London. Horace Walpole writes to the Earl of Hertford on the 14th of February, 1765,-"The new assembly room at Almack's was opened the night before last, and they say is very magnificent, but it was empty; half the town is ill with colds, and many were afraid to go, as the house is scarcely built yet. was built with hot bricks and boiling-water; think what a rage there must be for public places, if this notice, instead of terrifying, could draw any body thither. Almack advertised that it They tell me the ceilings were dropping with wet,-but can you believe me when I tell you the Duke of Cumberland was there? Nay, he had had a levee in the morning, and went to the opera before the assembly! There is a vast flight of steps, and he was forced to rest two or three times. If he died of it, it will sound very silly, when Hercules or Theseus ask him what he died of, to reply,-'I caught my death on a damp staircase at a new club-room."* Somewhat higher up St. James's Street is Little Ryder Street, where Swift was residing in December, 1712. From hence we pass into Bury Street, where the unfortunate Letitia Pilkington informs us that she lodged in the time of her necessity.‡ Swift also resided here in 1710, and from this street many of the most interesting of his letters to Stella are dated. He writes to her on the 19th * Walpole's "Correspondence." "Journal to Stella," 12 December, 1712. See her curious "Memoirs of Herself," vol. ii. p. 47. of September, 1710,-"To-morrow I change my lodgings in Pall Mall for one in Bury Street, where I suppose I shall continue while in London." And again he writes to her on the 29th of the month,-" I lodge in Bury Street, where I removed a week ago; I have the first floor, a dining-room, and bed-chamber, at eight shillings a week, plaguy dear, but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach; yet after all it will be expensive. It is a pleasure to me to point out that Bury Street has long been the temporary residence of the author of the "Irish Melodies" and of "Lalla Rookh," during his periodical visits to London. Future historians of London may perhaps thank me for the information. * "Journal to Stella," 22 Sept. 1710. ST. JAMES'S SQUARE. 109 ST. JAMES'S SQUARE. ST. JAMES'S SQUARE.-DUKE OF HAMILTON.-FREDERICK PRINCE of WALES. JOHNSON AND SAVAGE. JERMYN STREET. LORD ST. ST. JAMES'S SQUARE dates its existence from the days of Charles the Second. King Street, and Charles Street, were named in compliment to that monarch, as York Street and Duke Street were also named after his brother the Duke of York, afterwards James the Second. As early as the year 1683, we find the Marquis of Dorchester, and the Earls of Kent, St. Albans, and Essex, residing in St. James's Square. Many, however, of the ancient nobility still continued to retain their old family mansions in the eastern quarters of London, or in districts which now sound strangely uninhabitable to fashionable ears. At the period of which we are speaking, the Duke of Newcastle lived in Clerkenwell Close, the Earl of Bridgewater in the Barbican, the Earl of Thanet in Aldersgate Street, and Lord Grey of Werk in Charterhouse Close. The Dukes of Norfolk and Beaufort, and the Earls of Bedford and Salisbury, still retained the houses of their forefathers in the Strand; the Marquis of Winchester, and the Earls of Cardigan and Powis, resided in Lincoln's Inn fields, and the Earls of Clare, Anglesea, and Craven in Drury Lane.* When James the Second, worn out by the reproaches of his young wife and the arguments of his priests, determined on separating from his celebrated mistress Catherine Sedley, he created her Baroness of Darlington and Countess of Dorchester, and removed her from her apartments in the royal palace of Whitehall to a house which he presented to her in St. James's Square. In a letter of the period, dated 6th of April, 1686, the writer says, "I imagine your Countess of Dorchester will speedily move hitherwards, for her house is furnishing very fine in St. James's Square, and a seat taken for her in the new consecrated St. Ann's Church."+ Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring, And Sedley cursed the charms which pleased a king. When Dr. Johnson wrote this well-known couplet, he must have been strangely ignorant of the true history and real character of Lady Dorchester. She retired from the embraces of her royal lover with a coronet, a handsome fortune, a house in St. James's Square, and a pew in St. Ann's Church. With these she possessed a wit and exuberance of spirits, which continued with her apparently to the last. Speaking of the eccentric physician, Dr. Radcliffe, she said, "Dr. Radcliffe and myself together * Chamberlain's "Angliæ Notitia for 1683." The Ellis' Correspondence. ST. JAMES'S SQUARE. could cure a fever."* 111 With these advantages, what reason could she have had to curse the charms which had fascinated her royal lover? In St. James's Square lived another minion of a court, William Bentinck, Earl of Portland, the Dutch favourite of William the Third, and here his body lay in state previous to its interment in Westminster Abbey.f In the "New View of London," published in 1708, St. James's Square is described as "a very pleasant, large, and beautiful square, mostly inhabited by the prime quality; all very fine spacious building, except that side toward Pall Mall." At this period there were residing here, on the north side, the Dukes of Northumberland and Ormond, and the Earl of Pembroke; on the east side, the Earls of Sunderland and Kent, and Lords Ossulstone and Woodstock; and, on the west side, the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Torrington. To St. James's Square were conveyed the remains of the unfortunate Duke of Hamilton, after he was killed in his famous duel with Lord Mohun. Swift writes, on the 15th of November, 1712, "This morning at eight my man brought me word that Duke Hamilton had fought with Lord Mohun and killed him, and was brought home wounded. immediately sent to the Duke's house in St. James's Square; but the porter could hardly answer for tears, and a great rabble was about the house. He was brought home in his coach by eight, while † Biog. Britannica. * Lord Chesterfield's "Letters." I |