is perhaps chiefly remembered as the residence of Mrs.
Fitzherbert, whose house was at the corner facing Park Lane, the bow
windows of which still indicate it. Here it was that, in June, 1800,
after their temporary separation, Mrs. Fitzherbert and her husband,
George, Prince of Wales, were openly reconciled at a public breakfast,
which “proclaimed to the fashionable world of London that her relations
with the Prince were resumed on the old footing.”
Soame Jenyns also lived in Tilney Street, and died there in 1787.
Forgotten nowadays, he was in his time a prolific writer, and his style
was considered as a model of clearness and ease. His epigram on Johnson
is generally supposed to have been the only ill-natured thing he ever
produced; here it is:--
“_Here lies Sam Johnson. Reader, have a care;
Tread lightly, lest you wake a sleeping bear.
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was; but self-sufficient, proud and vain;
Fond of, and overbearing in, dispute;
A Christian and a scholar--but a brute!_”
What would Miss Jenkins and Miss Pinkerton have said?
[Sidenote: GREAT STANHOPE STREET.]
At least two Prime Ministers have lived in Great Stanhope Street--Lord
Palmerston, from 1814 to 1843, before he went to Piccadilly; and Sir
Robert Peel, for five years from 1820; while Lord Brougham is given as
residing at No. 4, in 1834, in occupancy of which house he had been
preceded, respectively, by Lords Mansfield and Exeter.
To these may be added the names of two military veterans. Lord Raglan,
in 1853, and Viscount Hardinge, who died at No. 15, three years later;
as well as Colonel Barré, who lived at No. 12, where he died, in 1802.
Before proceeding into Curzon Street, let us return by way of South
Audley Street, and turn into Waverton Street, which forms the west side
of a species of gridiron of thoroughfares, of which Farm Street is the
north side and Charles Street the south.
[Sidenote: FARM STREET.]
Farm Street is one of the thoroughfares that took their names from
their association with those agricultural pursuits which we have
nowadays such difficulty in associating with this fashionable
neighbourhood. This “common pasturage” and the “milk maids” formerly
connected with it, have been recently brought vividly to mind by the
action of the “milk ladies” of St. James’s Park, the lineal descendants
of those of Mayfair, who successfully resisted an attempt to deprive
them of their rights.
A Jesuit Church stands in Farm Street, that of the Immaculate
Conception, which, it is interesting to remember, was the first regular
church possessed by the Jesuits in London after their expulsion from
Somerset House and St. James’s under Charles I.
[Sidenote: JOHN STREET.]
John Street, laid out about 1730, running at right angles, connects
Farm Street with Hill Street, and also possesses a church; in this
case the well-known Berkeley Chapel, built about 1750, of which
Sydney Smith and, later, Cary, the translator of Dante, were former
incumbents. The chapel has been twice redecorated, in 1874 and 1895;
and, apart from its associations, is worth a visit, if only to see the
memorial window placed there to the memory of the late Duke of Clarence.
[Sidenote: HILL STREET.]
Hill Street, formed about 1742, probably takes its name from some
inequality of the ground, more pronounced when all this part was fields
than now when building development has been responsible for a generally
levelling process.
Mrs. Montagu lived in Hill Street, while she was building for herself
the fine mansion in Portman Square, where she covered the walls with
birds’ feathers and “wanton Cupids,” and once a year entertained the
chimney-sweeps of the district.
Another resident was that Admiral Byng, whose infamous execution called
forth a well-known sarcasm from Voltaire; while others who lived here
in the past were Lord Camden, the great Lord Chief Justice; Lord
Brougham, before he received his title; the Earl of Malmesbury, whose
four volumes of entertaining memoirs record his diplomatic experiences
and successes at half the courts of Europe; and Lords Lyttelton and
Carlisle, both poets of distinctly minor attainments. Other names
might be added; but to be exhaustive would be to hamper the wings of
imagination.
[Sidenote: HAYES STREET.]
Passing by Hayes Street, now used as mews by the exigencies of fashion,
and where, at the corner, a public-house with its sign bearing the
inscription, “I am the only running Footman,” will recall to our minds
this former appendage to fashionable state, of which “Old Q.” was the
last to make use, we come to Charles Street, thus named after Charles,
Earl of Falmouth, a brother of Lord Berkeley, the ground-landlord.
[Sidenote: CHARLES STREET.]
This is the last of what I call “the gridiron,” and is generally known
as Charles Street, Berkeley Square, from its entering the square at its
south-west corner.
Royalty in the person of William IV., when Duke of Clarence, has been
represented in this street; while Sydney Smith, when he was incumbent
of Berkeley Chapel close by, was residing here, at No. 33, the house
in which the daughter of Lord Hervey was burnt to death, in 1815.
It was about the purchase of this house that Smith once wrote “the
lawyers discovered some flaw in the title about the time of the Norman
Conquest, but, thinking the parties must have disappeared in the
quarrels of York and Lancaster, I waived the objection!”
Among other residents I find the names of Lord Ellenborough, once
Governor-General of India; Beau Brummell, at No. 42, in 1792; Lady
Grenville, after the death of her husband, the Prime Minister; and
Bulwer Lytton. The latter, in 1839, fitted up his house in a most
lavish style, and one of the rooms was made to represent, as closely
as might be, one of the chambers in Pompeii. James Smith, one of the
authors of the “Rejected Addresses,” has left an amusing account of a
visit he once paid here.
[Sidenote: CURZON STREET.]
A few steps brings us into Curzon Street. It is curious to notice the
difference between the two ends of this fashionable thoroughfare, or
rather it was till the Duke of Marlborough set up his splendid mansion
amidst the small shops and public-houses which distinguish the eastern
part, where Bolton, Clarges, and Half Moon Streets dwindle away into
it, and Lansdowne Passage forms an exiguous connection between it and
Berkeley Street.
Once the street was known as Mayfair Row; its present designation being
derived from the family name of Lord Howe, the owner of the property.
If we except Sunderland House, the Duke of Marlborough’s, (_apropos_
of which the story is told that Queen Victoria once informed the Duke
she had never been in Curzon Street, so prescribed are frequently the
peregrinations of sovereigns) the chief mansion is Crewe House, the
residence of the Earl of Crewe. Until comparatively recently it was
known as Wharncliffe House, having been acquired by Mr. J. Stuart
Wortley for £12,000, in 1818, and continuing in his family (later
ennobled by the Barony of Wharncliffe) till its present owner bought it
at a very different figure. Originally, in 1708, Mr. Edward Shepherd,
who built Shepherd’s Market opposite, in 1735, lived here; and, in
1750, it was purchased by Lord Carhampton for £500, if one can possibly
believe in the adequacy of so small a sum to buy anything in such a
neighbourhood!
So many illustrious people have lived and died in Curzon Street that
pages might easily be filled with their names; but a few must here
suffice, and appropriately, as living once at No. 1, since demolished,
I find that great actress, Madame Vestris; and at No. 8, the celebrated
Miss Berrys, who both died here in 1852, and lie buried in Petersham
churchyard. Their house was once taken by Baron Bunsen, who records
moving into it in 1841. Sir Henry Holford, the surgeon, who was one
of those who gazed on the actual features of Charles I. when that
monarch’s coffin was opened, and who left an interesting account of the
circumstance, died at a house in Curzon Street, in 1844; and at No. 19,
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, drew his last breath, in 1882.
Other residents whose names may be set down were Lord Marchmont, the
friend of Pope; Mason, the poet; and Francis Chantry, the sculptor,
long before he became famous; Lord Macartney, whose mission to China is
to be found recorded in a bulky volume, and who, according to Walpole,
occupied here a “charming house--cheap as old clothes,” which once
belonged to Lord Carteret.
Opposite Crewe House stands Curzon Chapel, or, as it is as often
called, Mayfair Chapel. The original structure dated from 1730, but
it was subsequently rebuilt, although it is so plain and ugly that it
could not possibly have been improved by the process.
The chapel is notorious for those illegal marriages conducted by the
Rev. Alexander Keith, until the scandal was put an end to here by
his being unfrocked in 1742. But this action on the part of a justly
incensed church did not deter him from carrying on the same practices
at another chapel, which he inaugurated close by. What the Church was
unable to do, the Law effected, and the subsequent passing of the
Marriage Act, in 1754, finally put a stop to Mr. Keith’s illicit
activity. It is said that when told that the Bishops would stop his
illegal marriages, he replied, “Let them; and I’ll buy two or three
acres of ground, and by God, I’ll _under-bury_ them all!”
Of those who took advantage of this short cut to wedlock were the Duke
of Chandos, who was married (if the word can be permitted in such a
connection) to Mrs. Anne Jeffrey, in 1744; Lord Strange and Lucy Smith,
two years later; Lord Kensington and Rachel Hill, in 1749; and Lord
George Bentinck and Mary Davies, in 1753.
The year before this last match, occurred the best-remembered of these
“splicings,” when the Duke of Hamilton was wedded at half-past twelve
o’clock at night to the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning, who lived to be
the wife of two and the mother of four dukes. Horace Walpole has left
a vivid account of the ceremony, in which a ring torn from a curtain
replaced that circlet of gold which is recognised as the more usual
type of matrimonial bondage.
[Sidenote: HERTFORD AND CHESTERFIELD STREETS.]
Hertford Street, formed about 1764, now almost rivals Wimpole Street
in the numbers of the medical profession who reside in it; but at an
earlier day it was the home of politicians, with here and there a
soldier, and here and there a poet; while it was in a house here that
the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III., was married to Mrs.
Horton, in 1771.
Sheridan had one of his many residences here, at No. 10, in 1793,
and Lord Charlemont, whose wife’s name continues (in booksellers’
catalogues) to be erroneously connected with a notorious translation
of Voltaire’s “Pucelle,” was living in the street in 1766. So, too,
were Lord Goderich, and the Earl of Mornington, some years later; and,
in 1792, died here General Burgoyne, whose surrender to the American
forces at Saratoga precipitated that independence which the United
States soon after obtained.
The first Earl of Liverpool, father of the Prime Minister, died here
in 1808; and Earl Grey was living in this street in 1799; while other
politicians who have been former residents were Robert Dundas and
Charles Bathurst, Lord Langdale and Bulwer Lytton, the last of whom
lived at No. 36 from 1831 to 1834, and here wrote “Paul Clifford,” “The
Last Days of Pompeii,” “Rienzi,” “Alice,” and “Ernest Maltravers.”
Lord Sandwich, the well-known “Jemmy Twitcher,” died at No. 11, in
1792, and “Capability Brown,” the great landscape gardener, at another
house here, nine years earlier. But perhaps the street’s chief claim to
remembrance is the fact that Edward Jenner resided at No. 14, for some
years, from about the beginning of 1803. Contrary to expectation, his
fees fell off on his setting up here, and, together with the excessive
rent he was obliged to pay, and the additional expenses of London life,
he found it impossible to continue to reside here. A tablet now marks
the house where this benefactor to the human race once fought his
double fight against disease and poverty!
Chesterfield Street joins Chesterfield Gardens, which stand on the site
of the once ample grounds of Chesterfield House. George Selwyn dates
many of his letters from one of the houses in this street; while Beau
Brummell was residing in another, No. 4, till 1810, and here he was
visited often enough by the Prince of Wales, who sometimes remained so
late that he was compelled, says Jesse, to insist on Brummell giving
him a quiet dinner, which not uncommonly ended in a midnight debauch.
[Sidenote: PARK LANE.]
Park Lane stands alone among the streets of London. In that it has
only one side, and looks directly into one of London’s Parks, it might
at first seem to have some analogy to the western end of Piccadilly;
but Piccadilly is made up of clubs, with here and there a business
establishment and--except at Hyde Park Corner itself--private houses
but sparsely scattered down it; whereas Park Lane practically consists
of the mansions of the wealthy. So much so is this the case, indeed,
that it has latterly become synonymous with worldly riches, and is
now the objective at which Socialistic and democratic stump orators
level their sarcasms from their convenient vantage ground within the
park railings; what time the law in helmet and white gloves smiles
tolerantly, and the plutocrats lunch unmoved.
It will be well to start from its northern end, where it joins
Oxford Street, or the Tyburn Road, as it was once called, for Park
Lane used formerly to be known as Tyburn Lane, and close by the
Marble Arch--permanently at rest after its journey from the front
of Buckingham Palace--was Tyburn Tree, where the end of innumerable
malefactors drew crowds of excited and unseemly witnesses.
It is somewhat anomalous that this “glass of fashion” among streets
should have been, so comparatively recently as 1769, connected with
such gruesome associations; but it is also equally difficult to
imagine it as the dreary, unkept by-way which it was during the
Augustan age, when millionaires were not; and the petrol of the motor
was not smelt in the road.
[Sidenote: GREAT HOUSES OF PARK LANE.]
The first of the great mansions we come to is Brook House, which stands
at the corner of Upper Brook Street. It was designed by Wyatt, and was
for many years the residence of Lord Tweedmouth, and noted for the
receptions held here, when the Liberal Party indulged in its revels.
A step and we come to Dudley House, built by the late Lord Dudley, and
once the casket that contained many of those wonders of art which this
most princely of peers loved to gather around him.
At the corner of Upper Grosvenor Street stands a sort of magnificent
temple dedicated to music and the fine arts. This is the concert or
ballroom which the late Duke of Westminster, apparently regardless of
architectural symmetry, added to Grosvenor House, which is seen behind
it. It reminds me of nothing so much as a beautiful pearl which has
succeeded in emerging from the parent shell, but not wholly detaching
itself from the parental ligaments.
As we have seen, the entrance to Grosvenor House is in Park Street;
but I said nothing about the mansion then, because it seems to belong,
as does its vast garden extending to Mount Street, to Park Lane. The
residence, which was known as Gloucester House, at the time when the
Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III., acquired it in 1761, is, of
course, one of the great, as differentiated from merely large, houses
of London, and it contains a collection of pictures and works of art
which a millionaire would have to exhaust his fortune in purchasing,
and which could only be adequately described by a Waagen or a Smith.
Just beyond South Street stands what I suppose few people, having
regard to both its exterior and interior, will deny to be the finest
private residence in London--Dorchester House, which was erected by
Vulliamy, in the Italian Renaissance style, for the late Mr. Holford.
Surrounded as it is by every conceivable kind of architectural
experiment, it may be deemed out of place; but, taken by itself, it is
a perfect reproduction on a lavish scale of those Italian palaces to
which the blue sky of the South forms the one necessary background. The
interior is commensurate, both in size and detail, with its commanding
exterior, and only the pen of the late Mlle. de la Ramée (“Ouida”)
could do justice to the marble staircase. The art collection housed
here is extraordinarily fine, while the yearly exhibitions of Old
Masters at Burlington House are seldom without one or more examples
from among the masterpieces which hang on the walls of Dorchester House.
It has frequently been let, sometimes as when the Shahzada was there,
for a short period; sometimes, as now, when it has become the residence
of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, the United States Ambassador, for a term
of years. Its perfection of taste and its rare and beautiful contents
remind me that, appropriately enough, the Marquis of Hertford, whose
name is indissolubly associated with such things, died here in 1842.
At the south corner of Stanhope Street we come to the last of the great
houses of Park Lane--Londonderry House, now the residence of the
Marquis of Londonderry, but formerly known as Holdernesse House, it
having been erected by the Wyatts in 1850, on the site of the former
town house of the Earls of Holdernesse.
Next door to Londonderry House is quite a small house of somewhat
elaborate design. This was built on the site of another residence,
by Mr. Whittaker Wright, whose name is remembered in connection with
a notorious trial a few years since, and who, “_immemor sepulcri_,”
as Horace says, built a house which he was never destined to enjoy,
somewhat as in earlier days Baron Grant erected a palace in Kensington
which was demolished before it was occupied.
At this point Park Lane splits itself into two thoroughfares, the
smaller being Park Lane proper, and by its tenuity giving some _raison
d’étre_ for its designation, the latter being known as Hamilton Place,
which takes its name from that Hamilton who was Ranger of Hyde Park
during the reign of Charles II., and who erected a number of small
houses here in what was then but a _cul de sac_, on ground which formed
an integral part of the park itself.
[Sidenote: HAMILTON PLACE.]
The houses in this street were rebuilt by Adam in 1809, but it was not
till about sixty years later that the street was carried through to
Park Lane, and became its chief outlet into Piccadilly.
The mansion (No. 1) at the corner of Piccadilly was built by Lord
Chancellor Eldon when he left Bedford Square, and here he died in 1838.
Next door was occupied, from 1810 to 1819, by the Duke of Bedford, who
moved here from Great Stanhope Street; while later residents include
Earl Gower, afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the Right Hon. Thomas
Grenville, and the Duke of Argyll.
[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TO PICCADILLY AT HYDE PARK CORNER, WITH ST.
GEORGE’S HOSPITAL.]
At No. 4, the great Duke of Wellington was living in 1814, while
yet Apsley House was in the occupation of his brother, the Marquis
Wellesley. Others who have lived here include the Earl of Lucan, in
1810, and Lord Grenville, twelve years later. In our own day it has
been the town residence of the Earl of Northbrook, the head of the
Baring family and some time Governor-General of India.
Mr. Leopold de Rothschild’s beautiful house (No. 5), which looks
directly on to the park and has a view up Park Lane, was, from 1810
to 1825, the residence of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and many years
later, of the Marquis Conyngham.
One of London’s rare if not always beautiful statues stands at the
junction of Park Lane and Hamilton Place. Utility has been combined
with decoration in this case, for it also forms a fountain, presided
over by the Muses of Tragedy, Comedy, and History--not Farce, as might
have been expected, unless there be some subtly ironical meaning
hidden in the otherwise illogical collocation. Above stand, in evident
wonderment, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton, in marble, and on the
summit Fame puffs industriously at her trumpet. Thornycroft was
responsible for this work, which was erected in 1875, at the cost of
£5,000, the money being provided from the estate of an old lady who
died intestate and without heirs.
Before we finally quit Park Lane one or two of its former interesting
residents must receive a short word of notice. Thus, at the corner
of Upper Grosvenor Street--at that time known as No. 1, Grosvenor
Gate--Disraeli was living, from 1839 till 1873; and friend and brother
novelist and politician, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, was residing in 1842
at what was known as No. 1 Park Lane, during which period “Zanoni” was
published.
The names of Warren Hastings, Richard Sharp, and Lady Palmerston are
also connected, _cum multis aliis_, with this famed street; and in
one of those houses which look on to the Lane, but which have their
entrances in other streets--in this case Seamore Place--lived the
gorgeous Lady Blessington (1832-6), after her departure from St.
James’s Square and before her final apotheosis in Kensington Gore. The
white-painted semi-circular front of her former residence at the corner
of Pitt’s Head Mews, may still be seen; and it will not take a great
stretch of the imagination to picture that beautiful and talented woman
surrounded by all that extravagance and luxury could suggest, sitting
upon its balcony, and penning those short stories, or editing those
wonderful “books of beauty,” which formed the fashionable literary
_pabulum_ of early Victorian days.
Within a radius of half a mile from Stewart’s corner of Old Bond
Street we have traversed that part of the town which is associated
pre-eminently with the fashionable, and in a lesser degree with the
literary and artistic, traditions of two centuries of London life.
Compared with the innumerable memories which its stones evoke, the
area covered is a relatively small one, but had space here been less
restricted, one might have gone on wandering over acres of paper while
setting down the names of persons and places, and lingering over the
stories and anecdotes with which they are connected.
INDEX.
PAGE.
Adam, Robert, 10, 12, 38, 70
“ James, 10
“ William, 103
Addison, 3, 34, 59, 93
Adelaide, Queen, 50
Albany, The, 80
Albemarle, Duke of, 20, 84
“ Earl of, 102
Albemarle Street, 8
Aldford Street, 125
Alington House, 121
Almack’s, 44
Alvanley, Lord, 7
“Angler, The Compleat”, 74
Anglesea, Marquis of, 93
Apsley House, 139
Arbuthnot, 11, 96
Argyle, The Great Duke of, 109, 139
Arlington Street, 34
Ashburnham, Earl of, 12
Ashburnham House, 12
Ashburton, Lord, 19
Audley Streets, North and South, 120
Avery Row, 108
Bach, John Christian, 105
Bank of England, 91
“Barber’s Pole,” The, 51
Bath House, 18
Bath, Lord, 18
Barry, 45, 46
Barrymore House, 23
“Barleymow,” The, 21
Baring, Alex., 19
Barrymore, Earl of, 23
Beaconsfield, Lord, 90, 132, 139
“Bear, The White”, 78
Beechy, Sir Wm., 102
Beckford, Wm., 119
Bellenden, Mary, 6
Berkeley, Bishop, 9, 72
“ Chapel, 12, 128
“ Hotel, 14
“ Row, 14
“ Square, 112
“ Street, 14
Berry, The Misses, 122, 132
Betterton, 65
Blake, Wm., 106
Blessington, Lady, 140
Blount, Martha and Theresa, 17
“Blue Posts,” The, 56
Bolton Street, 17
Bolingbroke, Lord, 11
Bond, Sir Thos., 8, 83
Bond Street, Old and New, 84, 86
Boswell, 21, 43, 86
Bouverie, Jack, 17
Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 95
Brook House, 136
“ Street, 106
Broughton, 60
Brougham, Lord, 111, 113, 127
Brouncker, P.R.A., 43
“Brown, Capability”, 134
Brummell, Beau, 7, 16, 41, 54, 126, 130, 134
Bruton Street, 109
Buckingham, Duchess of, 34
Buckingham Palace, 32
“Bull and Mouth,” The, 75
Bunsen, Baron, 122, 132
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 16
Burgoyne, General, 134
Burke, Edmund, 106
Burlington, Lord, 53, 79
Burlington Arcade, 83
Burlington Gardens, 92
“ House, 81
“ Street, 92
Burney, Fanny, 18, 21, 125
Bute, Earl of, 121
Bute House, 121
Bute, Lord, 10, 33, 121
Byng, Admiral, 129
Byron, Lord, 10, 14, 27, 50, 81
Cambridge, Duke of, 22, 26, 45
Cambridge House, 22
Camden, Lord, 35, 129
Camelford, Lord, 89
Campbell (Poet), 16, 33, 105
Campbell, Colin (Architect), 82
“ Sir Colin, 113
Canning, George, 81, 98, 111
Canterbury, Lord, 113
Carleton, Lord, 53
Carlton Hotel, 64
“ House, 52
Carlyle, Thos., 19
Caroline, Queen, 70, 122
Carter, Mrs., 21
Catherine Street, 52
Catherine of Braganza, 52
Cato Street, 118
Cavendish, Lord George, 81
Cecils, Home of the, 34
Chantrey, 33, 102, 132
Chapel of the Trinity, 97
Charles II., 31, 36
Charles Edward, Prince, 18
“ Street, 130
Charlotte, Princess, 49, 55, 94
Chatham, Lord, 75
“ “, the second, 113
Chaworth, Mr., 14, 51
Chesterfield House, 120
Chesterfield, Lord, 22, 37, 53, 75, 120
Chesterfield Street, 139
Child, Mr. (Banker), 113
Chocolate House, Arthur’s, 41
“ “, St. James’s 42
“ “, White’s 4, 37
Cholmondeley House, 22
Christie’s, 44
Chudleigh, Miss, 85, 99
Cibber, Colley, 61, 113
Clarendon House, 2, 3, 8, 84
Clarges, Sir Thos., 20
“ Sir Walter, 20
Clarges Street, 20
Clarges House, 20
Claridge’s Hotel, 108
Clark, Sir James, 105
Clermont, Lord and Lady, 113
Cleveland, Duchess of, 34
Cleveland House, 32, 34
“ Row, 32
“ Square, 32
Clifford Street, 94
Clive, Lord, 113
Club, Ambassadors’, 25
“ Arthur’s, 41, 43
“ Army and Navy, 46, 69, 70
“ Athenæum, 46
“ Badminton, 23
“ Boodles’, 38
“ Brooks’s, 39
“ Caledonian, 68
“ Carlton, 45
“ Civil Service, 42
“ Cocoa Tree, 41, 42
“ Conservative, 43
“ Coventry House, 25
“ Crockford’s, 38, 39
“ Devonshire, 38, 41
“ East India, 69, 70
“ Green Park, 111
“ Guards’, 50
“ “In and Out”, 22
“ Isthmian, 23
“ Junior Athenæum, 26
“ “ Carlton, 45
“ “ Constitutional, 23
“ “ Naval and Military, 23
“ “ Oxford and Camb., 50
“ “ United Service, 68
“ Lyceum, 20
“ Naval and Military, 22
“ New, 111
“ New University, 41
“ Nimrod, 69
“ Liberty, 51
“ Oriental, 104
“ Oxford and Cambridge, 50
“ Portland, 69
“ Reform, 45
“ Rumpsteak, 51
“ Savile, 25
“ Sports, 69
“ St. James’s, 25
“ Thatched House, 42
“ Travellers’, 46
“ Turf, 111
“ United Empire, 20
“ United University, 63
“ Watier’s, 16
“ White’s, 36, 38
“ Wyndham’s, 69
“Coach and Horses,” The, 99
“The Cocoa Tree”, 42
Coffee House, The Clifford Street, 93
“ “ Grant’s, 37
“ “ Gloucester, 13
“ “ King’s Arms, 51
“ “ Prince of Wales’, 98
“ “ St. James’s, 4, 37
Cobden, Richard, 64
“The Cock”, 56
Cockspur Street, 56
Coke, Lady Mary, 6, 125
Colt, Sir Henry, 30
Colman, Geo., 19, 62
Combe, Alderman, 41
Conduit Mead, 97
“ Street, 96
Constitution Hill, 1
Congreve (Dramatist), 65
Cooper, Sir Astley, 98
Cope, Sir John, 34
Cork, Earl of, 94
“ Lady, 93
Cork Street, 76
Corticelli, 64
Cosway, Richard, 14, 48, 100
Cotton, Sir Vincent, 13
Coutts (Banker), 16
Coventry, Lord, 25, 86
Cowper, Lord Chancellor, 102
Coxe, Archdeacon, 11
Craggs (Secretary), 34, 72
Crewe House, 129
Crewe, Mrs., 54
Cricket Club, The First, 51
Crown Court, 43, 50
Curzon Chapel, 132
“ Street, 131
Damer, Col., 39
D’Arblay, General, 18
“ Madame, 18, 21, 125
Dashwood, Sir Francis, 104
Davies, of Ebury, Mary, 116
“ Street, 116
Davis, Moll (Actress), 64, 71
Davy, Sir Humphrey, 47, 109, 123
Deanery Street, 126
Delaney, Mrs., 18, 20, 22, 75, 88, 107
Denham, Lord, 82
Denman House, 80
Derby, Earl of, 68, 101
Devonshire, Duchess of, 15, 54
“ Duke of, 41
Devonshire House, 14, 15
Dilettanti, Society of, 42, 111
Dodsley (Publisher), 50, 75
Dorant’s Hotel, 10
Dorchester House, 137
Douglas, Jas. (Author), 16
Dover, Lord, 11
Dover Street, 11
Down Street, 26
Downshire House, 104
Ducking-Pond Row, 110
Dudley House, 136
Edgworth, Maria, 122
Eglinton Tournament, 44
Egremont House, 22
Egremont, Second Earl of, 22
Eldon, Lord, 33, 138
Eliot, George, 101
Elgin, Lord, 26
Ely House, 12
Farm Street, 128
Farquhar, Sir Walter, 98
Farren, Nellie (Actress), 99, 124
Fitzherbert, Mrs., 54, 111, 127
Fonthill, 119
Foote (Manager), 62
Fox, Charles James, 7, 10, 34, 43, 98, 111, 113, 126
Francis, Sir Philip, 41, 54, 70
Fribourg’s (Haymarket), 60
Gainsborough, Thomas, 48
Gallini, 66
Garrick, David, 40
Garth, Sir Samuel, 59
George Street, 99
George II., 36
“ III., Birthplace of, 68
Gibbon (Historian), 9, 38, 40, 42, 43, 74, 86
Gibbons, Grinling, 73
Gillray (Caricaturist), 12, 38, 75
Glover, “Leonidas”, 10
Gloucester Coffee House, 13
“ House, 26
“Golden Door,” The, 51
“Golden Lion,” The, 21
“Golden Pestle and Mortar,” The, 51
Gordon, Lord George, 124
Grafton, Duke of, 110
“ Galleries, 111
“ Street, 110
Granville, Lord, 110, 120, 139
Gray (Poet), 72
“Green Man and Still,” The, 14
Green Park, 29
Grenville, Geo., 18, 124
“ Thomas, 15, 33
Grey (Dramatist), 33
“The Greyhound”, 25
Grillion’s Hotel, 10
Grosvenor House, 125, 136
Grosvenor, Sir Richard, 108
“ Sir Thomas, 116
Grosvenor Square, 115, 117
“ Street, 108, 125
“ Street, Upper, 124
Grote, George (Historian), 94
Gunning, The Sisters, 25, 87, 133
Gwyn, Nell, 48, 85
Halfmoon Street, 21
Hamilton, Duke of, 5, 35, 50, 133
“ Lady, 21, 99
“ Place, 27, 138
“ Sir William, 99
“ “Single-speech”, 105, 124
Hampden House, 123
Handel, 65, 66, 107
Hanover Square, 102
“ “ Concert Rooms, 105
Harewood House, 103
Harley, Earl of Oxford, 11
Harley, Robert, 37
Hart, Emma (Lady Hamilton), 21, 99
Hastings, Warren, 34, 140
Hay Hill, 14, 111
Hayes Street, 129
Haymarket, 57
“ Theatre, 60
Heidegger, 65, 66
“Hercules’ Pillars”, 21
Hertford, Marquis of, 24
Hertford Street, 133
Hervey, Lord, 5, 6, 92
Hesketh, Lady, 124
Hill, Aaron, 25
Hill Street, 129
Hirsch, Baron, 20
His Majesty’s Theatre, 60, 64
Hoby (Bootmaker), 47
Hogarth, Wm., 77
Holford, Sir Henry, 132
Holland (Architect), 53
“ Sir Henry, 125
Hook, Theodore, 1, 33, 39
Hope, H. T., 26
“Horse-Shoe, The”, 21
Hume (Historian), 40
Hunter, 77
Huskisson, Wm., 109
Hyde Park Corner, 25, 27
Institute of Painters in Watercolours, 79
Institution, Royal, 10
Jekyll, 47
Jenner, Dr., 107, 139
Jenyns, Soame, 127
Jermyn Street, 11, 72
“ “ Origin of name of, 73
Jordan, Mrs. (Actress), 103
Johnson, Dr., 1, 43, 71, 118, 119, 121, 127
John Street, Pall Mall, 47, 128
Jones, Sir Thomas, 13
Kauffmann, Angelica, 109
Kean, Edmund, 21
Keith, Rev. Alex., 132
Kemble, Mrs. Chas., 21
Kent (Architect), 14
Kingston, Duke of, 34, 85, 99
King Street (St. James’s), 43
“King’s Arms,” The, 51
Lansdowne House, 14, 111
“ Passage, 14
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 47, 87
Leicester Square, 75, 76
Leigh, Bob, 17
Le Telier’s Hotel, 12
Lepel, Molly, 6, 34
Lieven, Prince, 12
Lind, Jenny, 67
Lindhurst, Lord, 111
Lindsay, Lady Anne, 113
Locker-Lampson, 23
Londonderry House, 138
London Library, 69
London University, 79
Long’s Hotel, 87
Louis XVIII., 10, 122
Lowther, Rt. Hon. James, 108
Lynedoch, Lord, 16
Lytton, Bulwer, Lord, 81, 130, 134, 140
Macclesfield, Countess of, 86
Macintosh, Sir James, 10
Macaulay, Lord, 21, 33, 81
Mackreth, 37, 41
MacSwiney, Owen, 65
Maddox Street, 99
Mallet, 101
Malmesbury, Lord, 10, 129
Mann, Sir Horace, 51
Mario, 67
Market Street, 58
Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of, 49
“ Great Duke of, 49, 72, 131
Marlborough House, 49
Martindale, 37
Mason (Poet), 33
Mayfair, 115
Mayfair, Origin of name of, 115, 116
Melbourne, Lord, 18, 21, 126
“Milk Ladies” of St. James’ Park, 128
Mitford, William (Author), 21
Mohun, Lord, 5, 50
Montagu, Mrs., 129
Montes, Lola, 21, 99
Moore, Thomas, 33, 73, 117
Morland, George, 59
Motley, J. L., 35
Mount Street, 125
Murray, John (Publisher), 10
Napoleon III., 43
Nash (Architect), 12, 55, 77
Nelson, Lord, 88
Newburgh, Lady, 69
Newton, Sir Isaac, 72
Niccolini, 65
Nightingale, Florence, 126
Nivernois, Duc de, 9
Norfolk House, 68
Norfolk Street, 124
North, Lord, 108, 118
Northcote (Artist), 86
Northumberland, Countess of, 37
Novosielski (Architect), 23, 66
O’Brien, Nellie (Actress), 123
O’Neil, Miss (Actress), 20
Oldfield, Nance, 59-60
Oliver’s Mound, 117
Opera House, Pall Mall, 64
Overstone, Lord, 124
Oxford, Harley, Earl of, 11, 103
Pall Mall, 44
Pall Mall Taverns, 50
“ Origin of name of, 52
“ Place, 50
Palmerston, Lord, 23, 45, 69, 127
Park Lane, 26, 135
“ Street, 120
Parnell (Poet), 34
Peel, Sir Robert, 31, 123, 127
Pelham, Henry, 34
Peterborough, Earl of, 18
Phœnix Inn Yard, 58
Piccadilly, 1
“ Butchers, 16
“ Circus, 75
“ Hotel, 79
“ Origin of name of, 7, 8
“ Terrace, 27
“ Turnpike, 28
Pickadilla Hall, 8, 77
Picton, Sir Thomas, 88, 89
Pitt, William, 95, 110, 113
Pope, Alexander, 3, 5, 11, 43
Porters’ Rest, 25
Portland, Duke of, 19
Portugal Street, 52, 78
Pozzo-di-Borgo, 12
Probyn, Capt., 13
Pulteney, Earl of Bath, 5, 18, 19, 34
Pulteney Hotel, 24
“Old Q.,” Duke of Queensberry, 7, 24, 27, 75
Queensberry, Duchess of, 6
“Queen’s Arms,” Pall Mall, 50
Queen Victoria, Attempt on life of, 32
Queen Caroline, 70, 122
Quaritch (Bookseller), 79
Raggett, 37
Raglan, Lord, 128
Raikes (Diarist), 17, 24, 118
“ Robert, 118
Regent, The Prince, 15, 53, 55
Reid, Hon. Whitelaw, 137
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 11, 39, 77
Ritz Hotel, 23, 35
Robinson, Mrs. (“Perdita”), 34
Rodney, Lord, 33, 105
Rogers (Poet), 10, 33
Romney, Geo., 99
Rosebery, Earl of, 113
Rothschild, Leopold de, 139
“ Nathan, 25
Roxburgh, Duke of, 103
Royal Academy, 83
“ Institution, 10
“Rule Britannia” (Authorship), 101
Russell, Lord William, 124
Sackville Street, 78
St. Alban’s Street, 58
St. Alban’s, Duke of, 85
St. Anselm, Church of, 117
St. George’s, Hanover Square, 98
St. James’s Church, 73
“ Coffee House, 4
“ Hall, 79
“ Hotel, 14
“ Market, 58
“ Palace, 35, 44
“ Place, 33, 34
“ Square, 68
“ Street, 35
Salisbury, Lord, 34
Savile Place, 95
Savile Row, 95
Schomberg, Duke of, 48
Schomberg House, 48, 51
Scott, Sir Walter, 54, 73
Secker, Archbishop, 74
Sefton, Lord, 35
Selwyn, George, 6, 33, 40, 42, 87
Shackleton (Painter), 14
Shaftesbury, Lord, 120
Shelley, 21, 126
Shelburne, Earl of, 102
Sheridan, R. Brinsley, 40, 95, 102, 110, 133
Six Bell Alley, 58
Smirke (Architect), 45
Smith, Adam, 64
“ Sidney, 33, 73, 101, 106, 122, 127 130
Smith, J. T., 44
“Smyrna,” The, 51
Society of British Artists, 64
Somerset, Duchess of, 37
South Street, Mayfair, 126
Soyer, Alexis, 45
Spencer House, 33
Spong, M. H., 33
“Sporus,” (Lord Hervey), 5, 30
“Spread Eagle,” The, 75
Stael, Madame de, 101
Stafford House, 32
Standish, Sir Frank, 38
Stanhope Street, Great, 127
“Star and Garter,” Pall Mall, 14, 50
Steele, Richard, 4, 24
Stepney, Sir Thomas, 17
Sterne, Laurence, 86
Stevens’ Hotel, 89
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 118
Stowell, Lord, 33
Stratton Street, 15
Stuart, James (Architect), 33
_Stuart, La Belle_, 72
“Sugar Loaf,” The, 51
Suffolk, Lady, 6, 95
Suffolk Street, 63
Sunderland House, 131
Sutton, Manners, 113
“Swan, The”, 21
Swift, Dean, 4, 86
Talleyrand, Prince, 46, 104
Tankerville, Lord, 51
Tart Hall, 29
Taylor, Sir Robert, 12
Tenison, Archbishop, 74, 97
Thatched House Court, 42
Thatched House Club, 42
Theatre, His Majesty’s, 60, 64
“ Haymarket, 60
Thomson, James (Poet), 88, 91, 101
Tierney (Politician), 96, 111
Tierney, Sir Matthew, 111
Tietjens, Madame, 67
Tilney Street, 126
Townshend, Lord, 33
Turnpike, The Piccadilly, 28
Tyburn Lane, 135
Tyburn, The, 106, 112
Tyburn Tree, 135
Ude (Chef), 35, 39
Uxbridge House, 93
Vanbrugh, Sir John, 64
Vandergucht, Gerard, 107
Vancouver (Traveller), 98
Vanderveld (Painter), 74
Van Nost (Architect), 23
Vardy (Architect), 33
Vesey, Mrs., 18
Vestris, Madame, 132
Victoria, Queen, Attempt on life of, 32
Vigo Street, 94
Wake, Archbishop, 74
Wales, Frederick, Prince of, 53
Wales, George, Prince of, 53
Wallace, Sir Richard, 24
Waller, 43
Walpole, Horace, 6, 22, 33, 37, 40, 43, 109
“ Sir Robert, 12, 34
War Office, Old, 48
Warwick House, 55
“ Street, 55
Warwick, Sir Philip, 55
Watier (Chef), 16, 17
Watiers’ Club, 16
Watkin Williams Wynn, Sir, 70
Waverton Street, 128
Wellington, Duke of, 27, 39, 45, 54, 93, 139
Wernher, Sir Julius, 20
West (Painter), 78
Western Exchange, The, 91
Wharton, Duke of, 5, 11, 98
“White Bear,” The, Piccadilly, 78
“White Horse,” The, 21
“White Horse Cellar”, 12
White, Miss Lydia, 123
White’s Chocolate House, 4
Whitehead (Poet), 37
Wilberforce, 38, 40, 98
Wilbraham, Rodger, 41
Wilkes (Demagogue), 10, 34
William IV., 130
Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury, 19
Willis’s Rooms, 44
Wimborne, Lord, 35
Wolfe, General, 43, 92
“Woods, at the Pell Mell”, 51
Worcester, Lord, 13
Wortley-Montagu, Lady Mary, 6, 34, 102
Wright, Whittaker, 138
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 112
Wyndham, Sir William, 11
Yarborough, Lord, 34, 35
York, Edward, Duke of, 6, 32
York, James, Duke of, 31
Zoffany (Painter), 10
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It has been suggested that the name may have had its origin in the
famous “Pickadilla” cakes first made in old Pickadilla Hall, and made
and sold at “Stewart’s” to the present day. [Publisher’s Note.]
[2] The great authority for it is Mr. Arthur Dasent’s book, while I
have a chapter on it in my “History of the Squares of London.”--E. B. C.
[3] As an example of the rebuilding of Piccadilly, so rapidly going
on during the last few years, a drawing of one of its handsomest
structures, Denman House, at the corner of Air Street, is given. Built
in 1903, it replaces the old building, where the late Mr. James L.
Denman had been established for over half a century. Messrs. Denman &
Co., having acquired the freeholds of the vineyards of the celebrated
“J. Lemoine,” Champagne, and also the “Chateau Livran” estate with its
350 acres of vines in the Medoc, required larger premises. Denman House
was therefore built, from the designs of Mr. Harold A. Woodington,
A.R.I.B.A. The upper part of the old building, which appears in the
vignette, was leased in the early fifties to the Marquis Townshend for
the Pall Mall Club.--(Publishers’ Note).
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.