Chelsea, in the Olden & Present TimesBryan, George
History
Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times
Bryan, George
Chelsea (London, England) -- History
Immediately adjoining Winchester Palace, on the east, was situated the
ancient Manor House and lands. It was a spacious house, built by Henry
VIII., the original consisting of a rather plain brick structure, one
storey above the ground floor, with irregularly-shaped windows, and
divided by four buttresses of great width, carried up considerably higher
than the roof, either as ornaments or concealed flues. The parapet of
this part was castellated. Two additions, on the east, seems to have
been subsequently added to the original; one of them being three stories
in height, the other of two, without either buttress or embrasures. The
number of windows in the entire front was thirty-four, and the entrance
door accorded with the period of Henry VIII. The whole presented an idea
of monastic antiquity.
Sir Hans Sloane, it is said, was buried from the eastern end of the Manor
House. A man, named Howard, who was employed in the removal of his
books, stated that they amounted to nearly 40,000 volumes.
* * * * *
On part of the site of the old Manor House, and adjoining Winchester
Palace, in the first house eastward in Cheyne Walk, resided for a long
time the Rev. Thomas Clare. When the destruction of the episcopal domain
took place, Mr. Clare, with some difficulty, obtained a portion of the
land upon which the gardens of the above venerable edifice stood, in the
arrangement and disposition of which he omitted nothing which might do
justice to the memory of its former illustrious owners and occupiers, or
excite the approbation of visitors of judgment and taste.
* * * * *
Sir Richard Steele appears, from the parish books, to have rented a house
by the water-side, rated at £14 per annum. In a letter from Sir Richard
to Lady Steele, dated Chelsea, 14th of February, 1716, he says, “Mr.
Fuller and I came hither to dine in the air, but the maid has been so
slow that we are benighted, and chuse to lie here rather than go this
road in the dark. I lie at our own house, and my friend at a relation’s
in the town.”
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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