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THE FASCINATION OF LONDON

HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE

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_IN THIS SERIES._

Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net, each.


THE STRAND DISTRICT.

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.


WESTMINSTER.

By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.


HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.


CHELSEA.

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.


KENSINGTON.

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.


HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.

By G. E. MITTON. Edited by Sir WALTER BESANT.

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[Illustration: CHURCH ROW, HAMPSTEAD.]


The Fascination of London


HAMPSTEAD
AND
MARYLEBONE

BY
G. E. MITTON

EDITED BY
SIR WALTER BESANT

LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1902


_Published August, 1902_

_Reprinted February, 1903_




PREFATORY NOTE


A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.

As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."

He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People's Palace,
but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. He
died when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumes
on the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end of
the eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great city
practically unique, and exceptionally interesting, compiled by one who
had the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how to
make the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which Sir
Walter called a "very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting,"
will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black, who had undertaken
the publication of the Survey.

Sir Walter's idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular and
systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the
history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very
original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the
keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its
issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is
proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and
publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local
inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and
the history of London lie in these street associations. For this purpose
Chelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected for
publication first, and have been revised and brought up to date.

The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history
with the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.

G. E. M.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

PREFATORY NOTE                                                       vii

HAMPSTEAD                                                              1

MARYLEBONE                                                            56

INDEX                                                                106

_Map of Hampstead facing page 1._

_Map of Marylebone facing page 104._


[Illustration: HAMPSTEAD DISTRICT.

Published by A. & C. Black, London.

By permission of the Hampstead Corporation.]




HAMPSTEAD


The name of this borough is clearly derived from "ham," or "hame," a
home; and "steede," a place, and has consequently the same meaning as
homestead. Park, in a note in his book on Hampstead, says that the "p"
is a modern interpolation, scarcely found before the seventeenth
century, and not in general use until the eighteenth.


HISTORY

Lysons says that the Manor of Hampstead was given in 986 A.D. by King
Ethelred to the church at Westminster, and that this gift was confirmed
by Edward the Confessor; but there is an earlier charter of King Edgar
of uncertain date, probably between 963 and 978. It granted the land at
Hamstede to one Mangoda, and the limits of the grant are thus stated:
"From Sandgate along the road to Foxhanger; from the Hanger west to
Watling Street north along the street to the Cucking Pool; from the
Cucking Pool east to Sandgate."

Professor Hales, who thinks, whether genuine or not, this charter is
certainly of value, interprets Sandgate as North End, Foxhanger as
Haverstock Hill, Watling Street as Edgeware Road, and the Cucking Pool
he concludes was in the marshy ground at the north-west corner of the
parish.

This earlier charter is only interesting because it carries the history
one point further back; the gift to the monks by King Ethelred was in
its consequences far more important. The Bishop of Westminster, who held
the land after the dissolution of the monastery, surrendered it to the
King in 1550, by whom it was given to Sir Thomas Wroth. It remained in
the Wroth family until 1620, when it was acquired by Sir Baptist Hickes,
afterwards Viscount Campden. Hickes' daughter and coheir married Lord
Noel, ancestor of the Earls of Gainsborough, and it was held by the
Gainsboroughs until 1707. In that year it was bought by Sir William
Langhorne, who left it to his nephew. It then went to a Mrs. Margaret
Maryon, later to Mrs. Weller, and about 1780 to Sir Thomas Spencer
Wilson, in right of his wife. Her son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson,
succeeded her, and in this line it has remained since 1818.

Besides the Manor of Hampstead there is included in the borough the
ancient Manor of Belsize, or Belses. Sir Roger de Brabazon in 1317 gave
an estate to Westminster Abbey to found a chantry for himself, Edmund,
Earl of Lancaster, and Blanche his wife. After many changes it was
occupied by Lord Wotton, who had been created a Baron by Charles II. His
half-brother, Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, succeeded him, and the
family held the Belsize estate until 1807. The house was afterwards
turned into a popular place of amusement.

Hampstead as a whole has grown very rapidly. In a map of the beginning
of the nineteenth century there are comparatively few houses; these
nestle in the shape of a spear-head and haft about the High Street. At
West End and Fortune Green are a few more, a few straggle up the
southern end of the Kilburn Road, and Rosslyn House and Belsize House
are detached, out in the open country.

Seymour, writing in 1735, gives a quaint description of Hampstead as
follows: "This Village... is much more frequented by good company than
can well be expected considering its vicinity to London, but such care
has been taken to discourage the meaner sort from making it a place of
residence that it is now become, after Scarborough and Bath and
Tunbridge, one of the Politest Public Places in England, and to add to
the Entertainment of the Company there is, besides the long room in
which the Company meet publicly on a Monday evening to play at cards,
etc., a new Dancing Room built this year."

Hampstead itself, now a town of 80,000 people, is almost entirely
modern; the old village has been gradually destroyed until there is next
to nothing left. But the Heath remains, the only wild piece of ground
within easy reach of the Londoner. It remains to be seen whether the
authorities will continue to observe the difference between a park and a
heath.

No suburb of London can point to so many distinguished residents as
this, the most favoured and the most favourite. Among them may be
mentioned Sir Henry Vane, Dr. Butler (author of the "Analogy"), Lord
Alvanley, Lord Chatham, Lord Erskine, Crabbe, Dr. Johnson, Joanna
Baillie, Mrs. Barbauld, Constable, Romney, Sir James Mackintosh, Steele,
Gay, Arbuthnot, Akenside, Thomas Day, Leigh Hunt, Keats, William Blake,
John Linnell, Wilkie, Stanfield, Du Maurier, and many others.

Directly you get within the boundaries of Hampstead you are aware that
the borough has an atmosphere of its own--an atmosphere in two senses,
for the great height of part of the borough and its distance from London
combine to give it as wholesome and pure an air as may be found in any
place in England, and an atmosphere in the metaphorical sense--a
peculiar feeling of brightness and lightness which proclaims a favoured
suburb. Hampstead has always been celebrated for its trees, and in spite
of the great annual increase in the number of its houses these have not
been wiped out of existence. Nearly every house possesses one or more,
and some are very fine specimens. The long sinuous backbone of the
borough, beginning as Haverstock Hill, continuing as Rosslyn Hill, and
running through High Street and Heath Street to the Heath, is
tree-shaded almost all its length. The streets on either side show
vistas of irregular red brick, softened and toned down by the greenery
of trees; every road is an avenue. The main artery, indicated above, is
all uphill, not all equally steep, but collar-work throughout its
length; at the top it bifurcates, and the winding of Heath Street
reminds one of a Continental town. The steep little streets or alleys
running down into it are furnished with steps like the Edinburgh wynds.
The way is long, but the toil is forgotten at the summit in the splendid
view from the flagstaff. Here the rolling blue outlines of distant hills
are emphasized by the beautiful foreground of the West Heath. There is
none of what painters call the "middle distance"; everything is near or
far, and the near is extraordinarily beautiful, especially if it be seen
in springtime when the spray of blossom is like the spray of deep water
breaking upon rocks, and the gorse twinkles like the twinkling of
ripples in the golden sunlight. The immediate foreground is bare and
worn, but a little further away the miniature heights and hollows, the
scrubby bush and little winding paths, add that mystery which so greatly
increases delight. The pond by the Flagstaff is frequently very gay;
there are carriages and horses, children with flotillas of white-sailed
craft, and horses splashing knee-deep from end to end of the pond, an
advantage much appreciated in the hot and thirsty summer. Away to the
east stretches of rolling green form a joyous playground for all at
holiday times, but are bare and arid compared with the West Heath.

Below North End on West Heath this character is maintained, and there
are few sights in England more beautiful than the richly clothed broken
ground stretching away from the <DW72>s below Jack Straw's Castle when
the sunlight catches the leaves of the poplars and beeches, making them
shine with shimmery silver light. On all sides are magnificent views of
distant horizons.

The Heath forms one of the greatest attractions of Hampstead, and that
the inhabitants are fully alive to its beauty and importance is shown by
their gallant and successful efforts to preserve it intact, when, from
time to time, it has been threatened. Neither the proposed curtailments
by the Lord of the Manor nor the park-like "improvements" of the London
County Council have been permitted. It is still a wide space of
undulating ground, outlined by masses of foliage rising to the heights
of Highgate, and is an untold boon to the dwellers in the City, who
throng its <DW72>s on Bank Holidays. In 1866 a contest arose between the
Lord of the Manor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, and the inhabitants of
Hampstead as to the preservation of the Heath. Up to that date for
twenty years a guerilla warfare had been going on in dispute of Sir
Maryon Wilson's right to build upon the Heath, and when he began to
build a house close to the Flagstaff pond the matter came to an issue. A
subscription list was opened called the Hampstead Heath Protection Fund,
and the matter was taken into court. Before the case was ended Sir
Thomas died, and was succeeded by his brother Sir John, who was open to
a compromise. Under an Act of Parliament the Metropolitan Board of Works
acquired the Heath for L55,045. The ground thus acquired comprised 220
acres. In 1889-90 Parliament Hill Fields and the Brickfields were
purchased for L302,000, with money partly raised by the local Vestries,
partly by public subscription, and partly by Metropolitan taxation. The
land thus bought from Lord Mansfield and Sir Spencer Wilson comprised
261 acres, and was dedicated to the public as an open space for ever.

The part of the Heath known as East Heath consists of rolling grassy
<DW72>s outlined with clumps of trees and intersected by roads and
footpaths. The great road known as Spaniards, which cuts across as
straight as an arrow, gives the impression of having been banked up and
levelled at some previous date, but this appearance is due to the
excavations for sand and gravel at its sides which took place while the
ground was still under the rule of the lord of the manor.

The Heath has suffered from highwaymen in common with most lonely spots
in the vicinity of the Metropolis. One, Jackson, in 1673, was hung
behind Jack Straw's Castle for highway murder, but no other very
notorious crimes are attached to this spot as there are to Hounslow or
Blackheath.

The Heath is not altogether destitute of houses; of those detached,
several have had the origin of what Baines terms "Squatters' right," and
have established their title by process of time. There are also several
hamlets: the Vale of Health, the houses about Jack Straw's Castle, North
End, and the group near the Spaniards.

The curious little cluster of buildings called the Vale of Health,
situated in a basin near to one of the Hampstead ponds, has always
attracted considerable attention. Here Leigh Hunt came to live in 1816;
his house was on the site of the Vale of Health Hotel. Thornbury quotes
an old inhabitant, who writes of Leigh Hunt's cottage as having a
"pretty balcony environed with creepers, and a tall arbor vitae which
almost overtops the roof." There are very few even tolerably old houses
left here; the little streets are of the modern villa order, and the
great square tavern, with its tea-gardens and merry-go-rounds, its
shooting-galleries and penny-in-the-slot machines, has vulgarized the
place. Prince Esterhazy is said to have taken a house in the Vale of
Health in 1840; this has been "long since pulled down." The place is now
dedicated to the sweeping tide of merry-makers which flows over it every
recurring Bank Holiday.

The charming spot called North End still remains rural in appearance:
small cottages with red-tiled roofs and quaint inns survive side by side
with the modern red-brick school-house. The Bull and Bush is said to
have been the country seat of Hogarth, and later, when it became a
tavern, to have been visited by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Sterne,
Foote, and other celebrities. The house is very picturesque: the
projecting wing northward is of rusticated woodwork; the leads of the
bayed-windows are covered with flowers in summer. There are still the
old-fashioned tea-gardens attached.

There are many substantial and comfortable residences about North End,
but the Hampstead boundary does not include them all. Wildwoods, or, as
it used to be called, North End House, is the most important within the
boundary. The original fabric of the house is two centuries old, but has
been altered and repaired largely. The spot is named Wildwood Corner in
Domesday Book. Its chief historical interest lies in its occupation by
William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, who shut himself up here from all
communication with his fellow-Ministers in 1767; he was then a miserable
invalid, afflicted with a disorder which in modern times would have been
termed "nerves"; he refused to see anyone, even his own attendant, and
his food was passed to him through a panel of the door. However, he
afterwards returned to public life. In Wildwood Terrace are the Home of
Rest for the Aged Poor, and a Convalescent Cottage Home. Wilkie Collins
was born at North End. Besides this, the names of Linnell, portrait and
landscape painter, Coventry Patmore, Mrs. Craik, Eliza Meteyard, a minor
author, and Sir Fowell Buxton, are more or less intimately associated
with the little hamlet.

A charming path leads over the broken ground from North End to the
Spaniards. The most