Read Ebook: Chelsea by Mitton G E Geraldine Edith Besant Walter Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 64 lines and 11753 words, and 2 pages

r vault of the roof to the pavement the height is 60 feet. Over the Communion-table is "The Entombment of Christ," an oil-painting by J. Northcote, R.A. To the north of the church lies Pond Place, a remembrance of the time when a "pond and pits" stood on Chelsea Common hereabouts.

Not far from the top of Sydney Street, in the Fulham Road, is the Cancer Hospital, founded by William Marsden, M.D., in 1851. It was only on a small scale at first, but public donations and subscriptions now enable 100 patients to receive all the care and treatment necessary to alleviate their terrible infliction, and more than 1,500 are treated as out-patients. The chief fact about the hospital is that it is absolutely free. The disease itself is the passport of admittance. In this respect there is only one other hospital in London like it, and that is the Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road, which was founded by the same benefactor. The small chapel attached, in which there is daily service, was built about ten years ago, and consecrated by the Bishop of London. There is almost an acre of garden. Following the Fulham Road eastwards, we come to Marlborough Road. There is a tradition that the Duke of Marlborough at one time occupied a house here, but there seems to be no truth in it whatever.

Cadogan Street contains St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, almshouses, school and cemetery. The actual fabric of this church was founded in 1879, but the mission of which it is the development began in 1812, and was at first established on the opposite side of the road. The building is of stone, and is in the Early English style, from designs by J. Bentley. Two oil-paintings on the pillars at the entrance to the chancel are by Westlake. There is also a large oil-painting over the altar. A statue to the memory of the founder of the mission, the Abb? Voyaux de Franous, stands in the northern aisle, and a small chapel on the southern side has a magnificent carved stone altarpiece by the younger Pugin, supposed to have been executed from a design by his father.

Halsey Street and Moore Street lead northward into Milner Terrace, in which stands the modern church of St. Simon Zelotes. We now get back into the aristocratic part of Chelsea in Lennox Gardens, which open out of Milner Terrace.

At the west end of Pont Street stands the Church of St. Columba, opened 1884. Here the services are conducted according to the use of the Established Church of Scotland in London. The building, which is of red brick with stone dressings, is in the style of the thirteenth century. It was opened in 1884, and seats about 800 people. The pillars in the interior are of granite, and the pulpit of carved Aubign? stone. There are several stained-glass windows. The architect was Mr. Granderson.

Pont Street is built entirely of red brick, the houses being in a modernized seventeenth century style. From Pont Street opens out Cadogan Square. This square is very modern, and stands on part of the site of Princes' Cricket-ground.

Hans Place deserves more special mention. "L. E. L." , the poetess who was "dying for a little love," spent the greater part of her life here. She was born at No. 25, and educated at No. 22, both of which have now disappeared. Shelley stayed here for a short time, and Miss Mitford was educated at a school which turned out several literary pupils. Hans Place was laid out in 1777 by a Mr. Holland, who built a great house called the Pavilion, as a model for the Prince of Wales's Pavilion at Brighton; it was pulled down in 1879. The grounds comprised twenty-one acres of land, and contained a large piece of ornamental water. To the west of Hans Place, in Walton Street, is St. Saviour's Church, founded in 1839. A handsome chancel was added in 1890, and opened by the Bishop of London. At the same time a new organ was added. The chief feature of interest is a fine oak screen, on which the carving represents the nine orders of angels.

East of Sloane Street is the aristocratic Lowndes Square, of which the name is evidently derived from a former owner, for on a map of Chelsea, 1741-45, this spot is marked "Lowndes, Esq." Cadogan Place lies a little further south, and is open to Sloane Street on one side. Chelsea House, Earl Cadogan's town residence, is in the north-east corner, and is marked by its stone facing in contrast with its brick neighbours. Below Cadogan Place is a network of little, unimportant streets. Byron stayed in Sloane Terrace with his mother in 1799, when he came to London for medical advice about his foot. The Court theatre in the square has been erected within the last thirty years. Sloane Gardens runs parallel to Lower Sloane Street, and behind is Holbein Place, from which we started on our perambulations. We have now made a complete circuit through Chelsea, looking into every street and commenting on every building or site of importance in the parish.

THE ROYAL HOSPITAL AND RANELAGH GARDENS.

An Act of Parliament, secured by the King as an endowment for the college, empowered the authorities to raise water from the Hackney Marshes to supply the City of London; but this was rendered useless by the success of Sir Hugh Middleton's scheme for supplying London with water in the same year. The constitution of the college included a Provost and twenty Fellows, of whom eighteen were to be in Holy Orders. Dean Sutcliffe himself was the first Provost. In 1616 the building stopped altogether for want of funds.

In 1669 the King presented the buildings to the newly-incorporated Royal Society, but they were in such a ruinous condition that the society could make no use of them, and after thirteen years resold the site to Sir Stephen Fox, for the use of the King. The buildings were then destroyed to make way for the present Royal Hospital.

THE ROYAL HOSPITAL.

But the building of the Hospital was more expensive than he had anticipated. It cost altogether ?150,000, and when finished it would need an endowment. Charles had, therefore, recourse to the Stuart device of stirring up the people to give, by means of letters to the clergy, but without result, and in 1686 he directed that two-thirds of the army poundage should go to the continuance of the building, and finally that the whole should be devoted to this purpose after deductions for necessary expenses.

Some legacies have been bequeathed to the Hospital since the foundation, and various sums of unclaimed prize-money were also applied to this object, amounting in the aggregate to nearly ?600,000. The income at present drawn from the above sources is a mere trifle in comparison with the expenditure, only amounting to little over ?3,000 yearly.

The building--which is wonderfully well adapted for its object, being, in fact, a barracks, and yet a permanent home--was, when completed, just as it is at present, without the range of outbuildings in which are the Secretary's offices, etc., and one or two outbuildings which were added in the beginning of the present century. The out-pensioners were not included in the original scheme, but when the building was ready for occupation, it was round that nearly one hundred applicants must be disappointed owing to want of room. These men received, accordingly, a small pension while waiting for vacancies. From this small beginning has sprung an immense army of out-pensioners in all parts of the world, including natives who have served with the British flag, and the roll contains 84,500 names. The allowances vary from 5s. to 1 1/2 d. a day, the latter being paid to natives. The usual rate is about 1s. for a private, and 2s. 6d. for a sergeant. The in-pensioners, of whom 540 are at Chelsea and 150 at the sister hospital of Kilmainham in Ireland, receive sums varying from one shilling to a penny a day for tobacco money, and are "victualled, lodged, and clothed" in addition. They have rations of cocoa and bread-and-butter for breakfast; tea and bread-and-butter in the evening; mutton for dinner five days in the week, beef one day, and beef or bacon the remaining one. The allowance of meat is thirteen ounces, and the bread one pound, per diem. Besides this they have potatoes and pudding. They are clothed in dark blue in the winter, the coats being replaced by scarlet ones in the summer. Peaked caps are worn usually, and cocked hats with full dress. H. Herkomer's picture "The Last Muster" is too well known to need more than a passing comment. The scene it represents is enacted every Sunday in the Hospital at Chelsea. Twenty thousand men have ended their days peacefully in the semi-military life which in their long service has become second nature to them, and 500,000 have passed through the list of out-pensioners.

The establishment is now kept up by annual Parliamentary grants, of which the first vote, for ?550, was passed in 1703. Up to 1873 sums varying from ?50,000 to ?100,000 were voted annually, but these were embodied with the army votes. Since that year the Hospital grants have been recorded separately. They amount to three and three-quarter millions, but part of this is repaid by the Indian Government in consideration of the men who have served in the Indian Army. In 1833 the levies from the poundage of the army ceased.

The annual expenditure of the Hospital now equals ?1,800,000, and 98 per cent. of this goes to the out-pensioners. In 1894 the question was raised as to whether the money now supplied to the in-pensioners could not be better used in increasing the amount of the out-pensions. A committee was appointed to "inquire into the origin and circumstances attending the formation of Chelsea and Kilmainham, and whether their revenues could not be more advantageously used for the benefit of the army." Numbers of the old soldiers themselves, as well as the Governor and all the Hospital officials, were examined. One or two of the old men seemed to imagine that they would prefer a few pence a day to spend as they pleased instead of shelter and food, but the majority were decisive in their opinion that on no attainable pension could they be so comfortable as they were at present. Consequently the committee embodied their resolution in the following words: "That no amount of increased pension that it would be practicable to give would enable the men to be cared for outside the Hospital as they are cared for at present."

The life led by the old men is peculiar, partaking as it does somewhat of a military character. The side-wings of the Hospital, built of red brick faced with stone, and darkened by age, are 360 feet in length and four stories in height. Each story contains one ward, which runs the whole length of the wing. The wide, shallow old staircase, the high doors, the wainscot, are all of oak coloured by age. The younger men and the least infirm occupy the highest wards, which look out upon the quadrangles by means of windows on the roof. Each ward contains about five-and-twenty men, including two sergeants, who have rather larger apartments than the rest, one at each end. An open space, like the between-decks of a ship, occupies half the longitudinal space, and the other half is partitioned off into separate cubicles containing a bed and a box, and these are open at the top and into the room. There is a large stove and one or two high-backed settles in each ward. Here the old fellows sit and smoke and warm up any food they have reserved from the last meal. One or two have attempted to furnish their cubicles with pictures cut from the illustrated papers, but they do not seem to care much, as a rule, for anything but warmth and a pipe.

All the Waterloo veterans have died out, but Crimea and Indian Mutiny men there are in plenty. At each end of the wings are the staircases, which lead into passage halls. At the extreme end of the eastern wing is the Governor's house, built in exactly the same style as the rest of the wing, and looking like part of it.

All the pictures in the room are the official property of successive Governors. The last three mentioned were bequeathed by William Evans in 1739. We can pass from this room through the vestibule, and along the wards, and thus reach the central wing, and pass under the colonnade into the hall beneath the cupola, without once going into the outer air. From this central hall open off the chapel and great hall on the east and west sides respectively. In this central hall it is possible to look right up into the hollow interior of the cupola at an immense height. Both hall and chapel are considerably raised above the ground-level, and are reached by a flight of steps. They are of the same dimensions--108 feet by 37 feet--but, as the roof of the hall is flat, and that of the chapel hollowed out, the former looks much larger.

In the 'History of the Diocese of London' Newcourt gives the following quotation from the Bishop of London's Registry: 'The chappel of this Hospital is 108 feet long, and 37 feet and 9 inches wide ... consecrated by the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry, Lord Bishop of London, on Sunday, August 30, 1691.' The prelate here referred to was Bishop Compton.

The grottos, which, according to the fashion of the time, were built in the garden, and richly decorated, must have seen some interesting sights. One in which Queen Caroline was royally entertained in 1729 was taken down in 1795. The entertainment was extremely sumptuous. The last of these grottos disappeared only when the Embankment was being made. In 1741 the Minister retired with the title of Earl of Orford, which afterwards descended to his well-known son, Horace, and a pension of ?4,000 a year.

The house afterwards passed through the hands of John, Earl of Dunmore, and George Aufrere, and we find it in 1796 assigned to Charles, Lord Yarborough, who was living here in 1808. The building being then required by the Hospital, he consented to give up the remainder of his lease, a period of seventeen years, upon compensation being paid to the amount of ?4,775 15s. Sir John Soane, the architect, who had all through been strongly in favour of adding on to Walpole House instead of purchasing new ground, designed the necessary additions. The building, like the Hospital itself, consists of two wings, east and west, abutting out from a connecting flank, with a vestibule in the front. The eastern wing is Walpole House. The room which was originally the dining-room is now one of the wards, and contains eight beds. It is strange to see the worn, homely faces of the infirm pensioners, in contrast with the magnificent white marble mantelpiece and the finely moulded ceiling. The connecting wing holds the Matron's room in addition to the wards. The patients suffer from the complaints of old age, rheumatism, blindness, paralysis; few of them are permanently in the infirmary, and with the season of the year the numbers vary. In the summer it is found possible to close one ward entirely. There is a staff of nurses, and the old men are well looked after. Besides Walpole House, it was considered advisable to have a supplementary infirmary. So when the lease of Gordon House fell in, it was adapted for the purpose. It stands in the southwest corner of the grounds, about 150 yards from the infirmary, and will be familiar to those who visited the Military and Naval Exhibitions, at which period it was used as a refreshment-house. The first recorded lease of the land on which it was built was in 1690.

The charity is directed by Royal Commissioners, who include representatives of the War Office, Horse Guards, Treasury, and the Hospital itself, through its Governor and Lieutenant-Governor.

The Governor is Sir Henry Norman. The officers who reside at the Hospital, under the authority of the Governor, are: Mayor and Lieutenant-Governor; six Captains of Invalids; Adjutant; Quartermaster; Chaplain; Physician and Surgeon; Deputy Surgeon.

Besides these there is a large staff, including Matron, Dispenser, Organist, etc. The pensioners themselves are formed into six companies, and their pension varies according to their rank, from the colour-sergeants at a shilling a day to privates of the third rank at a penny. The grounds of the Hospital were originally only twenty-eight acres, but have been added to by purchase from time to time; they now amount to between sixty and seventy. A portion in the south-western corner was let on building leases not long ago.

The large open space exactly opposite to the Hospital, on the north side of the Queen's Road, is known as Burton's Court. How it came by the name is a matter of doubt. In Hamilton's Survey it is called College Court. Lysons refers to it as follows: "To the north of the college is an enclosure of about thirteen acres, planted with avenues of limes and horse-chestnuts." Its dimensions have since been reduced by the land given up to the parish for road-making. In 1888 it was decided to allow the soldiers quartered at the adjacent barracks to use it as a recreation-ground. Through the centre of it runs an avenue of trees in direct continuation from the Hospital gates. This opens on to St. Leonard's Terrace in two fine iron gates with stone pillars, surmounted by military arms in stone. Beyond these gates, still in the same straight line, runs the Royal Avenue, formerly known as White Stiles. It is mentioned very early in the Hospital records, payments for masonry and carpentry work being noted in 1692. Faulkner repeats a tradition to the effect that Queen Anne intended to have extended this avenue right through to the gates of the palace at Kensington, and was only prevented from carrying it out by her death. At present the avenue intersected by Queen's Road and St. Leonard's Terrace is disjointed and purposeless.

RANELAGH GARDENS.

The site of Ranelagh Gardens, which in their zenith eclipsed even the Vauxhall Gardens as a place of entertainment, is now included in the grounds of the Royal Hospital.

"My Lord Ranelagh's garden being but lately made, plants are but small; but the plats, borders, and walks are curiously kept and elegantly designed, having the advantage of opening into Chelsea College walks. The kitchen-garden there lies very fine, with walks and seats, one of which being large and covered was then under the hands of a curious painter. The house here is very fine within, all the rooms being wainscoted with Norway oak, and all the chimneys adorned with carving, as in the Council Chamber in Chelsea College."

It was in the time of Crispe that the great rotunda was built. This rotunda was 150 feet in interior diameter, and was intended to be an imitation of the Pantheon at Rome. The pillars which supported the roof were of great magnificence, painted for half their height like marble, and the second half fluted and painted white; they were crowned by capitals of plaster of Paris. The orchestra was at first in the centre, but was afterwards removed to one of the porticos, and the centre was used for a fireplace, which, if the old prints are to be trusted, was large enough to roast half a score of people at once. We have "A Perspective View of the Inside of the Amphitheatre in Ranelagh Gardens," drawn by W. Newland, and engraved by Walker, 1761; also "Eight Large Views of Ranelagh and Vauxhall Gardens," by Canaletti and Hooker, 1751. The roof of this immense building was covered with slate, and projected all round beyond the walls. There were no less that sixty windows. Round the rotunda inside were rows of boxes in which the visitors could have refreshments. The ceiling was decorated with oval panels having painted figures on a sky-blue ground, and the whole was lighted by twenty-eight chandeliers descending from the roof in a double circle. The place was opened on April 5, 1742, when the people went to public breakfasts, which, according to Walpole, cost eighteenpence a head. The gardens were not open until more than a month later. The entertainments were at first chiefly concerts and oratorios, but afterwards magnificent balls and f?tes were held.

"A thousand feet rustled on mats, A carpet that once had been green; Men bow'd with their outlandish hats, With corners so fearfully keen! Fair maids who at home in their haste Had left all clothing else but a train Swept the floor clean as slowly they paced, And then walk'd round and swept it again.

"The music was truly enchanting! Right glad was I when I came near it; But in fashion I found I was wanting, 'Twas the fashion to walk and not hear it! A fine youth, as beauty beset him, Look'd smilingly round on the train; 'The King's nephew!' they cried, as they met him, Then we went round and met him again.

"Huge paintings of heroes and Peace Seem'd to smile at the sound of the fiddle, Proud to fill up each tall shining space Round the lantern that stood in the middle. And George's head, too--Heaven screen him! May he finish in peace his long reign; And what did we when we had seen him? Why, went round and saw him again.

"A bell rang announcing new pleasures, A crowd in an instant pressed hard; Feathers nodded, perfumes shed their treasures, Round a door that led into the yard. 'Twas peopled all o'er in a minute, As a white flock would cover a plain; We had seen every soul that was in it, Then we went round and saw them again.

"But now came a scene worth the showing, The fireworks, midst laughs and huzzas; With explosions the sky was all glowing, Then down streamed a million of stars. With a rush the bright rockets ascended, Wheels spurted blue fire like a rain; We turned with regret when 'twas ended, Then stared at each other again.

"There thousands of gay lamps aspir'd To the tops of the trees and beyond; And, what was most hugely admired, They looked all upside-down in a pond. The blaze scarce an eagle could bear And an owl had most surely been slain; We returned to the circle, and there-- And there we went round it again.

Though Bloomfield's metre can be scarce held faultless, yet his power of detailed description has preserved us a living picture of Ranelagh in the height of its glory. Balls and f?tes succeeded each other. Lysons tell us that "for some time previously to 1750 a kind of masquerade, called a Jubilee Ball, was much in fashion at Ranelagh, but they were suppressed on account of the earthquakes in 1750."

The masked balls were replaced by other festivities. In 1775 a famous regatta was held at Ranelagh, and in 1790 a magnificent display of fireworks, at which the numbers in attendance reached high-water mark, numbering between 3,000 and 4,000 exclusive of free admissions. In 1802 an aeronaut ascended from the gardens in a balloon, and the last public entertainment was a ball given by the Knights of the Bath in 1803. The following year the gardens were closed. Sir Richard Phillips, writing in 1817, says that he could then trace the circular foundation of the rotunda, and discovered the broken arches of some cellars which had once been filled with the choicest wines. And Jesse, in 1871, says he discovered, attached to one or two in the avenue of trees on the site of the gardens, the iron fixtures to which the variegated lamps had been hung. The promenades at Ranelagh, for some time before its end, were thinly attended and the place became unprofitable. It was never again opened to the public after July 8, 1803.

In 1805 Ranelagh House and the rotunda were demolished, the furniture and fittings sold, and the organ made by Byfield purchased for the church of Tetbury, in Gloucestershire. Lysons adds that the site was intended to be let on building leases. This plan was, however, never carried out, and the ground reverted to the Royal Hospital. The gardens are now quite differently planned from what they were originally. The public is admitted to them under certain restrictions. One or two massive elms, which must have seen the Ranelagh entertainments blossom into life and fade away, are the only ancient relics remaining.

With this account of the Ranelagh Gardens we close our description of Chelsea, having wandered west and east, north and south, and found everywhere some memento of those bygone times, which by their continuity with the present constitute at once the glory and fascination of London, the greatest city in the world.

INDEX

Addison, 54 Alston House, 30 Apothecaries' Garden, 22 Arthur Street, 59 Ashburnham House, 52, 53 Astell, Mrs. Mary, 19 Atterbury, 44 Attwood, Thomas, 28

Bartolozzi, 61 Beaufort Street, 46, 49 Blantyre Street, 52 Bowack, 44 Braganza, Catherine of, 27 Bramah, 51 Bramerton Street, 36 Bray, Sir Reginald, 5 Brunel, 51 Burial-ground, 8 Burnaby Street, 54 Burton's Court, 14, 87 Butler, Dr. Weedon, 27 Byron, 66

Cadogan Place, 66 Cadogan Square, 64 Cadogan Street, 63 Cale Street, 63 Carlyle, 35 Carlyle Square, 59 Caroline, Queer, 84 Chamberlayne, Dr., 45 Chelsea Barracks, 8 Chelsea china, 32 Chelsea College, 67 Chelsea Creek, 54 Chelsea Embankment, 24 Chelsea House, 66 Chelsea Public Library, 59 Chelsea Workhouse, 61 Cheyne, Charles, 6, 32 Cheyne House, 30 Cheyne, Lady Jane, 6, 32, 43 Cheyne Row, 35 Cheyne Walk, 24, 34 Church Lane, 44 Church Street, 37 Churches: Christ, 17 St. Columba, 64 Holy Trinity, 65 St. Jude's, 10 Lawrence Chapel, 39 St. Luke's, 61 St. Mary's , 63 Old Parish, 37 Park Chapel, 57 St. Saviour's, 65 St. Simon Zelote's, 64 Cipriani, 61 Cleves, Anne of, 6 Clock House, 24 Cremorne Villa, 52 Cremorne Pleasure Gardens, 53

Dacre Tomb, 42 Dacres, The, 49 Danvers House, 46 Danvers, Sir John, 46 Danvers Street, 46 Doggett's Coat and Badge, 22 D'Orsay, Count, 29 Duke of York's School, 10 Durham House, 14 Durham Place, 15 Dyce, William, 26

Elgin marbles, 56 Eliot, George, 26 Elizabeth, Princess, 25 Emerson, 35

Faulkner, 16 Flood Street, 17, 29 Fox, Sir Stephen, 69 Franklin's Row, 10

Gordon, General, 58 Gordon House, 86 Gothic House, 29 Gough House, 20 Grey, Lady Jane, 25 Gwynne, Nell, 54, 69

Halsey Street, 64 Hamilton, Duke of, 6 Hamilton, Sir William, 56 Hans Place, 64, 65 Haweis, Rev. H. R., 27 Hazlitt, 28 Heber, Reginald, 45 Hoadly, Bishop, 25 Hoadly, Dr. Benjamin, 53 Hogarth, 27 Holbein Place, 7, 66 Hospitals: Cancer, 62 Consumption, 59 Incurable Children, 36 Royal, 67 Victoria, 20 Howard, James, 6 Howard, Lady, 6 Hunt, Holman, 36 Hunt, Leigh, 35, 36

Jews' Burial-ground, 58 Johnson, Dr., 33 Jubilee Place, 63

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet