The record-union., 1892-11-26

silent on many benches, leading against
whipping fountains or vases and statues,
restlng as composedly as house owners
on steps and in yestibules, or stumping
graVely along with orders TO this or that
servant, as il long habit had given them
supervisory rights over the daily affairs
OF residents. they irresistibly suggest bev-
les Of croaking cockatoos turned loose in
park and gardens, each one querulously
harplng upon some fancied grievance or
delight
At the western side of the hospital still
stands Sir Robert Walpole's house, al
most precisely as it stood when he all but
ruled England through the two Georges,
FIRST and Second. 1t is now portion of
the hospital infirmary. 1t was to this
old red brick mansion that Walpole's
rival Bolingbroke came to dine and half
choked for his choler; where Swift and
Gay came to get material Tor satire, and
where Pope came with scandal of his past
amours, and, probably, to beg for assist
ance in others.
Not far from the hospital, over in the
northeast corner of Chelsea, is a little
green oval like pretty emerald lozenge,
around which crowd some very ancient
tWO-story brick houses. The windows
are little, the panes are little, the steps,
scrapers and knockers are little, but al
ways bright and clean, and it seems that
49, y AtAtC JOd oCS ell llAC Ill BdilSS Is
little and snappy and old, like all else in
this venerable Hans Place. Al one of
these bits OF habitations, precisely like
all the rest, was born the poetess, l.. e. L.
But two doors away, i'll another box of
house, she went to school. Her school
fellows were the East Indian writer, Miss
Roberts and Lady Caroline Lamb. Years
after here were also educated other famous
women: Lady BuIwer, Miss Milford and
that best and tenderest ofau writers upon
Ireland, Mrs. >. G. hall.
The one time famous Cremorne Gar
dens, at the western edge of Chelsea, has
special interest to Americans. \ grand
daughter of William Penn, named Phil
delphia, from the city OF her birth, be-
came the second wife Of Nisccunt Gre
morne. Outllving her husband she in
herited the beautiful grounds once known
as Chelsea Farm" Granville Penn,
once Lord of the Stoke PogeS Manor
where Gray lived and wrote the "Elegy,"
fell heir to the property and sold it 10 the
CrenOrne Garden corporation. Wicked
enough 1t grew in time. DecorouS ass0-
Citations retrieved it, and all innocent
nursery garden now wells its unhalloWed
site and memories.
At least three ancient taverns in the
nelghDorhood have peculiar old-time in
tereSt. Two, one at the western and the
other at the eastern edge OF the parish, are
directly associated with Nell GWynne
That 10 the west, in which | found .
noble sort of publican, and, oddly enough,
cousin OF that rampant little pugiIist
whose skill OF tongue has never been de-
feated, Charley Mitchell, was built by
Charles IL. is Il home for his favorite. 1t
was from the windows OF this house. now
Il resort Of Chelsea pensioners, that \ elIs
eyes looked III upon the then fine mead
OWS Of King James College in her
~ 1a l..
ace rise with its thousand chambers out
OF which divers many old and worn out
soldier men" came and cried, "GOd bless
King ChaIles!'' which led to the merci-
tul founding of the splendid hospital.
The other associated with the fame of
the pretty orange girl is a scdate old
rookery at the western side Of Chelsea
1t is called the Nell GWynne Tavern"
and many a rare tradition of Charles
companion fingers about the mellow Old
place. Another curious inn still in exist
ence IS the prince OF Wales,' al the cor
ner Of Lawrence street and Justice Walk,
but a squares distance from the old Car
lyle home in Great Cheyne Row. Chel-
sea was once made known through the
artistic world Tor its famous china. For
the forty years after l745 its china works
which stood on the site OF the prince OF
W ales,' turned out a product equal to
that OF SeVres. In the cellars of the inn
yOu can see the remains OF the ovens and
bdN ng-rOOms just as they were aban-
doneu. DR.. samuel Johnson was sud-
denly posse sed of the idea that he could
as easily make china as a dictionary, and
the doughty old scholar. but unskilIed
native workman, for q long time came
here daily to spoil good material, his
faithful housekeeper trudging after him
with huge basket containing his daily
food.
IN Great Cheyne Row Smollett lived,
long before Carlyle came, and here he
wrote "Ferdinand Count Fathom" and
finished Hume's History OF England" :"
while George Elliot died IN house near
Carlyle's in the same modest little thor
oughlare. Chelsea ola Church, one of
the sweetest Old places in London, over
looks the Thames but lew rods distance.
Here you viii lind the black memorial
slab of Sir Thomas More. Lady Dacre
Lady Jane Cheyne and the Duchess OF
Nor,hum Derland, three of Chelseas S for
mer grand laGies, lie beneath monuments
within the church, While Charles George
and Henry Kingsley once lived in its
rectOry with their father, who had re-
CelVed the 'IiYing'' from Lord Cadogan.
In Cheyne " ak along the river side
lived Turner, the painter. Rosetti lived
and sang here among his birds and flow
ers. Leigh Hunts gypsy-iEe home, of
1 zion, was Just around the corner from
Great Cheyne ROW. Queen Elizabeth
used to visit the Earl OF Shrewsbury at
Shrewsbury House just back of Cheyne
, Walk. The poet George Herbert dwelt
in the same neighborhood, and at little
barber-shop, coffee-house and quaint
museum, called Don Saltero's" by the
wits of the time in honor Of its grave no.
body proprietor, one Salt, who "brewed
divine coffee and shaved with equal ter
rOr," Richard Cromwell, Steele ana Ad-
olson and Benjamin Franklin, who
worked in a printing-shop in Batholo-
NEW Close, near by, came to get shaved
and to lolter over their coffee, where the
Hterati then sat i'll council.'
Long and pleasant is ones loiteripp
here. ii you come many days, or but one
an endless host Of wraiths of worthless
start up unbidden in your wanderings
If once, or many times you depart, you
Will ever insenSibly be drawn, at parting
TO the gray old habitatons Of Great
Cheyne Row The windows of all over
look the turbulent river, darxeuing Bat
tersea at its farther shore, and the pleas
ant villages upon the hills of Surrey be-
yond. At a window OF one, it matters
not who lives there now, your fancy can
not but see shaggy, sturdy, haggard
face. Its gray, defiant but sorrowtul ewes
are lifted across the turbulent river, and
rest beyond the hills upon that material
and spiritual Light that somewhere ever
brings the blessed morning time.
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
For the RECoRD-UNIoN.l