To the Bull and Bush Inn, still standing in the Hendon Road, the great
painter Hogarth often repaired, and in its garden is a fine tree
planted by him, whilst later Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds used
frequently to visit it. The actor {15} Colley Cibber, the more famous
David Garrick, and the poet Dr. Akenside, were fond of strolling on the
Heath, and to lodgings near the church came Dr. Johnson, who when there
sometimes received a call from Fanny Burney, who was often at the spa,
as is proved by her vivid description of it in _Evelina_. At North End
House, now known as Wildwoods, not far from the Bull and Bush Inn,
lived the elder Pitt, Lord Chatham, during his temporary insanity, shut
up in a little room, with an oriel window looking out towards Finchley,
and the opening in the wall still remains through which his food and
letters were handed to him. Caen Wood, or Kenwood House, was the
country seat of the great advocate, Lord Mansfield, whose London house
was burned by the Gordon rioters in 1780, and a short distance from it
is the famous hostelry of the 'Spaniards,' described by Dickens in
_Barnaby Rudge_ and alluded to in the _Pickwick Papers_, that is said
to have derived its name from its having been at one time occupied by
the Spanish ambassador to the court of James I. To the 'Spaniards' the
followers of Lord George Gordon marched after their mad proceedings in
the City, and it was thanks to the courage and promptitude of its
landlord, Giles Thomas, that it and Caen House were saved from
destruction.
No less famous than the 'Spaniards' is the ancient inn known as 'Jack
Straw's Castle,' now transformed into a modern hotel, the name of which
has never been satisfactorily explained, for it is really impossible to
connect it with the devoted follower of Wat Tyler, with whom it was
long supposed to have been {16} associated. To it the _beau monde_
used to repair after the races that were held on the Heath, before
Epsom and Ascot rivalled it in public favour. Dickens and his friends
were fond of going to supper at Jack Straw's Castle in summer evenings,
and of late years it has been a favourite meeting-place of authors and
artists, Lord Leighton, amongst many others, having been a frequent
guest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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