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feather-hangings, which Cowper has rendered so

celebrated;

The birds put off their

every hue,

To dress a room for Montague;

The peacock sends his heavenly dyes,

His rainbows and his starry eyes;

The pheasant plumes, which round infold

His mantling neck with downy gold;

The cock his arched tail's azure show,

And river-blanched, the swan his snow, &c. &c.

Seymour Street, and Wigmore Street lead us into Cavendish Square. It is curious to find how, almost entirely, the streets in this vicinity have derived their names from the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, and from the different families with which they have intermarried. From the earldom of Mortimer and the barony of Harley of Wigmore, we trace the names of Mortimer Street, Harley Street, and Wigmore Street; from the marriage of Edward, second Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, with Henrietta Cavendish, daughter and heiress of John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, we derive Edward Street, Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, and Holles Street; from the union of their only child, Margaret, to William Bentinck, second Duke of Portland, we trace Margaret Street, Bentinck Street, Duke and Duchess Street, and Portland Place; and, lastly, we derive Bulstrode Street from the family seat of the Dukes of Portland, and Welbeck Street from an estate formerly in the possession of the Dukes of Newcastle, which came into the possession of the Harleys, by the marriage

CAVENDISH SQUARE.

65

of the last female descendant of the former to the second Earl of Oxford.

Cavendish Square was built about the year 1718. Here Lady Mary Wortley Montagu held her court, composed of youth, rank, and beauty, before her long absence from England,* and, at the corner house of the Square and Harley Street, the Princess Amelia, daughter of George the Second, lived and died. In the same house afterwards lived Mr. Hope, the author of "Anastasius," and subsequently Mr. Watson Taylor.†

Harley Street, and other streets to the north, were not built till many years after the erection of Cavendish Square. This site was formerly known as Harley Fields, and, as late as 1768, we find thousands of persons assembling here in the open air to listen to the exhortations of the eminent preacher Whitfield. About the same time we find the celebrated John Wesley preaching on "execution days" on Kennington Common. In Harley Street lived Sir Philip Francis, previous to his removal to St. James's Square.

The streets, in the vicinity of Cavendish Square, furnish the names of several persons of celebrity who formerly resided in them. In Bentinck Street lived Gibbon the historian, and in Holles Street resided the mother of Lord Byron, and here the great poet was born in January 1788.§ Martha

"Letters and Works of Lady M. W. Montagu."

+ "Correspondence of Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk." "Miscellaneous Works."

VOL. I.

§ Moore's "Life of Byron."

F

*

Blount, beloved and immortalized by Pope, lived in Welbeck Street; in this street Lord George Gordon was residing at the time of the celebrated riots which bear his name; and here died, in 1769, at the age of ninety-seven, Edmund Hoyle, author of the famous treatise on the game of whist.

Castle Street, Cavendish Square, is interesting from having been the residence of two men of genius, Dr. Johnson and Barry the painter, who lived here, at different times, in the days of their distress. Opposite to Dr. Johnson's humble lodgings resided two sisters of the name of Cotterell. Sir Joshua Reynolds, then scarcely known to fame, was their frequent visitor, and at the house of the maiden ladies commenced the friendship between Johnson and Reynolds, which only terminated with their lives. "Sir Joshua," says Boswell, Boswell, "told me a pleasant characteristical anecdote of Johnson about the time of their first acquaintance. When they were one evening together at the Miss Cotterells', the then Duchess of Argyle and another lady of high rank came in. Johnson, thinking that the Miss Cotterells were too much engrossed by them, and that he and his friend were neglected, as low company of whom they were somewhat ashamed, grew angry; and resolving to shock their supposed pride, by making their great visitors imagine that his friend and he were low indeed, he addressed

Pope, in his will, speaks of her as Mrs. Martha Blount, late of Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square.

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himself in a loud tone to Mr. Reynolds, saying,

How much do you think you and I could get in a week, if we were to work as hard as we could?" -as if they had been common mechanics."*

The residence of poor Barry is known to have been at No. 36, Castle Street. Edmund Burke, on one occasion, offered to dine with him at his humble abode, at which the artist demurred for a moment, but afterwards added, that if the statesman. would content himself with no other fare than a steak, he would promise him one of the hottest and best in London. "Accordingly," we are told, "on the day and hour named, Burke appeared, and was received by his host, who conducted him into the carpenter's shop, which he had transformed into his painting-room. Along the walls hung

the sketches of his great paintings which now exist at the Adelphi. Old straining-frames, sketches, a printing press, with which he printed with his own hand the plates engraved from his pictures, formed the other chief contents of the place. The windows were mostly broken or cracked, and the tiled roof shewed the sky through many a crevice. There were two old chairs and a single deal table. The fire, however, was bright, and Barry cordial. Presently a pair of tongs were put in Burke's hands, with the remark,-'Be useful, my dear friend, and look to the steaks while I fetch the porter.' The statesman got on admirably with his

*Boswell's "Life of Johnson."

task, and, by the time Barry returned, the steak was done to a turn. 'What a misfortune,' exclaimed Barry, as he entered, the wind carried away the fine foaming top as I crossed Titchfield Street.' The friends then sat down to the feast; anecdote and criticism flowed freely; the stars were propitious; no cloud ruffled the painter's mind, and, altogether, Burke used to say he had never spent a happier evening."

Oxford House, the ancient manor house of Maryle-bone, the residence, at a later period, of the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, and the receptacle of the great Harleian library, before its transfer to the British Museum stood opposite Mary-lebone Church, and was in existence as late as 1791.

Mary-le-bone is corrupted from St. Mary-on-the bourne, or rather St. Mary-on-the-river; bourne being the Saxon name for a river. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, the crown possessed a vast domain in this district, of which, we believe, the Regent's Park is now nearly all that remains to it, and accordingly in that reign we find the ambassador from the Emperor of Russia, "and other Muscovites," riding through the city of London to Maryle-bone Park, and there "hunting at their pleasure." The old manor house was probably the ancient hunting-lodge of the royal domain. Having passed out of the possession of the Harleys, it became,

* Knight's "London."

+ "Curiosities of Literature."

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