Mayfair and Belgravia : being an historical account of the parish of St. George, Hanover square

Preface

IT is thought that this volume should not be allowed to go forth without a word or two of explanation regarding the treatment and arrangement of the materials of which it is composed. In his two recent books upon London districts the writer has attempted to treat his subject in a readable and interesting manner, with a due sense of the first necessity of accuracy^ That plan has been adopted in the present instance.

The civil parish of St. George, Hanover Square, however, is so much crowded with matters of historical moment and interesting associations, that it has been found difficult to do justice to all in a volume of this size. The chapter on "Literary and other Celebrities" is a remarkable instance.

In that case the number of celebrated persons to be mentioned has been found too large to allow of anything more than the barest record of the facts.

The author wishes to thank the many friends who have given their kind assistance in the compilation of this volume, and he desires to express his special obligations to two personal vi. PREFACE.

friends, Messrs. A. Bernard Sykes and Charles G. Harper, for their valuable help in providing some of the sketches v^hich enrich the book, and felicitously and vividly depict many of the localities to which reference has been made in the text. He wishes also to acknowledge, w^ith many thanks, the kindness of the Proprietors of the Pall Mall Budget^ in allowing him the use of Mr. Harper's sketches.

It may be added that sixteen of the illustrations have been produced by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, Limited, in their Photomezzotype Process, and some photographs taken by that Company have been used as a basis for certain of the other sketches in the book.

Chapter I. Page

Introductory Account. — The Manor of Eia. — The Manor of Neyte, or Neat. — The Neat Gardens. — Market Gardens.— Eybery, or Ebury Farm. — Reminiscences of Ebury Farm and the vicinity 3

Chapter II

May Fair. — The Fair granted to Sir John Coell. — Riots and Disorders. — Brookfield Market. — Brian Fairfax's Account. — Amusements at the Fair. — Royal Proclamation for the encouragement of virtue.— A Constable killed by the Mob.— May Fair a Cattle Market. — Duck - hunting. — Carter's Account of the Amusements at May Fair 12

CHAPTER HI.

Hyde Park. — Roman Roads. — The Estate of Eia. — The Manor of Hyde seized by Henry VHI. — The Rangers of Hyde Park. — Hyde Park a Royal hunting ground. — Poachers. — Charles I. opens Hyde Park to the Public. — Races. — The Great Plague. — Hide Park Camp Limn'd out to the life. — Westminster Drollery.— " The Ring." — Duels : Lord Mohun and Duke of Hamilton, Wilkes and Martin, Sheridan and Matthews, &c.— Reviews in Hyde Park. — Riots in 1866. — The Four-in-hand Club. — Rotten Row ............... 24

Chapter IV

The River Westbourne. — Queen Caroline's Improvements. — The formation of the Serpentine. — Pools and Watercourses in Hyde Park. — Water Supply for Westminster. — Skating on the Serpentine. — Severe Winters. — Henry Hunt drives a coach and four horses across the Serpentine.— Hyde Park Corner. — The Turnpike Toll House. — The Entrance Gate to Hyde Park. — The Wellington Arch. — The Equestrian Statue of the Duke of Wellington. — Boehm's New Statue. — Defensive Earthworks . 39

CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Page

St. George's Church, Hanover Square. — Architecture. — "Jesse" Window. — Internal arrangements. — Altar Piece. — Carvings by Grinling Gibbons. — Dr. Dodd. — Fashionable Marriages. —Marriage of the Duke of Sussex. — Burial-Ground of St. George's, Hanover Square. — Mortuary Chapel. — Grave of Laurence Sterne. — St. George's Chapel, Mayfair.— Rev. Alexander Keith.— Clandestine Marriages. — Marriage of the Duke of Hamilton. —Other Celebrated Marriages. — Hanover Chapel, Regent Street. — Grosvenor Chapel. — St. Mark's Church, North Audley Street. — Holy Trinity Church, Conduit Street 48

CHAPTER VL

BucKi.NGHAM Palace — The Mulberry Gardens.— Goring House destroyed by Fire. — Arlington House. — The Gardens at Arlington House. — The Duke of Buckingham. — Buckingham House purchased as a residence for George IH. — The King's Library. — Additional buildings by Nash. — Further building in 1847. — The Chapel, Throne- Room, S:c. — The Gardens. — The Royal Mews. — Tart Hall ...... 64

CHAPTER Vn.

Berkeley House. — Destroyed by Fire, 1733. — Devonshire House. — Lansdowne House. — Collection of Sculpture. — The Youthful Hercules. — The Lansdowne Manuscripts. — Apsley House. — The Duke of Wellington. — Canova's Colossal Statue of Napoleon I. — Trophies, Honours, Pictures, etc. — Grosvenor House. — Dorchester House. — Burlington House. — "Masquerades and Operas, Burlington Gate." — Clarendon House. — Chesterfield House. — The Richmond Driving Club. — Lanesborough House . . 73

CHAPTER VHI.

The Residences of Celebrities, arranged alphabetically under the names of streets,

&c. — Miscellaneous: "Gaunt Square," Richard Heber, Kitty Fisher .... 98

CHAPTER IX.

The Achilles Statue. — Albemarle Street. — Audley Street (North and South). — Belgrave Square. — Berkeley Square. — Brook Street. — Chester Square.— Curzon Street. — Davies Street. — Eaton Square.— Ebury Street. — Eccleston Street. — Grafton Street. — Grosvenor Square. — Hanover Square. — Hay Hill. — Lowndes Square. — Lupus Street. — The Marble Arch. — Oxford Street. — Piccadilly. — Westbourne Place. — Wilton Crescent. — "Beating the Bounds." — The Committee of the Watch

CONTENTS.

ix.

CHAPTER X.

PAGE

The Mulberry Garden. — Jenny's Whim. — Other Gardens. — The Bag of Nails. — The Cheesecake House. — The Curd and Whey House. — The Dwarf Tavern. — The Gloucester Coftee House, Piccadilly. — Hercules' Pillars. — The Running Footman. —The Three Kings Inn.— The Triumphant Chariot.— The White Bear, Piccadilly. — The White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly. — Derby Ale . 129

CHAPTER XI.

Plans for the Exhibition Buildings. — Paxton's Plans accepted.— The Exhibition opened by the Queen. — The Crystal Palace removed to Sydenham.— The Egyptian Hall. — Bullock's Museum. — Mr. Maskelyne's Entertainment.— The Pantherion. — St. James's Hall 139 chapter xh.

Charities, chronologically arranged. — St. George's Hospital. — The Royal Orthopaedic

Hospital 150 chapter xhi.

Area, division and population of the Parish. — The Grosvenor Estate. — The Grosvenor Family. — Streets, etc., named after the Grosvenor Family. — The Duke of Westminster. The building of Belgravia and Pimlico. — Mr. Thomas Cubitt. — New Churches. — Victoria Railway Station. — The Grosvenor Hotel. — Western Pumping Station . . 162

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.

Map of St. George's, Hanover Square, 1787

facino^

page

PAGE

Plan of the Manor of Ebury, 1614

A Field-day in Hyde Park

A Sketch at Grosvenor Gate . . . .

Rotten Row, Hyde Park

View from the Serpentine Bridge

page

Skating Scene in Hyde Park, 1785

facing

Hyde Park Corner Turnpike, 1797

Triumphal Arch & Duke of Wellington's Statue

St. George's, Hanover Square . . . .

,, ,, Mortuary Chapel

Sketch in the Burial Ground . . . .

page

Sterne's Grave

) 3

Mayfair Chapel, about 1740

facing

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.

XI.

PAGE

Mayfair Chapel, 1761 page 57

AuDLEY Street Chapel, 1761 ,, 61

Holy Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street, 1761 - - ,, 62

Berkeley Chapel, 1761 ------- 63

Buckingham House, 1746 - facing ,, 64

Going to the Drawing-Room at Buckingham Palace,

1822 -------- „ „ 68

Plan of the Berkeley Estate, 1710 - - - ,, 72

Devonshire House, North Front, 1843 - - ,, ,, 74

Portrait of William Duke of Devonshire, 1755 facing ,, 76

Lansdowne House 80

Apsley House and Entrance to Hyde Park - ,, ,, 82

Burlington House, 1707 ,, ,, 88

Masquerades and Operas, Burlington Gate - ,, go

The Man of Taste - - ,, 90

Clarendon House, about, 1670 . . - . ,, 92

The Earl of Chesterfield's House, 1750 - - ,, 94

Portrait of the Earl of Chesterfield - - ,, 96

St. George's Church and Hanover Square, about

South End of Park Lane ,, ,, 104

Map of St. George's, Hanover Square, 1761 - - page 111

Plan of Part of the Conduit Mead, 1720 - - facing ,, 116

Hanover Square, early in the i8th Century - 118

The Marble Arch, Hy DE Park . _ - _ 122

Piccadilly, from the West 124

The Watchman and Box page 126

The Beadle 127 xii. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.

PAGE

Hyde Park Corner and Apsley House - - - facing page 128

The Minced Pie House, Hyde Park, before 1800 - page 133 ^\'EST Country Mails at the Gloucester Coffee

House, Piccadilly facing 136

St. George's Hospital 156

Plan of the Grosvenor Estate, 1723 ... 164

MAYFAIR AND BELGRAVIA.

Chapter I

Introductory Account.— The Manor of Eia.— The Manor of Neyte, or Neat.— The Neat Gardens.— Market Gardens. — Eybery, or Ebury Farm.— Reminiscences of Ebury Farm and the vicinity.

MAYFAIR AND BELGRAVIA.

LD maps, as well as contemporary accounts, enable us to picture to ourselves, with considerable clearness, the physical character and appearance of these districts before buildings covered the surface of the ground.

Two centuries ago the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, did not exist, the area it was afterwards to occupy lying within the limits of the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Agas's Map of London, published probably just about three centuries ago (1591), does not extend far enough west to take in this district ; probably the reason of this is that the district at that time had not enough houses and was not of sufficient importance to be included in a map of London. Westminster Palace and Abbey, and the various buildings in the vicinity, of course are shown, but at the extreme left-hand (west) margin of the map there is an evident thinning away of houses, and it is clear that the open ■ fields were at hand.

The Plague and the Great Fire of London were both powerful agents in spreading out the densely-packed population of the City, and their effect was patent and immediate in the stimulus imparted to the building of dwelling-houses and shops in the districts around Covent Garden and St. Giles's, but, although Hyde Park provided a welcome asylum for the refugees during the time of the pestilence, the migration so far westward as Mayfair does not appear to have been so numerous or so immediate as in the districts named. The real commencement

MA YFA IR A ND BELGRA VIA .

of building at Mayfair on a large scale does not appear to have taken place before the beginning of the i8th century.

It will, however, be unnecessary to give in this place the various dates of the chief phases of this building, as such details will be given in another part of this volume when treating of the more important houses, streets, &c., but, in order to gain a good idea of the changes taking place in this district, we may profitably study Rocque's Map of London, published in 1746, — a map peculiarly suited for the purpose on account of its large scale and the accuracy of its details.

Here we see that at this date the area lying between Oxford Street (part of which was then called ''Tiburn Road") and Piccadilly was to a large extent covered with buildings, Hanover, Grosvenor, and Berkeley Squares were laid out, and both sides of Piccadilly were occupied by w^ell-defined lines of buildings. South of Piccadilly, however, the matter is entirely different. The Neat Houses were a few scattered buildings environed by gardens, and Tothill Fields were open to the River Thames. But there were signs of encroaching buildings. Rochester Row — a single row of houses — extended into the fields obliquely. The row of houses was built parallel with a single row of twenty-six trees, at the north-east end of which was " the Pound," where cattle straying over the waste ground of Tothill Fields were secured. Just beyond the Pound was the Artillery Ground.

The whole aspect of the place at that time — scarcely a century and a half ago — was that of a pastoral or market-gardening district, and we know from Strype's account (1720) that this district was famous for the vegetable produce it sent from its market gardens to the markets of London and Westminster. The fields and gardens w^ere interspersed by hedgerows and trees, and an occasional house or cottage, and were watered by numerous streams.

The population of what are now Belgravia and Pimlico was at that time very small, and almost as much scattered as that of a small country village. North-west of the reservoir of the Chelsea Waterworks, with the exception of a few buildings around Avery Farm, there was a wide stretch of land irregularly intersected by the " King's Road," a winding country lane, bounded simply by broken hedges and trees.

VIEW OF ST. GEORGE'S, HANOVER SQUARE AND VICINITY, 1787.

PARISH OF ST GEORGE.

Beyond Vauxhall Bridge Road (or rather the thoroughfare leading to the Thames which that road now represents) and the road leading to Chelsea, much of the ground was marshy, with extensive osier beds, about a century ago, and sportsmen in the reign of George III. sought for plovers and wild ducks among its solitary wastes. Warwick Street represents part of the Willow Walk, which was once the only bye-way between the two lines of roads, and close to this the monks of Westminster had a garden or orchard which long retained the name of the Monastery Garden," a name which is supposed to have been shortened to the name of the " Monster," and thus to have given rise to the sign of the well-known tavern.

If we search for the reason why Pimlico remained unoccupied by houses until such a late date, we shall probably find a satisfactory explanation in these two facts : one reason was that the level of the land was only slightly above that of the river, giving rise to dampness, and frequently flooding when the rainfall was exceptionally heavy, or when the river was affected by an abnormally high tide. Another obstacle arose from the fact that the land was of great value as market gardens, but, of course, when the improvements of 1831 were made, and the level of the land was raised, the agricultural value of the land was immediately superseded by that which it bore for building purposes.

The shape of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, is very peculiar, the northern portion — Mayfair — being almost severed by a narrow neck at Hyde Park Corner from the southern portions of Belgravia and Pimlico. The parish stretches from Oxford Street to the banks of the River Thames, including a large portion of Hyde Park, and about half of the Serpentine. Its inhabitants include the majority of the aristocracy and nobility of London, and probably no locality in the world of equal area could show amongst its population such a large per centage of men and women eminent in their various spheres as that which is included within the limits of this parish. The spacious and beautiful mansions of the nobility form a special feature in the locality, and will be duly described in another part of this volume.

The abnormally low death-rate of this parish speaks eloquently for the sanitary arrangements of the district, and well justifies the jubilant strain which pervades the annual reports of the local sanitary authorities ;

MA YFA IR A ND BELGRA VIA .

but this satisfactory state of things is due, doubtless, in no small degree, to the fact that most of the dwelling houses have been constructed upon those principles of solidity and spaciousness which have not guided the designers of buildings in other parts of London and other large towns. Moreover, the salubrious air of Hyde Park, as well as that afforded by the numerous squares and wide streets in the vicinity, have undoubtedly had their effect in this matter.

THE MANOR OF EIA.

The Manor of Eia, eight hundred and ninety acres in extent, comprised an area of land extending from what are now Uxbridge Road and Oxford Street down to the banks of the Thames. The manor appears to have been held officially by a high dignitary at the court of the Saxon Kings, bearing the title of Stalre or Stallere. The duties of the office appear to have included a combination of the more modern Master of the Horse, Constable, and Standard-bearer.

The nobleman who held this dignity at the time of the Norman invasion was named Asgar, and from Domesday Book it appears that he held numerous lands and manors by right of his office. After the Conquest, William the Norman appointed one of his nobles, Geoffrey de Mandeville, or Magnavilla (ancestor of the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex), to succeed to all those lands which Asgar had held officially, but not to the property which that Saxon lord had inherited from his fathers. This manor or estate of Eia appears to have come under the first category.

About the time of the compilation of Domesday Book this manor or estate of Eia was divided into three manors, viz., Neyte or Neat, Ebury, and Hyde.

THE MANOR OF NEYTE, OR NEAT.

In speaking of the estate of Eia, it has been stated that that estate was divided into three manors — Neyte or Neat, Ebury, and Hyde. The last-named manor has been referred to in connection with the account of Hyde Park. Eyebury, Eubery, or Ebury, was situated towards Chelsea. Neyte, on account of its proximity to the Abbey and to the river, appears to be that part of the estate to which the monks gave

MAP OF ST. GEORGE^S, HANOVER SQUARE AND VICINITY, 1854.

THE MANOR OF NEYTE, OR NEAT.

the preference, and this manor was subsequently used as a residence by some of the Abbots, and in it died, on the 27th of November, 1386, Abbot Nicholas Littlington, who had greatly improved the property. So comfortable had the good monks by this time made the manor of Neyte, that no less a person than John of Gaunt, titular King of Castille, and brother of King Edward III., did not think it beneath his dignity to take up his abode in it, and asked liberty of the Abbot to reside there whilst Parliament was sitting at Westminster. Nor is he the only person of royal blood connected with this manor : for there also on the 7th of November, 1448, John, fifth son of Richard Duke of York, was born.

Little more than a century after, in 1592, Neyte (though it still had a moat in the time of Henry VIII.), had dwindled down to the proportions of a farm, and thus it is described in the particulars of a dispute laid in that year before Lord Burleigh.

After the Restoration Neyte became a tea-garden and public pleasure resort, under the name of the " Neat Houses." Pepys writes thus in his Diary, under the date of ist August, 1667: —

" Dined at Sir W. Pen's. . . . After the play, we went into the house, and spoke to Knipp, who went abrood with us by coach to the Neat Houses in the way to Chelsy ; and there in a box in a tree, we sat and sang, and talked and eat."

In the following year Pepys visited the place again, and in his Diary he writes : —

" Met Mercer and Gayet, and took them by water, first to one of the Neat Houses, where walked in the garden, but nothing but a bottle of wine to be had, but pleased with seeing the garden."

It was in this locality that Mrs. Gwynne, the mother of the famous Nell Gwynne, was accidentally drowned, in the year 1679. contemporary newspaper, The Domestic Intelligencer, thus refers to the sad event : —

We hear that Madam Ellen Gwyn's mother, sitting lately by the water-side at her house by the Neate Houses, near Chelsea, fell accidentally into the water and was drowned."

The name is supposed by some to have reference to the original purpose of the buildings in this spot, that is, cow-houses, but this etymology is questioned. The land around the Neat Houses was

MA YFA IR A ND BELGRA VIA .

for man}' years laid out as market gardens. Strype, referring to them, speaks of the houses being " inhabited by gardeners, for which it is of note for supplying London and Westminster Markets with Asparagus, Artichoaks, Cauliflowers, Musmelons, and the like useful things that the earth produceth, which by reason of their keeping the ground so rich by dunging it (and through the nearness of London they have the soil cheap) doth make their crops very forward, to their great profit in coming to such good markets."

The Neat Houses and gardens were still extant in the beginning of the present century. The houses stood on the site now occupied by St. George's Row, Warwick Street, Pimlico, and the gardens were in front of them, reaching to the river-side, on the area now bounded by the Chelsea Waterworks, Bessborough Gardens, and Warwick Street (formerly called Willow Walk).

About the year 1831, great alterations were made in this district. The soil excavated from St. Katharine's Docks was brought hither, and spread out over the surface of the ground until the whole space was elevated to a level with the Chelsea Road. Upon this artificial ground streets of houses were built with great rapidity ; and the parish of St. Gabriel, Pimlico, with its dense population, now exists where less than a century before were merely market gardens, and a few small houses.

EYBERY, OR EBURY FARM.

Queen Elizabeth let this farm on lease to a person named Whashe, who paid £21 per annum, and by whom the " same was let to divers persons, who, for their private commodity, did inclose the same, and had made pastures of arable land ; thereby not only annoying Her Majesty in her walks and passages, but to the hindrance of her game, and great injury to the common, which at Lammas was wont to be laid open." In the i6th century, Eybery Farm contained about 450 acres of meadow and pasture, and the homestead stood on the site of what is now Ebury Square. It was originally of the nature of Lammas land, or land subject to be laid open as common, after Lammas-tide, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the parish.

Tradition says that Queen Elizabeth paid visits to this farm early in the morning to partake of syllabubs.

PLAN

Front the

OF THE MANOR OF EBURY, 1614.

Records relating to the Gvosvcnov Estate at Westminster.

EYBERY, OR EBURY FARM.

A writer (Mr. J. R. S. Clifford) who recently recorded his recollections of this spot, says : — " After various changes, and the removal of the old buildings, the square (Ebury Square) was a nursery garden, as many inhabitants of Pimlico can recollect, the last in fact of the nurseries or market gardens in the West End district. Across the canal, in what is now called South Belgravia, I can remember fields of vegetables growing — say forty years ago — and green sloping banks, gay with wild flowers during June, where white and tortoise-shell butterflies sported freely, and I, with other lads, hunted for ' woolly bears,' i.e., caterpillars of the tiger moth, amongst the low herbage. The road leading past the outskirts of Ebury-farm to Ranelagh House and Gardens was shaded with a handsome row of limes, planted in the reign of William III. Till the erection of the present Chelsea Barracks, there survived Wilderness-row, a reminder of those days when it was the fashion to have in every gentleman's garden of any size, what was called a wilderness. Standing on the west of Ebury-farm, close to the boundary of Lord Ranelagh's garden, we should have had, two centuries ago, a fine prospect beyond, embracing the tree-shaded Cheyne-walk, Chelsea Old Church, and its numerous scattered mansions. But in the eastern side let us suppose ourselves in that field which is now occupied by Ebury-street, and its bye-streets, we should discover that Pimlico was practically non-existent ; there are a few houses apart from each other, but they do not intercept our view of St. James's to the north, and Westminster to the south, with the park lying between them."

The old site of Ebury or Eybery Farm now forms a part of the estate of the Duke of Westminster, having been brought into the Grosvenor Family by the marriage of Mary Davies, only child of Alexander Davies, of Ebury Manor, with Sir Thomas Grosvenor, in the seventeenth century.

PIMLICO.

Pimlico has been described as a large district lying between St. James's Park, the River Thames, the village of Chelsea, Hyde Park Corner, and the hamlet of Knightsbridge. At one time it was noted for its public pleasure gardens, but all traces of them have been swept

MAYFAIR AND BELGRAVIA.

away by the irresistible tide of bricks and mortar, and such expressions as " the village of Chelsea," and the hamlet of Knightsbridge," manifestly belong to former days. Whatever may have been the origin of the name Pimlico — and there is considerable doubt upon the subject — it seems that the name has been applied to this district for well-nigh three centuries. The place is mentioned early in the seventeenth century (1626-30) in the Accounts of the Overseers of the Poor of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, under the various forms of Pimlicoe, Pimplico, and Pimlico. At that early time the place was nearly uninhabited, and it does not appear in the rate-books of St. Martin's before the year 1680, when the Earl of Arlington, previously rated under the head of Mulberry Garden, is, though living in the same house, rated under the head of Pimlico. In 1687, seven years after the first introduction of the name into the rate-books of the parish in which it was then situated, four people are described as residing in what was then called Pimlico — the Duke of Grafton, Lady Stafford, Thomas Wilkins, and Dr. Crispin. The Duke of Grafton, having married the only child of the Earl of Arlington, was residing at Arlington House, and Lady Stafford in what was then and long before called Tart Hall. In i6g8, the Duke of Buckingham (then only Marquis of Normanby) bought Arlington House of the Duchess of Grafton, and rebuilding it shortly after, named it anew by its well-known title of Buckingham House. George IV. began the great alterations in Pimlico by rebuilding Buckingham House, and drawing the courtiers from Portland Place and Portman Square to the splendid mansions built by Thomas Cubitt and others, in what was known in that time, and long before, as the Five Fields, and is now Belgravia and Pimlico.

The following lines are from " Belgravia : A Poem," published in 1851, the authorship of which has been ascribed to Mrs. Gascoigne : —

"I sing Belgravia !— that fair spot of ground Where all that worldlings covet most — is found! Of this stupendous town — this ' mighty heart ' Of England's frame— the Fashionable part!

Belgravia I . . Sure that name hath power to bring Warmth to my strains, and aid me whilst I sing ! Belgravia ! favoured spot, that dost combine Beauties so far above all praise of mine !

Thou of the gleaming walls and lordly crest, Oasis of the 'Fashionable West!'

PIMLICO.

If such a theme should fail my Muse t' inspire, Then can she boast no more her wonted fire, No more attempt the song, nor strike th' accustomed lyre Time was, when here, where palaces now stand. Where dwell at ease the magnates of the land, A barren waste existed — fetid— damp, Cheered by the ray of no enlivening lamp !

A marshy spot, where not one patch of green, Nor stunted shrub— nor sickly flower was seen ; But all things base, — the refuse of the town. Loathsome and rank, in one foul mass Vv^ere thrown. . *****

Such was Belgravia once — a waste unknown !

Behold that desert now — a gorgeous town !

On every side, before admiring eyes.

New squares appear— fresh palaces arise!"

Chapter II

May Fair. — The Fair granted to Sir John Coell. — Riots and Disorders. — Brookfield Market. — Brian Fairfax's Account. — Amusements at the Fair — ^Royal Proclamation for the encouragement of virtue. — A Constable killed by the Mob. — May Fair a Cattle Market. — Duck-hunting. — Carter's Account of the Amusements at May Fair.

MAY FAIR.

SPACE, named Brook Field from its contiguity to the brook Tybourn, was the scene of this annual festival, called, from the circumstance of its being held in the month of May, " May Fair." The name of Brook Street similarly had its origin from the Tybourn. May Fair was held by a grant to the Abbot of Westminster, jl/S^^^"^^ B^^q)(? J with revelry for fourteen days. A quaint ^Si^A^l^fk ^ ^ duodecimo tract was published in 1709,

entitled " Reasons for suppressing the Yearly Fair in Brook-Field, Westminster, commonly called May Fair." It contains various historical particulars, from which we extract the following passages: — " The fair . . . was granted by King James II. under the Great Seal, in the Fourth Year of his Reign, to Sir John Coell and his Heirs for Ever, in Trust for the Right Honourable Henry Lord Dover, and his Heirs for Ever ; to be held in the Field call'd Brookfield, in the Parish of St. Martin's, Westminster, to commence on the First Day of May, and to continue Fourteen Days after it Yearly for Ever, for the Sale of all manner of Goods and Merchandise.