Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its PlacesThornbury, Walter
History
Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places
Thornbury, Walter
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
In Covent Garden we break fresh ground. We found St. Martin's Lane full
of artists, Guildhall full of aldermen, the Strand full of noblemen--the
old monastic garden will prove to be crowded with actors. We shall trace
the market from the first few sheds under the wall of Bedford House to
the present grand temple of Flora and Pomona. We shall see Evans's a new
mansion, inhabited by Ben Jonson's friend and patron, Sir Kenelm Digby,
alternately tenanted by Sir Harry Vane, Denzil Holles (one of the five
refractory members whom Charles I. went to the House of Commons so
imprudently to seize), and Admiral Russell, who defeated the French at
La Hogue. The ghost of Parson Ford, in which Johnson believed, awaits us
at the doorway of the Hummums. There are several duels to witness in the
Piazza; Dryden to call upon as he sits, the arbiter of wits, by the
fireside at Will's Coffee House; Addison is to be found at Button's; at
the "Bedford" we shall meet Garrick and Quin, and stop a moment at Tom
King's, close to St. Paul's portico, to watch Hogarth's revellers fight
with swords and shovels, that frosty morning that the painter sketched
the prim old maid going to early service. We shall look in at the
Tavistock to see Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller at work at
portraits of beauties of the Carolean and Jacobean Courts; remembering
that in the same rooms Sir James Thornhill afterwards painted, and poor
Richard Wilson produced those fine landscapes which so few had the taste
to buy. The old hustings deserve a word, and we shall have to record the
lamentable murder of Miss Ray by her lover, at the north-east angle of
the square. The neighbourhood of Covent Garden, too, is rife with
stories of great actors and painters, and nearly every house furnishes
its quota of anecdote.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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