A Walk from London to FulhamCroker, Thomas Crofton
History
A Walk from London to Fulham
Croker, Thomas Crofton
London (England) -- Description and travel
“And I have now to speak to you Mr. Mordaunt: God hath appeared in
justice, and God doth appear in mercy, as the Lord is just to them,
so the Lord is exceeding merciful to you, and I may say to you that
God appears to you at this time, as he speaks to sinners in Jesus
Christ, for Sir, he doth clear sinners in Christ Jesus even when they
are guilty, and so God cleareth you. I will not say you are guilty,
but ask your own conscience whether you are or no. Sir, bless God as
long as you live, and bless my Lord Protector, by whose authority you
are cleared. Sir, I speak no more, but I beseech you to speak to
God.”
The very active part which Lord Mordaunt had taken in effecting the
restoration of Charles II., in which service, according to his epitaph,
he “encountered a thousand dangers, provoking and also defeating the rage
of Cromwell,” was not rewarded by any extraordinary marks of distinction
or favour, and he seems after that event to have quietly resided on his
estate at Parson’s Green, where he died in the forty-eighth year of his
age, on the 5th June, 1675, and was buried in Fulham Church. The son of
Lord Mordaunt, who afterwards received the title of Earl of Peterborough,
married first, Carey, daughter to Sir Alexander Fraser, of Dover. His
second wife was the accomplished singer Anastasia Robinson, who survived
him. The earl was visited at Peterborough House by all the wits and
literati of his time. Bowack, in 1706, describes the gardens of
Peterborough House, as containing twenty acres of ground, and mentions a
tulip-tree seventy-six feet in height, and five feet nine inches in
girth. Swift, in one of his letters, speaks of Lord Peterborough’s
gardens as the finest he had ever seen about London.
On the same side of the Green as Peterborough House, stood the residence
of Samuel Richardson, who removed to Parson’s Green from North End in
1755, and in this house his second wife, who survived him, died in
November, 1773, aged seventy-seven. Formerly the same house belonged to
Sir Edward Saunders, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1682. A
sketch of the house will be found in Chambers’ Cyclopædia of English
Literature. Drury Lodge, situated on the King’s Road adjoining Parson’s
Green, and immediately opposite the Malt House, formerly known as Ivy
Cottage, was built by Walsh Porter in the Gothic style, and is now the
residence of Mr. E. T. Smith, who has called the house after his theatre.
The name of the lane which runs down by the side of Drury Lodge has,
however, not been altered to _Drury_ Lane, but still retains its old
title of Broom Lane.
It is said that on the site of what is now called Drury Lodge, was
formerly a house, the residence of Oliver Cromwell, which was called the
_Old Red Ivy House_. Part of the old walls of that building form the
west side of the present cottage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account