Chelsea, in the Olden & Present TimesBryan, George
History
Chelsea, in the Olden & Present Times
Bryan, George
Chelsea (London, England) -- History
Swift has been very minute and circumstantial in describing the
particulars relative to his residence here, and his acquaintance with Dr.
Atterbury. I will select one instance of it:—“I got here,” says he,
“with Patrick and my portmanteau for sixpence, and pay six shillings a
week for one silly room, with confounded coarse sheets. I lodge just
over against Dr. Atterbury’s house; and yet, perhaps, I shall not like
the place the better for that.”
* * * * *
Thomas Shadwell, Esq., Poet Laureat, another resident of Church Street,
was born at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, and received his education at Bury
School, and Caius College, Cambridge. His father, who held a place of
profit and distinction in the law in Ireland, bestowed the learning and
exercises of a gentleman upon him. Notwithstanding that, Lord Rochester
has said,
“None seem to touch true Comedy
But hasty Shadwell and slow Wycherlye,”
yet that lord had a better opinion of his conversation than his writings
when he said “that if Shadwell had burned all he wrote, and printed all
he spoke, he would have shewn more wit and humour than any other poet.”
In the reign of William III. he succeeded Dryden, as Poet Laureat, under
whose lash he had previously fallen. His works, consisting of seventeen
plays, were published in three volumes 12mo. in 1720, with a short
account of his life written by his son, Sir John Shadwell, Knight, who
was physician to Queen Anne, and resided in a house at Chelsea, which had
been previously occupied by Dr. Arbuthnot. Shadwell died at Chelsea in
1692, aged 52, and was buried in the Church, November 24, when a funeral
sermon was preached by his friend Dr. Nicholas Brady, in which he assures
us that “his natural and acquired abilities made him sufficiently
remarkable to all that he conversed with, very few being equal to him in
all the becoming qualities and accomplishments of a gentleman.” His
widow, who had been an actress, survived him, and resided at Chelsea some
years.
* * * * *
Dr. John Arbuthnot, a native of Scotland, had his education in the
University of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of Doctor of Physic. He
came to London about the year 1695, and at first taught the mathematics
for his support. His facetious and agreeable conversation introduced him
by degrees into practice; and he became eminent in his profession. Being
at Epsom when Prince George of Denmark was suddenly taken ill, he was
called in to his assistance; his advice was successful, and his Highness
recovering, employed him ever afterwards as his physician.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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