FOOTNOTES
[1] One find I specially remember in connection with this neighbourhood of peculiar interest with reference to the great forest that once covered the site: When making the railway through Gospel Oak Fields, a hillock had to be cut through; some gigantic roots of trees, hard as ebony and black as bog-oak, were unearthed, bearing witness to the ancient woodlands that had covered it.
[2] Written 1855-60.
[3] Built in 1845-46.
[4] Quoted by Park.
[5] No cause is mentioned for the great increase of deaths.
[6] ‘Pomander’: a round, perforated box, filled with musk, ambergris, civet, or other sweet-scented ingredients. It was used to perfume apartments, and was frequently made of some precious material. Doctors used them for the head of the cane they usually carried as a prophylactic.
[7] Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’
[8] The present sign, the copy of an older one, represents her in a red conical hat, with a glass of ale in her hand. Her modern memorialist says:
‘She was an old camp-follower through the campaignes of the Duke of Marlborough, and set up a hedge alehouse after the Peace of Utrecht, with her own portrait as a sign.’—Ante ‘The Anecdote Library.’
[9] Blake.
[10] Mr. Rhodes died at a house on Muswell Hill. Rhodes of Rhodesia is said to be a near descendant.
[11] This house appears in Hogarth’s ‘March to Finchley.’
[12] For some years Portland Place was used as a fashionable promenade by the rank and fashion of the town.
[13] Gray’s ‘Letters.’
[14] Romilly’s childhood’s home was in the High Street, Marylebone, then a small village about a mile and a half from London, with the cheerful country close to it. Sir Samuel was born 1757; he died 1818.
[15] At the present time it is said to contain 2,245 acres.
[16] The charter of Ethelred II. (who began to reign 979) to St. Peters, Westminster, A.D. 986: ‘Starting from Sandgate east to Bedgar’s “Stywei” (? lea); then south to Dermod’s house; from Dermod’s house to middle Hamstead: so forward along the hedge to the rushes; from the rushes west by the side of the marsh to the barrow west along the boundary to the stone pit; from the stone pit to Watling Street, so north along Watling Street to the boundary brook, back east by the boundary to Sandgate.’
This last document has only lately become accessible. It is one of the Stowe MSS. recently secured by the British Museum. This charter has, I believe, never before been printed, except in Mr. Maude Thompson’s catalogue of the Stowe MSS. It is No. 10 in that catalogue.—Article by Professor J. W. Hales, M.A., F.S.A., in Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead.’
[17] ‘The Common-place Book’ of the late Miss Catherine Fry.
[18] ‘Planché, who has gone deeper into the subject of the Peverels than either Eyton, the Shropshire historian, or Mr. E. Freeman (who rejects this supposition with contempt and indignation), puts it in this wise: “During all the battles and commotions in Normandy preceding the Conquest, we hear nothing of the Peverels. No land is called by their name, nor do we hear of it till that of Ranulph, in Domesday Book, when he figures as the lord of sixty-four manors. Planché suggests what Mr. Eyton has overlooked that the Saxon lady of rank might have visited Normandy before 1051, a circumstance that would remove the only serious difficulty in the story. The latter Ranulph Peverel was the founder of Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, as shown by Camden, Glover, Dugdale, Sandford, Weever and others.”’ The author of the ‘Roman de la Rose’ makes no mention of Peverel.
[19] Norden.
[20] London was a city long before the Romans entered it. Ammianus Marcellinus says that 1200 years before his time it was a city, i.e., about 900 B.C., which, if correct, would make it 200 years older than Rome itself.—C. A. W.
[21] Unfortunately, when copying this account, having no idea of using it, I neglected to note the date or number of the magazine, but I believe it was during Mr. Ainsworth’s editorship.
[22] Where was Roman Lane, which Dr. Hughson must have known?
[23] ‘Bordarii,’ I think, Park scarcely understood for a Domesday Book word. These would not be bordarii before, but Saxon churls; and ‘hame stead’ is ‘home station,’ i.e., the outhouses or cots to the big lord’s residence.—C. A. W.
[24] Hughson thinks that it possibly referred, by way of pre-eminence, to the residence of the Lord of the Manor.
[25] Sanctus Albanus Verolamiensis.
[26] Park’s ‘History of Hampstead.’
[27] In the reign of Henry VI., in the fifteenth century.
[28] See Park’s ‘History of Hampstead,’ pp. 100, 101.
[29] ‘Eccles. Hist.,’ ii. 324, quoted by Park, ‘History of Hampstead,’ p. 21.
[30] Lysons.
[31] The Heath was generally so called. Lord Erskine speaks of his house on Hampstead Hill, The Evergreens, near the Spaniards.
[32] Park.
[33] Daily Advertiser, July 19, 1748: ‘To-morrow, the 20th inst., will be run for on Hampstead Course, a considerable sum, between two poneys, at the Castle on Hampstead Heath. There are great bets depending. The poneys will be rubbed down at the Castle aforesaid.’ In reference to this race we read: ‘On Wednesday a race was run on Hampstead Heath between a bay poney belonging to Lord Blessington, and a gray poney of Mr. Woods, of Jack Straw’s Castle, for a considerable sum of money, which was won by the former.’
[34] Horace Walpole’s Letters.
[35] Hampstead, July, 1810. It is stated in the Morning Post that the Hampstead Volunteers, who had been practising firing at a large target on the Heath, ‘had fired many excellent shots, some of which nearly entered the bull’s eye.’ They have improved upon this since then, as have also their firearms.
[36] Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’
[37] Morden’s Map of Middlesex, 1593, shows this road, which skirts the Fleet for a short distance in the neighbourhood of old St. Pancras, and runs up Tottenhall or Tottenham Court Road, passing by Lower Chalcot and Upper Chalcot to Pond Street.
[38] Burnet’s ‘History of his own Times.’
[39] See Macaulay’s ‘Essays.’
[40] Steele had his office at the Cockpit, in Whitehall. He held the post of Gazetteer and Commissioner of Stamps.
[41] There has been a question as to the burial-place of Steele, which the following note, kindly forwarded me through a friend, sets at rest: ‘Sir R. Steele was buried in the church at Carmarthen, and only in August, 1876, was there a memorial tablet placed over his remains by a gentleman of the name of Davies. It bears the inscription:
‘“Sir Richd. Steele, Knight,
Author, Essayist, and first chief promoter of the periodical press
of England.
Born in Dublin, March 12, 1671.
Buried in this church, and below this tablet.”’
[42] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’
[43] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’
[44] A contributor to Baines’ ‘Records of Hampstead’ states: ‘Under an old thorn-tree, near the house, on the north side of the avenue, there was within the memory of living people a dipping-well for public use.’ Is this, I wonder, the small fountain of delicious water, the footpath to which from the High Street Lord Rosslyn tried to stop? But, though on the Woolsack, he failed to do so. The case appeared in a Times newspaper of 1878.
[45] At the present (1899), only one of the beautiful trees is standing.
[46] Subsequently Sir Rowland Hill resided at Bartrum Park, a little to the east of the green, on the same side of the way.
[47] Where the small-pox sheds stood, the Hampstead Hospital for Fever and Small-pox stands now (1899).
[48] There is an engraving of this house in Mr. Gardener’s collection, copied in Mr. Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights of London.’
[49] An engraving of this picture appeared in the European Magazine.
[50] See Appendix.
[51] The father of this gentleman, the second Thomas Norton Longman, resided here. He was unfortunately killed by a fall from his horse about 1842. Soon after his daughters came to live at Frognal Rise.
[52] ‘The Presbyterian Chapel on Rosslyn Hill was built by Isaac Honeywood, Esq., who inhabited the adjoining mansion, and died there, November 8, 1740. He was cousin-german to Sir Edward Honeywood, the first baronet. Frazer Honeywood and Sir John Honeywood, of the same family, were subsequently resident at Hampstead.’—Baines, ‘Records of Hampstead.’
[53] ‘Worthies of Middlesex.’
[54] James I., in his speech to Parliament, 1609, says that on his entrance to England he made knights by hundreds and barons in great numbers.
[55] This was called Hicks’s Hall; many of the milestones were reckoned from it.
[56] Stowe.
[57] This family held the Manor of Hampstead for nearly a century.
[58] See Notes and Queries, s.s. viii. 511.
[59] Park, 1813.
[60] Spencer Perceval, who was shot by Bellingham, and is buried at Charlton in Kent, had married the youngest of the three daughters of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson.
[61] Howitt.
[62] W. Howitt.
[63] ‘There are periods in which the human mind seems to slumber, but this is not one of them. A keen spirit of research is abroad, and demands reform. Perhaps in none of the nations of Europe will their articles of faith, or their Church establishments, or their models of worship, maintain their ground for many years in exactly the same position in which they stand at present. Religion and manners act upon one another. As religion, well understood, is a most powerful agent in ameliorating and softening our manners; so, on the other hand, manners, as they advance in cultivation, tend to correct and refine our religion. Thus, to a nation in any degree acquainted with the social feelings, human sacrifices and sanguinary rites could never long appear obligatory. The mild spirit of Christianity has, no doubt, had its influence in softening the ferocity of the Gothic times; and the increasing humanity of the present period will, in its turn, produce juster ideas of Christianity, and diffuse through the solemnities of our worship, the celebrations of our Sabbaths, and every observance connected with religion, that air of amenity and sweetness which is the offspring of literature and the peaceful intercourse of society. The age which has demolished dungeons, rejected torture, and given so fair a prospect of abolishing the iniquity of the slave-trade, cannot long retain among its articles of belief the gloomy perplexities of Calvinism, and the heart-withering perspective of cruel and never-ending punishment.’ This is very clever writing for her, but how absurdly wrong she is in the total!
[64] Miss Aikin published her ‘Life of Queen Elizabeth,’ 1813.
[65] A great man, and student of Swedenborg.
[66] In 1461 we find the Abbot and Convent of Westminster instituting John Barton to the Rectory of Hendon cum capella de Hamsted eidum annexa.—Park.
In the time of Edward VI., the curacy of Hampstead was valued at £10 per annum; but up till that time the inhabitants chiefly consisted of laundresses and their families.
[67] Park’s ‘History.’
[68] He built St. Giles’s Church.
[69] For a portrait of Harrison, see the European Magazine, October, 1789.
[70] I regret that on my recent visit to the churchyard I found this description no longer true. An air of neglect, very painful to one who remembers its appearance thirty years ago, pervades it now; and all the neatness and care seems to be transferred to the newer portion of the graveyard on the opposite side of the church.
[71] On the last occasion of my visiting the graveyard (1896), I could not find this tomb.
[72] Copied for me by Mrs. Godfrey Turner.
[73] The toll is still exacted. Several attempts have been made by the parish authorities to extinguish the right, but they have never come to terms with the successor of Miss Sullivan (1899).—G. W. P.
[74] The church now St. John’s. Rebuilt in 1745.
[75] Lysons, ‘Environs of London.’
[76] The Rev. Samuel White, at that time resident at Frognal.
[77] ‘At the above date Hampstead, with many other parishes, took advantage of a statute passed in the reign of George I., which, with the consent of the major part of the parishioners, empowered the churchwardens and overseers of parishes to purchase or hire any house in the parish, or to contract with any person to lodge and keep and employ the poor ... hiring them, in fact, to contractors. The system, for a while, appeared to work well, but after a time ceased to be useful.’—Howitt, ‘Northern Heights.’
[78] It was he who built the magnificent Chesterfield House, Mayfair.
[79] Park, p. 342.
[80] Obituary, European Magazine, 1804. Haydn says 1805, which is wrong.
[81] Howitt, ‘Northern Heights of London.’
[82] Every ticket was sold before the drawing took place.
[83] Obituary, European Magazine, of this month and year. Haydn says 1805.
[84] Fenton House has had many tenants in modern times, amongst them the Honourable Miss Murrays and the Baroness Grey. It has been called the Clock House, a resident, some thirty years ago, having placed a sham dial-plate on the front of the entrance porch.
[85] Park, the historian of Hampstead, so often referred to in these pages.—C. W.
[86] I have a clinging impression that much of the ‘Vanity of Human Wishes’ was composed in Greenwich Park without being committed to paper, but I cannot refer now.—Note by C. A. Ward, Esq.
[87] Mrs. Desmoulins had lived with Mrs. Johnson for some before her marriage with the Doctor.
[88] Mr. G. W. Potter reminds me that a very interesting discussion and much correspondence has recently (May, 1899) taken place as to the house inhabited by Dr. Johnson, the result being that Park’s account is believed to be quite correct, viz., that it was the last house south in Frognal. Park’s father had lived for years in Hampstead, and at the same time as Dr. Johnson; he must, therefore, have given his son accurate information on the point. The house in question is now called Priory Lodge, and the difficulty arose from its being a large house with a very large garden and stabling. ‘I was enabled,’ continues my correspondent, ‘to point out that the large garden and stables were taken from Frognal Hall only some thirty-five years since, and that at the same time large additions were made to the house itself. A Mr. Watson, whose father I well remember, saw my letter in the Hampstead Express, and corroborated it, saying that his father, who had lived in it—i.e., Priory Lodge—some fifty years ago, had also enlarged it. An inspection of the house shows that it has grown from a very moderate-sized house to a much larger building.’
[89] Howitt.
[90] In 1868 Frognal House was used as the Sailors’ Daughters Orphan School, and continued for some twelve years to be so used, till the house on Green Hill was ready for their occupation.
[91] The original house was known as North Court, and a public well which existed on Branch Hill, Park tells us, was known as North Hole.
[92] Lord Burlington was the friend of Handel, who lived in his house for three years. ‘He used to drive down to the Foundling Hospital with Gay in his coach-and-four, to hear Leveridge sing there—“Leveridge, with his voice of thunder.”’ Lord Burlington patronized music, literature, painting, and architecture.
[93] Exactly opposite Montagu House is the modern North London Consumption Hospital, on Mount Vernon.
[94] Park, ‘History of Hampstead.’
[95] The first charity school was established in St. Margaret’s, Westminster, 1688.
[96] Henry James, Harper’s Magazine, September, 1897.
[97] At one period Miss Jane Porter occupied Grove House.
[98] Constable painted it, and subsequently exhibited his picture, ‘A Romantic House, Hampstead.’
[99] Hone, of the ‘Table-Book,’ has given an account of Thompson.
[100] It was said that Soho Square and many streets in its neighbourhood belonged to him.
[101] A Jacobean porch said to have belonged to an old Shropshire manor-house.
[102] I believe Thompson did bequeath to the Queen a beautiful bedstead of ivory or some costly material.—C. A. Ward.
[103] Vide Howitt’s ‘Northern Heights.’
[104] T. Norton Longman, who died at Hampstead, February 5, 1797, aged sixty-six, and was buried at Barnet. Nichols gives an account of him in ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ vi. 439. Vide Park.
[105] The sketch referred to is now in the collection of Landseer’s early drawings in the South Kensington Museum. It is said to be wonderfully lifelike.
[106] Park.
[107] I am informed by Mr. G. W. Potter, who was a member of the court for thirty years, that the manorial courts are still held at Manor Lodge, which is in the lane near Frognal, and which is said to stand on the site of the old manor-house.
[108] It now stands an empty and desolate building. The tenant, for some breach of the law, forfeited his license about three years ago, and the disreputable old inn is now (1899) advertised for sale as a building site.—G. W. P.
[109] This year (1896) it is said that this is to make room for a new road.
[110] Mr. Joseph Hoare died at Child’s Hill House in 1886.
[111] This house is now let as a school for young gentlemen.
[112] Her real name was Mrs. Hemet, Lessingham being the name she adopted for the stage.
[113] In January, 1773, Mrs. Lessingham was playing Lucy in ‘The Rivals,’ at Covent Garden.
[114] This gentleman died some twenty years ago, and the house is now occupied by its owner, Mr. Gross.
[115] Mrs. Miles, widow of John Miles, Esq., was buried in the family vault in Hampstead Parish Church, which was specially opened for the purpose.
[116] Neither Park nor Abrahams mentions Heath Street, though many of the houses look very old.
[117] This is now the middle of Heath Street, and divides old or Upper Heath Street from Lower Heath Street, leading to Fitzjohn’s Avenue.
[118] It has been suggested to me that it was so called from Kit’s cates.
[119] Cunningham says circa 1700.
[120] ‘Dunciad.’
[121] ‘Mirror.’
[122] It was Dr. Garth who, being present on an occasion when the Duchess of Marlborough was pressing the Duke to take a medicine, and, with her accustomed warmth, added, ‘I’ll be hanged, Duke, if it do not prove serviceable!’ exclaimed, ‘Do take it, my Lord Duke, for it must be of service in one way or the other!’
[123] Lately blown down and destroyed (1895).
[124] Park.
[125] Edward Coxe.
[126] Mr. Steevens left the greater part of his property to his niece, Miss Steevens, who died at Hampstead.
[127] Locally memorable as the last person who wore a pigtail at Hampstead.
[128] Park.
[129] C. Deane was another artist who loved and painted Hampstead Heath. He exhibited a scene from Hampstead at the British Gallery in 1823—a most perfect representation of local scenery. I owe this note to an odd number of the Literary Gazette.
[130] Alfred Edward Chalon proposed to give, in 1859, to the inhabitants of Hampstead his own large collection of sketches, and his brother’s unsold works, and some endowment to uphold the collection, if they would provide suitable premises; but it fell through by their default, and he died on October 3, 1860.
[131] Varley was very chary of drawing horoscopes. He was often terrifically right.
[132] ‘A copy of the ancient customs used in the Manor of Hampstead was made, February 14, 1753, from a paper found by Mr. Tims at Jack Straw’s Castle, where several of the bailiffs of the manor had lived, and, from the style of the writing, appeared to have been written eighty or ninety years before.’—Baines, ‘Records of Hampstead.’
[133] ‘Pickwick Papers.’
[134] There is a quaint detached tea-room at the Spaniards, approached by an outside flight of wooden steps. Until about thirty years ago there was inscribed on one of the panes of glass in the end window the autograph of the late Emperor of the French. He is said to have cut this inscription with a diamond ring, about 1845-46, when in exile here as Prince Louis Napoleon. The window has been altered, and the pane has disappeared.—G. W. P.
[135] When Gibson wrote his additions to Camden, 1695, Mother Huffs was a house of entertainment on Hampstead Heath. I have recently learned that in an old map of 1630 a small house near the Elms is marked ‘Mother Houghs.’
[136] ‘Lives of the Lord Chancellors.’
[137] It was Martin who inaugurated the idea.
[138] This house was occupied for many years by Captain Sir Edward Parry, the Arctic explorer, who was connected by marriage with the Hoare family.—G. W. P.
[139] ‘Sylvan Sketches,’ by the author of ‘Flora Domestica,’ 1825.
[140] ‘Collins’ and Tooly’s Farm were two adjoining but separate grass-farms; now they are one, in the occupation of the late Mr. Tooly’s son. Mr. Collins was the occupant of the other, and lived in the farmhouse, or cottage, where Dickens and so many other famous men have lived. This cottage is now occupied by Mr. Arthur Wilson, the son of the late Rev. Daniel Wilson. He has added to the cottage without in any way spoiling it.’—G. W. P.