Kilburn.]

THE PRIORY.

243

CHAPTER XIX.

KILBURN AND ST. JOHN'S WOOD.

"Shall you prolong the midnight ball
With costly supper at Vaux Hall,

And yet prohibit earlier suppers

At Kilburn, Sadler's Wells, or Kuper's?
Are these less innocent in fact,

Or only made so by the act?"

Rural Aspect of Kilburn in Former Times-Maida Vale-Derivation of the Name of Kilburn-The Old Road to Kilburn-Godwin, the Hermit of Kilburn-The Priory-Extracts from the Inventory of the Priory-The Sisterhood of St. Peter's-St. Augustine's Church-Kilburn Wells and Tea-gardens-The "Bell" Tavern-A Legend of Kilburn-The Roman Catholic Chapel-George Brummell's liking for Plum Cake-Oliver Goldsmith's Suburban Quarters-Lausanne Cottage-St. John's Wood-Babington the Conspirator-Sir Edwin Landseer-Thomas Landseer -George Osbaldiston and other Residents in St. John's Wood-Lord's Cricket Ground-The "Eyre Arms" Tavern-Charitable Institutions -Roman Catholic Chapel of Our Lady-St. Mark's Church-St. John's Wood Chapel and Burial-ground-Richard Brothers and Joanna Southcott.

The road to Kilburn in the days of the Regency, writes the Rev. J. Richardson in his "Recollections," was "such a road as now is to be seen only twenty miles out of town." Any one going a mile northward from the end of Oxford Street, found himself among fields, farm-houses, and such-like rural scenes.

SUCH has been the growth of London in this Like Tybourne and Mary-le-Bourne, so Kilbourne north-westerly direction, within the last half-century, also took its name from the little "bourne," or as we have shown in our chapter on Paddington, brook, of which we have already spoken as rising and such the progress of bricks and mortar in on the southern slope of the Hampstead uplands. swallowing up all that was once green and sylvan It found its way from the slope of West End, in this quiet suburb of the metropolis, that the Hampstead, towards Bayswater, and thence passing "village of Kilburn," which within the last fifty under the Uxbridge Road, fed the Serpentine in years was still famous for its tea-gardens and its Hyde Park. The brook, however, has long since | mineral spring, has almost become completely disappeared from view, having been arched over, absorbed into that vast and "still increasing' and made to do duty as a sewer. City, and in a very short space of time all its old landmarks will have been swept away. Kilburn, or Kilbourne, as the name was sometimes written, is said to be "a hamlet in the parish of Hampstead, and Holborn division of the hundred of Ossulston." This, however, is not quite correct, as only one side of the hamlet is in the parish of Hampstead, the remaining part (or that to the south-west of the Edgware Road) lying in the parish of Willesden. In old books on the suburbs, the place is spoken of as being "about two miles from London, on the road to Edgware." Time was, probably in the reign of "bluff King Hal," when the little rural village numbered only some twenty or so of houses, all nestling round a small chapel and priory, the memory of which is still kept up in "Abbey Road" and "Priory Road." Now, however, the block of houses known collectively as Kilburn has invaded no less than four parishes-Hampstead and Willesden, to which, as we have shown, it legitimately belongs, and also Marylebone and Paddington. The district, including the locality now known as St. John's Wood, lies mainly on the north side of the Harrow Road, and stretches away from Kensal Green to Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, and may be said to be divided into two parts by the broad thoroughfare of Maida Vale, as that part of the Edgware Road is called which passes through it. Maida Vale, we may add, is so called after the famous battle of Maida, which was fought in 1806.

It would seem that the land here, as part of "Padyngton," appertained to the manor of Knightsbridge, which, as we have seen, in its turn was subject to the Abbey at Westminster. We read, therefore, that it was not without the consent of the "chapter and council" that one Godwin, or Goodwyne, a hermit at Kilburn, gave his hermitage to three nuns-"the holy virgins of St. John the Baptist, at Kilburn, to pray for the repose of King Edward, the founder of the Abbey, and for the souls of all their brethren and benefactors." On this occasion the Abbot of Westminster not only confirmed the grant, but augmented it with lands at "Cnightbriga," or "Knyghtsbrigg" (Knightsbridge), and a rent of thirty shillings. The exact spot on which the priory stood is now known only by tradition. Lambert, in his "History and Survey of London and its Environs," in 1805, remarks:"There are now no remains of this building; but the site of it is very distinguishable in the Abbey Field, near the tea-drinking house called Kilburn Wells." This, it would appear, must have been as nearly as possible at the top of what is now St. George's Terrace, close to the station of

the London and North-Western Railway, on its northern side; for when the railway was widened, about the year 1850, the labourers came here upon its foundations, and discovered, not only coins, but tessellated tiles, several curious keys of a Gothic pattern, and the clapper of a bell, together with human bones, denoting the presence of a small cemetery.

This priory was the successor of the hermitage founded here by Godwin. The spot which he chose for his hermitage or cell was on the banks of the little "bourne" already mentioned, and it came to be called indifferently Keeleburne, or Coldburne, or Caleburn, in an age when few could spell or read, and fewer still could write. To this little cell might perhaps have been applied the lines of Spenser's "Faery Queen :"

"A little lowly hermitage it was,

Down in a dale, hard by a forest side; Far from resort of people, that did pass In traveill to and froe; a little wyde There was an holy chappell edifyde; Wherein the hermit dewly wont to say

compromise, under which the abbot "presented the warden, and the bishop "admitted" him to his office.

But little is known of the history of the convent from this time to the dissolution of religious houses under Henry VIII., except that, during the reign of Edward III., the good nuns were specially exempted from the payment of taxes to the Crown, on account of the dilapidated state of their little house, and of the necessity under which they lay of relieving the wants of many poor wayfarers, and especially of pilgrims bound for St. Alban's shrine. As soon as the fiat of "bluff King Hal" had gone forth for the dissolution of all the lesser religious houses in 1536, we find that the "Nonnerie of Kilnborne" was surrendered to the commissioners, when, doubtless, its gentle sisters were thrown out upon the world to beg their bread, instead of doling it out to the poor and suffering. At that time the priory was returned as of the value of £74 75. 11d., and it passed into the hands of the rapacious king, who exchanged its lands with the Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, at Clerkenwell, for his manor of Paris Garden, which lay across the Thames, in Southwark.

His holy things, each morne and eventyde; Thereby a christall streame did gently play, Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth alway." Godwin, in course of time, it appears, gave over But ten years later, the greater monasteries and granted his hermitage and the adjoining fields shared the fate of the lesser houses, and along with to the abbot and monks of Westminster, "as an the Priory of St. John, that of Kilburn was transalms for the redemption of the entire convent of ferred to the hands of a favoured courtier, the Earl the brethren," under the same terms and conditions of Warwick. From his family the estate passed, as those under which one of the Saxon kings had through an intermediate owner, to the Earl of long before granted the manor of "Hamstede" to Devonshire, and in the early part of the present the same church. The little cell at Kilburn, how-century to one of the Howards; from them it ever, was destined to undergo another transfer in the lifetime of Godwin, and, indeed, at his request; for we next read that, with the consent of Gilbert, the then Bishop of London, the brethren of St. Peter's, at Westminster, made it over to a sisterhood of three nuns, named Christina, Gunilde, and Emma, all of them, as the story goes, ex-maids of honour to Queen Matilda, or Maud, consort of Henry I. The hermitage, therefore, was changed into a convent of the order of St. Benedict, Godwin himself undertaking the performance of the duties of chaplain and warden.

Soon after the death of Godwin a dispute arose between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London as to the spiritual jurisdiction over the convent; the difference, however, was at length adjusted in favour of the former, on consideration that from its foundation the "Cell of Keleburn" belonged to their church. Notwithstanding that the dispute was so adjusted, the litigation was subsequently revived by Bishop Roger Nigel, and continued by his successor, who at last agreed to a

came to the Uptons, its present owners, by one of whom the Church of St. Mary, at Kilburn, has been erected on a site adjoining the ancient chapel. It is said that the Abbey Farm comprised about forty-five acres, including the land covered by the priory out-buildings.

In Park's "History of Hampstead" there is a view of the old priory, which never could have been one of very imposing appearance. The edifice, it may be added, was dedicated jointly to "The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist," the latter of whom is depicted on the conventual seal as clothed in his garment of camels' hair.

From an "inventory" taken on the 11th day of May, in the year of the surrender of the house to the king, it appears that the buildings of the priory consisted of "the hall, the chamber next the church, the middle chamber between that and the prioress's chamber, the prioress's chamber, the buttery, pantry, and cellar, inner chamber to the prioress's chamber, the chamber between the latter

The house with grounds contiguous to the well famous Abbey of Kilburn, on the Edgware Road, was formerly a place of amusement, and would appear to have borne a tolerably good character for respectability, if we may judge from the "Dialogue between a Master and his Servant," by Richard Owen Cambridge, in imitation of Horace, and published in 1752, which we quote as a motto to this chapter.

at an easy distance, being but a morning's walk, from the metropolis, two miles from Oxford Street; the footway from the Mary-bone across the fields still nearer. A plentiful larder is always provided, together with the best of wines and other liquors. Breakfasting and hot loaves. A printed account of the waters, as drawn up by an eminent physician, The following prospectus of the "Wells," now is given gratis at the Wells."

superseded by the "Bell" Tavern, taken from the Public Advertiser of July 17th, 1773, we here give in extenso:

"KILBURN WELLS, NEAR PADDINGTON.-The waters are now in the utmost perfection; the gardens enlarged and greatly improved; the house and offices re-painted and beautified in the most elegant manner. The whole is now open for the reception of the public, the great room being particularly adapted to the use and amusement of the politest companies. Fit either for music, dancing, or entertainments. This happy spot is equally celebrated for its rural situation, extensive prospects, and the acknowledged efficacy of its waters; is most delightfully situated on the site of the once

The "Bell" Tavern, we may add, dates from about the year 1600. The following "Legend of Kilburn" we condense from Mr. John Timbs' "Romance of London :"-" There is a curious traditionary relation connected with Kilburn Priory, which, however, is not traceable to any authentic source. The legend states that, at a place called St. John's Wood, near Kilburn, there was a stone of a dark red colour, showing the stain of the blood of Sir Gervaise de Morton, or de Mortoune, which flowed upon it some centuries ago. The story runs that Stephen de Morton, being enamoured of his brother's wife, frequently insulted her by the open avowal of his passion, which at length she threatened to make known