self and hurried to Fuseli, whom he fired up with his enthusiasm. The two went together, and Fuseli strode about, saying, "De Greeks were Godes! De Greeks were Godes!" 26 Lord Elgin, when ambassador at the Porte, in 1800, tried, ineffectually, to obtain the co-operation of Government in his aim to benefit art. He established, however, at his own expense, six moulders and artists at Athens, and finding how the works were being destroyed by the Turks, who pounded up the sculpture for lime to build houses, and by travellers, who chipped off pieces to bring home, he applied to the Porte to allow him to take the figures away. After five years of constant anxieties and disappointments they were conveyed to the Piræus and embarked. In fair weather the pilot ran the ship on a rock and all went down to the bottom. Hamilton, Lord Elgin's secretary, did not despair even now; he hired divers from the coast of Asia Minor, and every case was recovered and brought safely to England. Few visitors to the British Museum who look at the marbles, think of the difficulties that the public-spirited nobleman, to whom we owe them, had to undergo. He was first maligned for disturbing them, and Byron joined in this cry. Then the dilettanti tried to prove that their antiquity and claims to art were not high, and lastly the nation bought them at so small a sum that Lord Elgin lost between 16,000l. and 17,000l. by them. Charles William, third Marquis of Londonderry, Ambassador to Vienna, and half-brother of the celebrated Minister, lived at Holdernesse House in 1836. Dorchester House was named after the Damers, Earls of Dorchester. Francis Charles, Marquis of Hertford, the favourite of George IV., who married Maria Fagniani, died here in 1842. The present elegant mansion, which is one of the chief ornaments of London, was built for R. S. Holford, Esq., by Lewis Vulliamy. The interior is worthy of the exterior and the grand staircase is entirely of marble. In this house is preserved a most superb library of rare and costly books. 26 HAYDON'S Autobiography, vol. i. pp. 85, 86. The garden wall of the Marquis of Westminster, in Upper Grosvenor Street (Grosvenor House), occupies a considerable portion of Park Lane. It was formerly Gloucester House, and inhabited by the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III. Among other celebrities who have lived in Park Lane are Warren Hastings in 1790-1797, and a succeeding Governor of India, the Earl of Mornington, who was created Marquis of Wellesley in 1796; Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was married in her drawing-room to the Prince of Wales on December 21st, 1785; the Hon. Mrs. Damer, during the winter months, from 1818 to her death in 1828. Lord Lytton lived at No. I about the time of the publication of his Zanoni. Richard Sharp, the conversationalist, lived at No. 23, from 1822 to 1834. Mackintosh termed him the best critic he knew, and Byron always bore testimony to his ability. He made a fortune in commercial pursuits, and died worth 250,000l. Hamilton Place was built in 1805, by Adams, on the site of Hamilton Street, which was called after James Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park in the reign of Charles II., and brother of 'la belle' Hamilton. The old street consisted of twenty small houses and two or three larger ones, which were all pulled down to make room for the present Place. The following is a list of some of the various inhabitants of the handsome houses in this impasse : No. 1. Lord Montgomery lived here in 1810, but Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house and lived in it till his death in 1838. It still remains the town mansion of the present Earl of Eldon. No. 2. John, sixth Duke of Bedford, K.G., was the first inhabitant of this house; he left in 1819, and was succeeded by Earl Gower, afterwards first Marquis of Stafford, and first Duke of Sutherland. His widow, the Duchess and Countess of Sutherland, still lived here in 1836. The Right Hon. Thomas Grenville was here from 1840 to 1846, and the Duke of Argyll from 1847 to 1850. No. 3. Edmund Boyle, Eighth Earl of Cork and Orrery, occupied this house from 1810 to 1850, but Lord Foley lived here in 1822. The present inhabitant is the Earl of Dalkeith. No. 4. The Earl Lucan was here in 1810 and the Duke of Wellington in 1814. On the 1st of July a deputation of the House of Commons waited on the Duke with an address of thanks. He afterwards went to the House to return his thanks in person, and on his appearance all the members rose and received him with cheers. Lord Grenville lived here in 1822, Messrs. P. C. and Henry Labouchere in 1823-29, and Henry Bevan, the banker, from 1840 to 1848. No. 5. The Earl of Buckinghamshire lived here from 1810 to 1829, after which it became, and still remains, the town house of the Marquises of Conyngham. No. 6. The Right Hon. John Sullivan occupied this house in 1810, and was succeeded by the Earl of Belmore. Lord Montague was here in 1829, the Earl of Home in 1843, Lord Southampton in 1847, and W. A. J. Munro, who possessed a fine collection of pictures, in 1848. The present inhabitant is the Hon. Butler Johnston Munro. No. 7. Richard Boyle, Earl of Shannon, lived here from 1810 to 1822, and was succeeded by Philip John Miles, who possessed a fine collection of pictures of the Italian School. William Miles, M.P., was here from 1840 to 1850. When Hamilton Place was first laid out, the leases from the Crown were taken on the understanding that it should never be made a thoroughfare, but owing to the want of a better entry into Park Lane it has been proposed to open up this place and carry the road through the gardens at the end. An Act of Parliament has been passed to carry this scheme into execution, and, at the same time, it is proposed to pull down the houses on the east side in order to make the road the requisite width. CHAPTER IX. HYDE PARK. HAVING now walked to the end of Piccadilly, we arrive at Hyde Park Corner. This is the great western approach to London, and the Frenchman who directed his letter to the Duke of Wellington at Apsley House to "No. 1, London," hit off very happily its chief characteristic. London, however, is increasing so rapidly, and in its increase is swallowing up with such immense appetite, but so little digestion, all the suburbs, that it is difficult now to say where it begins and where it ends. The "Corner" has long been a celebrated place. It was here that Sir Thomas Wyatt planted his ordnance when he made his unsuccessful attempt upon London in 1554; and in the following century, when the citizens of London were resisting their king with all the power they possessed, and when even women, "From ladies down to oyster wenches,"1 assisted in the erection of ramparts round the metropolis, a fort with four bastions was thrown up at Hyde Park Corner, in order to oppose the threatened approach of the Royal army in 1642. The turnpike, which originally stood at the end of Berkeley Street, was removed in 1721 to Hyde Park Corner, and here it remained till October, 1825, when it was sold and cleared away.2 1 Hudibras, part ii. canto 2. 2 In HONE'S Every Day Book there is a woodcut of the condemned toll-gate as it appeared when sold by auction. The present entrance to Hyde Park, which consists of a triple archway combined with a fluted Ionic screen designed by Decimus Burton, was completed in 1828: the frieze is by Archibald Henning, and the gates by Messrs. Bramah. The triumphal arch opposite was built about the same time, and is an adaptation of the Arch of Titus at Rome. It was originally intended as a private entrance to Buckingham Palace, and in contemporary engravings is called the entrance or lodge to the King's Palace; and in the Penny Magazine for 1832 "George IV.'s gate;" but the road from Constitution Hill was subsequently turned to allow of public access. "This is the entrance, the triumphal arch Which, 'tis said, will be probably finish'd in March, 3 It is now better known as the Wellington Arch, from the colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, which was erected on its summit in the year 1846. The old soldier was pleased to see from the window of his house this monument of the estimation in which he was held by his country, but all the art critics were opposed to its being placed in so inappropriate a position. As, however, the huge mass has been raised to so great a height, it is likely to remain there for many years to come. A little time before the completion of the statue, and while it was still at the artist's studio, the body of the horse was fitted up as a refectory, and twelve gentlemen sat down within it, and drank to the health of Mr. Wyatt in what must have been a rather uncomfortable position." In the last century Sir John Soane made a design for an entrance into Hyde Park from Piccadilly, the cost of which was estimated at 10,000l. It was approved by George III. and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796, but its erection was 3 The Palace that N [as]h Built, by I. HUME. 12mo. London (1829 ?). • RICHARDSON'S Recollections of the Last Half Century, 1856, vol. ii. p. 209. |