Memorials of Old London. Volume 2 (of 2) — John Shaqi
Memorials of Old London. Volume 2 (of 2)
History
Memorials of Old London. Volume 2 (of 2)
London (England) -- Antiquities; London (England) -- History
1 St. Paul's.
2 St. Dunstan's.
3 Temple.
4 St. Bride's.
5 St. Andrew's.
6 Baynard's Castle.
7 St. Sepulchre's.
8 Bow Church.
9 Guildhall.
10 St. Michael's.
11 St. Laurence, Poultney.
12 Old Swan.
13 London Bridge.
14 St. Dunstan's East.
15 Billingsgate.
16 Custom House.
17 Tower.
18 Tower Wharf.
19 St. Olave's.
20 St. Saviour's.
21 Winchester House.
22 The Globe.
23 The Bear Garden.
24 Hampstead.
25 Highgate.
26 Hackney.]
In the following year we read in Pepys's _Diary_ a piquant account
of the putting out of Lady Castlemaine's kitchen fire on a certain
occasion when Charles was engaged to sup with her:--
"October 13th, 1663. My Lady Castlemaine, I hear, is in as
great favour as ever, and the King supped with her the very
first night he came from Bath: and last night and the night
before supped with her; when there being a chine of beef
to roast, and the tide rising into their kitchen that it
could not be roasted there, and the cook telling her of it,
she answered, 'Zounds! she must set the house on fire, but
it should be roasted!' So it was carried to Mrs. Sarah's
husband's, and there it was roasted."
The last sentence requires an explanation. Mrs. Sarah was Lord
Sandwich's housekeeper, and Pepys had found out in November, 1662, that
she had just been married, and that her husband was a cook. We are not
told his name or where he lived.
Lord Dorset, in the famous song, "To all you ladies now on land,"
specially alludes to the periodical inundations at the Palace:--
"The King, with wonder and surprise,
Will swear the seas grow bold;
Because the tides will higher rise
Than e'er they did of old;
But let him know it is our tears
Bring floods of grief to Whitehall stairs."
Pepys was a constant visitor to Whitehall, and the Index to the _Diary_
contains over three pages of references to his visits. He refers to
Henry VIII.'s Gallery, the Boarded Gallery, the Matted Gallery, the
Shield Gallery, and the Vane Room. Lilly, the astrologer, mentions the
Guard Room. The Adam and Eve Gallery was so called from a picture by
Mabuse, now at Hampton Court. In the Matted Gallery was a ceiling by
Holbein, and on a wall in the Privy Chamber a painting of Henry VII.
and Henry VIII., with their Queens, by the same artist, of which a copy
in small is preserved at Hampton Court. On another wall was a "Dance of
Death," also by Holbein, of which Douce has given a description; and in
the bedchamber of Charles II. a representation by Joseph Wright of the
King's birth, his right to his dominions, and miraculous preservation,
with the motto, _Terras Astræa revisit_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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