The Etymology and Early History of Hampstead "Hot Gospellers "-The Hollow Tree-An Inland Watering-place-Caen Wood TowersDufferin Lodge-Origin of the Name of Caen (or Ken) Wood-Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy Men-Caen Wood House and Grounds -Lord Mansfield -The House saved from a Riotous Attack by a Clever Ruse-Visit of William IV.-Highgate and Hampstead Ponds-The Fleet River-Bishop's Wood-The "Spaniards"-New Georgia-Erskine House-The Great Lord Erskine-Heath House-The FirsNorth End-Lord Chatham's Gloomy Retirement-Wildwood House-Jackson, the Highwayman-Akenside-William Blake, the Artist and Poet-Coventry Patmore-Miss Meteyard-Sir T. Fowell Buxton-The "Bull and Bush." IN commencing this chapter we may observe that there are two ways by which the pedestrian can reach Hampstead from Highgate--namely, by the road branching off at the "Gate House" and running along the brow of the hill past the Spaniards," and so on to the Heath; and also by the pleasant footpath which skirts the grounds of Caen Wood on its southern side. This pathway branches off from Millfield Lane, nearly opposite the grounds of Lady Burdett-Coutts, and passing by the well-known Highgate Ponds, winds its course over the gently undulating meadows and uplands which extend westward to the slope of the hill leading up to Hampstead Heath; the pathway itself terminating close by the ponds of Hamp stead, of which, together with the charming spot close by, called the Vale of Health, we shall have more to say presently. For our part, we shall take the first-named route; but before setting out on our perambulation, it will be well, perhaps, to say a few words about Hampstead in general. Starting, then, with the name, we may observe that the etymology of Hampstead is evidently derived from the Saxon "ham" or home, and "stede" or place. The modern form of the word "homestead" is still in common use for the family residence, or more generally for a farmhouse, surrounded by barns and other out-buildings. "Homestead," too, according to the ingenious Mr. Lysons, is the true etymology of the name. "Hame" is the well-known Scotch form for "home;" and the king to Sir Thomas Wroth, Knt., from whose family syllable "ham" is preserved in "hamlet," and, they passed, about seventy years later, by purchase, as a termination, in innumerable names of places to Sir Baptist Hickes, afterwards Viscount Campden, in this country. West Ham, Birming-ham, Old- whose descendant Baptist, third Earl of Gainsham, and many others immediately suggest them- borough, alienated them to Sir W. Langhorne, selves; and we can easily reckon a dozen Hamp- Bart., in 1707. They passed from the Langhornes tons, in which the first syllable has a similar origin by descent through the hands of three females, to to that of Hampstead; while, under the modern the family of the present patron, Sir Spencer German form, heim, we meet with it in Blenheim, Maryon-Wilson, Bart., of Charlton House, Kent. There are two Hampsteads in Berkshire, besides At the time of the dissolution, Hampstead, it Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. The name, appears, was a very small village, inhabited chiefly then, of the solitary Saxon farm was applied in the by washerwomen, and for the next 150 years its course of years to the village or town which history is almost a blank. In the Puritan times gradually surrounded it and at length took its the "Hot Gospellers," as they were nicknamed, place. Who the hardy Saxon was who first made often preached under the shade of an enormous a clearing in this elevated part of the thick Middle- elm, which was certainly a great curiosity, its sex forest, we know not; but we have record that trunk having been occupied by some virtuoso this wood afforded pannage or pasturage for a unrecorded in local history, who constructed a hundred head of swine, which fed on the chestnuts, winding staircase of forty-two steps within the beech-nuts, and acorns. In 986 King Ethelred hollow, and built an octagonal tower on the granted the manor of Hamstede to the Abbot of summit, thirty-four feet in circumference, and Westminster; and this grant was confirmed by capable of holding twenty persons. The height Edward the Confessor, with additional privileges. from the ground to the base of the turret was We are told by Mr. Park, in his "History of thirty-three feet, and there were sixteen side lights. Hampstead," that in early times it was a little There is a curious etching, by Hollar, of this chapelry, dependent on the mother church of "Hollow Tree at Hampstead." The exact locality Hendon, which was itself an incumbency in the of this tree is a matter of doubt. The copy of gift of the abbot and monks of the convent of St. the etching in the royal collection at Windsor Peter in Westminster. To this day the Dean and forms part of a "broadside" at the foot of which Chapter of Westminster own a considerable quan- is printed "To be given or sold on the hollow tity of land in the parish, whence they draw a tree at Hampstead." One Robert Codrington, considerable income, owing to the increased and a poetical student, and afterwards a Puritan, inincreasing value of property. Before the Reforma-spired by the tree, wrote an elaborate poem, in tion, it is clear that the Rector of Hendon was which he says, himself responsible for the cost of the keep of "a separate capellane," or chaplain to serve "the chapell of the Blessed Virgin at Hamsted;" this, however, was not a very heavy cost, for the stipend of an assistant curate at that day was only from six to eight marks a year; and in the reign of Edward VI., the curacy of Hampstead itself, as we learn casually from a Chancery roll, was valued at £10 per annum. It is not at all clear when the benefice of Hampstead was separated from that of Hendon, but the ties of the one must have been separated from those of the other before the year 1598, when the churchwardens of Hampstead were for the first time summoned to the Bishop of London's visitation, a fact which looks like the commencement of a parochial settlement. It is probable that the correct date is 1560, as the register of baptisms, marriages, and burials commences in that year. In the reign of Edward VI. the manor and advowson of Hampstead were granted by the young "In less room, I find, With all his trusty knights, King Arthur dined." Hampstead is now nearly joined to London by rows of villas and terraces; but within the memory of the present generation it was separated from town by a broad belt of pleasant fields. Eighty or a hundred years ago it was a rural village, adorned with many fine mansions, whither retired, in search of health or recreation, some of the most eminent men of the age. The beauty of its fields is celebrated by the author of "Suburban Sonnets" in Hone's "Table Book: " "Hampstead, I doubly venerate thy name," for it seems it was here that the writer first became imbued with the feeling of love and with the spirit of poetry. It is the fashion to undervalue the suburbs of London; and several clever writers, proud of their mountains and their lakes, have a smile of contempt ready for us when we talk of our "upland hamlets," Hampstead.] THE FIFTH MONARCHY MEN. our fertile valleys, and our broad river. The fact is that the suburbs of London are beautiful as compared with the suburbs of other great cities. But so long as the breezy heath, and its smooth velvet turf, sloping away to the north and east, remain unbuilt upon, Hampstead will never cease to be the favourite haunt and home of poets, painters, and artists, which it has been for the last century or There still attaches to the older part of the town a certain stately air of dignified respectability, in the red-brick spacious mansions; and the parish church, though really not old as churches count age, with its spacious churchyard, bears record of many whose names are familiar to us all. more. Hampstead, it has been observed, is in every respect a watering-place-except in there being no sea there. With that important drawback, it possesses all the necessary attributes: it has its donkeys, its bath-chairs, its fashionable esplanade, its sand and sandpits, its chalybeate spring, its "eligible" houses "to be let furnished," its more humble "apartments," its "Vale of Health," where “parties" can be supplied with "hot water for tea," at various prices, from twopence to fourpence per head; its fancy stationers' shop, with the proper supply of dolls, novels, and illustrated note paper; its old church and its new church; its chapel of ease; its flagstaff-ready to "dip" its colours to steamers, which, from the nature of the case, can never appear in the offing; its photographic pavilion, with portraits "in this style" (a style which would effectually prevent any sensible person from entering the place of execution); its country walks and rides; its residents, so exclusive; its troops of visitors; its boys, fishing for tadpoles with crooked pins in the (freshwater) ponds; its tribes of healthy children with their nurses and nursemaids ;—in fact, it has all that can make the heart glad, and place Hampstead on the list of seabathing places, with the trifling omission mentioned above. 441 Edward Brooke, the patentee of the magenta and other dyes. The building occupies part of the site of Dufferin Lodge, formerly the seat of Lord Dufferin, which was pulled down in 1869. The present house, which was completed in 1872, from the designs of Messrs. Salomons and Jones, is built of red brick with stone dressings; and with its bay windows, gables, and massive towers, stands out prominently amid the surrounding trees. Pursuing our course along the Hampstead road, we reach the principal entrance to the estate of Caen (or Ken) Wood, the seat of the Earl of Mansfield. Though generally regarded as part and parcel of Hampstead, the estate lies just within the boundary of the parish of St. Pancras, and was part of the manor of Cantelows. It is said by antiquaries to form a part of the remains of the ancient forest of Middlesex. Lysons is of opinion that the wood and the neighbouring hamlet of Kentish Town (anciently Kentestoune) were both named after some very remote possessor. There was, he says, a Dean of St. Paul's named Reginald de "Kentewode," and "the alteration from Kentwode to Kenwood is by no means unlikely to happen." Mr. Howitt looks for the origin of the syllable in the word "Ken," a view. As, however, we have stated in previous chapters,* the word Caen may, perhaps, be an equivalent to "Kaen" or Ken, which lies at the root of Kentish Town, Kensington, &c. The earliest mention of the place, remarks Mr. Prickett, in his "History of Highgate," appears in Neale's "History of the Puritans," where it is spoken of as affording shelter for a short time to Venner and his associates-the "Fifth monarchy, men." In the outbreak of the "Fifth monarchy men," under Thomas Venner, the cooper of Coleman Street, in January, 1661, these fanatics having fought one engagement with the "Train-bands,” and expecting another struggle next day, took shelter for a night in Caen Wood, where some of With these remarks, we will once more take up them were taken prisoners next morning, and the our staff and proceed. rest were dispersed. As probably few or none of them were killed, the spot where the encounter took place cannot now be identified by any discovery of bodies hastily buried, as is commonly the case in the neighbourhood of battle-fields. Leaving Highgate by the turning westward close by the "Gate House," and passing by the Grove, we make our way along the high road which connects the village with Hampstead. The old way being narrow, and nearly impassable, a new From the first volume of "Selected Views in and more direct road was made, affording a splen- London and its Environs," published in 1804, we did panoramic view of vast extent. In the forma- glean the following particulars of this demesne :tion of the new road, too, its course in one or "Caen Wood, the beautiful seat of the Earl of two parts was slightly altered. On the slope of Mansfield, is situated on a fine eminence between the hill to the left, and standing on ground which Hampstead and Highgate, and its extensive originally formed a portion of Fitzroy Park, is Caen Wood Towers, till lately the residence of Mr. • See ante, pp. 118, 317. Every morning, when the night-watchman goes off duty, at six o'clock, he fires a gun, and immediately three long winds are given on a horn to call the servants, gardeners, and labourers to their employment. The horn is blown again at breakfast and dinner hours, and at six in the evening for their dismissal. It grounds contribute in no small degree to enrich "This charming place had been in the hands of This Mr. Dale, unlike the majority of speculators, must have been a fortunate one. It then became the property of the Dukes of Argyll; and the great and good Duke John, whom Sir Walter Scott introduces so nobly in the scene with Jeanie Deans and Queen Caroline in 'The Heart of Midlothian,' who had lived in the reigns of Anne and Georges I. and II., and who had fought bravely at Ramillies, Malplaquet, and Oudenarde, and who afterwards beat the rebel Earl of Mar and drove the Pretender from Scotland, resided here when called to London. The property was then devised by the Duke of Argyll to his nephew John, third Earl of Bute, who is only too well remembered in the opening of the reign of George III. for his unpopularity as a minister of the Crown. "Lord Bute married the only daughter of the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who, of course, resided much here as Countess of Bute. It is observed that in Lady Mary's letters to her daughter, she always spells the name of the place Caen.' The earlier possessors spelt it ‘Ken,' and it is curious, too, that though in the patent of the earldom granted to Lord Mansfield it is spelt 'Caen,' Lord Mansfield himself, in his letters, to the end of his life spelt it 'Ken.' "The Earl of Bute sold Caen Wood, in 1755, to Lord Mansfield, who, on his death, devised it, as an appendage of the title, to his nephew (and successor in the earldom of Mansfield), Lord Stormont, whose descendants now possess it. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's daughter brought Lord Bute seven sons and six daughters, so at that time the house and grounds of Caen Wood resounded with life enough. It is now very little occupied, its proprietor being much fonder of Scone Palace, his Scotch residence." * See Vol. IV., p. 88 |