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oldest charitable building in the parish; it was a block of small almshouses, said to have been built in 1714. It afforded shelter for sixteen poor old women belonging to the parish, who were supported there out of the poor-rates. The inmates, doubtless, felt themselves more "at home" here than they would do if compelled to take up their quarters in the great parish poor-house, which is situated on a portion of the land once known as "The Upper Readings," purchased by the Bishop of London and the trustees of the Paddington estate, immediately to the west of the Lock Hospital. In the end, however, the almshouses were swept away in the course of parochial improvements.

Running westward through the parish, almost in a line with the Harrow Road, is the Paddington and Grand Junction Canal. The success of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal between Liverpool and Manchester led to the passing of an Act of Parliament, in 1795, for the formation of the Paddington Canal, which was opened for traffic on the 1st of June, 1801, when the first barge arrived, with passengers from Uxbridge, at the Paddington basin. There were public rejoicings, and all the northwestern suburb was en fête in honour of the occasion. Bells were rung, flags were hung out, and cannon were fired; and one enthusiastic Paddingtonian had good reason to remember the day, for the gun which he was firing burst and shattered his arm. But the Grand Junction Canal Company were so elated at the thought of the public benefit which they had bestowed on the country, that they took a classical motto from Horace :

46

:

'Æquè pauperibus prodest, locupletibus æquè."

In 1853, Mr. Robins, in his work above referred to, writes:-"The glory of the first public company which shed its influence over Paddington has, in a great measure, departed; the shares of the Grand Junction Canal Company are below par, though the traffic on this silent highway to Paddington is still considerable; and the cheap trips into the country offered by its means during the summer months are beginning to be highly appreciated by the people, who are pent in close lanes and alleys; and I have no doubt the shareholders' dividends would not be diminished by a more liberal attention to this want. If every one had their right," continues the writer, "I am told there would be a wharf adjoining this canal, open free of cost to the people of Paddington for loading and unloading goods. It is certain that the old road to Harrow was never leased to the Grand Junction Canal Company; but a wharf, upwards of one hundred feet wide, now exists in a portion of that road;

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and, as I am informed, the rent of this wharf is not received by the parish." At its first opening, passenger boats went about five times a week from Paddington to Uxbridge; and the wharves at Paddington presented for some years a most animated and busy appearance, on account of the quantity of goods warehoused there for transit to and from the metropolis, causing the growth of an industrious population around them. But this was only a brief gleam of prosperity, for when the Regent's Canal was opened, the goods were conveyed by barges straight to the north and eastern suburbs, and the wharfage-ground at Paddington suffered a great deterioration in consequence.

In 1812 the Regent's Canal was commenced. This undertaking, which was completed and opened in 1820, begins at Paddington, and passing under the Edgware Road, Maida Hill, and St. John's Wood, by a tunnel 372 yards in length, opens into a basin near the "Jew's Harp;" thence the canal passes on to Camden Town and Islington, and then by a tunnel into the City Road, by Kingsland and Hackney, and so on to Stepney Fields and Limehouse, where it joins the Thames. In its course through London there are no less than twelve locks and about forty bridges. "On the banks of the canal," says Mr. John Timbs, "the immense heaps of dust and ashes, once towering above the house-tops, are said to have been worth £10,000 a heap."

At the western extremity of the parish an artesian well was formed, to which the name of "The Western Water-works" was given. The water from this well supplied the houses which were built on that clayey district; the West Middlesex and Grand Junction Water-works Companies supplying the other parts of this parish.

In 1824 gas was first introduced into the parish, on the establishment of the Imperial Gas Company. Up to this time, during the long winter evenings, the muddy roads which led to the cottages on the Paddington estate were in total darkness, unless the "parish lantern" chanced to offer its acceptable light. The parish surveyors, in a report to the vestry on the state of these cottages, in 1816, say

"We cannot refrain from thus recording our expression of regret that the ground-landlords should be so inordinate in their demands; the effect of which is, the buildings are ill-calculated to afford shelter from the inclemency of the weather, and the want of drainage and consequent damp produce disease, filth, and wretchedness." The cottages here referred to, which were for many years so prominent a feature in the parish, and so much sought after by the poor, as a sort of "country

retreat," were, at the beginning of this century, the generators of "disease, filth, and wretchedness."

As a proof of the poverty-stricken character of the inhabitants of Paddington, it may be stated that a wretched hovel here was, in 1813, the scene of the death of a well-known beggar at the West End, and that upwards of £200 was found hoarded up in his chests—a sum which was claimed by a female partner of his trade. Among his effects was a paper in which were recorded the various profits which he had made in different parts of London by begging—a most interesting and curious document, and one well worthy of the attention of the Society for the Suppression of Mendicity.

"The transition state from an agricultural village to the fashionable Tyburnia," writes Mr. Robins, "was no very agreeable time for the majority of those who lived in Paddington. When the cottages were swept away, and the heavy poor-rates which they had entailed were diminished, new burdens sprang up, scarcely less grievous. Rents became enormous; the Highway, Watching, and Lighting Rates were excessive; and these were rendered more oppressive, on account of those who received the greatest benefit from the causes which necessitated the greater expenditure not bearing their just share of this local taxation."

On the north-west side of the parish is Kensal New Town, with its appendage of Kensal Green. In his work already quoted, Mr. Robins writes:"Kensell, or Kensale, comes, as I take it, from King's-field. In the Harleian MS. (No. 606, f. 46 b.), the Green of this name is called Kellsell, and Kingefelde. In Mary's reign, we perceive by this document also that 'the Green Lane,' and 'Kingefelde Green,' were the same place. And as 'the Green Lanes' still exist-in name-we may ascertain with something like accuracy the situation of this field, or green, which formerly belonged to the king." Here is the best known of the London cemeteries. It occupies a considerable space of ground between the Grand Junction Canal and the North-Western Railway, and has its entrance lodge and gateway in the Harrow Road. The necessity of providing cemeteries out of town, though not as yet enforced by Parliament, was felt so keenly, that a company was formed in 1832, and fifty-six acres of ground at Kensal Green-then two miles distant from the metropolis—were purchased, laid out, and planted. And no sooner was the cemetery opened than the boon was eagerly embraced by the public, and marble obelisks and urns began to rise among the cypresses in all the variety which heathen and classical allusions could suggest. In the course of the next five years other cemetery companies were

formed at Highgate, Norwood, Nunhead, &c., and now we have in the suburbs of London some ten or twelve humble rivals of the Père la Chaise of Paris. The Bishop of London, however, opposed in Parliament the Bill for the formation of these new cemeteries; and one of his archdeacons, a City rector, wrote a pamphlet or a charge to prove that City churchyards were rather healthy than otherwise! After overcoming all sorts of difficulties, the cemetery here was laid out on the principle of Père la Chaise. The principal entrance is a noble erection of the Doric order, one wing of which forms the office, and the other the residence of the superintendent. Against the northern boundary wall, and parallel with the Episcopal Chapel, is a small colonnade, and beneath this are the old or original catacombs. Every space in these vaults has been long since occupied, but the same care, it may be remarked, is nevertheless observable, on the part of the company, to preserve them in that orderly condition which is observable in the more recent interments. The extensive colonnades and chambers for the erection of tablets to the memory of persons whose remains are resting in the catacombs below, are spots where the visitor to the cemetery may find an almost endless number of subjects for meditation. The names of statesmen, soldiers, poets, and philosophers, are inscribed side by side on the sculptured slabs which adorn the walls. In a notice of it, printed in 1839, Kensal Green Cemetery is described as "a flourishing concern; the original £25 shares being already at £52." Here are buried the Duke of Sussex, Sydney Smith, Sir W. Beatty (Nelson's surgeon), Sir Anthony Carlisle, Dr. Valpy, Anne Scott and Sophia Lockhart, daughter of Sir Walter Scott and John Hugh Lockhart, his grandson, the "Hugh Little-John" of the "Tales of a Grandfather;" Thomas Hood, Liston, Ducrow, Madame Vestris ; Calcott, Daniell, and Mulready, the painters ; William C. Macready, Allan Cunningham, J. C. Loudon, William Makepeace Thackeray, Shirley Brooks, John Leech, the well-known comic artist; John Cassell, and many other men of mark; indeed, Kensal Green may now be called the "God's Acre" of London celebrities, a character, however, which it divides to some extent with Norwood, Highgate, and Nunhead Cemeteries. The Princess Sophia also is buried here. Why his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex chose this spot for his last resting-place is told by Mr. Mark Boyd, in his "Social Sketches :"-" At the funeral of William IV. there was so much of delay and confusion, and so many questions of etiquette and precedence broke out, that the duke

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remarked to a friend, 'This is intolerable. Now, recollect what I say to you. If I should die before I return to Kensington, see I am not buried at Windsor; as I would not be buried there after this fashion for all the world."" It was at first proposed that Thackeray should be buried in the Temple Church, where lie the ashes of Goldsmith, whom he so tenderly censured in his "Lectures on the Humorists;" but after consultation with his relatives, it was deemed better that he should be laid to rest with his own family at Kensal Green. Accordingly, on December 30th, 1863, a bright, balmy day, almost like spring, Thackeray was here consigned to his last rest, being followed to the grave by his friends Dickens, A. Trollope, Mark Lemon, Theodore Martin, G. H. Lewes, Robert Bell, Millais, Robert Browning, George Cruickshank, John Leech, and Shirley Brooks.

Leigh Hunt, too, lies buried here. His grave was for years without a stone, or any other distinguishing mark, until, through the advocacy of Mr. Sanuel Carter Hall, in the columns of the Art Journal, a subscription was set on foot, and in 1874-75 a monument was erected to the poet's memory. We may mention also the names of George Dyer, the historian of Cambridge; Thomas Barnes, the "Thunderer" of the Times; Dr. Birkbeck, the founder of Mechanics' Institutions; John Murray, the publisher; and the famous George Robins, the auctioneer, of whom we have already spoken in our account of Covent Garden. The following lines, though of a mockheroic character, which have been handed down respecting him, serve to show that he was regarded in his day as a typical personage :

"High in a hall, by curious listeners fill'd,

Sat one whose soul seem'd steeped in poësy;
So bland his diction, it was plain he will'd
His hearers all should prize as high as he
The gorgeous works of art there plac'd around.
The statues by the Phidian chisel wrought :
Endymion, whom Dian lov'd distraught;
Dian herself, Laocöon serpent-bound;
The pictures touch'd by Titian and Vandyke,
With rainbow pencils, in the which did vie
Fair form and colour for the mastery;
Warm'd his discourse till ear ne'er heard the like.
'Who is that eloquent man?' I asked one near.
'That, sir? that's Mr. Robins, auctioneer.'"

Besides those whose names we have mentioned, there are also buried here the Right Hon. Joseph Planta, Sir George Murray, Sir Edward Hyde East, Sir John Sinclair, Chief Justice Tindal, the Marquis of Thomond, the Bishops of St. David's (Dr. Jenkinson) and Quebec (Dr. Stewart), and a very large number of the aristocracy.

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The practice of burying the dead in cities is of necessity injurious to the public health; and it is strange that, in a city like London, where no expense has been spared in promoting sanitary measures, it should so long have been permitted and tolerated. It was a custom of very early antiquity to attach burying-grounds to Christian churches, though both the Jews of old and the heathen Romans buried their dead in caves and tombs by the road-side, as shown by the constant inscription of "Siste Viator," instead of "Sacred to the Memory of." But when streets and whole towns grew up around these consecrated spots, the public convenience and decency could not fail to suggest the expediency of having the depositories of the dead at a distance from the dwellings of the living. Accordingly, most Continental cities have their cemeteries in the suburbs; but the servile adherence of our people to ancient customs, even when shown to be bad, kept up this loathsome practice in the midst of our dense population until some twenty years after the accession of Queen Victoria, when many of the City churches, and some at the West End also, were little better than charnel-houses; and their dead increased in numbers so rapidly that one sexton started the question whether he might not refuse to admit an iron coffin into a church or churchyard, because in that case the deceased took a fee-simple in the ground, which ought to be granted him only for a term of years! It is perhaps a matter of complaint that it has never entered into the contemplation of the Legislature, or even of an individual, to form a general and extensive cemetery in the suburbs of the metropolis.

Although perhaps not actually within the limits of Paddington, we may add that a plot of ground on the west side of the cemetery, nearer Willesden, was, about the year 1860, secured by the Roman Catholics of London as a place of burial. Among the earliest who were interred here was Cardinal Wiseman, who, as we have already stated,* died at his residence in York Place, Baker Street, in February, 1865. The body of the cardinal was. taken first to the chapel of St. Mary, Moorfields, where part of the service was celebrated, after which the funeral cortège, of considerable length and imposing appearance, passed on its way hither, through the streets of London.

Beyond the cemetery there is but little of interest to note in this part of Paddington. An old tavern once stood here, called "The Plough," of which Faulkner, in 1820, says :-" It has been

• See Vol. IV. p. 422.