Lord Nelson at No. 141, in 1797, after the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, and the expedition against Teneriffe, where he lost his arm. He had scarcely any intermission of pain, day or night, for three months after his return to England. Lady Nelson, at his earnest request, attended the dressing of his arm, till she had acquired sufficient resolution and skill to dress it herself. One night, during this state of suffering, after a day of constant pain, Nelson retired early to bed, in hope of enjoying some respite by means of laudanum. He was at that time lodging in Bond Street, and the family was soon disturbed by a mob knocking loudly and violently at the door. The news of Duncan's victory had been made public, and the house was not illuminated. But when the mob was told that Admiral Nelson lay there in bed, badly wounded, the foremost of them made answer, "You shall hear no more from us to-night."-Southey's Nelson, p. 130. Lady Hamilton at 150 in 1813. Sir Thomas Picton at No. 146 in 1797-1800. He fell in the Battle of Waterloo. Lord Camelford, the celebrated bruiser and duellist (shot in a duel with Mr. Best, March 7, 1804, d. 10th), at No. 148, in 1803 and 1804. Over the fireplace in the drawing-room of Lord Camelford's lodgings in Bond Street were ornaments strongly expressive of the pugnacity of the peer. A long thick bludgeon lay horizontally supported by two brass hooks. Above this was placed parallel one of lesser dimensions, until a pyramid of weapons gradually arose, tapering to a horsewhip.-Note by the Messrs. Smith in The Rejected Addresses. At the time of the duel Lord Camelford and Best had a bet of £200 depending as to which was the better shot! The cause of the duel was a worthless but pretty woman of the name of Symons. "The Rooms" of Jackson, "professor of pugilism," Byron's "old friend and corporeal pastor and master." All men unpractised in exchanging knocks BYRON, Hints From Horace. Cruikshank drew the rooms for Pierce Egan's Tom and Jerry. From that sufficient authority we learn that "His room is not common to the public eye. . . . No person can be admitted without an introduction.” Further we learn that "In one corner of the room a picture is to be seen, framed and glazed, representing a person lying dead, killed by an assassin, who is escaping with a dagger in his hand. Underneath is the inscription, From the Rt. Hon. W. Windham, M.P., to Mr. Jackson. New Bond Street has now become celebrated for exhibition rooms of a very different class of art. On the west side is the magnificent Grosvenor Gallery, erected for Sir Coutts Lindsay, Bart., at a cost of about £120,000, and opened in May 1877, and almost directly opposite to it the Doré Gallery, where for several years there has been a continuous exhibition of the works of that popular and prolific artist, the late Gustave Doré, whilst in other parts are several other art galleries, and rooms let for temporary exhibitions. Long's Hotel (No. 16) was rebuilt and enlarged in 1888. I saw Byron for the last time in 1815. He dined or lunched with me at Long's in Bond Street. I never saw him so full of gaiety and good-humour, to which the presence of Mr. Mathews, the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also present. Sir Walter Scott (Moore's Life of Byron, p. 280). Steven's Hotel was at No. 18; it is now a jeweller's. During the first months of our acquaintance we [Byron and Moore] frequently dined together alone; and as we had no club in common to resort to-the Alfred being the only one to which he at that period belonged, and I being then a member of none but Watier's-our dinners used to be at the St. Alban's, or at his old haunt, Stevens's.-Moore, Life of Byron, p. 150. Clarendon Hotel (No. 169), was in its day perhaps the best hotel in London, but differences as to the renewal of the lease led to its being closed a few years ago, and the site is now occupied by a row of handsome shops and a picture gallery. Canning in his early days practised speaking at a Debating Society in Bond Street at the corner of Clifford Street. Bond Street-including both Old Bond Street and New-has long stood as the representative of fashionable habits as well as the resort of the fashionable lounger. Bond Street loungers are mentioned in the Weekly Journal of June 1, 1717 Lord Daberly. But why don't you stand up? The boy rolls about like a porpus in a storm. Dick Dowlas. That's the fashion, father; that's modern ease. A young fellow is nothing now, without the Bond Street roll, a toothpick between his teeth, and his knuckles cramm'd into his coat-pocket.-Then away you go, lounging lazily along! -Colman's Heir at Law, vol. iii. p. 2 (1797). And now our Brothers Bond Street enter, LORD LYTTON, Siamese Twins, 1831, p. 160. The name Bonner's Fields, BETHNAL GREEN, were a wide open space lying east of Bethnal Green and stretching away to Old Ford. was traditionally derived from Bishop Bonner's residence at Bishop's Hall, in its later days better known as Bonner's Hall, of old an occasional seat of the Bishops of London (the owners of the manor), but decayed and let out in tenements at the end of last century and long since pulled down. The popular belief was that when Bonner dwelt at Bishop's Hall these fields were his favourite place for burning heretics. Whether he ever lived here is not certain. The last episcopal act known to have been issued from Bishop's Hall was by Bishop Braybroke, 150 years before Bonner held the see.1 The eastern end of Bonner's Fields was absorbed in Victoria Park. The City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, erected 1851 from the designs of F. W. Ordish, occupies another portion. The Chapel 1 Lysons, vol. ii. p. 17. was erected in 1858, E. B. Lamb architect, and new wings in 1863 and 1870 by W. Beck, architect. The rest is covered with streets, one of which is named Bonner's Road. Boodle's Club House, No. 28 ST. JAMES'S STREET, early famed for gaiety, play, and good dinners. It was popularly named the "Savoir vivre." And they, true members of the Scavoir vivre, Lampoon addressed to Duke of Queensbury. May 12, 1770.-A new assembly or meeting is set up at Boodle's, called Lloyd's Coffee-room; Miss Lloyd, whom you have seen with Lady Pembroke, being the sole inventor. They meet every morning, either to play cards, chat, or do whatever else they please. An ordinary is provided for as many as choose to dine, and a supper, to be constantly on the table by eleven at night: after supper they play loo. . . . I think there are twenty-six subscribers, others are to be chosen by ballot: my intelligence is that the Duchess of Bedford and Lord March have been black-balled; this I cannot account for.—Mrs. Harris to her Son (Earl of Malmesbury), Malmesbury Diary and Corr., vol. i. p. 203. So, when some John his dull invention racks To rival Boodle's dinners or Almack's. Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, 4to, 1773. The Club House was erected about 1765 by John Crunden, from designs by Adam, architect. In the years 1821-1824 the reading-room was added and large improvements made from the designs of John B. Papworth, architect. Gibbon, the historian, dates several of his letters in 1772 and 1774 from this Club, and Wilberforce was also a member. No. 464 of Gillray's Caricatures is "A Standing Dish at Boodle's," representing Sir Frank Standish sitting at one of the Club windows. Booksellers Row. A name given to Holywell Street, Strand, by some of the inhabitants without the slightest authority. [See Holywell Street.] Boolyes Lane, WAPPING. A great blow by gun-powder houses in a place called Boolyes Lane neere the Armitage in Wapping on Tuesday the 3 day of July 1657. In which were 250 barrell of gunpowder consumed.-Notes on London Churches and Buildings, A.D. 1631-1658, Harrison's England, vol. ii. (New Shakspere Society). Borough (The), a short name for the Borough of Southwark, or the twenty-sixth ward of London, called Bridge Ward Without. It is also a name commonly given to part of the High Street, Southwark. Borough Compter. [See Compter (The), Southwark.] Borough Market, SOUTHWARK, a considerable market for fruit and vegetables. It lies immediately south of St. Saviour's church. The first market of which we have notice was held in the 14th century and before, outside the church of the Hospital of St. Thomas in Trivet Lane, and at its gates. In Visscher's London, 1616, is a view of Southwark with, in the centre of the High Street, a picture of tables placed up and down with sellers and buyers, in fact the Borough Market as it was then. In 1755 this market was abolished, and an Act was passed, Geo. II. c. 23, "to enable the churchwardens and others of St. Saviour in the Borough of Southwark to hold a market within the said parish, not interfering with the High Street in the said Borough"; and on "a piece of ground close at hand called the Triangle, abutting on the Turnstile, on Fowle Lane, Rochester Yard and Dirty Lane," etc. The market was rebuilt in 1851 under H. Rose, architect, and largely added to or rebuilt 1863-1864 under E. Habershon, architect, consequent on alterations for the Charing Cross Railway. Borough Road, SOUTHWARK, extends from the Queen's Bench prison, Stone's End, to the Obelisk, Blackfriars Road. Joseph Lancaster opened his first school for neglected children in Kent Street in 1798, his second in Newington Causeway, and his third in Borough Road, where is now the central establishment of the British and Foreign Schools Society, comprising a Normal College for training young men as teachers and a large Model School for children. Bosoms Inn. [See Lawrence Lane.] Boss or Boss Court Alley, UPPER THAMES STREET, between St. Peter's Hill and Lambeth Hill. Bosse Alley, so called of a bosse [or reservoir] of water, like unto that of Billingsgate, there placed by the executors of Richard Whittington.-Stow, p. 135. This Boss Alley is shown in Aggas's Map. There was a Boss Alley in Lower Thames Street, opposite Billingsgate, and another by Shad Thames, Horselydown, as well as a Boss Court and a Boss Street. A water tower is shown in several of the old maps on the spot or near Boss Alley, Thames Street. Boswell Court, CAREY STREET, cleared away for the New Law Courts, so called from the house of a Mr. Ralph Bosvile or Boswell, from whence (1589) Gilbert Talbot writes a letter of London gossip to his father, the celebrated Earl of Shrewsbury of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In the Calendar of State Papers of the year 1606, three letters from the Speaker, Sir Edward Philips, to the Earl of Salisbury, are dated from Boswell House; and in August 1610, Ralph Ewens writes from Bosvile House to the same statesman. September 5, 1611.-Mr. Ewins, Esquier, from Boswell-howsse.-Burial Register of St. Clement's Danes. The yard or court was built upon and inhabited as early as 1614. Eminent Inhabitants.-Lady Raleigh (widow of Sir Walter) 1623-1625. The Lord Chief-Justice, and Sir Edward Lyttleton, the SolicitorGeneral, in 1635.1 Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe. 1 Rate-books of St. Clement's Danes. In his absence, I, on the 16th, took a house in Boswell Court, near Temple Bar, for two years, immediately moving all my goods thereto.—Lady Fanshawe's Memoirs, p. 159. Francis Hargreave (d. 1821) lived at No. 9 from 1789 to 1813, when his library was purchased by the nation for £8000. It was more remarkable for its extent and quality than its condition, the greater number of the volumes having been purchased at book-stalls, where he was a keen hunter. When the ill-advised measure of selling off the duplicate copies in the Museum was resolved upon by the Trustees, the Hargreave copies were generally the victims. They are easily recognised by the neat autograph of the former owner. Walter Savage Landor, at "R. Bevan's, Esq., No. 10 Boswell Court, Carey Street," April 1801. Dr. Johnson had lodgings here for a short time in his early London days-after leaving Castle Street, 1738, and before removing to the Strand in 1741.1 The Black Horse in Boswell Court was for many years one of the most noted of the London "harmonic meetings," so popular among "fast" men before the days of Alhambras and music halls. The popular belief that Johnson's Court and Boswell Court were so called after Dr. Johnson and James Boswell is only a natural error. New Boswell Court was entered by a flight of steps from Old Boswell Court. Botanic Garden, CHELSEA, by the Thames, near Chelsea Church, formerly called "The Physic Garden": a garden appertaining to the Company of Apothecaries of London. It was the first garden of the kind, but there is an undated petition from the College of Physicians to James I. in which it is stated that "Some of the nobility of the kingdom have proffered large contributions towards establishing a garden for trees, plants, fruits, etc., and they therefore pray that the King will further the undertaking, and permit them to make choice of a fitting site for the said garden."2 The Company of Apothecaries obtained a lease of the ground at Chelsea in 1673, with a view to the formation of a garden for the cultivation of medical and other plants which might assist the student of medicine and botany. In 1676 they "agreed to purchase the plants growing in Mrs. Gape's garden in Westminster; "3 but the ground was not enclosed till 1686. Sir Hans Sloane, when he purchased the manor of Chelsea in 1721, granted the freehold to the Company of Apothecaries, upon condition that they should present annually to the Royal Society 50 new plants, till the number should amount to 2000. In 1732 a greenhouse and several new hothouses were added to the garden, and in 1733 a statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Michael Rysbrack. Two cedars (which grew to be two of the finest in the neighbourhood of London) were planted in 1683, being then about 3 feet high. In 1750 they measured upwards of II feet in girth, and in 1793—at 3 feet from the ground-upwards of 12, afterwards increased to 15 feet. They formed a most picturesque group from the river, till the larger of the two was blown down during 1 Croker's Boswell, p. 30. 2 Cal. Jac. 1, vol. iv. p. 517. 3 London, p. 1063 |