The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 2Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
History
The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 2
Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir, 1843-1911; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 19th century
He would give, as a curious illustration of the way in which many years
may be covered by a few generations, the fact that he himself had known
intimately the daughter of Woodfall, printer of the _Letters of Junius_;
while Woodfall's acquaintance included Smollett as a resident, and Pope
as a visitor to Chelsea. He would talk long of Sir Thomas More,
[Footnote: He writes: 'On December 18th, 1886, Cardinal Manning wrote to
me: "On Saturday last Sir Thomas More was declared both martyr and
saint, to my great joy. We have bought a house and garden, 28, Beaufort
Street, which is said to be a piece of Sir Thomas More's garden. The
tradition seems probable. If you can give me any light about it, I shall
be very thankful."' Later (January, 1888) Sir Charles writes: 'In the
course of this same month I lectured on Old Chelsea, and made a
considerable attempt to clear up some points in the life of Sir Thomas
More, for whom I have a great admiration. The result was that Cardinal
Manning asked me to visit Father Vaughan at the house which stands on
the site of Old Beaufort House, which the Roman Catholics have purchased
as a house of expiation for the martyrdom of Sir Thomas More.'] 'the
first of Chelsea worthies,' whose memory is loved and commemorated by
every true inhabitant, and to whose voluntary poorhouse for the parish
he pointed, as the direct progenitor of the Chelsea Benevolent Society
and the Board of Guardians. But one episode in More's career specially
fascinated him: it was when two great lives touched, and More,
journeying to Calais, met that famous lady, Margaret of Austria, the
first Governess of the Netherlands, and negotiated the treaty between
the Emperor, England, and France, 1527. Great as was his respect for Sir
Hans Sloane, after whom the street in which he lived was named, and who
gave to Chelsea its beautiful Physic Garden, he never forgave him the
destruction of More's house or the removal of its water gateway.
He would describe the tidal shore, as it lies in the picture which he
bequeathed to the Chelsea Free Library, and which hangs on its
staircase, when below the old church the bank sloped to the water's
edge; or he would pass back to the earlier time when the boats of the
nobles lay there in such numbers that Charles II. described the river as
'Hyde Park upon the Thames.' Once more Bess of Hardwick lived at
Shrewsbury House, Princess Elizabeth sheltered under the Queen's Elm; at
the old Swan in Swan Walk, Doggett founded the coat and badge to be
rowed for by the watermen's apprentices 'when the tide shall be full.'
These things may be found in many a guide-book and in the lectures which
he delivered more than once in Chelsea, but told as he told them they
will never be told again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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