A Walk from London to FulhamCroker, Thomas Crofton
History
A Walk from London to Fulham
Croker, Thomas Crofton
London (England) -- Description and travel
three representations have been preserved; two of these are
pen-and-ink sketches by Mr. Doherty, made about the middle of the
last century, one of which is an authority for the name of Pershouse
Cross. The third view appears in a well-executed aquatint plate of
‘Fulham Park School taken from the Play Ground.’
“The foundation of the present ‘Rosamond’s Bower,’ judging from the
brickwork on the south side, and the thickness of the walls, is
probably as old as the time of Elizabeth—I mean the original building
which consisted of two rooms, one above the other, 12 feet square,
and 7 feet in height. On the north side of this primitive dwelling
was a deep draw-well. Subsequently two similar rooms were attached,
one of which (the present hall) was built over the well, and two
attics were raised upon this very simple structure, thus increasing
the number of rooms from two to six. Then a kitchen was built (the
present dining-room), and another room over it (the present
drawing-room), at the back of the original building, which thus from
a labourer’s hut assumed the air of an eight-roomed cottage. It was
then discovered that the rooms were of very small dimensions, and it
was considered necessary to enlarge four of them by the additional
space to be gained from bay windows in the dining-room, drawing-room,
blue bedchamber, and dressing-room. But the spirit of improvement
seldom rests content, and when it was found that the kitchen, which
looked upon the garden, was a more agreeable sitting-room, both as to
aspect and quiet, than the more ancient and smaller room which looked
upon the road, it was determined to create another attachment on the
north side, by building a kitchen of still larger dimensions, with a
scullery and storeroom behind, to replace the old scullery and
out-offices by a spacious staircase, and over this new kitchen to
place a room of corresponding size, or equal to that of the two
bedrooms upon the same line of building. Thus in 1826 did
‘Rosamond’s Bower’ become a cottage of ten rooms; and as it was soon
afterwards presumed from the march of luxury that no one could live
in a decade cottage without requiring a coachhouse and stable, an
excellent one was built not far from the north side, making the
third, though not the last, addition in that direction.
“Parva domus! nemorosa quies,
Sis tu quoque nostris hospitium laribus
Subsidium diu: postes tuas Flora ornet
Pomonaque mensas.”
THE GARDEN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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