Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

musical education, etc., have been dealt with by the Society in the form of discussion and by addresses to the Government. Several conferences have also been held on sanitary matters and on water supply.

The ordinary meetings are held on Wednesday evenings at 8 P.M., from November to May, when papers are read and discussed on subjects relating to Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. There are also connected with the Society three sections: 1. Indian; 2. Foreign and Colonial; 3. Applied Art; these hold meetings for the reading and discussion of papers on their respective subjects on other days of the week. Courses of lectures on popular subjects connected with Arts and Manufactures are delivered on Monday evenings, and are styled Cantor Lectures, by reason that they owe their origin to a bequest of the late Dr. Cantor. The Albert Medal, founded in honour of the Prince Consort, is awarded annually to some eminent man who has distinguished himself by promoting arts, manufactures, or comThe first award was to Sir Rowland Hill in 1864, and the list of recipients forms a noble roll of great men. The award in the Jubilee year 1887 was to the Queen, who was graciously pleased to accept the Medal.

merce.

Arts' Club (The) 17 HANOVER SQUARE, was founded in 1863, "for the purpose of facilitating the social intercourse of those connected with or interested in Art, Literature, or Science." The number of members, exclusive of Honorary Members, is fixed at 450. The entrance fee is 15 guineas, and the annual subscription 6 guineas. Members are elected by the Committee. The ceilings of one of the rooms are decorated with paintings by Angelica Kauffmann.

Arundel Buildings, STRAND. Langbaine records that Charles Hoole (d. 1666), translator of Terence, and writer of many excellent school books in the time of Cromwell and Charles II., "taught school in Arundel Buildings, not far from the [New] Royal Exchange ;" and John Evelyn enters in his Diary, under November 16, 1686: "I went with part of my family to pass the melancholy winter at my son's house in Arundel Buildings." Later the name was changed to Arundel Street.

Arundel House, in the STRAND. The old Inn, or town-house, of the Bishops of Bath, from whose possession, in the reign of Edward VI., it passed "without recompence" into the hands of Lord Thomas Seymour (Admiral), brother of the Protector Somerset. Seymour was subsequently beheaded, and his house in the Strand was bought by Henry Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, for the sum of £41:6:8, with several other messuages, tenements, and lands adjoining.1 This Henry Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, dying in 1579, was succeeded by his grandson, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, son of the Duke of Norfolk, beheaded for his share in the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots; and this Philip, attainted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and dying

1 Strype, B. iv. p. 105.

abroad in 1595, his house was in 1603 granted to Charles, Earl of Nottingham, but four years later was transferred to Thomas Howard, the son of Philip, who was restored to the Earldom of Arundel by James I.

December 23, 1607.-Grant to the Earl of Arundel and Robert Cannefield, in fee simple, of Arundel House, St. Clement Danes, without Temple Bar, lately conveyed to the King by the Earl of Nottingham.-Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, James I., 1603-1610, p. 390.

In his time Arundel House became the repository of that noble collection of works of art, of which the very ruins are ornaments now to several principal cabinets. The collection contained, when entire, 37 statues, 128 busts, and 250 inscribed marbles, exclusive of sarcophagi, altars, gems, fragments, and what he had paid for, but could never obtain permission to remove from Rome. A view of the Statue Gallery forms the background to Vansomer's portrait of the earl, and a view of the Picture Gallery to Vansomer's portrait of his countess. Wenceslaus Hollar, "my very good friend," as Evelyn calls him, was brought to England by the Earl of Arundel in 1636, given an apartment in Arundel House, of which he engraved several views. His well-known View of London he drew from the roof. Vanderborcht, the portrait painter, came over at the same time, and was similarly lodged: Evelyn sat to him, "at Arundel House, for his picture in oil," in 1641. During the Protectorate Arundel House appears to have been used for the reception of strangers of distinction. Thomas, Earl of Arundel, died 1646; and at the Restoration, in 1660, his house and marbles were restored to his grandson, who, at the instigation of Evelyn, gave the library to the Royal Society, and the inscribed marbles, still known as the Arundelian Collection, to the University of Oxford.

September 19, 1667.-To London with Mr. Hen. Howard of Norfolk, of whom I obtained ye gift of his Arundelian marbles, those celebrated and famous inscriptions, Greek and Latine, gathered with so much cost and industrie from Greece, by his illustrious grandfather, the magnificent Earl of Arundel, my noble friend whilst he liv'd. When I saw these precious monuments miserably neglected and scatter'd up and down about the garden, and other parts of Arundel House, and how exceedingly the corrosive air of London impaired them, I procur'd him to bestow them on the University of Oxford. This he was pleas'd to grant me, and now gave me the key of the gallery, with leave to mark all those stones, urns, altars, etc., and whatever I found had inscriptions on them that were not statues.—Evelyn.

The donor of the marbles died in 1677. He seems to have contemplated rebuilding Arundel House, but did not do so, and it was taken down by his successor, and the present Arundel Street, Surrey Street, Howard Street, and Norfolk Street erected on the site.

Private Acts, 22 & 23 Charles II. (1671), c. 19.-An Act for building Arundel House and the tenements thereunto belonging.

1. William and Mary (1689), an Act for building into tenements the remaining part of Arundel Ground as now enclosed.

The few marbles that remained were removed to Tart Hall and

Cuper's Gardens (which see). From Hollar's views of the house it would appear to have been little more than a series of detached buildings, erected at different periods, and joined together without any particular display of taste or skill. Sully, when ambassador in England in the reign of James I., was lodged in Arundel House. speaks in his Memoirs of its numerous apartments upon one floor. The first meetings of the Royal Society were held in this house.

July 16, 1668.-I by water with my Lord Brouncker to Arundell House, to the Royall Society, and there saw the experiment of a dog's being tied through the back, about the spinal artery, and thereby made void of all motion; and the artery being loosened again, the dog recovers.-Pepys, Diary.

Among Wren's designs at All Souls' College, Oxford, is a general plan for a house for the Dukes of Norfolk on the site of Arundel House.

Arundel Street, leading from the north side of COVENTRY STREET to PANTON SQUARE. So called from the Lords Arundel of Wardour; rated to the poor, for the first time, in the books of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1673; and then and there described as "next Coll. Panton's tenements. [See Wardour Street.] In the New View of London, 1708, and in Strype's Map, 1720, it is called Panton's Yard. In Dodsley, 1761, neither Arundel Street nor Panton's Yard is set down.

Arundel Street, STRAND, was built in 1678, on the site of Arundel House. Gay has photographed this street for us, as it appeared in 1716

Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose buildings to the slimy shore extends;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame,
The street alone retains the empty name :
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas warm'd
And Raphael's fair design, with judgment, charm'd,
Now hangs the bellman's song, and pasted here
The coloured prints of Overton appear.

Where statues breath'd, the work of Phidias' hands,
A wooden pump, or lonely watch-house stands.

Gay's Trivia, B. ii.

Eminent Inhabitants.-John Playford, the musician (d. 1693).1 Simon Harcourt, in 1688, afterwards Lord Chancellor (d. 1727). Thomas Rymer, whose Fadera is our best historical monument, died at his house in this street, in 1713, and was buried in the neighbouring church of St. Clement Danes. John Anstis, Garter King-at-Arms, 1715-1716. In 1732 Eustace Budgell, the friend of Addison. Mrs. Porter, the celebrated actress, "over against the Blue Ball."

Ashburnham House, LITTLE DEAN'S YARD, and CLOISTERS, WESTMINSTER ABBEY, now a prebendal house, was threatened (1881) with destruction. It was designed by Inigo Jones on Chapter land, 1 Advertisement at end of Trapp's Tragedy of 2 Budgell's Liberty and Property, p. 122, and Saul. App. p. 5.

for the Ashburnham family, to which belonged Jack Ashburnham, whose name is now inseparably connected with the misfortunes of Charles I. In the London Gazette of January 25-28, 1728-1729, Ashburnham House is advertised "to be sold." In 1730 the lease was purchased by the Crown of John, Earl Ashburnham. Here the Cotton Library of MSS. was deposited, and here a fire broke out October 23, 1731, and of the 948 volumes of which the library consisted, 114 were quite lost or entirely spoiled, and 98 much damaged. The house was then in the occupation of the celebrated Dr. Bentley, the King's Librarian, who is reported to have left at the first cry of fire, carrying the Alexandrian MS. under his arm. In the western portion of the house (all that remains of the original building, for much of it was pulled down, August 1739, to build two prebendal houses for Dr. Welles and Dr. Barker) is a drawing-room of exquisite proportions, which had once a dome in the centre; the dining-room, once the state bedroom, with a graceful alcove; and a staircase, one of the most interesting of Inigo Jones's internal works.2 The house was the residence of the Rev. H. H. Milman (afterwards Dean of St. Paul's) while he was one of the prebendaries of Westminster, and still later of Mr. Turle the organist.

1

Ashburnham House, DOVER STREET. [See Dover Street.]

Ashley Place, VICTORIA STREET. Captain Hans Busk, "an early advocate of the Volunteer Movement," died at No. 21 in 1882. General Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., for many years President of the Royal Society, died at No. 13, on June 26, 1883, aged ninety-five.

Ashley's Punch-House, FLEET STREET, a famous punch-house, the "third door from Fleet Bridge," established in or before 1735 by James Ashley, who claimed the merit of being the first person to retail punch in small quantities. There is a scarce print of him.

The first curiosity led me to, was Ashley's Punch-House, where the whole company seemed deeply attentive to the old waiter, who usually serves his customers with politics and punch. . . . Only sail up forty men of war to their very gates [of Paris], and where would they be then?-Goldsmith, Public Rejoicings for Victory.

Asiatic Society (Royal), 22 ALBEMARLE STREET, was founded 1823, and received a Royal Charter in 1824. The Society possesses an extensive and valuable library of Oriental manuscripts and printed books; issues a journal in which have appeared many learned and important papers, and has assisted in publishing editions. of various Oriental texts. The Society has affiliated branches in Bombay, Madras, and other Eastern cities. The Society usually meets on the first and third Saturdays in every month, from November to June inclusive. Admission fee, 5 guineas; annual subscription, 2

guineas.

Aske's Hospital, HOXTON. Erected by the Haberdashers' Company in 1692, pursuant to the will of Robert Aske, Esq., who in 1688 left £20,000 to that Company, for building and endowing an 1 Daily Gazetteer, August 9, 1739.

2 H. Walpole, MS. note in Pennant.

Hospital for the relief of twenty poor members of the Haberdashers' Company, and land in remainder, for the education of twenty boys, sons of decayed freemen of the Company, in all about £32,000. But the funds of the charity having greatly increased, a new scheme was drawn up by the Endowed Schools Commissioners, and adopted by the Court of the Haberdashers' Company. The Hospital for decayed freemen has been closed, and the pensioners receive out-door annuities; four £50, two £70, and fourteen £75 a year each. A new school was built (1875-1876) on the site of the old building at Hoxton, with accommodation for 300 boys and 300 girls, day scholars, and open to all; and a second and superior school, a handsome Elizabethan building, on an elevated site at Hatcham, between New Cross, Deptford, and Nunhead. Exhibitions have also been provided, amounting to £1200 a year, of sums not exceeding £40 a year each, chiefly for the sons and daughters of freemen, tenable at Hatcham or any other approved school. The new schools are from the designs of the late Mr. W. Snooke, architect to the Company. The original edifice was designed by Dr. Robert Hooke, the mathematician. The drawing by the architect hangs in the Court Room of the Company.

Asparagus Garden, UPPER GROUND STREET, SOUTHWARK, near the old Barge House. In the 16th and 17th centuries this district chiefly consisted of garden ground and pasturage.

Astley's Amphitheatre, WESTMINSTER BRIDGE ROAD. The first amphitheatre on this spot was a mere temporary erection of deal boards, set up, in 1774, by Philip Astley, a light-horseman in the 15th or General Eliott's Regiment. It stood on what was then an open piece of ground in St. George's Fields, through which the New Cut ran, and to which a halfpenny hatch led. The price of admission to the space without the railing of the ride was sixpence, and Astley himself, said to have been the handsomest man in England, was the chief performer, assisted by a drum, two fifes, and a clown of the name of Porter. first it was an open area. In 1780 it was converted into a covered amphitheatre, and divided into pit, boxes, and gallery. In 1786 it was newly fitted up, and called "The Royal Grove," and in 1792 "The Royal Saloon, or Astley's Amphitheatre." The entertainment, at first, was only a day exhibition of horsemanship. Transparent fireworks, slack-rope vaulting, Egyptian pyramids, tricks on chairs, tumbling, etc., were subsequently added, the ride enlarged, and the house opened in the evening.

At

London, at this time of year (September), is as nauseous a drug as any in an apothecary's shop. I could find nothing at all to do, and so went to Astley's, which indeed was much beyond my expectation. I do not wonder any longer that Darius was chosen king by the instructions he gave to his horse; nor that Caligula made his Consul. Astley can make his dance minuets and hornpipes. But I shall not have even Astley now; Her Majesty the Queen of France, who has as much taste as Caligula, has sent for the whole of the dramatis persona to Paris.-Horace Walpole to Lord Stafford, September 12, 1783.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »