The Puritan admiral, Robert Blake, was oddly commemorated in 1888 by a window containing a saint and an archangel. The west window of the south aisle was erected by members of the House of Commons to Lord Frederick Cavendish, 1882. The churchwardens have since 1713 held with their office the possession of a very curious Horn Snuff-box, inside the lid of which is a head of the Duke of Cumberland, engraved by Hogarth in 1746 to commemorate the battle of Culloden. Successive churchwardens have enclosed it in a succession of silver cases, beautifully engraved with representations of the historical events which have occurred while they held office, so that it has become a really valuable curiosity. Before leaving this church one may notice the marriage at its altar of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, grandfather of Mary II. and Anne, with Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury; and the baptism at its font (Nov. 1640) of Barbara Villiers, the notorious Duchess of Cleveland. The Churchyard of St. Margaret's used to be closely paved with tombstones, a setting greatly enhancing the picturesque appearance of the Abbey, and marvellously in keeping with it. In 1881 all the gravestones were buried under three feet of earth, to the destruction of much that was valuable and interesting, and turf laid down at an enormous cost, with the mean and flippant result which we now see. Wenceslaus Hollar, the engraver (1677), is said to lie near the north-west angle of the tower. Here also are buried Sir William Waller, the Parliamentary general (1668), and Thomas Blood, celebrated for his attempt to steal the regalia (1680). The bodies of the mother of Oliver Cromwell; of Admiral Blake (who had been honoured with a public funeral); of Sir William Constable and Dr. Dorislaus, concerned in the trial of Charles I.; of Thomas May, the poet and historian of the Commonwealth, and others famous under the Protectorate, when exhumed from the Abbey, were carelessly interred here. Amongst the tombs recently buried, broken, or destroyed, were a number belonging to the family of Davies, the heiress of which brought so much landed property to the Dukes of Westminster. Only one monument of this family has been spared. In the now ruined churchyard one has some difficulty in recalling its association with the poet Cowper while he was a Westminster boy. 'Crossing St. Margaret's Churchyard late one evening, a glimmering light in the midst of it excited his curiosity, and, instead of quickening his speed and whistling to keep up his courage the while, he went to see whence it proceeded. A gravedigger was at work there by lantern-light, and, just as Cowper came to the spot, he threw up a skull which struck him on the leg. This gave an alarm to his conscience, and he reckoned the incident as amongst the best religious impressions which he received at Westminster.'-Southey's Life of Cowper. Parliament Square, in front of St. Margaret's, is decorated with statues of famous Prime Ministers-Canning by Westmacott, Peel by Behnes, Palmerston by Jackson, Derby by Noble, and an admirable lifelike figure of Beaconsfield, by Raggi. On the south and west of the Abbey and the precincts of Westminster School is a labyrinth of poor streets. Vine Street commemorated the vineyard of the Abbey, and Bowling Street its bowling-ground. Many of the old Westminster signs are historical -the Lamb and Saracen's Head, a record of the Crusades; the White Hart, the badge of Richard II.; the Rose, the badge of the Tudors. In the poverty-stricken quarter not far from the river, is St. John's Church, the second of Queen Anne's fifty churches, built (1728) from designs of Archer, a pupil of Vanbrugh, and the architect of Cliefden. It has semicircular apses on the east and west, and at each of the four corners one of the towers which made Lord Chesterfield compare it to an elephant on its back with its four feet in the air. 'In this region are a certain little street called Church Street, and a certain little blind square called Smith Square, in the centre of which last retreat is a very hideous church, with four towers at the four corners, generally resembling some petrified monster, frightful and gigantic, on its back with its legs in the air.'-Dickens, 'Our Mutual Friend.' The effect at a distance is miserable, but the details of the church are good in reality. Churchill, the poet, was curate and lecturer here (1758), and how utterly unsuited he was for the office we learn from his own lines : 'I kept those sheep, Which, for my curse, I was ordain'd to keep, Sleep, at my bidding, crept from pew to pew.' At 23 Parish Street, Tooley Street, is the last remaining publichouse with the old sign of the Naked Boy and Woolpack. A tablet records the fact that George III. and Queen Charlotte stood sponsors here in person in 1800 to Lord Thomas Grosvenor, afterwards Earl of Wilton. Horseferry Road, near this, leads to Lambeth Bridge erected in 1862 on the site of the horse-ferry, where Mary of Modena crossed the river in her flight from Whitehall (Dec. 9, 1688), her passage being 'rendered very difficult and dangerous by the violence of the wind and the heavy and incessant rain.' At the same spot James II. crossed two days after in a little boat with a single pair of oars, and dropped the Great Seal of England into the river on his passage. The large open space called Vincent Square is used as a playground by the Westminster scholars. In Rochester Row, on the north of the square, is St. Stephen's Church, built by Miss Burdett Coutts in 1847, and opposite this Emery Hill's Almshouses of 1708. At the end of Rochester Row towards Victoria Street is the Grey Coat School, a quaint building of 1698, with two statues in front in the dress worn by the children of the time when it was founded. In the narrow streets near this was Tothill Fields Prison, built 1836, 1 Whilst so many London streets really need re-naming, these interesting historic names have been changed in the last few years. pulled down 1884. The gate of the earlier prison here, called Bridewell, is set up against the north wall of the Sessions House. In Little Chapel Street a renaissance Town Hall was erected 1882-83. At the end of Victoria Street, opposite the entrance to Dean's Yard, is a picturesque Memorial Column, by Scott, in memory of the old Westminster boys killed in the Crimean War. The Royal Westminster Aquarium (admission 1s.) is a popular place of amusement, opened in 1876. At the corner of Great George Street is a Fountain (by Teulon and Earp), erected in 1865 by Mr. Charles Buxton in honour of those who effected the abolition of the slave trade. With its pretty coloured marbles and the trees behind, it is one of the most picturesque things in London. It was in the drawing-room of the opposite house, No. 25 Great George Street, that the body of Lord Byron lay in state, July 1824, when it arrived from Missolonghi before its removal to Newstead. Great George Street ends at Storey's Gate, so called from Edward Storey, 'Keeper of the Birds' (in Birdcage Walk) to Charles II. Parallel with the Park on this side runs Queen Anne's Gate, with many houses bearing the comfortable solid look of her time, and with porches and doorways of admirable design carved in wood: a statue of Queen Anne stands at a corner. It is a belief in the neighbourhood that on each anniversary of her death the Queen descends from her pedestal and walks three times round the square. A London oasis, doomed to destruction in 1892, was the Emanuel Hospital in Little James Street, founded 1594, by the will of Anne, widow of Gregory, Lord Dacre of the south, sister of the poetstatesman Lord Buckhurst, and at one time maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth. A splendid wrought-iron gate was the entrance to a grass plot surrounded on three sides by one-storeyed buildings of red brick, having a chapel with its pediment decorated by an elaborate coat of arms, and surmounted by a bell-turret. The altar-piece of the destroyed church of St. Benet Fink was preserved here. Lady Dacre's will provided for 'twenty poor aged folk, and twenty poor children.' The property left for their maintenance has since enormously increased in value, but two-thirds are diverted to the maintenance of middle-class schools. The picturesque old buildings and their green enclosed space are an irreparable loss to London. Tothill (Toot Hill) Street leads into York Street, named after Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III., but formerly called Petty France, from the number of French Protestants who took refuge there in 1685. Here No. 19, destroyed in 1877 without a voice being raised to save it, was Milton's 'pretty garden house,' marked on the garden side by a tablet erected by Jeremy Bentham (who lived and died close by in Queen Square Place), inscribed Sacred to Milton, Prince of Poets.' It was here that he became blind, and that Andrew Marvell lived as his secretary. His first wife, Mary Powell, died here, leaving three little girls motherless; and while living here he married his second wife, Catherine Woodcocke, who died in childbirth fifteen months after, and is commemorated in the beautiful sonnet beginning— 'Methought I saw my late espoused saint, Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave.' Hazlitt lived here in Milton's house, and here he received Haydon, 'Charles Lamb and his poor sister, and all sorts of clever odd people, in a large room, wainscoted and ancient, where Milton had meditated.'1 We may turn down Bridge Street 2 to Westminster Bridge, opened 1750, but rebuilt 1859-61. It is now nearly twice as broad as any of the other bridges on the river. Hence we see the stately river front of the Houses of Parliament, and the ancient towers of Lambeth on the opposite bank.3 It is interesting to remember how many generations have 'taken water' here to go to London' by the great river highway. Few visit the bridge early enough to see the view towards the city as it is described by Wordsworth Earth has not anything to show more fair: This City now doth, like a garment, wear Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; And all that mighty heart is lying still!' 1 Haydon's Autobiography, i. 211. 2 William Godwin, author of Caleb Williams, died (1836) in a house which stood under the shadow of the Houses of Parliament, destroyed in the fire of 1834. At the angle on the left is St. Stephen's Club, erected 1874, from an admirable design of J. Whichcord. 3 Artists should find their way to the banks amongst the boats and warehouses on the Westminster shore opposite Lambeth, and farther still. Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co. |