Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

under letters patent of May 3, 1784. The house, originally of red brick, is said to have been designed by the Chancellor himself, who found, when the first floor was built, that he had overlooked the necessity of a staircase to reach the second! In 1808 it came into the possession of the Marquis Wellesley, eldest brother of its future owner, who resided here in great state while Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The Court Guide shows that it was still in his occupation in January 1815; but next year it is entered for the first time as the Duke's, who, however, did not actually purchase it till about 1820. The house was found to be very inconvenient, and in 1828 the Duke, availing himself of the circumstances of his having an official residence in Downing Street, handed it over for enlargement and ornamentation to Messrs. Benjamin and Philip Wyatt, who added a west wing and portico, and faced the front with Bath stone. The iron Bramah blinds-bullet proof it is said-put up by the Duke during the ferment of the Reform Bill, when his windows were broken by a London mob, were taken down in 1856 by the second Duke. The Crown's interest in the house was sold to the Duke by indenture of June 15, 1830, for the sum of £9530; the Crown reserving a right to forbid the erection of any other house or houses on the site. The alterations made in 1853 were designed by P. Hardwick, R.A.

The room in which the Waterloo banquet was held every anniversary of the battle during the Duke's life, is the great west gallery (90 feet long), on the drawing-room floor, with its seven windows looking into Hyde Park. The Duke occupied a chair fronting the large central fireplace. The Duke's room-his study and sanctum-is preserved intact, as when he used it.

Works of Art.-George IV., full length, in a Highland costume, by Sir David Wilkie. William IV., full length, by Wilkie. Sarah, the first Lady Lyndhurst, by Wilkie. This picture was penetrated by a stone in the Reform Riot, but the injury has been skilfully repaired. Emperor Alexander, full length. Kings of Prussia, France, and the Netherlands, full lengths. Marshal Soult, over the entrance door of the drawing-room. Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon in the foreground (Sir William Allan). The Duke bought this picture at the Exhibition; he is said to have called it, "Good, very good, not too much smoke." Many portraits of Napoleon, one by David, extremely good. Wilkie's Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo, painted in 1822 for the Duke, who watched its progress with great interest. Burnet's Greenwich Pensioners celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, bought of Burnet by the Duke. Portraits of veterans in both pictures. A colossal marble statue of Napoleon, by Canova, with a figure of Victory on a globe in his hand. This statue was presented to the Duke by the Prince Regent (George IV.) in 1817. Canova got a Hebe out of the block from beneath the right hand of the Napoleon. Bust of Princess Pauline, by Canova, a present from Canova to the Duke. Christ on the Mount of Olives (Correggio), the most celebrated picture of Correggio in this country; on panel, and captured in Spain, in the carriage of Joseph Buonaparte, in the flight from Vittoria; restored by the captor to Ferdinand VII.; but with others, under the like circumstances, again presented to the Duke by that sovereign. Here the light proceeds from the Saviour; there is a copy or duplicate in the National Gallery. An Annunciation, after M. Angelo, of which the original drawing is in the Uffizj at Florence. The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Sogliani. The Water-seller, by Velasquez. Two fine portraits by

Velasquez (his own portrait, and the portrait of Pope Innocent X.) A fine Spagnoletti. A charming little sea-piece, by Claude. Card Players, by Caravaggio. A large and good Jan Steen, dated 1667; and three smaller but excellent works. A Peasant's Wedding, dated 1655 (Teniers). Boors Drinking (A. Ostade). The celebrated Terburg, the signing the Peace of Westphalia (from the Talleyrand Collection). Singularly enough, this picture hung in the room in which the allied sovereigns signed the Treaty of Paris in 1814. A fine Philip Wouvermans (The Return from the Chase). View of Veght, by Vanderheyden. Landseer's Van Amberg with his Lions, painted for the Duke; but not one of Sir Edwin's most successful works. Highland Whisky Still (Landseer). The Melton Hunt, by Sir F. Grant, P. R. A. Several services of Sévres, Prussian and Saxon services, presented by Louis XVIII., the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Austria; a Silver Plateau presented by the Regent of Portugal; and the magnificent Silver Shield, designed by Thomas Stothard, R.A., and presented to the Duke by the Merchants and Bankers of London.

Aquarium (The Royal), WESTMINSTER, opened January 1876, is a building of great extent, occupying the whole of the north side of Tothill Street, and being nearly 600 feet long and 160 wide. The exterior is of red brick and stone, and sufficiently conspicuous, it not very beautiful. The architect was Mr. A. Bedborough. The interior is lined with tanks, and has an orchestra, concert hall, theatre, and restaurant. It was projected as a summer lounge and winter garden, as well as aquarium, and a place for high-class music and refined entertainments; but its chief attractions have been firing women from cannon, dancing Zulus, swimming ladies, and like elegant and "stimulating" exhibitions. The theatre is now called the IMPERIAL, and employed chiefly for afternoon performances.

Arabella Row, Pimlico (now incorporated with LOWER GROSVENOR PLACE) led from Grosvenor Place to Buckingham Palace Road, Here, in the house next the public-house, lived Lord Chancellor Erskine after his removal from Lincoln's Inn Fields. The house, small and shabby-looking, had a brass door-plate with "Lord Erskine" engraven on it.

Arch Row, an old name for the west side of Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Retain all sorts of witnesses,

That ply i' the Temples under trees,

Or walk the Round with Knights o' th' Posts

About the cross-legg'd knights, their hosts ;

Or wait for customers between

The pillar rows in Lincoln's Inn.-Hudibras, pt. iii. c. 3.

The archway leads to Duke Street, now Sardinia Street, the first building in which, on the left hand, is a Roman Catholic Chapel, formerly the Sardinian Ambassador's Chapel.

Archer Street, WINDMILL STREET, PICCADILLY.

King Charles I. invited Poelemberg to London, where he lived in Archer Street, next door to Geldorp, and generally painted the figures in Steenwyck's perspectives. -Walpole's Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 101.

Poelemberg was in London about 1637. He painted several pictures for the King, who, however, "could not prevail on Poelemberg

to fix here." Probably the growing discord between King and Commons scared the painter. George Geldorp was a poor painter but a favourite at Court. He kept many assistants, and appears to have had a considerable establishment for producing pictures. He also acted as agent or broker for his artistic countrymen, and, according to Vertue and Walpole, "his house was found convenient for the intrigues of people of fashion."

Arches (Court of). [See Doctors' Commons.]

Architects (Royal Institute of British). [See Institute of British Architects.]

Architectural Museum, No. 18 TUFTON STREET, Westminster, was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Beresford Hope, Sir Gilbert Scott, and other devoted admirers of Gothic architecture. The Museum comprises a very extensive series of casts from British cathedrals and other medieval edifices, Venetian and other Italian buildings, collected by Mr. Ruskin, and many miscellaneous casts and models. There are some classical and more renaissance specimens, but the bulk of the collection is medieval. Originally exhibited in lofts in a mews in Canon Row, Westminster, it removed for space to a gallery at the South Kensington Museum; it was transferred in 1869 to the present building, which had been erected for its reception. The Museum is open free daily.

Argyll House, No. 7 ARGYLL STREET, REGENT STREET, was a plain building "with a small area and wall before it." Originally the residence of the ducal family of Argyll. Elizabeth Gunning, the celebrated beauty, Duchess of Hamilton and afterwards the wife of John, fifth Duke of Argyll, died in "Great Argyle Street" on December 20, 1790. It was purchased shortly after the death of the fifth Duke of Argyll by the Earl of Aberdeen ("the travelled Thane, Athenian Aberdeen"). On his death in 1860 the freehold was sold, the house taken down, and a large building erected on the site, part of which was appropriated as a bazaar, the rest for exhibition rooms and wine cellars. The bazaar was unsuccessful, and the building has since undergone many changes. The main portion is now occupied by Hengler's Circus, which was rebuilt in 1884-1885.

Argyll Place, at the south end of ARGYLL STREET, between GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET and REGENT STREET. James Northcote, the painter, removed to No. 8 from Argyll Street; here he held his remarkable conversations with Hazlitt, and here he died (July 13, 1831). Here Sir Walter Scott sat to him on May 9 and 11, 1828, at the request of Sir William Knighton. Scott records in his Diary :Another long sitting to the old wizard Northcote. He really resembles an animated mummy. . . low in stature and bent with years-fourscore at least. But the eye

is quick and the countenance noble. A pleasant companion, familiar with recollections of Sir Joshua, Samuel Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, etc.—Lockhart's Life of Scott, chap. lxxvi.

Argyll Rooms formerly stood on the east side of Regent Street and at the corner of Little Argyll Street. They were built by John Nash in 1818, and burnt down in 1830. Fashionable balls and masquerades were held here, and the Philharmonic Society gave its concerts in the building from 1813 to 1830. Spohr appeared at these concerts in 1820, Weber in 1826, and Mendelssohn in 1829. M. Chabert, the "fire king," exhibited his remarkable performances here in 1829. The Argyll Rooms (now the Trocadero) in Windmill Street obtained a very unsavoury reputation, and have no history worthy of relation.

Argyll Street, OXFORD STREET, east of REGENT STREET, derives its name from Argyll House. The good Lord Lyttelton lived in this Street.

:

West, Mallet, and I were all routed in one day if you would know why-out of resentment to our friend in Argyll Street.-Thomson, the Poet, to James Paterson, April 1748.

When Mrs. Thrale gave up her house at Streatham, on October 1782, she took a house in Argyll Street, and when Boswell visited London in the March following, he found Johnson domesticated in her London house as he had been at Streatham. The estrangement was of later date. James Northcote lived at No. 39-"a house small but commodious"-(in the earlier R.A. Catalogues it is given as 39 Argyll Buildings) from April 1790 till 1822; here he painted his chief pictures, and wrote his Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir William John Newton, the miniature painter (died 1869), lived at No. 8. Madame de Staël, on her visit to England in 1813, lodged at No. 30, and on the drawing-room floor received a number of visitors at what might be called her levées. In this street was born, January 7, 1743, Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent naturalist and President of the Royal Society.

Arlington House (formerly Goring House) in ST. James's PARK, was distinguished by a large and handsome cupola, and stood north and south,1 on the site of what is now Buckingham Palace. It was so called from being the town-house of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, Secretary of State to Charles II. The site of the Mulberry Garden adjoining his house was granted to Lord Arlington by Charles II. for a residence, 1672, at a rent of 20 shillings a year, for 99 years.

In September 1674 the house was burnt down, while the Earl and Countess were at Bath; a new house was at once built and named Arlington House.

His Majesty has been pleased to give my Lord Arlington the ground at the farther end of the Park, where the Deer-harbour is, which is walled in as you go towards Hyde Park; in lieu of which His Majesty takes his house and garden into the Park for his use. The Lord Arlington has already sold the ground for £20,000, whereon will be built a stately square.-The Loyal Protestant and True Domestick Intelligencer, No. 127, March 11, 1682. Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 70.

1 Morden and Lea's large Map of London, I. Harris delin. et sculp., 1700. There is a rare contemporary engraving of the house by Sutton

Nicholls.

2 Walpole's Anecdotes, by Dallaway, vol. iii.

p. 71.

At the upper end of the Park [St. James's] westward is Arlington House; so called from the Earl of Arlington, owner thereof. At whose death it fell to his daughter, the Duchess of Grafton, and the young Duke her son. It is a most neat Box, and sweetly seated amongst Gardens, besides the Prospect of the Park and the adjoining fields. At present the Duke of Devonshire resideth here, as tenant to the Duchess of Grafton.-R.B. (circ. 1698), in Strype, B. vi. p. 47. The Earl of Arlington dying (1685) without male issue, the house descended to his daughter, Lady Isabella Bennet, "the sweet child" of Evelyn's Diary, married to Henry Fitzroy, first Duke of Grafton. She let it to the first Duke of Devonshire, and subsequently sold it for £13,000 (1702) to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham; who, after obtaining an additional grant from Queen Anne (given verbally), rebuilt it in 1703 in a magnificent manner. [See Goring House; Buckingham House and Palace.]

As an instance of the mind's unquietness under the most pleasing enjoyments, I am oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house I pulled down than pleased with a salon which I built in its stead, though a thousand times better in all manner of respects.-Works of Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, vol. ii. p. 264.

There was a maze in the gardens, similar to that which now exists at Hampton Court. It was celebrated by Charles Dryden in a poem called "Horti Arlingtoniani," inserted in his father's Second Miscellany.

Arlington Square and Street, NEW NORTH ROAD, was laid out about 1850 in the field on the north of the Regent's Canal, which from the reign of Henry VII. till 1791 formed a part of the exercise ground of the Archers' Division of the Artillery Company.1 Here, in what is now the garden of No. 24 Arlington Street, was one of the Company's stone rovers, or distance marks for forward shooting, as distinguished from shooting at a butt or target. This rover was called the John, and was inscribed F.G., 1679: others were called Robin Hood and Scarlet. The John rover was removed when the ground was enclosed.2

Arlington Street, MORNINGTON CRESCENT, CAMDEN TOWN, was so called after or in allusion to Isabella Bennet, only daughter and heir of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, and wife of Henry Fitzroy, first Duke of Grafton, natural son of Charles II. by the Duchess of Cleveland. Charles Dibdin, the song-writer, died, July 25, 1814, in this street, then a pleasant row of little houses, looking on extensive nursery-grounds and fields; since built on, or included in the Regent's Park.

Whitehall, June 6, 1673.-£5388: 17:6 to be payde by William Prettiman for purchase of a lease of lands in Kentish Towne, helde of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, to be enjoyed by the Earle of Arlington; and after his death by the Earle of Euston and his heires.-Corr. of Sir Joseph Williamson, vol. i. p. 22; Cam. Soc. 1874.

Arlington Street, PICCADILLY, west of and parallel with St. James's Street. Built 1689,3 on ground granted by Charles II. to

1 Highmore, History of Artillery Company.

2 Tomline, Yseldon, p. 153. 3 Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »