Here dead to fame lives Patriot Will, His title proves his epitaph, His robes his winding sheet.— Sir C. Hanbury Williams, vol. i. p. 177. Bath House contains a noble collection of works of art, selected with good taste and at a great expense. The pictures of the Dutch and Flemish Schools comprise the main part of the collection. THORWALDSEN's Mercury as the Slayer of Argus. LEONARDO DA VINCI (?) -The Infant Christ asleep in the arms of the Virgin: an Angel lifting the quilt from the bed. LUINI.-Virgin and Child. CORREGGIO (?)-St. Peter, St. Margaret, St. Mary Magdalene, and Anthony of Padua. GIORGIONE.—A Girl, with a very beautiful profile, lays one hand on the shoulder of her lover. TITIAN. -The Daughter of Herodias with the head of St. John. PAUL VERONESE.-Christ on the Mount of Olives (a cabinet picture). ANNIBALE CARACCI.—The Infant Christ asleep, and three Angels. DOMENICHINO.-Moses before the Burning Bush. GUERCINO.-St. Sebastian mourned by two Angels (a cabinet picture). MURILLO. -St. Thomas of Villa Nueva, as a child, distributes alms among four Beggar boys. The Madonna surrounded by Angels. The Virgin and Child on clouds surrounded by three Angels. Christ looking up to Heaven. VELAZQUEZ.-A Stag Hunt. RUBENS.-The Wolf Hunt, a celebrated picture painted in 1612. "The fire of a fine dappled gray horse which carries Rubens himself is expressed with incomparable animation. Next him, on a brown horse, is his first wife, Caroline Brant, with a falcon on her hand."-Waagen. Rape of the Sabines. Reconciliation of the Romans and Sabines. "Few pictures of Rubens, even of his most finished works, give a higher idea of his genius."-Sir Joshua Reynolds. VANDYCK.-The Virgin Mary, with the Child upon her lap, and Joseph seated in a landscape looking at the dance of eight Angels. Count Nassau in armour (three-quarter size). One of the Children of Charles I. with flowers (bust). Charles I. (full length). Henrietta Maria (full length). REMBRANDT.-Portrait of Himself at an advanced age. Portrait of a middle-aged Man. Lieven von Coppenol (the celebrated writingmaster) with a sheet of paper in his hand (very fine). Two Portraits (Man and Wife). G. Dow.-A Hermit praying before a Crucifix. "Of all Dow's pictures of this kind, this is carried the furthest in laborious execution."-Waagen. TERBURG. A Girl in a yellow jacket, with a lute. G. METZU.-A Girl in a scarlet jacket. NETSCHER.-Boy leaning on the sill of a window, blowing bubbles. A. VANDERWERFF.-St. Margaret treading on the vanquished Dragon. JAN STEEN. -An Alehouse, a composition of thirteen figures. Playing at Skittles. DE HOOGHE. A Street in Utrecht, a Woman and Child walking in the sunshine (very fine). TENIERS.-The Seven Works of Mercy. The picture so celebrated by the name of La Manchot. Portrait of Himself (whole length, in a black Spanish costume). Courtyard of a Village Alehouse. A Landscape, with Cows and Sheep. A. OSTADE. (Several fine.) I. OSTADE.-Village Alehouse. PAUL POTTER.-Cows, etc., marked with his name and the date 1652. Oxen butting each other in play; the Church Steeple of Haarlem at a distance. A. VANDEvelde. -The Hay Harvest. Three Cows, etc. BERGHEM.-An admirable work. KAREL DU JARDIN.-A Watermill. PHILIP WOUVERMANS. CUYP. WYNANTS. RUYSDAEL. HOBBEMA. W. VANDEVELDE.-"La petite Flotte." BACKHUYSEN. VAN DER HEYDEN.-Market-place of Henskirk, near Haarlem. VAN HUYSUM.Flower Pieces. HOLBEIN.-A Head. SIR JOSHUA Reynolds.-Head of Ariadne. Bath House, HOLBORN. [See Brook House.] Bath Inn or Place, WITHOUT TEMPLE BAR. The town-house of the Bishops of Bath and Wells stood on the site of Arundel Street It was taken from Bishop Barlow by the Lord High Admiral Seymour, and called Seymour Place. It afterwards came into the possession of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. 1522. Sir John Mundy, Mayor.-Then came the King of Denmark, with his Queene, and lay in the Bishop of Bath's place, without Temple Bar. And there was the Roodes lost.-London Chronicle, Cam. Soc. p. 8. "The Roodes" means the Island of Rhodes. October 21, 1557.-Died my Lady the Countess of Arundel at Bathe Place in St. Clement's Parish without Temple Bar. She was buried in great state. — Machyn's Diary, p. 155. Bath Street, NEWGATE STREET. [See Bagnio Court and Pincock Lane.] Bath Street, ST. LUKE'S, on the north side of Old Street, leading to the City Road, originally called Pest House Lane, after the City Pest House, which stood here from 1665 until 1737. The name Bath Street was given to it from its nearness to the public bath, called first "Perilous Pond" and then "Peerless Pool." Edward Alleyn, the philanthropic actor, chose this place for one of his foundations of almshouses. On July 13, 1620, he laid the first brick of the building, and in the following year placed three men and seven women as the first inmates of the ten newly-built houses. The almshouses were rebuilt in 1707, and again in 1874 were rebuilt and enlarged by T. J. Hill, architect, so as to accommodate twenty-two persons, or twelve additional to the original foundation. Here also were the Girdlers' Almshouses and the Hospital for distressed descendants of French Protestant Refugees, till the former were removed to Peckham and the latter to Victoria Park. Bath Street, Great, COLD BATH FIELDS. Here died, March 29, 1772, at No. 26, the house of one Shearsmith, a peruke maker, Emanuel Swedenborg, founder of the "Church of the New Jerusalem," or, as they are usually called, Swedenborgians. In 1784 Henry Bone, R.A., the enamel painter, was living in Great Bath Street. On May 28, 1741, Thomas Topham, "the second Samson," a man of herculean strength, not as yet surpassed, if equalled, performed, in honour of Admiral Vernon's birthday, the feat of lifting three hogsheads of water, weighing 1836 lbs., as shown in a contemporary print of which there is a copy in the British Museum. Topham, who united the strength of twelve men, kept the Apple Tree public-house in Cold Bath Fields, and afterwards the Duke's Head, Islington. He died August 10, 1749. Bathesteres Lane, a place with this name situated in the parish of All Hallows "del warf" or "ad fenum," is mentioned in deeds of the reigns of Henry III., Edward I., and Edward III., belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.-See Maxwell Lyte's Report, Historical MSS. Comm., Appendix to Ninth Report, pp. 1, 28. Batson's. A City coffee-house "against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill," much "frequented by men of intelligence 2 for conversation," a house of call for physicians, and a favourite resort of Sir Richard Blackmore. 1 London Gazette for 1693, No. 2939. 2 Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 406. And therefore far the greatest part of that poem [Prince Arthur] was written in coffee-houses, and in passing up and down the streets, because I had little leisure elsewhere to apply to it.—Blackmore, Pref. to King Arthur, fol. 1697, p. 5. In the first number of The Connoisseur (January 31, 1754) physicians are spoken of as "the dispensers of life and death, who flock together, like birds of prey, watching for carcases, at Batson's. I never enter this place but it serves as a memento What a formal assemblage of sable suits and tremendous perukes. . . . Batson's has been reckoned the seat of solemn stupidity: yet is it not totally devoid of taste and common sense. mori to me. A haughty bard to fame by volumes rais'd, At Dick's and Batson's, and through Smithfield prais'd, E. Smith's Poem to the Memory of John Philips. In 1795, after a dinner with Dr. Pitcairn, Speaker Abbot records in his Diary that "Dr. Mead used to go into the City to Batson's Coffee-House, and meet all the apothecaries, hear them, and prescribe." Physicians in those days never visited the wards of hospitals, nor ever saw the greater number of their patients. The business was transacted by consultations, held at the physician's house with the apothecaries, who related the patients' cases. Dr. Friend and Dr. Radcliffe were both of them members of the House of Commons."-Lord Colchester's Diary, vol. i. p. 26. Sir William Blizard, the eminent surgeon, regularly attended Batson's for consultations, and is said to have been the last medical man in London who did so.1 At the age of eighty, on St. Luke's day, 1771, Sir W. Browne came to Batson's in his laced coat and his fringed white gloves to show himself to Mr. Crosby, then Lord Mayor. A gentleman present observing he looked very well, he replied, "I have neither wife nor debts." Battersea, a parish and manor on the Surrey side of the Thames, once known for its asparagus fields, Red House, and pigeon shooting, now visited for its park and noted for its factories. The name has undergone several changes. In the Conqueror's Survey it is called Patricsey. In the same Survey, Petersham, which belonged to St. Peter's Abbey, Chertsey, is spelt Patricesham. As the c in both these was sibilant, the pronunciation could not have been very different from what it is now. It is, however, a curious anomaly that the in Patricsey should have changed into b, while that in Patricesham has continued unchanged. The manor was then held by the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster, having been transferred to it with other lands belonging to King Harold. In the deed of grant, quoted by Dugdale, the name is given as Batericheseye. Subsequently it occurs as Patrichesea (temp. Stephen), Batrichsey, Battersea. Walsingham mentions it three times in his Diary, all in one month, and each time spells it differently, Batersaye, Batersie, Battersey. The early etymologies are not worth referring to, Lysons says: Of the original signification of the word there can be little doubt. "Patricesy," in the Saxon, is Peter's water or river; and as the same record which calls it "Patricesy" mentions that it was given to St. Peter, it might then first assume that appellation; but this I own to be conjecture. 1 Cooke's Memoir of Sir William Blizard. Taylor admits the derivation, though he renders it St. Peter's Island, and this is probably correct, as this neighbourhood was marshy, and the settlement, bounded on one side by a brook from Wandsworth, may easily have been nearly if not quite surrounded by water. The manor was retained by the Abbey of Westminster until the dissolution of religious houses, when it passed to the Crown. In the year 1627 it was granted in reversion to Sir Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison, (d. 1630), and remained in the possession of the St. John family till 1763, when it was sold to the Spencers, Earls Spencer, who still retain it. The St. Johns settled at Battersea, and lived in a large house east of the church. When Bolingbroke went to France in 1735 he lent this house to his (and Pope's) friend, Hugh, Earl of Marchmont; and writing to him on August 2, he says: "I was glad to see a letter from you, my dear Lord, dated from Battersea; and if I had imagined that habitation would have suited you, it should have been offered sooner." On his return to England in 1742, Bolingbroke settled at Battersea, and there, "pedantic and fretful” (as Lord Chatham notes 2) he spent his last days. Among the interesting circumstances connected with this. house it may be mentioned that the 500 copies of the Patriot King, about the printing of which Bolingbroke and Pope made so much mystery, were eventually carried to Battersea and burnt on the lawn. The greater part of Bolingbroke House was demolished in 1778, only the wing being left which contained the circular room, wainscoted with cedar, popularly known as Pope's study. Only the memory of the house is now preserved in the names of Bolingbroke Road and Bolingbroke Terrace. Lawrence Booth, Bishop of Durham in 1460, purchased of the trustees of Thomas, Lord Stanley, an estate at Battersea, which, on his elevation to the Archbishopric of York, he presented to that see, and built on it a mansion as an occasional residence for himself and his successors when called to visit London. The last archbishop who occupied York House was Archbishop Holgate, who was deprived and imprisoned by Queen Mary for being a married man. Strype relates that the officers sent to search his house at Battersea "rifled it of £300 in gold coin, 1600 ounces of plate, a mitre of fine gold, with two pendants set round about the sides and middle with very fine pointed. diamonds, sapphires, and balists. . . . The Archbishop's seal in silver, and his signet in antique set in gold," with many other valuables.3 Under the Protectorate York House was leased to Sir Allen Apsley and his brother-in-law, Colonel Hutchinson. Henry Elsynge (1598), clerk of the House of Commons, and Richard Burke (1758) were born at Battersea. It was restored to the see on the return of Charles II., but did not again become an episcopal residence. The house, which was pulled down about 1800, stood close to the Thames, and this memory, if not the site, is marked by the names of York Terrace and York Road. Battersea Church (dedicated to St. Mary) was rebuilt in brick 1 Lysons, Environs, vol. i. p. 19; Taylor, Words and Places, p. 280. 2 Communication to Lord Shelburne in Bowles's Pope. 3 Strype, Life of Cranmer. in 1776. When the old building was pulled down care was taken to preserve the monuments and the stained glass, which were reerected in the new one, and reopened November 17, 1777. It was altered in 1823, and repaired and somewhat improved in 1878. The noticeable feature of the exterior is the tower. Against the north wall is a monument, with busts to Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison, and his wife (d. 1630); and on the same wall a monument with medallions, by Roubiliac, to Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, and his second wife, the niece of Madame de Maintenon. The inscription is well known: "Here lies Henry St. John, in the reign of Queen Anne, Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and Viscount Bolingbroke in the days of King George I., and King George II., something more and better." A window contains heraldic emblazonings of the St. John family. The poet Cowley retired to Battersea before going to Barn Elms, and finally to Chertsey. Against the south wall is a monument to Sir Edward Wynter (d. 1685-1686), with basrelief, representing the performance of the two extraordinary feats commemorated in the concluding lines of the inscription : Alone, unarm'd, a tyger he oppress'd, And crush'd to death the monster of a beast; Bishop Patrick (Chichester and Ely) was vicar from 1657 to 1675. There is a tablet to Thomas Astle, keeper of the Records of the Tower' of London, who died 1803, in his sixty-eighth year. The vestry of the church has a low window overlooking the river. The parish register, commenced in 1559, records the baptism and burial of Lord Bolingbroke: "Henry, son of Henry St. John, Esq., baptized October 10, 1678," and "Henry St. John, late Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, buried December 18, 1751;" the interment in the churchyard (1760) of Arthur Collins, author of The Peerage which bears his name; and (1799) of William Curtis, author of Flora Londinensis. It also records that on Sunday, August 18, 1782, William Blake was married to Catherine Sophia Boucher. She was unable at that time to write, and ax does duty for her signature. Her name is given in the register as Catherine Butcher. Her parents, William and Mary Boucher, dwelt in Battersea, and she herself was born in the parish and baptized in this church. This church, with St. George's Chapel of Ease, a plain brick building in the Wandsworth Road, sufficed for the parish till 1847, since when at least half a dozen new churches, all Gothic, and all laying claim to architectural taste, have been erected: Christ Church (1847-1849), in the Decorated style, designed by Mr. C. Lee; St. John's (1862-1863), Early English, Mr. E. C. Robins, architect; St. Saviour's (1872), Early French Gothic; St. Mark's, Battersea Rise; St. Philip's, Queen's Road; and St. Peter's, Plough Lane. By the Thames is the St. John's Training College of the National Society, an |