New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-05-30
A LONDON NEIGHB0RH00D
Chelsea, It's History and It's
Celebrities.

IN CHEYNE WALK AND THERE
ABOUT. Containing short accounts
of some ingenious people and Famous
places that were by the riverside Al
chelsea. BY Reginald Blunt. Win
illustrations from scarce old photo
graphs ard engraving. crow sNo
pp. Niv. 800. Philadelphia: The j. b.
Lippincott Company
The book begins and ends with Car
lyle. which is quite fitting. If he was
not the greatest Of all the illustrious
company of Chelsea dwellers, we should
certainly be much put to it to name a
greater who was so intimately and, in
deed. inseparably associated with the
place. and who is still SO vitality related
TO human affairs Of to-day. Sir
Thomas More is only a name to the
present age. save to the elect few.
Henry VIII and Elizabeth were never
so essential a part Of the place. and
the same may be said of the Seymours,
Northumberland, Effinghams, Bur-
leighs. Buckinghams and others. Even
Addison, Steele Swift and Smollett
seem TO have had only incidental con-
nection with Chelsea. The great
artists. Turner. Maclise. Rossetti, Hunt
and Whistler, were, it is true. part and
parcel Of Chelsea; but their genius is
for the comparatively few. But the
dyspeptic genius Of "Sartor Resartus'
has entered into the intimate mental
furniture and equipment of three gen.
erations Of the human race; and when
we say Carlyle we think Of Cheyne
Walk, and when we speak of Chelsea
we instinctively think Of Carlyle.
II is not exclusively. nor even con-
spicuously, a Carlyle book, however,
but a sort of Pan-Chelsea work, dis
criminatingly and alphabetically
dealing with all the famous folk Of
that famous village and paying spe-
cial attention rather 10 those who have
received less attention from the an
nalists than they deserve. The story
of Don Saltero's tavern and museum
is, for example, one of the most de-
lightful in the world, at least since
Cervantes, and it has the not incon-
sidera bic interest of being quite true.
Yet how many of the multitudes who
have rightly chuckled and cachinnated
over a. Ward and his moral show, and
over the dear delightful humbugs of
Phineas Taylor Barnum. remember
that amazing exhibition of "Pontius
Pilates wife's chambermaid's sisters
hat?
The name of Mary Astell. too, is lit
tie known, whether as a Chelseaite or
otherwise. We must doubt II mention
for women" convention. Yet it stands
for a patient, pathetic figure and for a
wealth of brave common sense, though
intermixed with eccentricities and i'm
probabilities such as entitle it to high
rank in Chelsea annals. II was well
worth while for the author 10 give a
whole chapter to her; after reading
which there are few who will not ap-
prove his judgment Of her as a pioneer
who braved the obloquy and ridicule
oil an age when both were pitilessly
used in fighting the battles Of her sex.
and devoted the best of her life toward
the emancipation OF her sisters"
Collectors OF china know how to
value old Chelsea ware but who OF
them would not give his most perfect
specimen for one OF the sad failures
which the huge paws of "Ursa Major"
muddled over: or can recall without
infinite delight the spectacle of Samuel
Johnson turning aside from dictionary
making and intellectual dictatorship TO
try TO make eggshell teacups? Then.
too, the famed 'physick garden" OF Sir
Hans Sloane. and the gardener: Dom
iniceti of the Baths" and the contro-
versies which ragged over his thera-
peutic services; James Neild. the
philanthropist and crank, and John