Chapter I: Front Matter

FAMOUS HOUSES AND LITERARY SHRINES OF LONDON

FAMOUS HOUSES AND
LITERARY SHRINES
OF LONDON

BY A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK

WITH SEVENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
BY FREDERICK ADCOCK
AND 16 PORTRAITS

LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. 1912

_All rights reserved_

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

PREFATORY NOTE

Nothing could well be deader or emptier than an unoccupied house of whose former inhabitants we have no knowledge; and it is impossible to take a real interest in a house now occupied by strangers, even though it was aforetime the residence of some famous man, unless we are acquainted with that man's personality, and know what he thought and did and said whilst he was living there. I have attempted to do little more than supply that information here as the complement of my brother's drawings, and to this end have been less concerned to give my own descriptions and opinions than to bring together opinions and descriptions that were written by such famous residents themselves or by guests and visitors who saw and knew them. As far as possible I have quoted from contemporary Diaries and Memoirs, especially from letters that were written in or to these houses, or from Journals that their tenants kept whilst they dwelt there, supplementing all this with a narrative of incidents and events that might help to recreate the life and recapture the atmosphere that belonged to such places in the days that have made them memorable. Whenever I have adventured into any general biography, or expressed any personal opinion, it has been merely with the object of adding so much of history and character as would serve to fill in the outline of a man's portrait, give it a sufficient fulness and colour of life, and throw into clear relief the space of time that he passed in some particular house that can still be seen in a London street.

I think I have throughout made due acknowledgment to the authors of various volumes of _Recollections_ and _Table Talk_ from which I have drawn anecdotes and pen-portraits, and I should like to mention at the outset that for biographical facts and much else I have been particularly indebted to such books as Elwin and Courthope's edition of the _Poems and Letters of Pope_; Austin Dobson's _William Hogarth_, and H. B. Wheatley's _Hogarth's London_; Boswell's _Johnson_, of course, and Forster's _Lives of Goldsmith_ and of _Dickens_; Gilchrist's _Life of Blake_; Leslie's and Holmes's _Lives of Constable_; Arthur B. Chamberlain's _George Romney_; Lord Houghton's _Life and Letters of Keats_, and Buxton Forman's _Complete Works of John Keats_; Leigh Hunt's _Autobiography_; De Quincey's _English Opium Eater_; Hogg's and Peacock's _Memoirs of Shelley_; Carew Hazlitt's _Memoirs of Hazlitt_; Blackman's _Life of Day_; Byron's _Journals and Letters_, and Lewis Bettany's useful compilation from them, _The Confessions of Lord Byron_; Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, and Scott's _Journal_; Talfourd's and Ainger's _Lives of Lamb_, and Lamb's _Letters_; Walter Jerrold's _Life of Thomas Hood_; Cross's _Life of George Eliot_; Sir William Armstrong's _Life of Turner_, and Lewis Hind's _Turner's Golden Visions_; Joseph Knight's _Rossetti_; Froude's _Thomas Carlyle_, and W. H. Wylie's _Carlyle, The Man and His Books_; Allingham's _Diary_; E. R. and J. Pennell's _Life of Whistler_; Trollope's _Thackeray_, and Lady Thackeray Ritchie's prefaces to the Centenary Edition of Thackeray's works.

A. ST. J. A.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. SOME CELEBRATED COCKNEYS 1

II. SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON 10

III. WHERE POPE STAYED AT BATTERSEA 26

IV. HOGARTH 36

V. GOLDSMITH, REYNOLDS, AND SOME OF THEIR CIRCLE 52

VI. HOMES AND HAUNTS OF JOHNSON AND BOSWELL 89

VII. BLAKE AND FLAXMAN 118

VIII. A HAMPSTEAD GROUP 140

IX. ROUND ABOUT SOHO AGAIN 167

X. A PHILOSOPHER, TWO POETS, AND A NOVELIST 187

XI. CHARLES LAMB 207

XII. ST. JOHN'S WOOD AND WIMBLEDON 233

XIII. CHELSEA MEMORIES 255

XIV. THACKERAY 296

XV. DICKENS 314

XVI. CONCLUSION 328

PORTRAITS

DR. JOHNSON _Frontispiece_
_From an engraving by T. TROTTER after a
drawing from life_

JOHN MILTON _Facing p._ 4
_From a miniature by FAITHORNE_

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE " 16
_From an engraving by SCRIVEN after the
Chandos portrait_

ALEXANDER POPE " 33
_From an engraving by J. POSSELWHITE after
the picture by HUDSON_

OLIVER GOLDSMITH " 81
_After a drawing by SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS_

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS " 96
_From an engraving after his own portrait_

JAMES BOSWELL " 102
_From an engraving by W. HALL after a sketch
by LAWRENCE_

JOHN KEATS " 144
_From a drawing by W. HILTON_

THOMAS DE QUINCEY " 176
_From an engraving by W. H. MOORE_

LORD BYRON " 193
_From a painting by THOMAS PHILLIPS, R.A._

CHARLES LAMB " 224
_From the painting by WILLIAM HAZLITT_

THOMAS HOOD " 241
_From an engraving by W. H. SMITH_

THOMAS CARLYLE " 280
_From a painting by SIR JOHN MILLAIS_

W. M. THACKERAY " 305
_From a pencil sketch by COUNT D'ORSAY_

CHARLES DICKENS " 320
_From a black and white drawing by BAUGHIET, 1858_

ROBERT BROWNING " 338
_From a photograph_

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

St. Saviour's, Southwark Cathedral xvi

The Gateway, Middle Temple 6

Chaucer's Tomb, Westminster Abbey 8

Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey 11

St. Olave's Churchyard, Silver Street 17

Bartholomew Close, Smithfield 21

The Last Bulk Shop, Clare Market 25

Pope's House, Battersea 29

Pope, Mawson's Row, Chiswick 37

Sir James Thornhill, 75 Dean Street 42

Hogarth's House, Chiswick 45

The Bay Window, Hogarth's House 49

Sir Isaac Newton's House, St. Martin's Street, W.C. 53

Sir Joshua Reynolds's House, Great Newport Street 57

The Staircase, 47 Leicester Square 59

Sir Benjamin West's House, Newman Street 61

Gainsborough's House, Pall Mall 65

Sheridan's House, Savile Row 69

Pump Court, Temple 73

Richardson's House, North End, Fulham 75

Goldsmith's House, Canonbury 77

2 Brick Court, The Temple 83

Stairs up to Second Floor, 2 Brick Court 85

Goldsmith's Grave 87

Entrance to Staple Inn 91

Dr. Johnson's House, Gough Square 99

Johnson's Corner, "The Cheshire Cheese" 107

Where Boswell first met Johnson 111

Boswell's House, Great Queen Street 115

Blake's House, Soho 121

Blake, 23 Hercules Road 125

Blake's House, South Moulton Street 127

Flaxman's House, Buckingham Street, Euston Road 137

Romney's House, Hampstead 141

Constable, Charlotte Street 145

Joanna Baillie, Windmill Hill, Hampstead 147

Stanfield's House, Hampstead 151

"The Upper Flask," from the Bowling Green 153

Keats' House, Hampstead 157

Constable's House, Hampstead 161

George du Maurier's Grave, Hampstead 165

De Quincey's House, Soho 171

Shelley's House, Poland Street, W. 175

Shelley, Marchmont Street 179

Hazlitt's House, Frith Street 183

Thomas Day, 36 Wellclose Square 189

Byron, 4 Bennet Street, St. James's 195

Coleridge, Addison Bridge Place 201

Will's Coffee House, Russell Street 217

Lamb, Colebrooke Row 219

Lamb's Cottage, Edmonton 229

Tom Hood's House, St. John's Wood 237

Charles Dibdin, 34 Arlington Road 243

George Eliot, Wimbledon Park 247

George Eliot's House, Chelsea 251

Queen's House, Cheyne Walk 257

Whistler, 96 Cheyne Walk 263

Turner's House, Cheyne Walk 269

Carlyle, Ampton Street 277

Carlyle's House, Cheyne Row 283

Leigh Hunt's House, Chelsea 289

Leigh Hunt, 16 Rowan Road, Hammersmith 295

The Charterhouse, from the Square 297

Thackeray's House, Kensington 301

Lamb Building, Temple, from the Cloisters 307

Dickens, Johnson Street, Camden Town 315

Dickens's House, Doughty Street 319

Thurloe's Lodgings, 24 Old Square, Lincoln's Inn 329

Captain Marryat, Duke Street, St. James's 333

Benjamin Franklin's House, Craven Street 335

Cruikshank, 263 Hampstead Road 337

George Morland, "The Bull Inn," Highgate 339

Rogers, St. James's Place, from Green Park 341

Borrow's House, Hereford Square 345

FAMOUS LONDON HOUSES