R.A., 7; W. Etty, R.A., 2; Edwin Landseer, R.A., 9; C. Leslie, R.A., 9; W. Mulready, R.A., 15; W. Redgrave, R.A., 6; C. Stanfield, R.A., 3; J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 5; T. Uwins, R.A., 4; T. Webster, R.A., 5. The collection was bequeathed by Mr. Sheepshanks to the National Gallery. In High-road, between the Green and Rutland-gate, are the oldest houses in the hamlet. Chatham House is dated 1688. Three doors beyond it is The Rose and Crown inn, formerly Oliver Cromwell, the front of which is emblazoned with the great Protector's arms. There is a tradition that his body-guard was once quartered here; as well as of its having sheltered Wyat, while his unfortunate Kentish followers rioted on the adjacent green. At the corner of South-place is the Phoenix Floorcloth Manufactory, the earliest established, founded by Nathan Smith, 1754; burnt down 1794; rebuilt 1824: at the north end is a clock, with a figure of Time, cut in stone. At Kent House resided for a few years the Duke of Kent, who largely added to the original house. Stratheden House was the town residence of Lord Campbell and Lady Stratheden: Lord Campbell died here, June 23, 1861, aged eighty-one: the first volume of his Lives of the Chancellors is dated from this house. In High-row stood the noted Fox and Bull Tavern, of the time of Queen Elizabeth, and noted for its gay company to our time. The house is referred to in the Tatler, No. 259. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir W. Wynn, the patron of Ryland, and George Morland, were visitors here; and Sir Joshua painted the sign, which hung till 1807, when it was destroyed in a storm. The Elizabethan house was panelled and carved and had enriched ceilings; and its immense fire-dogs were not disused till 1799. In a house westward lived Lady Anne Hamilton; then Mr. Chalon and Mr. Davies, both artists of repute; and next Mr. White the naturalist, who had here a menagerie. Mr. Woodburn, the connoisseur in ancient art, once lived here; and the staircases still bear evidence of the artistic tenancy. Ozias Humphry, R.A., resided many years at Knightsbridge; he died at 13, Highrow, in 1810. At the west end of the row is the Horse Guards' Barracks, built in 1795, and capable of accommodating 600 men and 500 horses. Bensley, the actor, who in early life had been in the army, was appointed barrack-master, which appointment he held till his death, in 1817. Hard by are the stables built for the Duke of Wellington: Hardwick, architect. In Park-row resided, about 1828, Olive, the soidisant Princess of Cumberland, and next door, Sir Richard Phillips. (Abridged chiefly from Davis's Memorials of Knightsbridge, 1859.) Lowndes-square occupies the site of a famous place of amusement-Spring Gardens, so called after the still more celebrated Spring Gardens at Charing-cross: the World's End, at Knightsbridge, mentioned by Pepys and Congreve, is supposed to have been a synonym of this fashionable house of entertainment. The building itself survived till 1826. There was another famous place of entertainment in the same neighbourhood, called Jenny's Whim. Its site is now occupied by St. George's-row, near the Chelsea Water-works; and the house, distinguishable by its red-brick and lattice-work, was not removed until November, 1865. Angelo says it was established by a firework-maker, in the reign of George I.; here were a large breakfast-room, bowlinggreen, alcoves, and arbours; a fish-pond, a cock-pit, and duck-hunting pond; a grotto, and a decanter of Dorchester for sixpence; a large garden with amusing spring deceptions; and a piece of water with large fish or mermaids. Knightsbridge-grove, approached through a stately avenue of trees from the road, was a sporting house, where the notorious Mrs. Cornelyus endeavoured to retrieve her fortunes after her failure at Carlisle House; but she again failed in 1785. Ten years after, she reappeared at Knightsbridge as Mrs. Smith, a retailer of asses'-milk, in a suite of breakfast-rooms-but in vain. The existence of Belgravia only dates from 1825. Before that, the district was a marshy tract, bounded by mud-banks, and partly occupied by market-gardens. The sites of Belgrave and Grosvenor Squares were nursery-grounds. Grosvenor Bridge, where the King's-road crosses the Westbourne, was not built till the time of Charles II.; and it was long called Bloody Bridge, from the number of murderous robberies there committed. It is curious that the whole of this district was built over, not gradually, but in two distinct movements-one from 1770 to 1780, and the other, after a pause of nearly fifty years, beginning in 1825, and still in operation. KENSINGTON GARDENS. THESE delightful gardens, which, in our time, included an area of above 350 acres, did not, when purchased by William III., soon after his accession, exceed 26 acres, which he added to Hyde Park. In 1691 they were described by the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, to the Society of Antiquaries, as "not great, nor abounding with fine plants. The orange, lemon, myrtle, and what other trees they had there in summer, were all removed to London or Mr. Wise's greenhouse at Brompton Park, a little mile from there." Queen Anne added 30 acres, and planted the design as we now have it. Evelyn notes: "Sept. 2nd, 1701.-I went to Kensington and saw the houses, plantations, and gardens, the work of Mr. Wise, who was there to receive me." (Diary, vol. ii. p. 75.) Bowack, in 1705, described the gardens as "beautified with all the elegances of art (statues and fountains excepted). There is a noble collection of foreign plants, and fine neat greens, which makes it pleasant all the year; the whole, with the house, not being above 26 acres. Her Majesty has pleased lately to plant near 30 acres more towards the north, separated from the rest only by a stately greenhouse, not yet finished." Thus, previous to 1705, Kensington Gardens did not extend farther north than the conservatory; and the eastern boundary was nearly in the line of the broad walk which crosses before the east front of the palace. The kitchen gardens, which formerly extended northward towards the gravel-pits, and the 30 acres north of the conservatory, added by Queen Anne to the pleasure-gardens, may have been the 55 acres "detached and severed from the park, lying in the north-west corner thereof," granted in the 16th of Charles II. to Hamilton, Ranger of the Park, and Birch, Auditor of Excise; the same to be walled and planted with "pippins and red-streaks," on condition of their furnishing apples or cider for the King's use. At the end of the avenue leading from the south front of the palace to the wall on the Kensington-road, is a large and lofty architectural alcove, built by Queen Anne's orders; so that Kensington Palace, in her reign, seems to have stood in the midst of fruit and pleasure gardens, between the Kensington and Uxbridge roads. Addison, in the Spectator, No 477, dignifies Wise and London as the heroic poets of gardening, and is enraptured with their treatment of the upper garden at Kensington, which was at first nothing but a gravel-pit; the hollow basin and its little plantations, and a circular mount of trees, as if scooped out of the hollow, greatly delighting the essayist. Tickell opens his elegant eclogue with the oft-quoted glance at the morning promenade of his day; where "The dames of Britain oft in crowds repair To gravel walks and unpolluted air: Here, while the town in damps and darkness lies, Where rich brocades and glossy damasks glow, Queen Anne's Banqueting-house, north of the palace, completed in 1705, is a fine specimen of brickwork: the south front has rusticated columns supporting a Doric pediment, and the ends have semicircular recesses. The interior, decorated with Corinthian columns, was fitted up as a drawing-room, music-room, and ball-room; and thither the Queen was conveyed in her chair from the western end of the palace. Here were given full-dress fêtes à la Watteau, with a profusion of "brocaded robes, hoops, fly-caps, and fans," songs by the court lyrist, &c. But when the Court left Kensington, Queen Anne's building was converted into an orangery and greenhouse. (See PALACES.) Caroline, queen of George II., formed the Serpentine, dividing the Palace grounds from the open Hyde Park by a sunken fosse and wall, thus adding 300 acres to the gardens or private grounds; the ha ha, now extending from the Bayswater-road to the powder magazine, remaining identically as it was then formed. With the soil dug was raised a mount to the south-east, with a revolving prospect-house. The Gardens were planted and laid out by Bridgeman, who banished verdant sculpture, but adhered to straight walks and clipped hedge, varied with a wilderness and open groves. A plan of 1762 shows the formal Dutch style on the north of the palace. On the north-east, a fosse and low wall reaching from the Uxbridge-road to the Serpentine at once shut in the Gardens, and conducted the eye along their central vista, over the Serpentine (formed between 1730 and 1733), to its extremity; and across the Park to the east of Queen Anne's gardens, immediately in front of the palace, a reservoir was formed into "the round pond;" thence long vistas were carried through the wood that encircled it, to the head of the Serpentine, to the fosse and Bridgeman's ha-ha wall, affording a view of the Park; and to the mount already mentioned, which, with its evergreens and temple, has disappeared within recollection. Bridgeman, "Surveyor of the Royal Gardens," died in 1738; and was succeeded by Samuel Milward and John Kent. Kensington Gardens long maintained its rural character; for, in a minute of the Board of Green Cloth, 1798, we read of a pension granted to a widow, whose husband was accidentally shot while the keepers were hunting foxes in Kensington Gardens. After King William took up his abode in the palace, a court end of the town gathered round it. The large gardens laid out by Queen Caroline were opened to the public on Saturdays, when the King and Court went to Richmond; all visitors were then required to appear in full-dress. When the Court ceased to reside at Kensington, the Gardens were thrown open in the spring and summer; and next open throughout the year, as at present. On stated days in the London season, military bands perform. Here is a refreshment-room: "Gentlemen are requested not to smoke in the vicinity of the music platform and refreshment room, as much complaint has been made by visitors to the gardens in consequence of this practice.-Office of Works, August 20, 1855." Of late years Kensington Gardens have been greatly improved by drainage, re-laying out, and the removal of walls and substitution of open iron railing. Viewed from near the palace, eastward are three avenues through dense masses of ancient trees. Immediately in front of the palace is a quaintly-designed flower-garden, between which and Kensington are some stately old elm-trees. The broad walk, 50 feet in breadth, was once the fashionable promenade. On the southern margin of the Gardens is a walk, bordered by the newer and rarer kind of shrubs, each labelled with its Latin and English name, and its country. The most picturesque portion of the Gardens, however, is at the entrance from near the bridge over the Serpentine, where is a delightful walk east of the water, beneath some noble old Spanish chestnut-trees. The elegant stone bridge across the west end of the Serpentine was designed by Sir John Rennie in 1826, and cost 36,5007. A pair of magnificent Coalbrook-dale iron gates (from the Great Exhibition of 1851) has been erected adjoining the southern lodge. An unornamented gate has been opened in the Bayswater-road. In 1860, a ride was formed in the Gardens, which had hitherto (except during the Exhibition year 1851) been kept from equestrian intrusion. In 1861 was formed another ride, adapted only for summer, and entering Kensington Gardens from Hyde Park, through the gateway in the south-western arch of the bridge; proceeding along the edge of the Serpentine between a bank of rhododendrons and fine trees; then through a broad and shady avenue, and returning along an open space to the entrance-gate. On this side of the Gardens are the Ornamental Water-works, completed in 1861. They consist of a small Italian garden, with an engine-house, 48 feet high, Italian in style, and an engine to pump the water in to large reservoirs, with a jet in the centre of each; the tower end separated from the Serpentine by a screen, with vases; and in the centre a large octagonal fountain; the whole supplying the Serpentine. The sculpture here is by John Thomas; and the engineer of the water-works, Hawksley. A large portion on the west side of the Gardens, including the extensive kitchengardens (which date from 1738), pursuant to 5 Vict., c. l., has been appropriated to a fine public road from Kensington to Notting-hill: here are several handsome man. sions, the gardens of those on the west side extending to the old red-brick wall of the Palace kitchen-gardens, which remains. By the formation of this road, Kensington Palace Gardens, the royal gardens were reduced to 261 acres, their present extent. Their effect is not exhilarating, but a relief to the in-dwellers of London. 1 KENT-STREET, SOUTHWARK, ORIGINALLY "Kentish-street," is a wretched and profligate part of St. George's 1633 it was described as "very long and ill-built, chiefly inhabited by broom-men and mumpers;" and for ages it has been noted for its turners' shops, and broom and heath yards. Evelyn tells of one Burton, a broom-man, and his wife, who sold kitchen-stuff in Kent-street, whom God so blessed that Burton became a very rich and a very honest man, and Sheriff of Surrey. At the east end of Kentstreet, in 1847, was unearthed a pointed arched bridge of the 15th century, probably erected by the monks of Bermondsey Abbey, lords of the manor. In Rocque's Map, 1750 (when the Kent-road was lined with hedge-rows), this arch, called Lock's-bridge, from being near the Lock Hospital, carries the road over a stream which runs from Newington-fields to Bermondsey. Yet, what long lines of conquest and devotion, of turmoil and rebellion, of victory, gorgeous pageantry, and grim death, have poured through this narrow inlet of old London! The Roman invader came along the rich marshy ground now supporting Kent-street (says Bagford, in a letter to his brother-antiquary, Hearne); thousands of pious and weary pilgrims have passed along this causeway to St. Thomas's of Canterbury; here the Black Prince rode with his royal captive from Poictiers, and the victor of Agincourt was carried in kingly state to his last earthly bourne. By this route Cade advanced with his 20,000 insurgents from Blackheath to Southwark; and the ill-fated Wyat marched to discomfiture and death. To the formation of the Dover-road, in our time, Kent-street continued part of the great way from Dover and the Continent to the Metropolis. Smollett, in his Travels, 1766, describes "the avenue to London by the way of Kent-street, which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous suburb, conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from Dover in his own post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his friend might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter." KENTISH TOWN, A HAMLET of St. Pancras, and a prebendal manor of St. Paul's, was formerly written Kaunteloe, and is the property of the Camden family. Here was the Castle tavern, which had a Perpendicular stone chimney-piece; the house was taken down in 1849: close to its southern wall was a sycamore planted by Lord Nelson, when a boy, at the entrance to his uncle's cottage; the tree was spared. Opposite were the old Assembly-rooms, taken down in 1852: here was a table, with an inscription by an invalid, who recovered his health by walking to this spot every morning to take his breakfast in front of the house. Kentish Town Chapel, originally built by Wyatt in 1784, has been enlarged and altered to the Early Decorated style: here is buried Grignon, the engraver. (See p. 212.) In 1848, was built here a large Congregational Nonconformist Chapel, in ecclesiastical style. In Gospel-terrace is the Roman Catholic Chapel of St. Alexis, established 1847. In 1848 were erected the National Infant and Sunday Schools, by Hakewill, upon the plan of the Committee of Privy Council on Education; the site is part of an estate bequeathed by the witty divine, Dr. South, to Christ Church, Oxford. Near Highgate Rise is the Grove, where Charles Mathews the elder made his collection of paintings, prints, and other memorials of theatrical history, now at the Garrick Club-house. Nearly opposite (at the corner of Swain'slane, leading to the Highgate and Kentish Town Cemetery-see p. 82), was a miniature Wanstead House" (the design copied from Wanstead House, Essex), the villa of Mr. Philip Hurd, of the Inner Temple, who collected here a costly library, including the celebrated Breviarium Romanum, purchased by him, in 1827, from Mr. Dent's library, for 3787.: it consists of more than 500 leaves of vellum, illuminated by Flemish painters in Spain, of the fifteenth century, with miniatures and borders of flowers, fruit, and grotesque figures, upon a gold ground. (See Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron, vol. i. pp. 163–7.) handsome houses. The villa was taken down in 1851, and upon the site are built not a house could be seen, so rural was this neighbourhood; now little can be seen but bricks and mortar. The river Fleet, which runs in the rear of the hamlet, has its source from springs on the south side of the hill between Hampstead and Highgate. In July, 1846, were sold 27 acres of building-ground in Gospel-Oak and Five-Acre Fields, between Kentish Town and Hampstead, for nearly 400l. an acre. Beneath the Gospel Oak preached some of our earliest Reformers, and Whitefield the Methodist. In the last century, the road between the metropolis and Kentish Town was beset with highwaymen. In the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, Jan. 9, 1773, appears: "Thursday night some villains robbed the Kentish Town stage, and stripped the passengers of their money, watches, and buckles. In the hurry they spared the pockets of Mr. Corbyn, the druggist; but he, content to have neighbour's fare, called out to one of the rogues, 'Stop, friend, you have forgot to take my money!" "—Notes and Queries, No. 62. The original "Mother Red Cap," Kentish Town, was a place of terror to travellers, and is believed to have been the "Mother Damnable" of Kentish Town in early days; at this house "Moll Cutpurse," the highwayman of the time of Oliver Cromwell, dismounted and frequently lodged.-Smith's Book for a Rainy Day, p. 20. Camden Town, begun 1791, built on the estate of the Marquis Camden; and Somers Town, begun 1786, on the estate of Earl Somers—are also hamlets of Pancras parish, and both are now united with London, and are portions of the metropolis. Walpole writes, June 8, 1791: "There will soon be one street from London to Brentford; ay, and from London to every village ten miles round! Lord Camden has just let ground at Kentish Town for building fourteen hundred houses-nor do I wonder; London is, I am certain, much fuller than ever I saw it. I have twice this spring been going to stop my coach in Piccadilly, to inquire what was the matter, thinking there was a mob-not at all; it was only passengers.", KILBURN, AHAMLET about two and a half miles north-west from London, at the south western extremity of the parish of Hampstead, is named from Cold-bourne, a stream which rises near West End, and passes through Kilburn to Bayswater; and after supplying the Serpentine reservoir in Hyde Park, flows into the Thames at Ranelagh. Kilburn has its station upon the London and North-Western Railway. In the last century, the place was famed for its mineral spring (Kilburn Wells), which rises about 12 feet below the surface, and is enclosed in a brick reservoir, the door-arch of which bears on its keystone 1714. The water is more strongly impregnated with carbonic acid gas than any other known spring in England. In 1837 was taken down a cottage at Kilburn in which Oliver Goldsmith had resided. Kilburn originated from Godwyn, a hermit, who, temp. Henry II., built a cell near the little rivulet called Cuneburna, Keelebourne, Coldbourne, and Kilbourne, on a site surrounded with wood. Between 1128 and 1134, Godwyn granted his hermitage and adjoining lands to the conventual church of St. Peter at Westminster, who soon after assigned the property to Emma, Gunilda, and Cristina, maids-of-honour to Maud (queen of Henry I.), herself a Benedictine nun; and hence the cell of the anchorite became a nunnery; Godwyn being appointed its master or warden, and guardian of the maidens, for his life. Certain estates were granted to the nuns in Southwark and Knightsbridge (which manor still belongs to Westminster), the latter property in the place called Gara, probably Kensington Gore. Provisions, kitchen-fare, wine, mead, and beer were also assigned; and in return the vestals prayed for St, Edward the Confessor, and the church at Westminster. At the Dissolution, in 1536, the "Nonre of Kilbourne' "was surrendered: when the inventory shows the chamber furniture to have included "bedsteddes, standing bedd wt 4 postes, fetherbedds, matteres, cov'lettes, wollen blankettes, bolsters, pillowes of downe, sheetes," &c. The name of the last prioress was Anne Browne. Soon after the King assigned the priory estate, with other lands, to Weston, prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, in exchange for Paris Garden in Surrey, &c. The church was dedicated to St. Mary and St. John the Baptist; the latter, in his camel-hair garment, is portrayed on the priory seal. The Abbey Farm at Kilburn includes the site of the priory: the only view known of the conventual buildings is an etching, date 1722. Several relics, including pieces of pottery, a few coins, and a bronze vessel, all mediaval, were found on the Priory site in the autumn of 1852, and shown to the Archæological Institute. In the Graphic and Historical Illustrator, pp. 336-340, is a good account of Kilburn Priory, mostly derived from Park's Hampstead. LAMBETH, ALSO called Lambhith, Lambhyde, and Lambhei, is probably derived from lam, dirt, and hyd or hythe, a haven; or from lamb and hythe. It was anciently a village of Surrey, but is now united with Southwark; and is one of the metropolitan boroughs, returning two members to Parliament under the Reform Act of 1832. The parish |